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Galaxy Nexus ICS Does't remember wifi Passwords - ICS 4.2.2
Anybody else have this issue?  It's freaking annoying as every time i revisit somewhere and want to use their wifi, i have to get the password and enter it in again.
Any suggestions on how i can resolve this issue?

Likely the wpa_supplicant file is corrupted. If you are rooted, you might be able to use an app like Titanium Backup to wipe the data for it. If you aren't rooted, I am not sure what all you can wipe. You can try and wipe the Settings database (Settings -> Apps -> All -> Settings -> Wipe Data, which might include the file, but I don't know for sure (this will obviously erase all your Android settings)..
But you should be able to fix it by performing a Factory Reset/Data Wipe (Settings -> Backup and Reset -> Factory Data Reset). Google should remember your apps and automatically install them once you type your password back in, and all your sdcard content should stay untouched.

Thanks for that... i'll try a factory reset when i have an internet connection fast enough to redownload everything.  Sucks to have to set everything up again though :(

I did the wipe data on the settings app, and that seems to have fixed it.  Thanks so much Bassmadrigal :)

Glad it worked out for you.

@Gregorius You don't need internet connection to backup, reset, restore, you can do it with adb as in the guide here: http://www.howtogeek.com/125375/how-to-create-a-full-android-phone-or-tablet-backup-without-rooting-or-unlocking-your-device/

@NoBugs, that wouldn't help, because it would back up his issue and then restore it. He'd be left with the same problem when he did this.

@bassmadrigal It absolutely helps - I fixed a Dell Android tablet with this never-remembering-wifi problem with backup, reset and restore.

@NoBugs, it had to be related to something else. If you back up a corrupted file, erase it, and then restore the corrupted file, how is that file magically fixed?

@bassmadrigal From what I understand adb backup backs up all apps and their settings. There is no setting in any app for Never-remember-wifi-accesspoints, it's likely a system file or glitch on last update or... who knows, if you don't have root.

The wpa_supplicant.conf file resides on the data partition. Unless it doesn't back up your saved Wi-Fi networks (I've never tried it since I've always been rooted), that file will be backed up as well. If it is the file that's corrupted, using adb backup and restore won't help.


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Samsung s-planner as interface to google calendar, miss 3-day layout
S-planner app lost 3-days layout after last update.
That made me cry.
I want to solve it with anyway, change calendar app, or rollback to old s-planner version, or something else?
Please point me to any solution.

If you have saved the previous version's .apk, you can re-instate it. That's why I have AppMonster Pro Backup Restore installed and running: it captures each and every .apk installed, so I can always revert to a previous version.
If you don't have the old .apk available, and you are talking about a free app, you can check Android Drawer for a previous version's .apk. Download it, make sure you have unknown-sources enabled in your settings, and launch the .apk e.g. from a file explorer. This should install the (old version of the) app without you losing any data.

Thank you alot. Unfortunately I have not previous apk. and Adroid Drawer did not save "S Planner" too.

If you find someone else who has not updated, he/she could still use AppMonster to catch the .apk. AppMonster saves the files to SDCard, so it should then be easy to pick it up and make it available to you. You could also see if F-Droid or Aptoide have it.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Backing up Viber chat logs
I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S2 with GB Samsung firmware, I have updated Viber through Google Play and now it won't even start. It gives me a crash error dialog and closes without even starting the UI. I've read the solution for this issue is to reinstall Viber, but it would also mean that all my chat history will be deleted, and I want to that.
How do I backup and restore ONLY the chat in Viber?

As your phone is rooted, you could use Titanium Backup to backup app AND data. Then uninstall Viber, re-install it, check if it works, and use TB again to restore only the data. Keep in mind that when a mis-configuration is the cause of your problem, after restoring the app's data your problem might be back...

Any progress made? Remember, you also can (and should) answer your own question when you've found a solution :)

yes, the first comment did it

Wonderful! So I converted it into an answer.

As your phone is rooted, you could use Titanium Backup to backup app and data. Then uninstall Viber, re-install it, check if it works, and use TB again to restore only the data.
Keep in mind that when a mis-configuration is the cause of your problem, after restoring the app's data your problem might be back. In that case, simply repeat the operation, but do not restore the data, if you want the app working again. Of course, in that case your chat history would be lost; but you might be able to manually pick the data from TiBu's backups.

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


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Why is internet switched off when switching 2G/3G?
I have a stock Android 4.2.2 on Galaxy Nexus, so I think this can be related to all Android phones. When switching from 2G to 3G and vice versa internet connection is switched off for a few seconds, even though when I browse in 3G I can connect to EDGE and GPRS too: why does this happen?

The radio frequency of a 2G radio operates in the range of 900 and 1800 MHz (source)-  varying from country to country.  The radio frequency of a 3G radio operates in the range of 2100 Mhz (source).
As far as Samsung Galaxy Nexus LTE L700's specification is concerned, the 2G frequency is CDMA 800 / 1900, 3G frequency is CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and LTE (4G) frequency is LTE 1900.
As far as Samsung Galaxy Nexus I9250's specification is concerned, the 2G frequency is GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G frequency is HSDPA 900/1700/1900/2100 and LTE (4G) frequency is LTE 2300/2400.
The above examples clearly means that the phones use different radio frequency for each type of network and hence when switching from one to another it goes into no network mode momentarily and hence the data connection stops.


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How can I install CWM Recovery on my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet?
I want to install a custom ROM or use one of the many other features of Clockworkmod Recovery on my Thinkpad Tablet.
How can I install CWM Recovery on my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet?

Is it rooted? And boot loader unlocked? :)

It is rooted now. This question is part 2 of my series of the thinkpad tablet. I am not sure if the boot loader is unlocked but it worked with just rooting. You can join the chat and tell my what you mean by "unlocked bootloader" if you want.

Installing CWM Recovery
CWM Recovery for the Thinkpad Tablet can be found on XDA. You need root on your Tablet to install CWM Recovery. Download the recovery image (recovery.img) and follow the instructions provided by the post. It basically comes down to pushing the image file on the sdcard and overwriting the boot partition.
Push the recovery image to the sdcard
adb push recovery.img /mnt/sdcard/

Get root
adb shell
su

Remount /system and backup install-recovery.sh (optional)
mount -o rw,remount /system
mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.backup

Overwrite the boot partition
dd if=/mnt/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1

Entering/Booting CWM Recovery on the Thinkpad Tablet

Shut down your Thinkpad Tablet
Press the power button until the Tablet vibrates
Keep pressing and releasing the volume up button until you see Booting Recovery Kernel Image in the upper left corner. It's all about timing of when the volume up button is pressed. That's why it's a good idea to just keep on pressing and releasing the button until the message appears.

I got the general instructions from XDA before I found your answer, but your section on "Entering/Booting CWM Recovery on the Thinkpad Tablet" was where I got stuck, and so that was the most helpful part of your answer for me.


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How to get rid of Christmas Animation from mobile screen
I am seeing a Christmas animation on my mobile screen from 25th Dec 2012. I have no idea how did it come to my mobile. Because I rarely use internet on my mobile. And I used Internet last time at least 2-3 months before.
It automatically appears after some mins and eats my battery. I have checked all running and installed application. But none of them giving me any clue about this animation.
I am doubtful that this is the animation from Go launcher or Go SMS. but not confirmed.
I also have scanned my mob for spyware and antivirus. But nothing found.

As previously mentioned it's from Go Launcher.  There is, however a setting to disable it.
Go to Preferences and there should be an option to disable the Christmas animation.  I can no longer find it in mine but I do know it was there when the animation was appearing.

Welcome to the club -- it's from the launcher, I've got that one as well since about that time. As GoLauncher also started spamming my notification area, I used LBE to forbid it going to the network, which worked fine -- but the XMas stuff stuck since then.
So, common issue: GoLauncher not going to the net (I forbid it, and you don't have network connection often). Solution: Enable network once again, update the GoLauncher. At least here, Santa seems to be gone.

Thanks @Izzy. let me try. However, I have uninstalled Go Keyboard. Now waiting whether Santa appears again.

Maybe in 11 months? XD Good luck. However, as you started with a separate task (uninstall GoKeyboard), you will now never know which really was the cause. Maybe it would have simply gone away with the next internet connection (oh, XMas over?) -- though I cannot understand why a dev wouldn't use the system clock for the date...

Nothing happened after installing Go Keyboard. Finally I found an option in Go Launcher settings where I can off Christmas effect.

Good to know in case of Easter. For me, as said, it was enough to update to the latest version and then cut it off the net again (to avoid those notifications, which I found no switch for yet).


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Disable Backup Service in Android Emulator
I'm trying to replace sms and contacts database on Android emulator with some other (extracted from other phone).
I've already succesfully pushed files into emulator (using adb push), but I have to restart emulator to see if anything changes.
In my log there is statement saying that phone is running form backup:
04-23 11:22:00.064: I/SystemServer(81): Backup Service
04-23 11:22:00.135: I/BackupManagerService(81): Found stale backup journal, scheduling
04-23 11:22:00.145: I/BackupManagerService(81):   com.android.inputmethod.latin
04-23 11:22:00.145: I/BackupManagerService(81):   com.android.browser
04-23 11:22:00.145: I/BackupManagerService(81):   com.android.providers.settings
04-23 11:22:00.165: I/BackupManagerService(81):   android
04-23 11:22:00.175: I/BackupManagerService(81):   com.android.providers.userdictionary
04-23 11:22:00.204: I/BackupManagerService(81): Backup enabled => true

While watching file system in eclipse I can see that journal file is created in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases, grows, then dissapears, and my mmssms.db file (previously pushed by command line) shrinks, which gaves my empty database ;/
Any ideas?

