text:
adb "Permission denied" to run a "./configure" file
I need to run a configure file into my android phone so I think the best way to do this is to use the adb shell command.
I'm running an Android emulator onto a Windows-7 platform, and there I'm running the adb shell command into a DOS window. Using the cd command I'm changing to the directory where my configure file is, and then I'm executing the following command: ./configure. I'm getting the following error :
./configure: permission denied

So I try to run adb in root mode with adb root -- but apparently my adb is already in root mode (Moreover I have the "#" character before each line of my adb shell).
I have also tried to use chmod but I don't see any difference before and after executing this command (ls -la), so maybe the problem is here (How can I run the chmod command?).
Maybe someone here can help me with my issue, and if you have also an explanation about why I don't have the permission to run my configure file it will be great.
Thanks.
PS: My goal here is to use the net-snmp package on an Android platform by compiling the sources of this project directly onto the platform.

Where on the Android emulator's filesystem is the configure file? i.e. what's the path to the file?

The path of the file is /sdcard/net-snmp-5.7.2/configure

chmod 0777 ./configure try that, then try executing.

That's probably the problem. /sdcard is typically mounted with the noexec flag in Android, so you can't execute binaries from it. I would recommend trying to move it to somewhere else (often /data/local is used for things like that). See if that solves the problem.

Also, copy it to the /usr/local/tmp directory (the entire net-snmp-5.7.2 directory in /sdcard.

Thanks for your comment but it doesn't work. Before chmod 0777 : "----rwxr-x [...] configure" and after chmod 0777 : "----rwxr-x [...] configure". This is why I'm saying that maybe my problem is on "chmod" command.

@grattmandu03 Its because its on the SD card - sdcards dont support file permissions :)

Ok right. So I have tried to copy the net-snmp directory into /data/local/tmp then I have directly tried to run my configure file but I get a permission denied. So I'm using the "chmod 0777" command. And now I have something weird, when I'm running again my configure file I'm getting "file not found" but I still can see this file into the /data/local/tmp directory. What I'm doing wrong ??

what is the contents of configure script? Its looking for a file to execute.... Are you sure you know what you are doing? What is configure for? These details are missing from the question! :)

The "configure" file is the configure script provided by the net-snmp sources package. I'm trying to port the net-snmp package into an Android phone. For now I'm using the busybox script to run the configure script and it seems to work (I have just some errors due to a linux system is not like an Android system, but this what I'm looking for). Thanks to all of you.

Build it on the linux box, not on android.... you should have stated that from the start! :)

Yes I have done that, but I think that the architecture between a linux system and an Android phone is different so I cannot use the Linux result directly into my Android phone. By the way, I know there is some java librairies to use net-snmp, but my boss wants to have the net-snmp original source compiled onto an Android platform.

keywords cross-compile on linux targetting the ARM chipset support...

As it stands right now and transpires, this is rather a development question! Voting to close as this is off-topic.

@t0mm13b Not entirely sure if this is off topic, as it could be useful for people that need to execute a file on their device, such as a root exploit.

@LiamW clearly, the OP was trying to build on top of Android by running a development related configure script and taking the wrong approach altogether!

Ok thanks. My question here was more about how can I run a script sh with the adb shell than a development question. But now I have the solution : "/sdcard is mounted with the noexec flag", so if eldarerathis or Liam W wants to put their comment into a real answer I will validate it. Or maybe you can explained me how can I close my question?

@grattmandu03 I already have ;)

This is due to 2 things:

The file does not have execute permissions [AND]
The file cannot gain executable permissions as it is on the SD Card. The SD Card's filesystem can accept file permissions, however it is mounted with the noexec flag, as stated in a comment. This stops files being executed.

Solution:

Copy the net-snmp-5.7.2 directory to the /data/local/tmp directory as root.
Set the configure file to be executable by running chmod 0777 /data/local/tmp/net-snmp-5.7.2/configure as root.
You should now be able to execute the configure script by typing /data/local/tmp/net-snmp-5.7.2/configure and pressing enter.

Note
This should all be done as the root user :)

I get: /system/bin/sh: /data/local.../filename: No such file or directory.

As explained by the comments and Liam's answer, this is due to the noexec flag used by the system when mounting the sdcard. If your configure file is a shell script (as it usually is), you can still trick it to be executed:
cd to the directory as you described above, and then execute sh configure.
sh is the Shell interpreter, and that binary should be located in /system/bin, where files are executable. Passing your script as the first argument, this will open a new shell process which executes your configure script.

Thanks for your answer. The sh configure does the trick.

Thanks for the confirmation! And glad I was able to help. I use this trick on Linux/Unix machines from time to time :)


text:
Rooting Exagerate XZPAD700
I've just bought a device commercially known as "Zelig Pad", which reports to be "XZPAD700" in settings screen. The device looks made by Hamlet but distributed with Exagerate brand.
It carries Android 4.0.4.
Anybody knows how to root that device?
For sake of curiosity: the device goes in download mode by pressing VOL- + Power. Seeking for something to download into its ROM without bricking it.

If it is ICS which it is, it will be really difficult...

Why is it difficult to root ICS ?

@Simon up to Android 2.3 Gingerbread it was possible to root every device around the world because Android itself carried a bug that could be exploited to install root. ICS fixed that, so another vulnerability must be present to inject root executables. Fortunately, some ICS devices are actually "well open" like Samsung GS3 which offers a dedicated download mode where you can overwrite the firmware. HTC devices should be offering something similar after HTC opened its bootloaders' specifications

@djechelon : Oh I didnt know I thought all devices were naturally rootable ?

Believe it or not, the device is already rooted, and it's not documented anywhere.
I don't think that starting it in recovery mode for an odd number of times activates/deactivates root, so I just believe the system carries su on its own.
If my unit of measure of "rooting" is ad-freeness then I simply tried to run AdFree from the device. No superuser warning appeared but AdFree not even didn't complain about absence of root, but updated the hosts file!! And the device was completely ad-free.
I also tried to install ES File Manager, and found this magic file: /system/xbin/su

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
What's the purpose of Strobe frequency adjustment in Torch?
I have the Torch app by default in Cyanogenmod.
I was wondering what's the purpose of Strobe frequency adjustment?
I tried to play around with it and I couldn't tell what difference does it make.

Strobe light is a kind of light which goes on and off a given number of times. The inverse of the number of times it goes on and off in a second is called its frequency. Strobe lights are used to see rotating objects to give an illumination that the rotating object is stationary.
By adjusting the strobe frequency the speed of the rotating object is matched to get the desired illusion effect.
There are many uses of strobe light from testing and instrumentation to dancing!

Well I know what a strobe light is, thing is, I adjusted it so many times it doesn't make a difference. My LED light is just steady. Does it mean my device doesn't support it?

I am sorry, it was not apparent for me. AFAIK, camera's LED flash are super responsive as they burst flash. Probably our eyes can't distinguish the strobe unless the frequency is distinctively low. If you say that the LED is steady by looking at it, then you can test it against a rotating object or test again with very low frequency.

Ok I tried again after reboot. It works now.

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


text:
Sometimes My Phone Just Restarts
Occasionally (maybe twice a month) my Milestone just reboots (goes black and then to the Android startup screen (but not all the way to the Motorola screen)).
I presume that such behaviour could be caused a poorly written app. I have uninstalled a few but to no avail. Is there any sort of log that I could pull which would shed some light on this or even a dump file?
Could this restarting issue be caused by something else?
I am currently running Android 2.1 (no OTA update available for me, yet) on a Milestone and have had this problem since I bought it in December (when it was 2.0).

I've seen that once or twice on my Nexus One. I assumed it was a bad connection with the battery contacts or something along those lines.

I've had this happen, and it's usually related to me trying to do application/sync updates, and my wifi/mobile connection fails, causing the entire thing to spazz out

This happens on my Incredible once or twice a month.  I've taken to calling it my Android BSOD.  It's always happened when it was just sitting there, never while I was actively using an app.   I'm assuming its some background process failing while attempting to run an update.

same here... I didn't find any particular pattern... I've got "Task Manager" on "auto-kill" to handle high-memory condition but still reboots from time to time.