Try running this command from your PC:
adb shell bmgr enable false

If you have more than one device or emulator running/connected, you'll need to add the -s DEVICE option.

works fine, thanks! Also I figured out, that with my contacts database it was problem only with google account stored in sqlite (different from this in android emulator). SMS db is still dissapearing, but I have to deal with it later.

After executing it says: Backup Manager now disabled

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


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How to install Google Play Store in Coby MID1060 without rooting?
It seems every tutorial that I see needs to root the tablet.

Short answer:
You can't.
Explanation
The tutorials are correct about that: It's impossible without root -- as the Playstore app needs to be made a System App (i.e. must be installed in /system initially), or it won't work. The reason behind it is the permission system: certain permissions are only granted to system apps, and the Playstore app needs at least one of them.


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Galaxy S2 X t989d firmware update - Kies crashes
I am trying to apply Jelly Bean firmware update on my Galaxy S2 X, but everytime I try to, Kies dies at 0% of the firmware update, without any error message.
I tried uninstalling and installing Kies again. It is up to date. I also tried running it in Windows 7 mode and XP SP3 mode (I'm on Windows 8 64-bit).
I did a factory reset of my cellphone, and still encounter the problem.
Is there any alternative or way to fix this?

I actualy got it by doing the update from a Windows 7 computer. Kies seems to have difficulties with Windows 8.

Samsung Kies sucks horribly. The only way I've gotten it to work is to run it in Compatible with Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and running it as a administrator. It should work fine then.


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Why does Android 3.x have no market share?
According to the Android Developer Dashboard, the market share of Android 3.2 is only 0.1%, and no other 3.x version has even as much as that.  Versions 2.x and 4.x have all the market share.
Can someone please explain why there's a whole major version of Android that is apparently unused, while the previous and the next major versions are in wide use?  Was 3.x quickly replaced by 4 and all devices forced to upgrade?  What would have made 3.x so bad that no one uses it?

Honeycomb was a tablet-only version of the OS
It was only ever released for a few devices
The source code was never released not released until the source for Ice Cream Sandwich was available, and even then the Android devs noted that 3.x source was not complete
It never had much in the way of market share

See also:

What percentage of devices have each of the Android versions?
Is Android 3.0 Honeycomb only for tablets?

I'd add one more bullet point, that a lot of devices that were initially sold with 3.x have since been upgraded to 4.x.

To build on Al Everett's answer:
Yes, 3.x was a tablet only version of Android. The user base is phone dominated until more recently, but now Android tablets are coming with 4.x. Since the first Android tablets came out with 2.x (the first Galaxy Tab) I am assuming that there was an initial tablet crowd that picked that up instead of an iPad, which was dominant in the market at the time to begin with, and then when 3.x came out there was some hesitation for the unfamiliar since there was no way of knowing what 3.x was like since it was not available for the phones that users already possessed.

For a Vendor to release a 3.x tablet its hardware needs to be approved by google. Very few vendors hardware was approved to release their Tablet with 3.X version. Devices with 3.x are less in the market so are the downloads


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IM+ Disable status string
How to disable status string "On Android with IM+" when using IM+ for skype? I do not want to show that I am away from PC.

According to this site, it's possible to change the status by tapping it and selecting another status message. It's possible that this is not available in the free version, since they usually contain ads.


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Cannot add Outgoing COM port for any android device
My problem is that I need to add outgoing com port to my android device (Nexus 4) Windows 8 x64 connected via Bluetooth.
This is usually done by using Bluetooth settings on the PC and then from "COM ports" tab yo "Add" -> "Outgoing port". However, when I try to add my device it shows me error "The device you have selected does not have a serial port service running". For Incoming port it work fine, but that's not the option I need.
I've also tried to connect Samsung Galaxy S3, Nexus 7 and rooted Nexus 4. Both on Windows 8 x64 and Windows 7 x32. Nothing worked. Then I connected an old phone which uses Symbian 8(?) and it worked fine. Of course the devices are paired before I try do add COM port.
I did good search on Google, but I did not find a way to "turn on serial port service". There's an app (Serial Port API Sample) which supposedly should help with my problem, but it doesn't - I can't get it to work, always showing an error.
I need the outgoing port so I can control my device like a modem by using Matlab.

What error do you get when you run this app? It seems likely that you would need to root the device to run it. Normal apps shouldn't be able to control the modem directly.

This is just based on a bit of research, not my own experience:
Android phones, unlike your Symbian phone which worked, do not expose a Hayes-command modem as a built-in externally accessible service. There may well be such an interface internally for communicating with the “baseband processor”, but in order to control it from another computer you will have to install an Android app and/or modified OS which forwards the commands it receives from an external source. I don't know whether such an app already exists.
(Further questions on how to get the scheme I described working might be better asked over at Stack Overflow as they would be essentially about programming Android.)

Some devices do have serial, cdm, built into adb itself on the device, for example, treating it as a modem device instead of mass storage.

there are some 3rd party app like bluDun and other apps like that are used for as modem service to create a dialup connection

Allow your laptop bluetooth device searchable to others.. then pair from Mobile.. it will help you.. I was facing the same issue but resolved it by doing this trick..
Thanks
Rajiv K Pundir

Pairing isn't the problem here, it's specific to creating a serial port service on the phone.


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Use Tasker to swipe lock the screen for 10 mins then require password thereafter
i'm looking for a way where i can use the power button to turn off the screen and activate the swipe lock. If the phone is left untouched/unswiped for 10 mins the password lock should come on.
There is one difference between this and similar posts i have seen, my Phone is encrypted so i cannot turn off the password as part of the method of doing this.
At the moment the power button turns off the screen but can be unlocked at the push of any button which often results in unintended phone calls in my pocket, after a certain amount of time left untouched the password lock kicks in.
I've heard an app called Tasker can do something like this, will it also work with encrypted devices?
All i would need it to do is activate a swipe lock on pressing of the power button
Thanks

You are correct: an app called Tasker can do this. The feature you want to turn off/delay is called Keyguard: turning this off disables the password/PIN lock screen. So you could setup a task turning that off on the condition the screen is turned off, then wait 10 min, and re-activate it again.
Additionally, you might want to take a look at the Secure Settings addon for Tasker, which gives you some more fine-grained options towards this (and plenty of other benefits). Using this addon, you could e.g. have your device require the PIN/password unlock only once, and then not asking for it anymore (useful e.g. at home).


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Got weird noises with auxiliary jack while charging in the car
I'm using Galaxy Note. And I got this weird noise with auxiliary jack while charging in the car.
There is no noise while music is playing, and there is no noise if the charger is unplugged.
How do I solve it?

Just to verify, you have an audio cable running from the 3.5 mm out on the phone to the 3.5 mm aux input on the front panel of your stereo? Or is it some custom installation? What's your charger?

@Sammy: Yep, audio cable running from the 3.5 mm out on the phone to the 3.5 mm aux input on the front panel of my stereo. The charger is just a USB car charger that fits to the lighter plug.

After a lot of Googling around, I found 2 possible solutions:

Hardware solution: Kensington Noise Reducing AUX Audio Cable - haven't tried it myself. Yet some guys at android central report it worked for them.
Software solution: Aux Noise Filter app - Tried it on my Galaxy Note. Works like a charm.

Yeah man, grounding is a real bitch! Humming noise problems in audio are often caused by some grounding issue. The cause is not easy to locate or identify. There's ground from the charger coming in to the phone, and then there's ground coming out of the phone via the 3.5 mm audio plug and enters the car sound system via the aux in. They need to have the same potential. But a ground loop isolator can often solve the issue. But I didn't expect to see this problem with a smartphone. So much for being "smart".

That Kensington looks promising. It probably has a ground loop isolator built into it. I'm not sure how that app can solve this type of problem. I'd say it cuts off some low frequencies when no music is playing and no other audio service is running, like receiving a phone call. I mean there's not much more you can do, software-wise. This is a hardware problem. It's a way of sweeping the problem under the rug. I'm glad it worked out. But in the long run you might consider getting that special audio cable or get the grounding checked out.

@Sammy: Can this grounding issue cause damage to the battery?

No, it can't damage your battery. It can't damage anything, it just causes interference problems. You don't even know you got a problem until you try connecting some audio equipment. Audio equipment, especially in cars, is sensitive to interference. Humming is just one of these problems, and it's usually caused by improper or not optimal grounding situation (from audio point of view). A professional car audio installer should be able to work it out. Check out ground loop (article).

I had this problem on my Galaxy S4 - whining noise from alternator (changing pitch with engine revs) plus random static. It only occurred when the charger was plugged in the USB port, and when no music was playing. I installed Aux Noise Filter and it worked a treat.

Same problem. Tried changing the charger and audio cable. Only buying a ground loop isolator worked. The PAC SNI from Amazon solved my problem, and got high reviews too.
http://www.thoughtworthy.info/BlogPost/158/Android-Phone-Buzzes-in-Car-While-Charging-And-Listening-to-Music

Now, that is weird!

Play some music or unplug the charger.
Try a different cable.
Try a different charger.

I won't tell you to change your car, your stereo, or your phone, as those are expensive. But you can always try it out in someone else's car, if that's an option. You have to narrow down the problem by using trial and error method.

Hi Sammy, thanks for the quick answer. I Tried both different chargers and cables. Didn't helped.
Playing music or unplugging the charger are not an option sometimes (when GPS is running for example).

Playing music with the volume set to zero maybe? Weird work-around, but better than nothing until you have a real solution.


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Google Now for GingerBread?
Is it possible to get Google Now on old phones ? It really sounds amazing.I would love to try it out :)
I found this for ICS.  - http://techzei.com/get-google-now-on-android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich/

Which phone do you have? I wonder if there is a third party ROM (e.g. CyanogenMod) which you could flash to get newer android features.

Unfortunately Honeycomb and below is "dead" development, people are focused on doing more on ICS than anything.
When Eclair rolled out, development stopped on Cupcake and Donut, and now its quite hard to imagine someone still working on those old versions of Android. There may be around it involving rooting your phone but I doubt it. Look at your link, the third requirement: Deodexed ROM. That is part of what is holding older phones back. My suggestion would just be to upgrade your phone but i realize that is not an ideal solution. Sorry man.


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Apps install on their own
Every night for the past few days my phone installs a new app that I never saw/wanted/heard of before. It all started with AppCaster (Which I never installed on my phone, it just showed up one morning).
I have uninstalled AppCaster and every other app that was installed without my knowing, and new apps are still showing up on my phone over night. I have downloaded and installed Avast which shows no issues after a scan.
I have checked the sites with access to my google account and I don't see anything that looks suspicious.
Has anyone else solved a similar issue? Does anyone have any ideas of what could be downloading these apps to my phone? How can I make it stop?

Does it really install apps -- or do you just find new icons on your homescreen? You might want to use AppBrain Ad Detector to see if there are any AirPush-like apps on your phone (which do things like placing new icons on your homescreen or push stuff to your notification bar). If you do find such an app: Leave a comment on its Playstore page, then uninstall it. Remember it's developer to never install one of his apps again. That's privacy intrusion, not "proper advertisement".

I get a notification that says the app is installed and I uninstall it. I don't see icons on my homescreen.

installed AppBrain Ad Detector and didn't see anything with push notifications.

OK -- so we can rule that out. Was just the first thing coming to my mind. That leaves, maybe, someone with your Google credentials initializing those installs via the Playstore web interface. To rule that out as well, you could change your Google/GMail password.

I have been using 2 step authentication and I don't see my account being accessed from any other locations, so I doubt this will help, but I changed my password anyway.

Didn't know you were using 2-factor -- but OK, cannot hurt. If that didn't help, I'm currently out of ideas (unless you're sleepwalking :) Maybe someone else can come up with what we might have missed up to here.

No new app last night. So i'm not sure what did it, but between uninstalling a lot of the apps I rarely use, changing my password, and installing anti-virus software it seems to be fixed.

As I doubt it was the Anti-Virus shocking away unwanted installs, this leaves the password. Do you need two-factor for a web-login to Google Play's web-based content as well? And: Do you want to answer your own question, or shall I sum up from all the comments?

Play store does require 2-step auth. I answered the question. Feel free to add anything else.

Today another app showed up Dark Summoner. So the password didn't fix it.

No more ideas here, Mark. The only thing I could come up with now is to factory-reset the device, and install no additional apps for a few days. Then, one by one, add back the apps you need -- until that behaviour starts over again. I would wonder if it does right from the beginning -- but if that would be the case, I'm completely out...

Does anyone have physical access to your device? And do you have a lock code of some sort set?

Also, may I suggest revoking account access to EVERYTHING, then re-adding one by one?

Revoked access to everything.... Still getting random apps. Guess I'll try a factory reset. No one else has access to my phone.

Here is a possible solution. My son had recently unwittingly installed AppCaster on our home PC, and this was causing the apps to be pushed to my phone. I uninstalled it from the Programs and Features under Control Panel, where AppCaster goes by the name "Mobile App Sync".

Mobile app sync WAS installed on my computer. Uninstalled! Hopefully that does the trick.

Mine has been clear since I uninstalled it from my PC, so hopefully it will you you too.

That seemed to do it! Thanks. I never would have thought to look on my pc

I had the same problem. A while ago, I didn't have access to my new Android phone, so I asked my friend to login with my Google credentials in the Play Store app to buy some apps on sale. So after a while, when I downloaded new apps, the phone of my friend got that apps and the other way around.
So, now my question is, did you entered your Google credentials into another android phone like I did? Did you install some apps on that phone? Try to remember if you did like I did.

I have a phone that a lost a while ago that is still registered in the settings of the play store under my devices. However, the date that it was last used, according to that same page, is over 6 months ago.

@MarkB42 I don't know then. I saw the reviews of the AppCaster app that they have the same problem like yours, unknown installs on their device, so maybe is a malicious app that caused this.

Yeah, I just wish I knew how to get rid of it. I should do a factory reset, but I'm dragging my feet at having to set everything back up... :/


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Will my device get locked again after update?
I've bought samsung captivate glide I-927 from eBay. It is locked with at&t by default, so seller unlocked device for me and it is working fine. It comes with Gingerbread 2.3.5 and I found that ICS update for this device available from Samsung kies (pc suite). Now the question is Will my device get locked again after update from GB to ICS???
Thanks in advance...

No, software updates do not mess around with carrier info like that. Your phone should still be set to work with AT&T after the latest update is applied. If updating the device meant reactivating the phone, many people would be unhappy because of activation fees.

I'm in India and seller have unlocked this for global GSM carriers. So is it still work with Indian GSM carrier after update? I'm asking you because you mention at&t in your answer.

I'm actually unsure if it will revert back in your case. I believe that will depend on what image you use to update your device.


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Voicemail forwarding numbers - Tmo prepaid plan
I switched a monthly Tmobile plan several months ago and absolutely hate the voicemail "service".  I previously had all my VM's sent to my email via YouMail (kind of like Google Voice).
Today while looking through settings I noticed there are three Voicemail Forwarding numbers in the Phone Settings menu.  Each for a different scenario (busy, unavailable, unreachable).  All numbers are currently set to Tmobile's VM handling number.
Has anyone with a TMobile monthly plan had success in changing these numbers to use a third party VM service such as Google Voice or other?

At the suggestion of a forum member elsewhere, I called TMobile and asked them about their new "uncarrier" plan.  It is a non-contract, postpaid plan with the exact same pricing and services as my current TMo prepaid plan, but I regain the ability to forward voicemails among other things.   You have to submit to a credit check for a possible deposit (max is only one month's plan ie $50).
So going to the "uncarrier" plan was the solution for me.  Hope this helps.


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Does turning off the "Show notifications" settings for apps improve battery life?
I recently found that there is a "Show notifications" settings for individual app in my HTC One X. I have turned it off for some applications like Subway Surfers (which tries to sell me coins in notifications).
Will disabling notifications improve my battery life? How does Android handle if notifications are turned off for a particular app - does it only hide notifications from notification bar or it really does not allow the app to create any notifications in first place (so in this case I presume that it would save battery life)?

Disabling a notification for particular app wont' save battery. Yes it would a little by not ringing and vibrating and also by not making you look at the phone.
Actually notification is handled by OS itself. An app just says that I want this notification to be displayed and OS handles it. In your case those apps are running in background using service and periodically asks the OS to display the notification. Event though you've disabled the notification the service is still running and still requesting the OS to display notification.


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Problem restoring my .ab backup file
I know this might be duplicate but I couldn't find any relevant solution myself.
Today I tried to be adventurous and install Ubuntu Touch on my Nexus 7 and it was a failure. As a safety measure I backed up my device's data using the following command on a Windows 7 OS:
adb backup all -f ./nexus.ab -shared -apk

It took forever and created a 1.6GB file (sounds reasonable to me). But the thing is, when it was done even though the back up screen on my device was gone but the command didn't return in Windows and I had to press ctrl+c.
So I went through my adventure and in the process I had to unlock my bootloader and as a result all my data was wiped out (I read that it will happen and I was ok with it since I had already backed up my data). Once I was through with my adventure (and failed), I tried to restore my data using the following command (on the same machine as I created the back up):
adb restore ./nexus.ab

It takes for ages and after it is done, it prompts nothing (no success or failure). I can tell that it is done since the restore screen on device will be gone and the command will return in Windows. But when I turn on my device it's the same as it came out of the box. So is there any hope left? How can I make sure if my back up file is corrupted or everything is going fine? Do I need to do anything after my back up file is restored?

I'm having the same issue switching from OnePlus 3 to Oneplus 5. Reading logcat gives me
Wrong header version: 5
Invalid restore data; aborting.

Try looking at the logcat output. I had a similar issue with multiple devices (all of the same manufacturer, though not yours) -- and it turned out they obviously had a bug in ADB implementation (logcat showed a parse error for the backup file).
If your situation is comparable (some ADB bug on your device's firmware), you can forget restoring that backup using ADB. Still, there are alternatives:
As you can read in the tag-wiki or our backup tag, there are other apps which can read and restore from ADB backups. Such as e.g. Titanium Backup. I'm not sure if this feature is reserved for the Pro version, but it's at least worth a try with the free one. And even if, this app is worth buying. Note, however, that your device must be rooted for this.
Copy your nexus.ab to the SDCard of your Nexus (I know it has no microSD slot, but the internal SD should do). Then use TiBu to restore from that backup file. You might not be able to restore everything (I never tried, so I'm not sure how far it goes) -- but at least your apps and their data should be able to get restored.
A second way (to be used for the remaining things) is to manually unpack the backup archive. Details can be found here:

How do you extract an App's data from a full backup made through “adb backup”?
Is there a way to look inside and modify an adb backup created file?