@ninjaPixel Have you had any luck in the last few months?

related: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/18892/how-can-i-determine-the-cause-of-random-device-reboots

I have uninstalled TaskKiller as I read that these types of applications can cause stability issues on Android 2.1 and 2.2. So far so good...

I got excited too soon. Have had a couple of restarts recently. I presume that it must be due to some 3rd party process. Realistically though, I don't want to delete every app from my phone to find the cause, because 1) this will take ages and 2) I downloaded those apps for a reason

I know its too late to answer the question. But anyway, Restart generally occurs  when,

Phone is going out of resources, (Memory)
Bad Battery contacts, due to frequent pullouts.
Faulty apps leading to crash and screens of death.

I am saying so as Android too is an OS and these are the basic nature of an OS.  So if your Milestone is rooted, use XDA Assistant from Market and do some tweaks to your phone like

See your startup list and remove unwanted services while boot.
Also download InfoLLc  CacheCleaner to clean cache on regular intervals.
Install AdBlockers to block unwanted ads, sometimes they leads to crash.
Remove all apps that are not in use.
Instead of Auto Cleaning , do manual memory cleanup {RAM} using taskkillers.
Dont use any Battery Defenders as they too run their own service on the phone 24X7 {in wake phone} and consumes memory.
Use App2SD and try to move all your apps from pHone memory to your SD Card.

Finally I would like to say, keep your OS as light(clean) as possible.

Doubtful... faulty apps, according to Android sandboxed execution environment, are supposed to never let the phone crash. The phone crashes only when the ROM or the hardware is faulty, by design... I fully agree with possible causes 1 and 2 anyway

Well, let me clarify... If an app eats too much memory we may fall in case 1 but OutOfMemoryException is supposed to be thrown by OS if that happens. "Faulty" in the means of not catching exceptions never lead to reset: the app crashes and system detects the crash safely

I have the same problem. One possible reason is that the graphics card does not support it. Delete graphics, especially pics attached in the phonebook. Everytime I am tempted to attach pics to the phonebook, I get this problem.
Hope it will help.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

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


text:
running jelly bean 4.1.1 on Galaxy note screen flashes when I retrieve voice mail
running jelly bean 4.1.1 on Galaxy S111 Note, the input screen flashes when I retrieve voice mail so bad, you can't input password.


text:
Unable to access files in Samsung Galaxy Android 4.0
I am connecting a Samsung Galaxy Note II(Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich) to Ubuntu 12.04 laptop through USB. I am able to see the directories like Music, files, Bluetooth, ShareViaWiFi etc. I also see a message at the top right corner which says "These files are on a digital audio player" but when I open these directories I am unable to see any file. I want to copy a media file located in ShareViaWiFi folder to my Ubuntu laptop. But I am unable to see the file when I open the folder in Ubuntu. I can see the file in the Samsung Galaxy, so I know it is there for sure.

Are you a pretty linux-savvy ubuntu user? If you are, you can mount the phone's internal hard drive to your system and then access it through terminal.

I tried the command 'df -h' but the samsung storage does not show up in the output. I would like to try out your suggestion if you could tell me which commands to execute.

You most likely use MTP. If I'm correct, you might want to add the 'mtp' tag to your question, and then follow it for related questions. There are several options provided already. As you either use USB, you might also want to take a look into Is there a minimal installation of ADB?, and especially watch for QtADB there (graphical ADB frontend which includes a.o. a file manager).

To start make sure your device is unplugged. Then run:
df -h

that will show you the list of currently mounted devices. Now plug in your device and run the same command again. You should see that there is a new device mounted. Now all you have to do is cd into that mount point to access the files. Here is my example output:
john-macbookpro:~ John$ df -h
Filesystem                          Size   Used  Avail Capacity  iused     ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       297Gi   68Gi  229Gi    23% 17872734  60060168   23%   /

#plugged in device

john-macbookpro:~ John$ df -h
Filesystem                          Size   Used  Avail Capacity  iused     ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       297Gi   68Gi  229Gi    23% 17872734  60060168   23%   /
/dev/disk3s1                       983Mi   13Mi  970Mi     2%      512         0  100%   /Volumes/BACKUP ONLY
john-macbookpro:~ John$ cd /Volumes/BACKUP\ ONLY/
john-macbookpro:BACKUP ONLY John$ ls
hello.txt
john-macbookpro:BACKUP ONLY John$ cp hello.txt /Users/John/Documents/
john-macbookpro:BACKUP ONLY John$ cat /Users/John/Documents/hello.txt
Hello!

If for some reason your device is not getting mounted, you should try to download ADB:

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/installing-adb-on-ubuntu-the-easy-way/

run ADB and it should try to manage your Android device.
adb start


text:
How to host Wordpress site on Android device
I am trying to host a Wordpress site on my old Android phone, but so far I have been unsuccessfull...
I tried with KSWEB and Ulti Server, extracted the Wordpress.zip in the sdcard, and when I try to connect to the server I am getting error with the database...
Error establishing a database connection

Does it also has to run some other SQL server on the phone for everything to work?
I really don't know what am I doing, and there aren't any good explanations on the internet, so please help me

Wordpress requires a database to run.
After installing KSWeb, you will need to create a database for Wordpress.  To do this:

Open KSWeb.
Go to Tools → select phpMyAdmin (it will install).
Open Chrome browser.
Go to localhost:8000 (to connect to phpMyAdmin).
Select the Databases tab.
In the box below the label Create Database enter wordpress, select create. Your wordpress database should now be created.

Now wordpress needs to be setup.

Move your wordpress folder (unzipped) to /mnt/sdcard/htdocs/.
Open a browser and go to localhost:8080/wordpress. It will ask you to setup your database connection.
Enter root for the username and clear out the password field (you can leave everything on the default settings).
Select Submit.

It should now connect WP to your database.
Thought about using a Raspberry Pi?  I've setup several Wordpress Sites on the Pi (with MySQL) and you can set it up with your network for local website hosting.
References:
Wordpress - Do I need a database

so can I host some other website, made with different platform? I want it to be on my phone

or how can I run a database server along with the other server?

See the modified answer on setting up everything

I've gotten way further than before, it's all good now, but I can't seem to be able to access the Wordpress server from external IP, I have configured my router to forward the 8080 port, but now I can't connect to the KSWEB server (I was able to connect externally to a server made with Ulti Server, but this one is giving me problems...). Any help?

Can you access your WP server on the same network (the LAN) that your phone is on (e.g. 192.168.1.8:8080 on your broswer from a different device)?  Are you specifying the port when connecting from outside?  Are you connecting from a different public IP than your phone is on? There will be issues if connecting from the same network.  What is the error msg that you are getting?

Yes, I can connect to the Wordpress site from another phone connected to the same Wi-Fi. But if I try from my computer, using the external address of the KSWEB server, like this 78.83..:8080 (with, or without /wordpress at the end) it simply doesnt load.

If your computer is on a different public IP than your phone, it sounds like a routing issue.  If your computer shares the same public IP address, you will not be able to connect.  Try using a proxy if that's the case public proxy

no, its something to do with the KSWEB server, I even tried with my phone on celular data, and still can't access it... and I know its KSWEB because I can access a server created with Ulti Server, from my computer

I did it, all I had to do on the router was forward the ports like this: 8000 > 8000 instead ot 8000 > 80 and so on


text:
Is it necessary to update Android apps?
Recently I got a new Android smartphone and I want to know if it's necessary to update Android apps frequently. The reason for asking this is

Does updating Android apps reduce battery usage?

Should I update my apps if I don't have much internal memory? Will it slow down my phone if there isn't enough internal memory?

Will there be any (real) performance improvement if we update apps?

I know that certain updates provide new features, bug fixes (I hope it means errors), and changes in the background/layout.
Without considering the added feature, bug fixes, and layout, is it necessary to update? Also, each update takes a good amount of internal memory in my phone as well as a lot of valuable mobile data.

maybe, depends on the update. 2) probably, but the low memory itself will impact the performance whether you update it or not 3) maybe, depends on the update. Certain update does mention "improve performance". In the end, it's up to the user to update or not, but if possible, update.

Just to add to your question: Some apps refuse to work, if you don't have the latest version installed, so updating is necessary for them to work.

If you use Mobile Data for update purposes, then it is better to update Google services and the messaging services only, but if you have access to WiFi then keep your apps updated.

Battery Optimization: There's a reason developers constantly update apps, and most of the time it's memory or battery optimization. Keeping your apps updated also means you have the best optimizations available. Likewise, delete old apps you no longer use, because these may be running background processes that chew up RAM and battery life.
Memory: The updated apps generally use memory efficiently in most of cases, though I don't think there would be much impact due to it. You can clear the caches or use softwares like 360 Security or Turbo Cleaner for that purpose.
Performance: Not always, but most of the time there is a improvement.

Stability: New versions of software also fix other, non-security-related bugs. For example, a new version could solve crashes you may be experiencing or make a feature work properly.

Just to know,did you ever feel an improvement in battery life by updating apps.And a question that pesters me is while updating most of the updates have a size equivalent to previous version of the app or greater.In that case if i am right what happens on updating apps  is that the previous  version is deleted and newer one is installed.Right?Or is it that new data is being added to the previous version (of course not.This would be dumb to ask but still) like updating antivirus applications on pc (where virus signatures are added to the previous one).

I'd avoid using memory booster apps. From my personal experience these apps(on low end devices)provide more of a mirage in terms of actually doing the job of cleaning RAM memory. They hog a lot of space limiting other apps. On high end devices sure, cause memory is plenty to go around but for standard devices not really

Also i updated all my apps.And it took 1gb of my internal storage.But that is a great amount.In that case after updating all these apps approximately 20 times  my phones internal would be left with nothing.....

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

authors: Дмитрий Базарнов


text:
How to "merge" syncs?
I had a tablet, and it was never synced to its Google account. I broke it, and I bought a smartphone, on which I activated the sync on the same account. In the meanwhile I got the tablet repaired, and now I would retrieve all the old data.
The question is: if I sync the tablet, will the data on the tablet (WhatsApp conversations, calendar events, contacts, etc) be deleted or merged? And if they will be deleted, how can I merge the old data to my new smartphone?

At least for contacts it's easy: the contacts app offers "export to SD card" (resulting in a .vcf file) and "import from SD card" as well. I'd do that first anyhow, so if something goes wrong you still have that.
The calendar app unfortunately doesn't offer a corresponding option – but there are some calendar backup apps which should be helpful (check that page for other backup apps as well to cover things you might have forgotten to mention).
WhatsApp will be trouble here I'm afraid.
Apart from the above, calendar and contacts should merge fine if you use either Google sync or your own DAV resource. Still, it cannot hurt to have a separate backup :)

Whatsapp can't be merged. I had to make a Google drive backup and apply it to the new device, but new conversations are lost.

Confirmed, @MarcoSulla – I had a lengthy exchange with WA support on that issue. You've got to decide between pestilence and cholera here: either losing you old history, or losing the new. Shameful for such a popular service that their users end up at that door. I'd expect better. Whom do they protect those data against, one might ask…

Merge focused and other email partitions into one email account. There used to be a way to do it. I don't like having to look at both channels to get all my messages


text:
Since which Android version does it detect internet connectivity on Wi-Fi?
For a project I am working on, I need to connect the phone to a WAN (without internet access) and to the 3G/4G network (to have an internet access).
On my phone (Motorola Moto M 3G, Android 6.0), the phone detect if the Wi-Fi has an internet connectivity and if it doesn't, it keep the 3G/4G for internet and the Wi-Fi for the WAN (which is what I want).
I need to find in which version of Android this functionality (Internet connectivity check on Wi-Fi) has been added to properly test it on the device. I have check all the changelog but I can't find any mention of it.

The "Smart Network Switching" is available since Android 5.0.
You can see it in the official changelog here (in "see all features", "connectivity" : «Improved network selection logic so that your device connects only if there is a verified internet connection on Wi-Fi»).

Well, @benjaminS: actually I was thinking about closing it for being off-topic (development related) – but the fact it's asking for is of interest for "normal users" as well ;) Apart from that: Yes, I 100% agree. Please "accept" your own answer in ~48h+ by ticking the check-mark next to it.

authors: Давид Бостан


text:
Geometry Dash custom songs download location
I am currently using a Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 (Model Number - SM-G388F) running KitKat 4.4.4. I would like to have some of these songs on my computer and phone, and this means that I need to find the download location.
Places that I have looked:

/data/data = Empty (no folders inside the /data folder)
/sdcard/Android/data/ = No folder for the correct Geometry Dash games
Nowhere visible on the root of the internal SD card

I am having trouble trying to find the application data location for any of my applications
Where do the custom songs download with custom levels in Geometry Dash get stored on the phone?
If it's relevant, the version of Geometry Dash is 2.011.

Related: Where Android apps store data? And sure, /data/data appears to be empty unless you check it with root powers :)

Can't root the phone as it is a loan from my family. But the best I can do is use Es file explorer with hidden files, this still doesn't show any folders inside the data/data/ area

To be more specific, one I click data, no folders show, meaning that I can't go data/data/ but rather just data/ with nothing else showing

Wrong, Matt. Those contents are not "hidden" in that way (which would mean names starting with a dot, like .hidden), but by OS/file-system permissions. Nothing ES can do about that unless your device is rooted. If /data/data would be really empty, that would mean your device was just factory-reset and not booted up after that :)

I figured as such, but it was worth a try To see if the music files were stored in a different directory

I would be able to adb to do this correct? Any instructions on using adb as I haven't used it much at all

Sure it was. If that were not an option, I'd written an answer instead of a comment :) I cannot verify that (not using the app), hence I only left a hint to the most likely cause. And no, ADB would also need root for that. Though you could try adb backup, and then investigate the resulting .ab file (see Is there a way to look inside and modify an adb backup created file?).

Thanks for the info about file systems, geuss it's time to use adb

Matt, you could use a root agent and unroot when the time comes

@Dan B I will justvuse ADB and then post van answer if I find the location of the songs, but the will have to wait till tomorrow for me

Alright. Let us know how it goes. Good luck!

@Shika as my other comments state, I believe it is in the data/data/ folder, but due to the fact that I don't have root, and do not want to root my Samsung phone, I have left this task for a later date. I now own the pc version and can now easily access any download song via thatbwaybif necessary

You'll need root access to find the folder.
Steps:

Root your phone
Install an application like ES File Explorer that has the root explorer function.
Go to /data/data/com.robtopx.geometryjump/files
Paste song, name of song must be song ID (Newgrounds)

Note: If you don't see the folders after /data/data, then either the file explorer doesn't support root explorer or your device is not rooted.

I'll mark this as an answer, Not sure if you read the above comments in my question, but we had come to the conclusion that it would be in the data/data/ folder (for which I would require root to access), I was relly hoping for when I asked this question that the songs would have been put into a custom location away from the data/data/ folder structure. Also as stated in the comments, I know have the steam version and as such this is no longer a problem for me.

I know you've already got an answer, but...
You could just search the song name in Newgrounds, which is where the songs are from, and then just click the giant yellow button that says "Download this song!"
::vv

Thanks for your contribution – but what is Newgrounds, and how does it help finding a file on the local device? OP didn't ask for internet sources to download from ("download location" in the context above means the place files were downloaded to, not from).


text:
Root Asus ZenPad S 8.0 (Z580CA)
How can I root ZenPad Z580CA - 8'' IPS - 64 GB - Wifi? Are there any ROMs available for it?