You might also wish to consult other questions tagged "adb+backup" for additional information.

Thanks but where can I find logcat? There's no such file created by my nexus.ab file!

That's not a file, but rather a command. Once your restore finishes unsuccessfully, run adb logcat and capture the output. See the logcat help page for more details, especially on parameters; adb logcat -v time might provide a better readable format ;)

What if I'm not seeing any parse error while restoring? I believe the process is not broken and I'm missing something. These are the only errors I can see in logcat's output: W/InputDispatcher - Consumer closed input channel or an error occurred, W/DnsProxyListener - Error writing DNS result to client and W/SocketClient - write error (Broken pipe). To find these lines I searched for error keyword, unless the informative line does not mention this keyword I've got nothing.

Seach for "backup"; AFAIR the error was thrown by backupservice. It has not necessarily to mention the word "error", as something like E/BackupService would already make that clear: the "E/" stands for "Error", while your "W/" stands for "Warning". I just remember it where two services involved, and one of them was some backup service. Best is to capture the entire logcat, and then search for all occurences of "backup" and investigate the lines around them. That's what I did, and how I found out in my case.

As I suspected there's no such error in my log. I've even got D/BackupManagerService - Full restore pass complete and I/BackupManagerService - Full restore processing complete. Yet restore makes no change to my device. I managed to unpack the .ab file into a .tar file using android-backup-extractor project but it gave out an error while converting (something like ZipException: incorrect data check). It seems my backup image is not solid. I wonder why it doesn't say so while restoring!!

It should have said so on backup already. A corrupt backup is of no use. Sorry, but in that case I'm out of further ideas...

Use adb logcat command to check system log for exceptions during the restore process. Try looking for BackupManagerService messages like these:
I/BackupManagerService(  716): Reusing existing agent instance
D/BackupManagerService(  716): Invoking agent to restore file fbreader.ui.xml
E/BackupManagerService(  716): Unknown tar entity type: 76
E/BackupManagerService(  716): Parse error in header: Unknown entity type 76
W/BackupManagerService(  716): io exception on restore socket read
W/BackupManagerService(  716): java.io.IOException: Unknown entity type 76
W/BackupManagerService(  716):  at com.android.server.BackupManagerService$PerformFullRestoreTask.readTarHeaders(BackupManagerService.java:4117)
W/BackupManagerService(  716):  at com.android.server.BackupManagerService$PerformFullRestoreTask.restoreOneFile(BackupManagerService.java:3406)
W/BackupManagerService(  716):  at com.android.server.BackupManagerService$PerformFullRestoreTask.run(BackupManagerService.java:3282)
W/BackupManagerService(  716):  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:841)
D/BackupManagerService(  716): Killing host process
I/BackupManagerService(  716): Full restore processing complete.
D/BackupManagerService(  716): Full restore pass complete.

In above example, you find a message E/BackupManagerService: Unknown entity type 76. It means that the .tar archive inside the .ab file was created with GNU version of the tar tool and used GNUTYPE_LONGNAME ('L') in a file's header.typeflag field, which is not understood by your Android's BackupManagerService. Using tar --format=posix should fix the problem.

As said in tomasz answer it may have to do with format of tar archive, but using posix format didn't help me and i still got errors, after trying diffrent formats i find out that --format=ustar (which is older posix format) works just fine, since it doesn't create any PaxHeaders which break stucture of archive.


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How to get rid of Sprint's notifications for ad-supported voicemail
On my Galaxy S4 (Sprint), I regularly get a voicemail icon in my notification bar with the message:

With this update, you will be able to enjoy premium Ad-supported features such as inline playback and auto forward to email.

I have no interest in "enjoying" these features, and I cannot figure out how to make it go away.

"Allow automatic updating" is not not checked.
I have no messages that haven't been listened to.
I do not want to disable all notifications from the voicemail application, as I would  like to be notified when I have messages.
Clearing the notification makes it go away for anywhere from 5 minutes to a day, but it always comes back.

Is there any way that I can disable this specific message?

Accept the update, it doesn't charge you unless you subscribe to the premium package. Aside from that, you could decompile the apk and remove the push notification for updates.

Are there ads in my voicemail app then?

Where to find this APK? I searched all my filesystem from top to bottom but didn't find VoiceMail apk. Can you say where it's located?

I was able to remove the ads from my Sprint voicemail without root.
On the Android device, go to Voice mail > Menu > Settings > Uncheck Display Ads.
Hope this works for you.

In what app is this?

Please try the following:

Android Settings
Application Manager
All Apps (drag page to the left)
search your app and tap on it
make shure, the box show notifications is unchecked
Problem solved?

As Brad wrote: I do not want to disable all notifications from the voicemail application, this does not solve his problem (as it does exactly that: disable all notifications), sorry.

hm, i see. this is what i did to ignore notification-spam of games etc... but to ignore specific notifications is not possible, i guess. Sorry this didnt work out.

authors: Олег Аратович


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Are there any issues in storing an Android battery?
I want to buy a 2nd battery for my i9100 because the phone is getting old and I don't know if parts will be easily available a couple of years on (don't want to upgrade, I like it too much), but I've heard reports of batteries dying after being left in storage for extended periods. Is this true?
Should I just switch the 2 batteries around each time to preserve their life?

See: How frequently is it okay to let the battery discharge fully or as low as possible?. My answer there includes the answer to your question. In very short words: Store at 50% charge, check charge all ~ 3 months.

Unlike Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh batteries, Li-ion batteries primarily lose their capacity by calender time rather than by charge/discharge cycles.  It's simply a fact of the chemistry.  From the time the cell is assembled, it will lose capacity over time, regardless of whether it's in active use or sitting in a warehouse.
Stored unused, you're looking at up to 15-20% loss of capacity per year (pg 4, figure 5b) with the battery just sitting on a shelf.  Though this is more a worst-case scenario, as the battery is being stored at 35°.
To help prevent this capacity loss, you should store the battery cold.  In the paper above, storing the battery at 5° C (a few degrees warmer than an average kitchen fridge, which is ideally about 1.6° C) reduced the capacity loss rate by about half.
Putting the battery in a nice airtight bag (a small ziplock is good) is highly recommended for fridge storage to prevent unfortunate incidents relating to spills and condensation.

Oh boy. Is that safe? Even in a airtight bag you will condensation all over the battery, isn't that even slightly detrimental to the battery or it's contacts?

@warsong - That's why I specified a small bag.  Air actually contains very little water.  A litre of air (at 20° C and 1 atmosphere) with 100% relative humidity contains about 12 micrograms of water.  Simply removing most of the air from the bag should keep the amount of water low enough to prevent it from doing anything like shorting the contacts.  If you're feeling paranoid, you might add a packet or two of desiccant (e.g. silica gel) to the bag, which is readily scavengable from vitamin bottles and whatnot.


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Google maps doesn't have data connection
Ever since upgrading my Nexus 4 to CyanogenMod 10.1-20130304, Google Maps behaves improperly.  I have not noticed the problem with any other app.
I can open the Maps app, and it will show me where I am, but when I try to search, 95%+ of the time, it will just sit there as though it's searching, but it never finds any results.
The only way I have found to resolve the issue is to completely remove the Google Maps app, and re-install it.  Doing this will allow search to work--once.
The next time I need to search again, I have to remove and re-install.
This happens whether using mobile Internet or wifi.
Is there anything I can do short of restoring the phone to factory settings and starting over?

If you know how to get the log, it would be of some help to compare the entries during first and subsequent search requests.

@Narayanan: I don't know how to get the log, but if you can point me in the right direction I would be happy to go log-hunting.

Try Catlog - Logcat Reader!. This app helps you take the log and to filter out the entries. You may be able to spot the trouble by seeing the log in the phone or can spot/compare easily if you export and see it in a computer.

@Narayanan: Thanks for the tip. Installing now.

Eventually I resorted to restoring my phone to factory settings, and now this works again.


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How do I delete this read only file?
In order to enable USB mass storage mode, I placed a file in the /system/etc/init.d/ directory. My situation has changed, and now I want to remove that file. I know it is safe to remove because I put it there.
However, I can not delete it. I have a rooted phone, and I have tried using ES File Explorer and also su mode in a command line emulator, but every time I try to delete it, I get an error that says rm can't remove 'MassStorage': Read-only file system.
How do I delete this file?

As su, do this :
# mount -o remount,rw /system

You will now be able to delete it.

As said in comments, don't forget to
# mount -o remount,ro /system

or just reboot when you have finished. :)

And don't forget to do mount -o remount,ro /system afterwards.

Or reboot immediately... :)


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email me when a charger is connected?
I want to be able to leave a device with charger plugged in the socket, and have it email me (or call/text me on my another device) as soon as it gets power (ie when the charger is technically  or officially plugged in)
Scenario: I plug the device and leave it. There's no power. Power comes, the device emails/calls me.

You can try apps like tasker.

With Tasker, you could try this:

Condition: State → Power
Task: Send SMS

(Note that Compose Email / Compose MMS / Compose SMS only open the dialog and let you edit, so you would need to use the Send SMS option to have it automatically sent).