I successfully rooted ZenPad Z580CA by following these two links:
Link1: http://www.asus-zenfone.com/2015/11/how-to-root-asus-zenpad-s-80-z580c.html
Link2: http://dottech.org/190386/how-to-root-asus-zenpad-s-8-0-z580c-on-android-5-0-guide/
Thanks to the authors of the above links, but some steps mentioned in this link need more clarification, so I am adding a detailed procedure here:
Tools Required
 1. Windows PC
   2. Download ADB Fastboot tool (Download)
   3. Download the Intel USB driver (Download)
   4. Download IntelAndroidFBRL05162015PTR (Download)
   5. Download SuperSu (Download)

STEPS
1. Install ADB fastboot tool, Intel USB driver on your Windows machine. Check the link mentioned in Link2:Step4 for installation and checking whether ADB fastboot tool is working. I followed METHOD 1 mentioned in that link.
2. Activate  USB  Debugging  at ZenPad (Settings->Developer  Options,  if  no
developer options, then go to Settings->About->Software information->tap build number 7 times)
3. Connect ZenPad to your Windows machine (laptop/PC).
4. Copy the SuperSU package (the zip file) to the internal SD storage of the ZenPad device.
5. Type: adb devices in windows cmd (press Windows key + R -> type in cmd -> OK) to check whether your device is connected properly or not. If connected properly you can see some key number as the output for this command in cmd. If your device is connected properly proceed to next step.
6. Extract the IntelAndroidFBRL05162015PTR package on your Windows machine. Click the launcher.bat file that is found inside the same extracted folder. Run it in cmd. Wait until it says your device is detected. Now select T2 and Enter. Wait for the device to boot into the custom recovery after about 2-5 minutes.
7. Once the main page of recovery menu has appeared on your tab, use the Volume keys to navigate through the recovery menu and power button for selection. Choose the Install option to browse the SD card and then install SuperSU zip file (file copied in step 4).
8. Once the installation is done, go back to main menu of recovery mode and reboot.
9. Done
You can see that the SuperSu app is installed in your ZenPad now. You can double check the root status by some root-checker apps available in the Play Store.


text:
Getting latest update of certificate/credential/SSL store
I realize sometimes when browsing with HTTPS, it shows the certificate is not valid, "This certificate is not from a trusted authority". Clicking "continue" will just pop up the same warning. That time, I start thinking the certificate store is not updated. I try to compare with Windows trusted CA which will be updated automatically.
I think the certificate must be updated in a period of time since the validity of trusted CA is about 1 to a few years.
I cannot find this thing mention in Android anywhere. Does the way it manages certificates is different? How can I make sure I get the latest update?

Many years later, this will finally be addressed. Android 14 will update the trust store via Google Play Store. Earlier versions required the device manufacturer to push an over-the-air update with new certificates, which wasn't always provided quickly or at all for older devices.
https://www.xda-developers.com/android-14-root-certificates-updatable/


text:
How Do I Know Which Google Account is Used for the Market?
So far I've never purchased anything from the Market but just installed free apps. Now, I'd like to purchase an app and I want to make sure the Market is using the correct Google account, since I have two (one personal @gmail.com and one from a Google Apps account for work). How can I do that? Do I just assume the first account in the list is the one used in the market? Keep in mind that I don't really remember which account I added first.

The Google Play Store allows use of multiple accounts.  In the app, press the "hamburger" menu button in the top-left corner (on the search bar) to select an account to use:

When you buy or install an app, you can expand the dialog to see the email address being used during the payment selection step (after being shown the required permissions).  You can still back out at that point.

It's probably worth noting that standard Google Apps accounts can't use Checkout at all, so you can't put a credit card on them, and so can't pay for Market Apps. Only Apps accounts upgraded over the last couple of months to the upgraded Apps accounts can (if your account was upgraded you should have got an email with the title "Your Google Apps account now works more like a full Google Account." If you haven't then the only account you can use to buy apps on the Market is your personal one.

If you visit play.google.com and click on "My Android Apps", you will be able to see which apps were downloaded for each of your accounts.   On mine, my entire app list shows on my personal Google account, and only the system apps show on my Google Apps account.  If you have a similar scenario, it's probably safe to conclude that your personal account will be used for on-device purchases.

You can buy apps on https://play.google.com/store using a browser. This way you can be sure with which account you are logged in.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


text:
How can I set some handy settings on the main screen?
I want to be able to set Wifi, bluetooth, GPS on and off quite easily but I can't find where I should do this.

You can add the Power Control widget to the home screen to control those functions. Open the app drawer, find the Power Control widget, long press and drag it to the home screen.
There are also many widgets in the market that offer expanded functionality when compared to the stock widget.

You can see a picture of the settings included in the Power Control widget here http://android.stackexchange.com/a/28411/156

The widgets you ask for are on the notifications menu on my Galaxy Stratosphere. However, it is possible that this is part of a carrier-provided (Verizon) modification. For me, it is easily accessible, but out of the way, preventing accidental changes.


text:
Unable to flash CWM recovery to GS3 over stock 4.1 with Heimdall
I want to root and upgrade to 4.1 a just-unboxed Samsung Galaxy S3.
After running the official OTA update with stock Samsung ROM, I tried to follow the tutorial here with openSUSE.
I installed Heimdall from YaST and run the tool with --param and --recovery options with the files I downloaded for rooting.
The problem is that after reboot I always get stock recovery.
Why doesn't it work with 4.1 OS but with 4.0?

While writing the question I found the solution.
Explanation
In Odin Mode, when the phone accepts a new recovery to be flashed, the original Samsung recovery of 4.1 ROM automatically does everything to avoid being flashed, that's actually re-flashing itself on reboot, just like a good ol' computer virus!
Solution
Run Heimdall with --no-reboot flag, or if you are using Odin for Windows, uncheck the auto reboot checkbox.
When flashed, physically remove battery and disconnect USB power supply. Congratulations, you just have ClockworkMod recovery installed!!


text:
Use Galaxy S2 / S3 as router for PC lan gaming
I have a computer with no network interfaces (the only one it had went faulty). My friend's PC's network interfaces are working fine. We want to play PC LAN games, but when I set my Galaxy phone to tether / hotspot mode, the IP of the PC connected via WIFI hotspot is out of range of the PC connected via USB tethering (the one IP is on 192.168.42.n and the other IP is on 192.168.43.n), and as such we cannot get our PC's to communicate.
Is there a way to force a Galaxy S2 or S3 to put the tethering and hotspot IP's within range of each other? Our phones are rooted.

I got it done via iptables.
First, open the terminal, run su, and type ip route show. This will show which interfaces are currently being used. In my case, I had wlan0 for the wireless hotspot and rndis0 for the usb tether.
Second, run the following iptables commands, replacing wlan0 and rndis0 with your actual interfaces:
# iptables -I FORWARD -i rndis0 -o wlan0 -j ACCEPT
# iptables -I FORWARD -i wlan0 -o rndis0 -j ACCEPT
This will cause the phone to forward the traffic between the two computers.
To revert back to normal settings, I simply restart my phone.

As near as I can tell, you need to run "ip route add" as root. I don't have root, so I can't try it. But something like this should work:
ip route add 192.168.42.0/24 dev rndis0 scope global proto kernel
ip route add 192.168.43.0/24 dev wlan0 scope global proto kernel

You can use ip route show to show the current routing rules.

Thanks for the reply. The ip routes that you suggested are already defined. I deleted the routes, then manually added as per your example, but the 2 computers are still not able to communicate. Is it possible to do a type of ip route add that allows the 2 ip addresses to be redirected to one another?

Hmm, can you post your routing table? And explain how the game is configured to know where the other clients are?

Not sure 100% sure how the game is configured; the game in question is Unreal Tournament 3. The default route table after phone boot is: 192.168.42.0/24 dev rndis0 proto kernel  scope link src  192.168.42.129 192.168.43.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.43.1

Hmm, I think that either the scope link or the src 192... options are getting in the way. Try deleting the boot routes then using the commands in my edited answer. If it still doesn't work, please post what the routing table looks like after the delete / add.

Unfortunately those didn't work either; I tried it before I went the iptables route. Thanks a lot for your help though, it is much appreciated. The ip route commands you provided led me to accidentally finding relevant iptables information.


text:
connect to specific wifi only
I want my device to be connected to a certain wifi network only. Lets assume  WiFi named "xyz": so my device should connect to this particular "xyz" network only. It Should not connect to any other network.
More precisely: I don't want other user's to use my device with any other WiFi network. Basically I want to restrict user to access other network.
My device is rooted, so can I achieve this by doing some settings at OS level?

You might want to check Remember wifi password but never automatically connect and Disable a specific WiFi network from automatically connecting to in Android. Furthermore, Android won't connect you to any WiFi network automatically until you at least once connected to it manually (i.e. it's stored in your list of "known networks", where you can remove it from anytime).

@Izzy hey thanks for reply, But it is not much useful for me. There is not any other way to achieve this, like by modifying wpa_supplicant.conf

I don't know of such. But as said: as long as you do not manually connect to a network, Android won't automatically connect to it. So if you want your device to connect to "xyz" only, do not connect it to any other network manually.

@Izzy actually i don't want other user's to use my device with any other wifi network. Basically i want to restrict user to access other network. so can u tell me is there any setting or any app which can help me to provide security. Thank you! :)

Ah! That part was missing in your original question. I've added it to make it clear (just in the comments, it would be lost). AFAIK there's no such "OS setting" (and if there was, "other users" could manipulate it as well). You might look in the Playstore for app lockers, they should be able to "lock" the settings app as well. De-Activate the "inform me about open WiFi networks" to avoid the popup, and together with an app locker that should do what you're looking for.

@Izzy Thank you for such quick response. I will try with 'app locking' application. But in case if u gt any other solution please let me know.

Not me alone :) Please don't forget to report back whether the app lockers solved you issue, so I might setup a more complete answer with this solution.

@Izzy i am using This security app Thanks for giving hint. :-)

AFAIK there's no such "OS setting" (and if there was, "other users" could manipulate it as well).
As a "work-around", you might look in the Playstore for app lockers, they should be able to "lock" the settings app as well. Remove all WiFi APNs from your network list which should not be connected, de-Activate the "inform me about open WiFi networks" to avoid the popup, and together with an app locker (locking the "settings" app) that should do what you're looking for.
As to your comment, this seems to work fine with Smart AppLock, which can lock not only apps but also some system actions:

Smart AppLock: Locking apps, locking system actions (source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)


text:
Disable "Close all incognito tabs" notification on Chrome for Android
Recently, Chrome for Android changed a feature to add a notification on the lock screen and on the notification bar any time there are incognito tabs open.
I don't want a large notification on my lock screen telling everyone I have them open.
Is there a way to disable this?

If you go to the Application Manager in Settings and find Chrome, there should be an option to disable notifications. Doing so will block all notifications, even the important ones. You may even forget to close your pages.

I have a Google Pixel 3 XL.

You can do it this way:

go to Settings
click Apps & Notifications
find and click on Chrome
click on Notifications
and uncheck Incognito

This will have the effect of deactivating any Incognito
  notifications that may occur until you check Incognito back.
Alternatively:

do steps 1 to 4
Click on Incognito
Click on Behaviour
And choose Show silently and minimise

This will have the effect of displaying the notification when your
  phone is unlock, but you won't see the text only the little man with a
  hat icon thingy. On the other hand, on the lock screen you will see
  nothing at ALL, not even the icon thingy.

In conclusion, I thought bringing this answer up was necessary because previously given options may deactivate important notifications you may not want to miss. My solution brings an alternative, though it only works on devices that support Android 8.0 and above. (Kudos to @Firelord for pointing that out)

Who are you quoting in that quotation block?

You can install the Xposed module XNotifications (you will need to be rooted and have Xposed framework installed) and set a rule to not display notifications from Chrome with the content filter for incognito. This will only block this particular notification from showing. All other Chrome notifications will show.
This is important because downloads being done through Chrome will set a persistent notification so that Android does not kill Chrome, and subsequently, your download, when in want of resources. Disabling notifications will disable the persistent notification too.


text:
Samsung s duos not booting into recovery
I have flashed the recovery.tar using odin by following this tutorial http://www.droidiser.com/2012/10/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-s-duos-install-cwm.html
but after this,when I try to boot into recovery mode by pressing volume up+volume down+home+power key simultaneously,it shows samsung logo followed by cwm recovery icon but then it just goes off and boots up normally.
what am I doing wrong ? please help...

I had to release the buttons just after samsung logo and not after seeing cwm screen

Sometimes you need more tries to go back into recovery. If it does not work, you might have to re-flash the proper .tar file with Odin.

Some of the latest Samsung devices do not boot into recovery on a phone reboot. The device needs to be shut down before.
You need to hold Volume Up + Menu Buttons for a few seconds. The power button only triggers the phone startup, do not hold it.


text:
mounting google nexus s on linux at fastboot mode screen
I have looked at similar questions but could find an answer.
Device: Samsung google nexus s i9020
OS: Android 4.1.2
The phone mounts when the OS has loaded and when there is an option to enable usb storage.
I am trying to root my phone and boot loader is locked. I need to connect to my computer (Linux Mint) to run a program to unlock the boot loader. for some reason, the phone does not get mounted automatically anymore.
log from a previous successful mount on OS load
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.795791] usb 1-1.1: >new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.889485] usb 1-1.1: >New USB device found, idVendor=18d1, idProduct=4e21
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.889489] usb 1-1.1: >New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=4
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.889493] usb 1-1.1: >Product: Nexus S
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.889496] usb 1-1.1: >Manufacturer: samsung
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.889498] usb 1-1.1: >SerialNumber: 3630F20CB6EF00EC
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.951562] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.951755] scsi6 : usb-storage 1-1.1:1.0
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.951876] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.951879] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Apr 13 20:20:25  kernel: [   93.955427] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
Apr 13 20:20:26  kernel: [   94.951743] scsi 6:0:0:0: >Direct-Access     Google   File-CD Gadget   0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Apr 13 20:20:26  kernel: [   94.953211] sd 6:0:0:0: >Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Apr 13 20:20:26  kernel: [   94.955200] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

log from an unsuccessful usb mount during fastboot mode
Apr 13 22:33:07  kernel: [ 8051.407340] usb 1-1.1: >new high-speed USB device number 9 using ehci_hcd
Apr 13 22:33:08  kernel: [ 8051.500735] usb 1-1.1: >New USB device found, idVendor=18d1, idProduct=4e20
Apr 13 22:33:08  kernel: [ 8051.500743] usb 1-1.1: >New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Apr 13 22:33:08  kernel: [ 8051.500748] usb 1-1.1: >Product: Android 1.0
Apr 13 22:33:08  kernel: [ 8051.500752] usb 1-1.1: >Manufacturer: Google, Inc
Apr 13 22:33:08  kernel: [ 8051.500756] usb 1-1.1: >SerialNumber: 3630F20CB6EF00EC
Apr 13 22:33:08  mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 9: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.1"
Apr 13 22:33:08  mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 9 was not an MTP device

fastboot unlock software waiting for the phone
~/android/nexussrootICS$ ./fastboot-linux oem unlock
< waiting for device >

Can someone suggest how could I mount (manual/automatic)? Thanks

To my knowledge, in fastboot mode you cannot mount the device to your PC. MTP and fastboot are two different things.
According to the CyanogenMod Wiki on Fastboot, the solution might be simple:

If you see  at any point when executing fastboot command, the PC is not configured to use fastboot properly. Most typically, this is because you are not running fastboot with elevated privileges.

Which means: you must run fastboot as root user, e.g. sudo fastboot devices or sudo fastboot-linux oem unlock.

If that does not solve your issue, it might help to take a look at the steps necessary to use the adb command line utility: For adb to detect your device, you need to have setup a corresponding entry in your /etc/udev/rules.d. First run lsusb to check how the device identifies itself to the system. These data you can also take from your above quoted log: idVendor=18d1, idProduct=4e20 is the information we need. Now, the corresponding entry in /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules should look like:
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4e20", MODE="0666" GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"

Save the file, and reload the udev service (service udev reload). Re-connect your device. Now adb (or, in your case, fastboot) should be able to find it. You can check that using the command adb devices (or fastboot devices), which now should list your Nexus S.

thanks for replying. running with root permissions allowed the device to be found. the command should have hinted or failed if it was not run with elevated privileges.

I fully agree (it shouldn't be to much trouble to check if UID=0 ;) I would still like to know if setting up the device for ADB (as described in the second part of my answer) would have solved the issue as well, and one could run fastboot in user-mode then...

i have now added the udev entry with group as my user group. i reloaded the udev entries in my computer. I went to mobile fastmode and connected to computer via usb and then without root privileges i am able to see my mobile using fastboot devices. But I cannot see the device with adb even with root privileges. By the way, I got the fastboot command from nexussrootICS software downloaded through web.