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How to make chrome open to a blank tab
I'm running CM 10.1 on my Nexus S and it's definitely showing its age.  If I want to quickly google something I open up Chrome and then wait 15 seconds for it to load the last page, and then try and type in the location bar for 30 seconds as it freezes and then suddenly types my query out all at once.
My question is, how can I make Chrome open to a new blank tab each time I click its icon?

I can't test it right now, but I imagine you could make a bookmark for about:blank and add the bookmark icon to your home screen.

@Al Everett is correct. Use a shortcut on your launcher, because I do not see any options within the Chrome app to change your "home page".
Go to Bookmarks, add about:blank to Mobile bookmarks, navigate there, and then click and hold on the bookmark icon and select "Add to home screen". Presto.

I swear this used to work. Doesn't seem to work anymore, at least not for Android 5.1.1 (cyanogen 12.1) running Chrome 49.

Set your Settings > Homepage to something like chrome-native://newtab/


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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.

Check out this and from the Play Store And yes, I am affiliated with the company in question.

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.

Connect to the WiFi network. Install Dropbox/Google drive or any other similar service on your computer. Install the app for the same service on your phone. And then go into your favorite photo browser/gallery and send the files over to the service and then you will have them automatically on your computer(if you have installed the applications).
This also gives you a backup of the photos and videos.
Simple steps one by one, with my recommended service:

Connect to WiFi with your cellphone
If you dont have a Google account, make one here: Google Signup.
Most likely you have a google account, when you have an Android phone. Otherwise, you can not download apps through the Google Play.
Install "Google Drive" on your computer. You can download it from the google drive download page.
Install "Google Drive" on your phone. Download it from the Google Play store.
Go into your favorite photo browser or gallery app on your phone. You can then select all files or only the ones you wanna transfer, and choose the "share"() button and choose "Google Drive". It will then use some time depending on the internet connection you have.
You can then go on your computer and find the files inside the "Google Drive" folder.

Your files is now safely saved/backed up on three devices. Your computer, phone and "Google Drive".
I hope this solution works for you.
You can also make a permanent solution by downloading and using FolderSync wich will automatically upload photos to Google Drive when you take photos or videos.


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Galaxy S3 Mini screen seems to get touched when there's no actual touch
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini which I've bought about 6 month ago. For about 3-4 months now, I've noticed when looking at its screen (but not touching it myself) that there's things happening on it as if some invisible finger would touch the screen:

lock screen with pattern would report some random touching on one of the screen lock pattern's circles. It looked like someone did a short finger-drag of about 1 cm, and then would shake the finger very rapidly on it:

other times, when I was doing stuff on the phone, it would either open an application or the Google tool-screen (the one that normally opens when you hold the home button for a longer time on Android 4)
also, while it was doing this, if I tried to override the ghost touches with my own finger the screen wold be very unresponsive (it would only "get" parts of my inputs)

I've googled for a solution and I've found basicaly 2:

1: remove the screen protector and clean the screen well to make sure it has no moisture or hand-desinfectant gel etc. Did that, removed the screen protector, wiped it good with soft paper, still have the problem
2: some people said that if I'm charging it with something else than its own charger, it may lead to the problem I have. It's true, I'm using multiple chargers to charge this phone only one of which is the original charger it came with. I've tested this, and it does appear that the problem arises when I charge it with an LG charger, or when I connect it to my laptop: before connection, no ghost finger, after connection, when the lock screen display automatically, there's the ghost touch like in the screen shot. However I'm not 100% sure that it's ONLY when I charge it like that that the problem crops up. However this does seem to be one way to trigger the problem.

My question is then:

has anyone had such a problem also? If yes, did they found a solution that fixes it completely (i'm willing to factory reset it if necessary, buy some fancy cleaning kit, etc)
if the solution is to only use its original charger, how come it seems to happen when I connect it to laptop also? How am I supposed to make it so that it doesn't go all ghost touchy when I want to transfer my pictures to my laptop?

Is it always in the same spot?

It seems to preffer that spot I show in the image, but I think it happends on other spots as well since sometimes it will start applications and such. It's hard to track down where it happends... but when it happends on the lock screen, it always seems to be in that spot.

My opinion is the screen might be grounded with some metallic or conductive object inside the phone. Probably a loosened part due to use. You can try to wave a strong magnet (like neodymium) at the back of the phone. Data shouldn't be affected anyway because flash chips are resistant to magnetism. But its still much better if you can get it repaired thru warranty.

Ok, thanks for the suggestion. Any idea where I can get a strong magnet?

I did have the same problem! but amazingly that was due to charge it with its Original charger! I was very frustrated with those ghost touches which cause my touch screen unresponsive. Samsung dealer told me that its may due to its charger so after that I used to charge it with my Tablet charger which was 1 amp same as the original... now it looks like the problem goes away! cz those ghost touches used to appear after every 3 hours and my temporary solution was to lock and unlock but now it passed 30 hours but I didn't noticed any thing!
Hope everyone problem as simple as my one!

I had a phone that did this, the second I saw it going off on its own  I would turn off the screen and turn it back on. The screen would recalibrate and it would work perfectly fine for a while. What really used to set my phone off would be when I got grudge on it like water, sweat or food. It always happened if I took my phone into the bathroom when I took a shower. Try to wipe off the screen before turning it on. Newer phones are better at detecting when you have grudge on your screen so it's not such an issue.

Thank you for your answer. However, I've already tried something similar to this, and I still get the problem. However I'm starting to think it might be due to moisture, because it sort of started happening when the weather got hot and very humid around where I live.


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How to root the Galaxy Attain 4G (SCH-R920) on MetroPCS?
I have an Galaxy Attain 4G (SCH-R920) on MetroPCS running the Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread).
How can I root this phone?

Rooting the Galaxy Attain 4G (SCH-R920) on MetroPCS
A step by step tutorial accredit to Zhelezaka from http://forum.x-drivers.com/.

Requirements:
Necessary Files: all files hosted on my DropBox account!

Odin3 v1.85;
Attain Rooted Update;
Attain 4G PIT File;

Setup:

A PC running the Windows Operating System; I've used Windows 7
The cable to connect your Android device to the PC.

Tutorial:

Download all files from the "Necessary Files List" to a folder on your desktop;
Extract odin3_v1.85.zip to a folder on your desktop;
Locate and open the Odin 1.85.exe to open up Odin3;
If the User Account Control (UAC) pops up, accept the execution of the file.

Click on the PDA button.
Navigate to the location where you downloaded the Attain-Rooted-Update.tar file and select it.

Click on the PIT button.
Navigate to the location where you downloaded the Attain-4G.pit file and select it.
Do not forget to extract the file first, since the application only works with the Attain-4G.pit file inside the ZIP you've downloaded.

Make sure that repartition is unchecked.
This is important as checking this will most definitely brick your device!
Note that when you select the PIT file, it gets checked, you need to uncheck  it yourself.

Power down your device;
With your device switched off, press and hold the Volume Down + Home + Power buttons.
Then press the Volume Up key to enter the Download Mode.
Connect your device to the Windows PC.
You should see the ID:COM field light up yellow when you do this;

If this does not happen, it means that you don’t have the necessary drivers installed.
You can download Samsung Kies and install it to rectify this problem.

Android SDK
Samsung USB Driver

Your Odin3 screen should now look like the picture posted below. Again, make sure that the Re-Partition tickbox is unchecked before you click Start!

Click on Start.
Note: Once Odin3 says "PASS" and your device reboots, your Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G should be rooted!!
If you are in doubt though, the usual way to confirm is to download Root Checker from the Google Play Store or look for the Superuser app in the app drawer.

Useful links:

Samsung Product Page
GSMArena Device Specifications

I can confirm that this works with Heimdall as well, however you have to unzip the .tar file and manually add the FACTORYFS partition file (factoryfs.rfs).


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Rooting a new Kindle Fire HD (July 13)
When I follow links about rooting the Kindle Fire HD, I have the impression its not possible with the latest versions?
I have one bough just now, July 2013.
Can I do it?
(The main issue is Google Play)

Though I cannot answer your question: I've linked it from our rooting index (we permit exactly one "how di I root..." question per device). You might check there for available methods, with some luck you'll find a working one.

It seems that this is possible for both versions of the HD (7", OS version 7.4.3 and 8.9", OS version 8.4.3). I found XDA Developer forums for 7" HD version 7.4.3 and 8.9" HD version 8.4.3. For the purposes of making this post self-contained, I will assume that you have the 7" version.
The steps are:

Download the Root_with_Restore_by_Bin4ry_v31.zip. (see original forum)
Extract the file.
This step is very important. Uninstall any drivers you have for the Kindle Fire HD. Connect your Kindle to the PC via USB. Press the Windows Start button and search "Device Manager". Go to "Portable Devices". Right-click on Kindle and choose "Properties". Go to "Driver" and click "Uninstall". Then unplug the Kindle from the PC.
Download and install Kindle Fire ADB drivers. (see original forum for links to these)
On your Kindle Fire HD, go to Settings > Security. Mark "Enable ADB" - ON.
Connect the Kindle Fire HD to the PC via USB. Wait until automatic installation completes and Kindle is recognized.
Navigate to the folder where you extracted the Bin4ry method, double-click RunMe.bat, and choose option 1.
On the Kindle Fire HD, select the option "Backup My Data" and wait until the backup completes (when the backup completes, press any key on the computer). Then select the option "Restore My Data" (This will not erase any data or files) and wait until the restore completes (when the restore completes, press any key on the computer).
Your device will reboot twice.
When your device boot, select the option "Restore My Data" once again (this will not erase any data or files) and wait until the restore completes (when the restore completes, press any key on the computer). Your device will reboot once again.
When your device boot, unlock your device and go to "Apps Drawer", you should see the "Superuser" App.
You're done!