Thanks for the feedback! So my assumptions have been correct. As for ADB: it probably won't detect your device in fastboot mode. And booted into "normal" mode or recovery, the device might present a different ID. Plus, you need to make sure to have "USB Debugging" disable for adb to see your device.


text:
How to install cyanogenmod on LG P690 optimus net: how to know which ROM?
I would like to install an android 4.x ROM on my Optimus Net (P690) Android 2.3.4.
When I go to the CyanogenMod downloads page at http://get.cm I see various phones but not mine. However this youtube video shows that such an installation is possible. Alas this page does not show where to get the ROM image from.
Could anyone suggest where to get it from?

A good source starting your ROM search is: Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?. The answer (community wiki) of this question mentions a lot of good ressources.

The YouTube video refers to an XDA page as shown below:

That XDA page gives further details about the CM9 ROM, GApps and instructions.
Your LG P690's hardware seems to be a close match to my LG P500. So, if you are not satisfied with the ROM mentioned, you can give a shot with LGP500's ROM - the chances of getting it working in your P690 is good. Please search this site for details on knowing from where to download ROM for P500.


text:
How to mount a remote FTP share as local folder/directory?
I would like to mount a remote FTP share as local directory (or drive) on Cyanogenmod and be able to access it like it was a regular folder and browse files on it.
Ideally, an app would mount FTP as a folder and let me browse files in it outside of that app, but if it can be done without any app, it is also acceptable. The folder need to be browsable by any application afterwards.
Can anyone suggest a solution?
Thank you in advance

Maybe SSHFSAndroid? It's alpha software so be ready for some bumps.

This won't directly mount it as a drive but ASTRO File Manager can emulate that experience. It will give you the same experience it does for local filesystems but with a FTP file system.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.metago.astro for the download.

The aim is to be able to browse files outside of that application like a regular folder, is this possible with Astro FM? If not, the answer is not correct sorry.

@AdnanDoric Sadly ASTRO can't do that. You could have a look at http://fuse.sourceforge.net/


text:
Accessing android Marketplace from desktop android capable phones in office
We have some android capable desktop IP phones in our office, is there an app that i can download to my phone that will allow it to access the Android marketplace. There is currently no way to access the marketplace, we have to manually download the apps on a card and upload them to the phone.
Any ideas would help, thanks.
UPDATE: I know how to download and install apps to the devices, i am looking for an app that will allow me to access the marketplace from the desk phones so i dont have to manually install via an SD card.
I searched the forums and wasnt able to find the answer I wanted.

And exactly that's what the referred question is about: how to install Google Play. In case you don't know: Google Play is an app that will allow you to access the "marketplace" using the same name :) If it's not that marketplace you want to access, take a look at e.g. F-Droid, the Amazon Appstore, or the AndroidPIT App Center.


text:
Macrodroid: Handling notification
I have a macro which sets a notification. This notification should invoke a macro upon clicking. That macro should have the text of the notification available to it for further processing.
The first image is the macro which creates the notification. Macro name = zzz test macro 1.1

It's notification handler is shown in the second image.

This notification displays a text test1 : test2. It invokes a macro zzz test macro 1.2. As you can see, it tries to use the built-in variable {notification}, but it didn't work.

How do I make the text test1 : test2 available to macro1.2 when it is invoked by the notification?
EDIT :: The above is only a MWE. The first macro will be triggered by messages, GeoFence, location, cell connection, wifi or even other notification sent via HTTP. The notification sent by this macro will display something about the trigger and other information which is dynamic and differ from notification to notification. By the time any notification is clicked, several newer notification might already be displayed. The action undertaken by this click should be specific to only the current notification being handled. This is why a global variable will not work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

I am aware that {notification} is not working here cause it is not available as variable to this macro. I am using it here merely to highlight what I want. I am looking for an alternative to it.

The reason for this is that the second macro is not triggered by the arrival of a notification, but by a click.
You can use global variables to passing data between marcos.


text:
Tablet Genesis 7240 + Android + Bit Web Server dont work
I buyed a table GENESIS 7240 + Android 4.0.3 and I've installed the app named Bit Web Server -- but it is not working correcly, not starting.
The App works fine on my Galaxy Note, That proves Its not a problem with the app,  but we need it working in my GENESIS tablet.
ERROR: when I access the address http://localhost:8080, says it can not access:

Error 102 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED): The server refused the connection

====================================================================
The bug was resolved.
Restarting the tablet with Wifi disabled and then start the app, thats it.

We're going to need more information in order to effectively help you. What do you mean by "not working"? "NGO"? Non-Government Organization? How is that germane to the question?

I'm work on a Non-Government Organization NGO.

I teach to 20 students, will install the BIT WEB SERVER, on tablets Model: GENESIS 7240.

We would like to help you. Really. But you haven't added any information that will help us help you. That you're in an NGO has no bearing on the problem. What we really need is for you to [edit] your question to tell us what "not working" means. What is it doing? What messages are you receiving? What have you tried? (I recognize we probably have a language barrier here.)

As for the "language barrier": use Google Translate if you can't help it. You see, we try to make the best out of it, even improving your question's spelling and phrasing. But as Al wrote: We need more details in order to be able to help you.

Very tanks for all help.
I've posted the images of aplications and the errors.

i've try a lot of things but, no success

It's works now. have to restart without wifi. and then start the aplication. thats all.


text:
How to limit an app's access only to specific networks?
I'm currently using DroidWall to limit apps' access to the Internet - and it's working great.
Recently I've started to have the need of allowing certain apps network connectivity, but limited only to the current LAN (e.g. only to communicate with IP addresses 192.168.1.x)
DroidWall doesn't seem to offer this in any trivial way (except, perhaps via its custom scripts, for which there aren't any clear instructions for how to apply them only to an individual app).
How can I limit an individual app to LAN access only?

You can use rules like this in your custom scripts:
$IPTABLES -A "droidwall-wifi" -m owner --uid-owner 12345 --destination "192.168.1.0/24" -j RETURN

Instead of 12345, you need to specify the UID assigned to the app; you can find that UID in the list of apps in DroidWall.
Remember that UIDs are assigned dynamically, and if the app is removed, the UID previously assigned to it may be assigned to a completely different app installed later.
There are some enhancement requests for DroidWall (#275, #253) requesting to add such feature, but developers did not respond to them yet.

DroidWall has some examples for custom scripts

A link to those examples is already in the question; however, the -m owner --uid-owner 12345 part which is required for per-app filtering cannot be found there.

I came across a solution that can work for you today.
I have been using this firewall for years but never realized that it has a hidden feature until today.
For most apps on the Android device will still work on LAN even if the APP is completely blocked from the internet.
I tested it and it did not access the internet at all but was able to access LAN.
This can easily be tested from a browser.
For other APPs that use UPNP services. It will not work on LAN if you block it. So then you will need to go to the access log and see the request on to the LAN and open it while making sure the others are blocked from the APP in the firewall.
The APP is called No-Root Firewall by Grey Shirts.
The APP works very well but just does not work on LTE connections and no updates since 2014.


text:
My space used and free space doesn't add up
See pic - the numbers don't add up!

Screenshot (click for larger variant)
This is a 16GB Nexus 7
The listed items only add up to a little over 9GB. So 4GB worth of files are missing.
How can I find those missing files?

You mean, your Nexus 7 is 16GB but appears only 13.2GB?

Any reasons for the downvotes?

Thanks for the edit @RichardBorcsik, the question is much clearer now.

How disk space is used on Android device?

If the displayed detailed would be complete, you'd be correct: 1.28G + 7.28G + 200K + 282M + 762M = 9.6 GB total space -- while the summary says 13.24G. Explanation is easy: The details list is not complete. It e.g. misses Cache, temporary files, log files, tombstones, and probably some more.
Where to find those? In the file system, and for completeness this requires root. For some more details, please take a look at corresponding questions by following the tags internal-memory and storage. A good source to start with is the question Something is secretly eating up my tablet memory and I need help finding it.

Thanks for that, will find a way of finding those files.