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How to switch my SGS3 to a 'google play' edition phone?
My Samsung Galaxy S3 contract ends in few months. I'd like to get rid of unwanted stuffs like touchwiz,  flipboard, allsharecast, etc. and pull latest updates directly from 'google play', just like the rest of nexus phones.
Is rooting the only option available for me? Shouldn't Samsung allow me just point my phone update link (?) to whatever I want, as my contract expires?

searching here->http://android.stackexchange.com/q/17152/38783 will show some very handy resources all things android.  Using that info could take you to here->http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III/GT-I9300

Is rooting the only option available for me?

Yes.

Shouldn't Samsung allow me just point my phone update link (?) to
  whatever I want, as my contract expires?

No.
The manufacturers do not have a legal or moral obligation to do so. They can provide the sources to the kernel on their site, that is about how far they can go.
This is where the community comes in, have a look at this titled "Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?"
Google Nexus line of devices are free from carrier related slow-downs in rolling out updates and fixes to Android, which is why you pay the odds over for a Google Nexus device.
Not all devices are deprived of the pure Google experience, i.e. no carrier bloatware, touchwiz, etc. It can be done by selected few talented developers, depending on the community and popularity of device in question.
You are free once the contract expires and do whatever you want without violating terms and conditions.
You can:

SIM unlock/Network Unlock
root the device
modify it
flash a custom ROM on it (refer to the linky above)

A contract is tied to a service provider / network. If the phone was packaged together with their plan / contract, chances are the phone contains a ROM that is bundled with network-specifc apps. Also, it's possible that the phone is locked to that network only.
For you to get around this, you need to unlock the phone so it can be used woth other networks. Plus, you will also be able to flash network-neutral ROMs or custom ROMs.


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Email app: how can I change the sender address?
I'm using the Android Email app and IMAP/SMTP (not the Gmail app). How can I change the sender ("From") e-mail address? I know how to switch between accounts when sending mail, but I can't find a setting for the e-mail address of each account. Currently, when I send an e-mail, only my username appears in the "From" field (which makes it pretty hard to reply to my e-mails).
The version of the Email app is 4.1.

I'm afraid you can't senarvi, it's a fairly basic setting left out by the android developers to push people towards using a gmail account.
You can setup the gmail account to 'pull' email from another and also send using a different address (set these up online, rather than through the device).

Why not change the account name?
NOTE: This is for Email 4.2. Instead of having something like geffchang, change it to geffchang@email.com. In the Email app: Settings > Added accounts: [account] > Common settings: More settings > Account name.

You can add more than single account in Android Email App(hope you know how).
When you are inbox you at top you can find a drop down list with all your accounts names.
You can choose one which you want to sent mail from.
Then just compose that mail and send it.

I have several accounts and, as I said, I know how to switch between them when sending mail. The question is, how to set the e-mail address for a particular account.

you are adding an account by setting an email address. And configuring it based on that email account. How can you configure an email address and send from different email with that configuration? or you can edit an account with desired mail address.


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Weird Bluetooth Behavior, difficulty reconnecting to paired device - Galaxy S II
I had been having this weird behavior with my BT - Headset, that it works fine if I pair manually, but when I try to reconnect to a previously connected device, it would connect, and then just fail, and I would need to unpair and repair manually every time.
I have verified that this same headset works as expected with other phones - ranging from iPhone - Blackberry - Nokia Symbian S60. The device itself is over a year old, and this is when my previous device failed. However the fact that other phones are able to handle it, negates the possibility of this being purely due to age.
I tried to get Samsung Customer support to take a look at this, but they refused to see the problem.
Until recently I had just resigned myself to pairing it every time I want to use it, however recently, I seem to have discovered a pattern. If I disable the "Phone" Setting from bluetooth settings, this problem occurs. However with both "Phone" and "Media" options enabled, it seems to work as good as new!!
I also came across Bluetooth Auto Connect which seems to be tackling a similar problem, but I don't think it is quite the same.
So basically my question is, is this a known/common issue with GSII? Is there a fix for it? My device is rooted if that helps.
If this is a purely software issue as I now suspect, will a new rom help?

This problem was fixed when I flashed custom roms. It came with its own can of worms.. but still..

I have similar issues with some headphones on my Galaxy Nexus, though it is only intermittent. While I do not have an actual solution, I have found that turning Bluetooth off and on again while the headphones are on is much quicker than navigating all those submenus, and does cause the headphones to reconnect.


text:
SD Card Unexpectedly removed error
I have a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 which I bought 4 months ago....love it!  Decided to add an external SD card......so I bought a 16 G.  After a couple of weeks, I got a notification "SD Card Removed Unexpectedly!" Of course I never removed the card but I could not get the tablet to recognize my SD card.  In doing research, I noticed that the instruction said I need a Class 10 card, so not being sure I had a class 10, I went out and bought a 32 G Class 10.  Worked beautifully for a week and the error returned......intermittently  In turning on the tab, I never know if the message is there and I can see the card on my tab (at times).....other times I can't.
If I put the SD card in a reader connected to my PC, it is fine.  I complained to Samsung and they said I can return it for repair since it is under warranty.   Do anyone know if Samsung CAN repair this problem?   I don't want to waste the money or time if it is not going to do any good..... Also have anyone discovered a fix or cause of this problem?

Have you tried removing and reseating the card in the tablet?

We've got 10 questions with this issue. Please especially check with: My SD card was removed unexpectedly and won't work anywhere / SD card problem, card gets suddenly removed and later added- Sony Xperia X8.

Yes - I removed and re-seated the card.  It hasn't made any difference.

The problem is withe SD Card slot on the device. Return your device to SAMSUNG for repair or replacement.


text:
Can `Phone Calls` application permission allow developer to read my contact book?
I wonder if other people can read my contact list when the app permission(s) has Phone Calls permision like below snapshot.

Not quite: this permission allows the app to read the IMEI of your phone, your phone number, your network operator, and to know whether you are making a call. It does also let the holder of the permission know the number at the other end of the call, but not any of the contact data associated with that number. These uses are described in the developer documentation for TelephonyManager.
A good use for this might be to disable some ongoing process while you're in a call, or show an indicator, or to help you report your device as stolen. A bad use for this would be for invasive ads to track your identity across different apps, in order to push targeted advertising at you; or to record your phone number and those you call, to make nuisance calls to you afterwards, maybe claiming to be from your network operator.
Reading your contacts is controlled by the permission called read your contacts.

Don't forget: Your phone number can also be accessed with this permission. With an ongoing call, also the number you called (or have been called from). Additionally, it reveals your network provider.

@Izzy That's right, I should have included that. I added a (related) potential misuse to the answer as well.

Thanks! Already upvoted :) and just updated the linked duplicate answer with details on this permission (including good/bad/neutral use cases, and the fact that this permission is implicitly granted to apps targeting Donut and older).

Adding URL to official site stating your answer would be great! Please add.


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where is a restricted user's home directory for Nexus 7 (2013 - JB 4.3)
Background: I have a rooted Google Nexus 7 (2013 - FLO) tablet, which I love.  I have created 2 restricted user accounts for each of my kids.  They both love Minecraft, and with restricted user accounts, they each get their own home directory, where their Minecraft worlds are stored.  This is great for them, because they can't tamper with each other's worlds.  :)  Now that the phone is rooted, I would like to copy their worlds off old devices and into their account space or home directories.
Question:  Where is the home directory (or user account storage space) for restricted accounts on the new Google Nexus 7 (2013), which is running JellyBean 4.3?

They are stored in
/mnt/shell/emulated/

I've just created a restricted profile and it created a new folder in there with the name "10", the main admin users folder is "0". You should be able to copy the files into the relevant place within these folders to get mine craft to pick them up.
(This was done on the 2012 Nexus 7 but I don't think it will be any different)

Nougat: /mnt/user/<two_digit_user_id>

I had a similar problem with Subway Surfers.
I finally found that profile data was under:
/data/user/<user_id_number>

Hope this helps.

Quick answer:
/storage/emulated/<user_id_number>

Details:
Unless possibly exploring the file-system with root permissions, the primary user cannot copy the files around.  It is easiest for the restricted user to use a file explorer or some WiFi uploader, like AirDroid, to upload the needed files from his or her account.
I'll experiment and report more later, but for now, use AirDroid or similar from the restricted account to upload the needed files.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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Setting Defaults for Links
I've been confused about how this works for quote some time now-- when I click a link, say in a browser (Chrome for example) and get the "open with" dialog if you will, if I chose to save a default for a Google maps link, will that set the default to ALL Google maps links, that particular link, or am I missing something?
I'm often afraid to set defaults because I'm not clear on what it is I'm actually setting a default for-- is it the domain name?
I'd appreciate any tips, links to documentation, or app suggestions to make this clearer to me. Thanks!

I'm not 100% sure whether I understood you correctly. You are not asked for every link (most should simply open the linked page in your browser), are you? This should only happen for targets the browser cannot handle itself, and then you can set the default app to handle that mime type, regardless of the domain/website/page it comes from. Basically, it's saying "Open MP3 files always with [my player], don't ask me again to chose", for example.

@Izzy It's not only for targets the browser cannot handle itself: it's for any URL where more than one app can handle it. YouTube links are the usual example. For web links, it's usually the URL rather than the MIME type, because the browser doesn't know the MIME type until you follow the link.

Good example – you're absolutely right! I just cannot remember that happening for "normal" links (text/html) when multiple browsers are available, so that seems to be an exception somehow?

Short answer: yes, it's for all Google Maps links.
The long answer is that Android's intent mechanism (which is the way Android decides what app to start) can use different parts of the URL to match the app. The app can register itself with Android to handle:

a particular URI scheme, such as market://
a particular domain, such as youtube.com
paths within the domain matching a particular filter, such as /users/*

Apps can also filter on other things not relevant to clicking a link, such as different actions (e.g. share) or different MIME types. One app can have more than one filter, and one filter can match any combination of the above things. For example, a YouTube app might have one filter that matches when all these conditions are met:

the scheme is http:// or https://
the domain is youtube.com
the path matches watch?v=*

and another that matches when all these conditions are met:

the scheme is http:// or https://
the domain is youtu.be (the domain for short URLs)

In this case, there are two different defaults to set: the first time you click a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJRFaR71HfY it will set the default for that kind of link. Then, if you later click a http://youtu.be/DJRFaR71HfY, it'll ask a second time, because that counts as a different kind of link.
In the case of Google Maps, there are several different kinds of link it can handle (as well as other intent filters not relevant to links):-

geo://*
latitude://*
http://maps.google.tld/ or https://maps.google.tld/ (with nothing after the /), for every TLD that Google has (google.com, google.fr, etc.)
http://maps.google.tld/maps* or https://maps.google.tld/maps*
http://mapy.google.pl/ or https://mapy.google.pl/ ("mapy" being Polish for "maps")
http://mapy.google.pl/maps* or https://mapy.googl.pl/maps*
http://local.google.com/ or https://local.google.com/
http://local.google.com/maps* or https://local.google.com/maps*
http://m.google.com/latitude or https://m.google.com/latitude
http://www.google.com/latitude or https://www.google.com/latitude
http://m.google.com/u/m/* or https://m.google.com/u/m/*

Each one of those lines counts as a different kind of link, so Android will ask again. In addition, all but the first of those have two separate entries: one for opening or browsing a link in the usual way, and another for scanning an NFC tag (or receiving by Android Beam) a matching link. Again, those two things count as different links for the purposes of setting defaults.

To get this information from the Google Maps app, I used the app PackageExplorer. The information it gives you takes some knowledge to interpret: you may find the Android intent API guide for developers useful.

Thanks for the thorough information, Dan! Do you have any suggestions for managing or showing this level of detail easily on the phone? I've seen an asp called Default Manager, but from the reviews I've seen, it doesn't appear to be a viable solution.

@Kurt I'd suggest not bothering. Unless you're writing your own app or something like a Tasker script that needs to interoperate with this specific app, it's easier to just let the system work as designed. Even so, I updated my answer to add this information.

Do you have an alternative link for PackageExplorer? The current one is dead.


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adb-shell : /sbin/sh: command: not found
I've managed to root Google Nexus 7 (2013 Wi-Fi) and now I have CyanogenMod 10.2-20130919-NIGHTY-grouper running on it and Clockworkmod recovery v6.0.1.9 following this guide.
Then I downloaded and installed Thinktube image-file to allow ad-hoc networking.
I am now able to create ad-hoc network in my tablet (not yet tested with other same-model tablets) and I can see the adhoc network from other iOS phones and adnroid 2.1 only. However, I want to make sure that:
does Thinktube image-file actually support OLSR rooting protocol or not ?
if not, then I am already following this guide to download, install and enable OLSR mode.
But, when I am in the Recovery-mode in my tablet, and when i open the adb-shell from my PC, I can list files and browse folders in my tablet normally. But I cannot run any other command on the adb-shell. it always gives me this error:
/sbin/sh: "any-command-rather-than-ls-&-cd": not found

what is this error ?  what did I do wrong ? and what I should do to fix it?

What commands have you tried?

@DanHulme: make .. su (but I understood I don't need to do this because I am already in the superUser account when I am inside the adb-shell).. scan_results  and any other commands

Unlike a desktop GNU/Linux system, Android isn't designed for command-line use, so it doesn't come with the full set of command-line programs that a GNU system would have. It only has the most basic commands (like the ones you've already seen working), and Android-specific utilities such as am, pm, bmgr.
You can get access to the basic POSIX commands (such as less and grep) by installing Busybox. There are several installers for it on Google Play. For any more specialist programs like make, you'll need to find an Android port of the particular program and install it.

I don't have google-play app in my tablet after installing CyanogenMod which means I cann't install Busybox-app.. I don't have even SuperUser-app after unlocking ..

@Rania-Boy You can install Busybox from another source, or install Google Play first.

The shell on Android is placed in /system/bin/sh instead of the regular /bin/sh – I wonder where you’d see /sbin/sh which I’ve never encountered in the wild on any Unix (and violates the POSIX standard), but in this place you should just change the script/invocation involved.
Most commands are in the $PATH anyway, so calling them with explicit paths is not necessarily needed.
That being said, Android Unix userland is very minimal – it didn’t even include a cat(1) implementation until recently – so you may be disappointed a bit.
Some people suggest using busybox on it. If you do, make sure to not replace the system shell, as Android’s default mksh(1) is much more powerful than busybox’ ash.
Disclaimer: I’m the mksh maintainer.


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Is there any difference between Samsung Galaxy S 3 GT-I9300 and I9300?
I've been looking into flashing a custom ROM on my Galaxy S 3, and most of custom ROM are only supported by the I9300 model of the Galaxy S 3.
When I went into my phone's settings, it said GT-I9300, so my question is: Are these two are the same and the HTC part is just being omitted, or these are two different models of the device?
Thank you for the attention, I.

I9300 is just a shortened form of GT-I9300.  They both mean the same device.
Just don't mix it up with the I9305, which is a different device, specifically the international LTE version.
Wikipedia has a useful chart of the different models and how they differ.  Minor models (e.g. I9300/I9300T or I747/I747m) are inter-compatible for ROM purposes.


text:
Kaspersky fails to load
I have Kaspersky installed on my Samsung Galaxy S2. Since the last update it doesn't work anymore. I get a startup screen that asks for my email address for an anti-theft account. When I fill this in (or leave it blank) and click the next bottom, the app crashes and that's it. I've tried this numerous times. I've rebooted, nothing helps.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get this working? I mailed Kaspersky about this, but am afraid that they will not offer much help.

One word - uninstall it! You don't need it! :)

I've installed Avatarrom on my phone,partly because of this problem, reinstalled Kaspersky and since then it works.

This may sound odd, but there are not very many Android viruses. My Android system still has never caught a virus and I spend a lot of time on the Internet. You may be better not having Android anti-virus applications.


text:
Deleting or listing least frequently played songs in Google Play Music
I'm starting to hit the limits of my storage space. My device is mostly filled with music, so I'd like to remove songs I don't listen to anymore, without having to painfully scroll down the list and delete them one by one.
Does Google Play Music have some way to at least list the least frequently played songs, or is there an additional music management app I should know about?

No there's no feature in Google Play Music that lets you delete songs you don't listen to. AFAIK there is no app that does the same too.

Uh, that's too bad... I'll write an app for that then! :)


text:
Does a malicious android WebView break the DoubleSubmittCookie countermeasure against CSRF?
Initial situation:
A RESTful webservice defends against CSRF attacks by using the double submit cookie approach. This means that the authentication token gets submitted twice and verified at the service side.
Problem / Security Threat:
The WebView element of the android and iOS plattforms allow to create a malicious web browser that unveils and modifies session cookies. webView.loadUrl("javascript:document.cookie=’’;");. If the attacker already figured out, how the double submitted cookie looks like, (In this case it's the AuthenticationToken) he is able to create a malicious RESTBrowser. Therefore he adds the already known CSRFToken to the document object model and thus bypasses the CSRF countermeasure. Is that right so far?
Possible Preventions:
So far I have no idea how I can prevent an attacker from creating und publishing such a malicious mobile application, as well to prevent the service from beeing accessed via malicious mobile applications. I know about the existence of the User-Agent header and that the service can use this information to reject requests from others than specific browsers. But I'm sure that also this header can be manipulated within the WebView.
What are effective countermeasures aginst CSRF in contex of malicious mobile applications?

Better ask over at Stackoverflow using the android and security tags. Devel questions are considered off topic here as this site focuses on end user problems.

or Security

Does a malicious android WebView break the DoubleSubmittCookie countermeasure against CSRF?

Short answer: no.
Long answer: CSRF exploits the trust that a site has in a user's browser. CSRF protection is not intended to protect the server from a malicious user agent or from an untrustworthy user. The user is responsible for choosing a trustworthy browser.


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Can't log in to Hangouts
I just uninstalled and reinstalled Hangouts to get the updated version.
(Even though the market showed the new version, it didn't have "Update" yet).
Now, I cannot log in to Hangouts... it keeps asking me to add a Google account.
I've tried rebooting the phone, but no joy.
Gmail and other google apps still work fine, it's just Hangouts.
I've tried adding my account, and it tells me that it already exists on the device (which is true).

Have you tried to associate the app (Hangouts) with the google account on your phone? Check your setting from within the app.