The linked article should get you started -- most needed details are covered there. Feel free to let us know where the gross of those ~3.6 GB were located. Btw: The screenshot information looks a bit misleading to me: "Apps (app data & media content)" could be interpreted to mean the data only, excluding the .apk files. So in case you cannot get together the missing space otherwise, consider to check that as well. Oh, and if you use App2SD, it might also be the "decoded .apk files" on internal storage...


text:
Prevent runaway threads and ultimately physical overheating and battery drain on Android
I was wondering if there is a system monitor app that will raise (audible) alerts and offer app closure if it detects runaway threads on Android that cause physical overheating and battery drain.
E.g., I just had to turn my phone off because there was a runaway thread that I think was constantly trying to refresh FB where there was very poor connection, so it was going in a virtually endless loop.  But I get that with other apps too and not just Facebook.
I'd like to actually shut apps down when they're detected.
I am not kidding, I nearly burned my fingertips when I touched my phone -- it was on for only 2 hrs and the battery was almost dead.  It is because 4G is very poor inside my office building and I checked Facebook walking between my vehicle and the building this AM.  After that, the app kept trying to refresh continuously without success and overheating the phone.

Apps may drain your battery, but they should never cause a device to overheat. If you experience overheating there might be a different, physical defect with the device.

As noted in the comment, "battery drain" and "overheating" are not necessarily connected: not everything that drains your battery causes overheating. Overheating is most likely caused by excessive CPU hogging (which of course also leads to battery drain).
You might want to take a look at the app DrainGuard, which keeps a log of battery consumption, always informs you how much was consumed since you turned the screen off last time, and -- here it comes -- it can start an alarm when some app causes excessive battery drain. Values are configurable:

The free version only works from 100% charge down to 70%, which is fine for testing. Once you decided the app serves your purpose, the DrainGuard PRO Key is available on the playstore for less than an Euro.


text:
Why is screen sometimes unresponsive when receiving calls
On occasion, my Droid Bionic (4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich) does not react to screen touches when the phone is ringing.   The swipe to answer icon appears, but does not respond.   After the call goes to voice mail, I can turn the screen off and back on and the phone behaves normally.
I believe this has only happened when the phone has been locked with the screen off when the call arrived.
I don't receive a large number of calls on this device, so I don't have a very large sample size, but it probably happens less than 1 time in 20.   The most recent was within a few hours of rebooting the phone, so I don't think it is due to memory consumption by another app, etc.

so how did it go? still got the problem? did you try what's mentioned in the answer? :)

Haven't had many calls due to the holidays, etc., and none of the few I've had so far have resulted in an unresponsive screen; as I mentioned, it happens infrequently to start with.

This problem is quite known for sometime for touchscreen devices. Most of the times this happens when the screen is under some pressure during touchscreen recalibration after being woken up by the incoming call (maybe being inside pocket, etc.).
The only solution for you is to disable the option, power button instantly ends call by going into Settings -> Accessibility -> System
If your screen becomes unresponsive to a call, just press the power button (to lock your screen), press it again and unlock the screen (with your pattern or PIN, etc.) Then you will be able to answer the call.
This solution is applicable to any situation where the screen is unresponsive.

I already had the option disabled; I'll try the power button next time it happens.

After not happening for a while, I've bad 3 recent incidents where I could test turning the screen off then back, and it's worked each time.


text:
Can I relight my hardware keyboard?
I have an HTC chacha with a hardware keyboard.  A nighttime reading app turned off the keyboard light  long ago, but I don't remember which of the hundreds available it was.  Is there anything I can do?

Please read the [FAQ] under this title What about other Android-related questions?, specifically this: Recommendations, like "Which phone is better?" or "Can you suggest an app that does X?"

I'm trying to solve an error or other issue with my android device.  I am not asking for a suggestion for an app.  I am asking a practical, answerable questions based on an actual problem I am facing.

Your best bet is to get the same app or another and undo it.  Most likely the driver was moved or disabled, unless your kernel supports settings to disable it.

You can download this app from the Google Play Store, called Soft Buttons Light.
It really works, even on HTC Chacha.

You have fixed a problem I've been putting up with for months.


text:
What RUU do I need for my HTC phone?
I would like to download the RUU for my phone but I can't figure out which one to get. There are several options on sites like shipped-roms.com. Can you help me figure this out?
The phone is a HTC Desire (GSM). Here is some additional information.
Android version
2.2

Baseband version
32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27

Build number
2.29.405.2 CL263770 release-keys

Software number
2.29.405.2

And here's some info from the HBOOT menu.
BRAVO PVT3 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-0.93.0001
MICROP-051d
TOUCH PANEL-SYNT0101
RADIO-5.11.05.27

First of all, do I pick the Bravo or the Desire link at the website? I know that Bravo was the codename of HTC Desire before it was released, but then why are there two categories? And why does it say BRAVO in the HBOOT menu?
Bravo: http://shipped-roms.com/index.php?category=android&model=Bravo
Desire: http://shipped-roms.com/index.php?category=android&model=Desire
If I look at the baseband version in the Desire group I find these two.
RUU_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_ARA_2.32.415.3_Radio_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_release_157343_signed.exe

RUU_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.14_Radio_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_release_224699_signed.exe

What's the difference between ARA and WWE? Is that Arabic and World Wide English? What about European sold devices with Scandinavian (and English) localization?
Also the 2.29.405.14 seems to be a too high number, or highly developed version that may not be available in my region. The highest update number I have been offered to install is 2.29.405.5 and it was 4.82 MB (incremental update?).
There are many more options in the Bravo group. There are special versions for Vodafone and other operator specific versions. My phone is not re-branded and is not locked to any network operator.
The ones that I most likely would need (in the Bravo group) are these two:
RUU_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.5_Radio_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_release_159811_signed.exe

RUU_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.2_Radio_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_release_151783_signed.exe

Do I really have to match the baseband version and the build number? Can I get a higher build number even if it is a different radio version? Will it work? Is radio version something you can upgrade?...
Long version short...

Do I have a Desire or a Bravo?
Do I have to match the baseband version and the build number?
Will the WWE releases include Scandinavian languages or only English?

Too many questions asked here, the general consensus of this site, is one question per post....

I believe the name "Bravo" was the "codename" for the HTC Desire

Both.  Bravo is HTC's internal codename name for the Desire.  They do this as they want a constant name for internal purposes as they often sell the identical device in multiple markets under different names (e.g. the HTC Magic is also sold as the HT-03A, the myTouch 3G, and has the codename Sapphire) or multiple devices (e.g. GSM and CDMA versions) under the same name (e.g. both the Marvel (GSM) and the MarvelC (CDMA) are both sold as the Wildfire S).  HTC does it with names, Samsung uses model numbers, same basic idea.
No, not unless you want to stay at your current version for some reason.  RUU means ROM Update Utility.  For most purposes, you most likely want to go with the newest not-carrier-specific RUU to have the latest update so you have the latest Android version and radio firmware.  The RUU is the master update-everything.  Android, radio firmware, and h-boot.  It does it all.
WWE is World Wide English.  It includes all languages they translate for.  The English bit indicates that English is the base language and all other languages included are translated from English, rather than being written directly in those languages.  The ARA bit indicates the same thing, but that the base language is Arabic.


text:
Where did Wikipedia Pro app disappear to?
There was this Wikipedia Pro app (paid app; official app by Wikimedia Foundation) coexisitng with the free Wikipedia since long ago app that I purchased. Suddenly, it just seems to vanish from the surface of the earth. Googling hasn't helped me yet.
Anyone with any ideas?
A few bucks is not a big deal but I don't feel like getting fooled.
The sneaky part about his act is that the Wiki Encyclopedia Pro app disappeared from Google search results as well. I understand if some nobody contributes a free app and decide to pull out for whatever reason but big names doing things in secrecy behind their paying customers' back is different.
Updates
I've doubled-checked and the app was not made by Wikimedia Foundation so apologies. It appears Excelentia did it and their account got shut down by Google. So apparently 9 million users don't matter to Google.

No idea! Apps come and go depending on support, time, cost and energy, or for other reasons such as developers left, no can do, unless it was open-sourced?

No @DanHulme, I'm referring to the official app by Wikimedia foundation. The only reason why it's confusing now because that official app is gone

Was it really an official app by Wikimedia Foundation ? If we talk about this one, then when I search for the same namespace (uk.co.wikiapps), I found this. Also, I don't see the Wikimedia Foundation make a Paid app (and not even an app at all).

Well, they actually made one which is free, and they don't sell a "pro" version.