I cannot get into the app. As soon as I click on the icon, it pops up with the "Add a Google Account" form, and just gives me the options of [Existing] or [New]

You should probably try adding your existing account from that option.
Or Try checking Settings > Accounts & Sync > (Your Google account)

As stated above, I have tried adding my account, but it then tells me that the account already exists on the device, which it does. And under the sync settings, I do not see an option for Hangouts. :/

Okay... I figured it out. I am running the XPrivacy Xposed module, and when I reinstalled Hangouts, XPrivacy defaulted it apparently to not have access to the accounts on the device. I cleared the XPrivacy settings for it, now all is good! :)

So this turned out to be a pretty easy fix, once it dawned on me what it was.
I just recently installed the Xposed framework, and the XPrivacy module.
When I uninstalled the old Hangouts, it must have deleted all the old permission settings in  XPrivacy, and then when I reinstalled it, it defaulted to maximum restriction.
With access to the phone accounts restricted, Hangouts was not able to see my google accounts.
The fix was as simple as fixing the permission settings for Hangouts in the XPrivacy module.


text:
Google Maps does not support "geo:" intents, any alternative that does?
In Android Firefox (or HTML viewer), when you click on such a Geo URI link:
Wikimedia Headquarters

... you are asked what Map app to use.

Select Google Earth and it correctly zooms to the right place
Select Google Maps (or Maverick) and it only opens the app, not taking you to the right place :-(

My goal is to walk to the said place (so the map app should show both the said place, and my current location/direction using GPS/compass).
Unfortunately, Google Earth is not made for this kind of use. It does not "pin" the said place, so you can't be sure where it was exactly. Also, it does not show my own direction.
Any app that does it?

When opened from a Geo Intent, pins said place.
Also shows my own location and direction.
Bonus for offline maps.

I'm not quite sure, but you may try OsmAnd if it does just that. It has a fully functional free version and a reasonably priced paid version. It's FOSS also, so you could ask for the functionality to be included or you could send a patch yourself. There's also nightly builds available.

https://code.google.com/p/osmand/issues/detail?id=172

OsmAnd is an offline navigation app and should support geo intents since 2011. It has a fully functional free version and a reasonably priced paid version in the Play store. It's FOSS also, so you could ask for the functionality to be improved or you could send a patch yourself if needed. There's also nightly builds available on the project's site.


text:
Install Android to Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with GNU/Linux
I'm looking forward to reinstall Android on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.
Are there compiled images for this device?
Do I have to build it myself? If so, do I need propietary drivers from Samsung?
All the tutorials I found around require Windows (for Odin software) and installing mods and stuff like that, that sounds very hacky and dirty to me.

While dotVezz already placed a good answer (+1), some additional links for you to check: Our tag-wikis for Heimdall and rom are good starters. Follow the links from there to more info, as well as questions using those tags.

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

From a GNU/Linux-based OS, you can use Heimdall, an open-source alternative to Odin which is proported to match Odin feature-for-feature while also being more reliable. Otherwise, you can follow any of the many tutorials for installing a new Android ROM. I'll provide a bit more information to help you start your journey:
If you want a custom ROM like CyanogenMod or any of the dozens which are available in precompiled packages for specific devices, then you'll need to use Heimdall to flash a custom Recovery image (TWRP or ClockWorkMod Recovery). The zipped ROM images are flashable through these recovery modes.
If you want stock, Samsung Android/Touchwiz then you can use Heimdall to flash over the entire Android image from Samsung. (Google around to find the one for your model)
If you want to compile Android yourself, you'll likely want a custom Recovery image (TWRP or ClockWorkMod Recovery) and you can download the Android source code or if you want to modify existing custom ROMs, you can download their respective source and compile it yourself. You'd need to hunt down some in-depth Android compiling tutorials in order to do this, as it's not a simple process.
Note: Before flashing anything to your device, make sure that you match the model numbers!


text:
Desk home screen display appears randomly even when disabled
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 and every so often, without any apparent reason, while my phone is idle sitting on my desk (no dock or anything; it's just laying on my desk) the screen will light up and display the time and the icons of my any current notifications appear.
I have disabled daydream and unchecked "Desk home screen display"
It appears to happen randomly after device has been idle for some time. It's not a huge deal, but it's annoying and rather distracting.
My device  is a rooted Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 running android 4.2.2 on baseband VUAME7.

Go to the air gesture settings and deselect "quick glance"

There's some app running that requests a full WakeLock (which requires the screen to be on). You might use WakeLock Detector or BetterBatteryStats to figure out which app that might be:

WakeLock Detector and BetterBatteryStats (source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)
Both apps show what app held WakeLocks in the past. WLD is available for free on Play, BBS for EUR 2. Once you've identified the culprit, you can either re-configure that app to avoid those WakeLocks – or check for a replacement with better behaviour ;)

I don't see the to review "Full wakelocks" in BBS. Just Kernal wakelocks and partial wakelocks.

They have no separate section. Think of "kernel wakelocks" as system-based and "partial wakelocks" as listed by apps. So just check for apps having caused wakelocks will limit the list of installed apps to those possibly causing the issue. Most likely candidates are those dealing with network stuff, e.g. checking network strength or want to transfer data in background.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 suddenly dies and won't turn on even after battery removal
The phone was plugged in to my computer (I was doing development) and was running all the time. Suddenly, while I was not doing development or doing anything, the phone died and I have have never been able to turn it on again.
I've tried:

Hold the Power button
Hold both Power and Volume down button
Take out the battery and put it in again
Replace the batter with another one from my friends' working-perfectly-fine Galaxy S3

The result is the same: no response from the phone at all - it's completely cold, no sound, light or vibration at all - all I've seen is the blank unchanged screen so please don't ask me about the start up screen
What can I do?

what happens if you plug it in with a charger?

Nothing, absolutely nothing at all @geffchang T_T (no light, nothing on the screen whatsoever)

Leave the battery out, (btw, check the battery to make sure its looking ok and not lumpy - if is, do not use it!) Leave device battery cover open, and unplugged, wait for a bit for the current residual voltage to dissipate eventually, give it an hour at least, then put battery back in, if no sign of life, then either charging unit is fried or motherboard fried?

I have found out through searches that this is the Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) which many have reported especially for Samsung Galaxy S3.
It was the motherboard that was broken and replacing it brought the phone back to life.

Yes, it is a hardware issue

Plug the phone back into the PC. Then use windows explorer and verify that your PC can see it. This will tell you if the phone is recoverable. If you can access everything within the phone, then it might be a dead screen.

If the phone doesn't make the startup sound or flash the notification LED, it's definitely not just the screen.

@DanHulme you are completely right :D


text:
How to stop Skype from starting automatically?
I close the Skype app in my Android phone (samsung s3 mini)
If Skype is open on my pc and I receive a call it also starts automacically in my phone without my input!
How can I avoid such a strange behavior?
Thank you

See also: How can I close Skype so that it stops running? and How to quit Skype on Android?

A few days ago I updated Skype and it used to start by itself even after I logged out properly. I did it several times and finally I used the option 'Force stop' in Settings-Applications and it resolved it. I think it is some bug in Skype or/and in Android (I have 4.0).By the way, I think the above question is more accurate to my issue than the others.

Are you sure that you really closed Skype (not only hide it to background) ? In Skype main menu press "menu" button and then - logout.
If that doesn't solve your problem I see two possibilities :

Install a firewall (a good firewall is in avast! Mobile Security) and block access to newtork for Skype, unlock it only when you're using it (installing firewall requires root access)
Try to kill Skype service in application manager->background processes (it is located in Settings)

If you're true I think it is a bug and we've to contact Microsoft...

Your "logout" recommendation is the most likely solution. Also, the app might have an option to auto-login on start, which should be disabled. The firewall won't keep Skype from starting, and killing the app is unlikely to help (as it would simply restart as soon as network connectivity changes).

If the app is closed and I am logged in, then it will pop up on call events. If the app is closed and I also logged out from it, then it works. Thank you!


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Service Mode "Menu not Exist" Android 4.1.2
I am having little issue here. I have accessed the Service Mode via this no: *#197328640#
Then i am choosing options as follow
[1] Debug Screen
[8] Phone control
[6] Network lock
When i press option 6 for network lock i am prompted again with the same screen which shows again same option so i choose [6] Network lock again and in this menu there should be 3 things showing. However what i see is only
"Menu not Exist"
Press Back Key
Current Command s 1866
and that's it. There are options from this menu missing and i don't know why?

Perhaps, there's no network lock, i.e not tied to a carrier's network?

@t0mm13b So basically the menu is not showing because there is no sim lock ?. However when i put sim card its not read?

What made you think "there should be 3 things showing" when choosing option 6? Why are you worried about "options from this menu missing and i don't know why"? Perhaps its different CSC code not match with your network carrier?

You need to revert back to Jellybean 4.1.1 to get the extra options under (6)NETWORK LOCK as far as I'm aware.
Like you said there should be 3 other menu options under (6)NETWORK LOCK and they should appear after reverting back to 4.1.1.
You will need the 4.1.1 firmware for your current carrier and Phone model and (Odin) to flash the firmware.
Make sure you save the original firmware first, so if anything goes wrong with the firmware flash, you can revert back to the original firmware.
Hope this helps :)

The ServiceMenu (SM) is actually part of the modem firmware and what you see is the ServiceMode java wrapper. Thus it is very dependent on the ROM (FW) you're using and whether or not it is stock or custom. In addition the phone manufactures constantly like to change SM access codes, to prevent user from using it. In any case, there is absolutley no need to revert anything as hugoboss says, you just have to figure out how to find it. Lately you may also have to enable certain files in the /efs/ directory (requiring root).