Yeah, I can't find any mention of a paid version on the official launch announcement, and they mention there that supplanting the third-party paid apps with a free version was a major reason for developing it, so it seems unlikely that there has ever been a pro version. If it was a third-party app purporting to be from WMF, it may have been pulled by Google.

If an app you've been using isn't offered on the Play Store for some reason (other than being removed for legal reasons, or if it's malware), you can usually still find and install it from your install history.
From the web version of the Play Store, click on Apps, then click on My Apps on the left which should take you to https://play.google.com/apps which should show a list of all of the apps you've ever installed, including ones which have been discontinued, and you can click through to install them:

Alternatively you can do the same thing on your phone, open the Play Store app, go to My Apps, and then change from the "Installed" tab to the "All" tab and scroll down until you find your app (I think they're listed in the order that you first installed them):

(I'd advise using the web page, as you can normally find what you're after quicker than when doing a lot of scrolling down in the app)

Thanks @GAThrawn. 1) I already tried viewing my apps on Google Play website but the Wikipedia Pro app is not there anymore! 2) I've just tried the mobile view as you suggested but it's not there either. The app you mentioned as example deserve respect then since it quits decently


text:
Is there anyway to backup current ROM without unlocking bootloader/ installing clockworkmod recovery?
I'm trying to use ROM Manager app to backup the current ROM of my Xperia Z but it seems that cannot be done without unlocking the bootloader/ installing ClockWorkMod Recovery.
Is there any alternative for me to backup current ROM and flash another ROM without having to mess with bootloader or ClockWordMod Recovery?
Note that my device is already rooted using this method.
According to Sony's website, messing with the bootloader is likely to void warranty which defeats my purpose and so all my attempts to backup the stock ROM here.

Flashing another ROM would most likely also void your warranty (as long as it's no stock ROM provided by the manufacturer/provider).

But if I could backup my current ROM, I would be able to flash it back so it looks like it has not been modified, I believe. Some people mention there are DRMs that come with the stock ROM but I don't know if the service centres are going to check them all the times.

It's a chicken-and-egg problem: In order to backup your ROM, you need to root first. Having rooted, it's no longer the "untouched" ROM, but (from the manufacturers/providers view) "tainted". No third way, to my knowledge.

I found another way to do it. This one uses Terminal Emulator or adb shell.
Open a shell as root. You first determine what device blocks /system and /boot are, with ls -al /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc/by-name. Note that the dw_mmc may vary between devices. You'll need to find it yourself. Then dd if=/dev/block/systemblock of=/storage/sdcard0/system.img and dd if=/dev/block/bootblock of=/storage/sdcard0/boot.img will backup all your Android system.
If you want to restore using this solution: boot into recovery, mount your SD Card, then in a adb shell, do
su
dd if=/storage/sdcard0/system.img of=/dev/block/systemblock
dd if=/storage/sdcard0/boot.img of=/dev/block/bootblock

Readers: you may find this helpful: How to list all major partitions with their labels?

Copying /system and /boot anywhere else should do the trick. You could then create a flash package for reinstalling it, or use TWRP to directly move the files.
If you are lucky enough, you can find the stock ROM or OTA flash packages for your phone online.
Edit: If you want to create your own flash package, this forum thread on XDA will introduce to the edify scripting language, while this wiki page helps to package your zip file. You can take update-binary from any flashable zip and put it into yours, while updater-script is where your edify code will live.

To improve your answer, edit your post to explain how to create your own flash package for the Xperia. You can link to other guides but make sure to include an excerpt. You'll have my upvote when you do.


text:
How to update Cyangenmod 10.1 to 10.2?
I have Cyangenmod 10.1.3 installed on my Xperia Z. When I tried to download Cyangenmod 10.2-20131101 nightly build in my phone's settings, no error but it silently failed after some time. I tried again but the problem persists.
Any idea what went wrong?
Am I supposed to download the zip file, copy it to my phone and boot into recovery mode to do a manual installation?

I'm not a CM user so I don't know for sure, but I don't believe nightly builds support OTA updating. If you're desperate to test a nightly, you have to flash it manually.

@Dan is correct - you need to flash it manually through CWM or TWRP. I also think that you need to perform a factory reset when upgrading from 10.1 to 10.2 but I can't remember.

You can't upgrade form 10.1.3 to 10.2 directly. You must flash it manually from recovery and you also have to wipe data.

You should follow these steps:

Download the relevant ZIP file from get.cm
Copy the downloaded ZIP file to your devices storage card
Using an app such as Titanium Backup, do a complete backup of all your installed applications.
Boot into recovery, and follow these steps:

Wipe data (all data)
Install the zip file as usual

Once done, reboot device.
Using the backup app, restore your apps.
Reboot device.

You will now be running the latest version. The data wipe is highly recommended, but your device should still work without it - you must wipe the dalvik cache at the very least however, or you'll get a boot loop.
Important Note
If you use google apps (GApps) then you must make sure you download the version for CM 10.2. If you do not, you may experience compatibility errors.

CM 10 and above includes self-updater.  Go to Settings -> About device and you should see an option for updating CM.  You can choose which updates to download (stable vs. RC vs. nightly,) and download them from there.  Once the download completes, you'll have the option to boot to Recovery and apply it automatically.  Or you can still do it manually from /sdcard/cmupdate/ folder.

@Chahk when using that method, you must remember to reinstall the GApps. Also, I don't trust the CM Updater as much as I should.

Several sources state that no wipe is needed while updating CM 10.1 to 10.2:

You can also do this manually (which is required if you flash
  additional things like kernels), by downloading the update to your
  sdcard (from http://get.cm) and rebooting into recovery to flash the
  update (and any additional zips - although, if you have the gapps
  installed from http://goo.im/gapps, there is no need to reflash
  those).
Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to wipe ANYTHING when you
  update CM. This includes your cache partition, your dalvik cache, and
  your battery stats. While wiping these won’t hurt anything, you can
  increase the time it takes to boot up CM after you install the update.
  Android is smart enough to manage both your cache and dalvik cache
  without you intervening.

I faced no issues after following this advice.


text:
Xperia Z3 boot loop after TWRP installation
My Xperia Z3 was running Android 5.0.2. The model is D6653. I didn't check the firmware build number.
I followed these steps.
Everything was successful with no errors.
➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) devices
[sudo] password for eric:
➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) devices
CB5A276UDL  fastboot
➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) flash boot ~/Downloads/bootZ3monxtest01\ \(1\).img
sending 'boot' (13056 KB)...
OKAY [  0.413s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.875s]
finished. total time: 1.288s
➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) reboot
rebooting...

finished. total time: 0.051s

Now my phone is just flashing TWRP logo repetitively - I cant' go into recovery.  I can't even get into fastboot mode anymore so I can't execute any more commands from my computer.
I'm using a Ubuntu laptop.
What should I do e.g. try to install another recovery like this one?

I'd say the person who wrote that howto messed up: recovery mustn't be flashed to the boot partition, but to the recovery partition. With your device no longer booting up (I doubt it would even boot to recovery), and not even fastboot working, you will have a hard time getting that fixed – I'm not aware of any solution here (unless there's a bootable SD card for that device which could be used to fix it up).

"why all the tutorials I found says fastboot flash boot bootZ3monxtest01.img instead?" I had one that had the boot image and recovery in the same .img file so it contained the kernel, ramdisk and the recovery image. Hence flashing the boot image file will be enough to get a custom recovery in that case.

The guide you linked tells you to type fastboot flash boot bootZ3monxtest01.img, which is wrong. I actually made the exact same mistake thanks to that stupid guide. It's supposed to be fastboot flash recovery bootZ3monxtest01.img.

I got into fastboot again, flashed another boot image containing CWM recovery (I don't think TWRP is to blamed but I just want a clean start).
The same issue happened as with TWRP boot image - I could not boot into system normally even after wiping data, cache partition and dalvik cache. I can only boot into recovery.
So I transfer a pre-rooted rom through adb push while the phone is still in recovery mode. Then I performed install zip and I got my phone rooted with Android Lollipop 5.1.1.

Now that you can enter into fastboot, you can execute the commands below
fastboot flash recovery ~/Downloads/bootZ3monxtest01.img
and fastboot reboot and install a custom rom.
flash boot boot.img is used to flash kernel images.
boot.img is a file which contains kernel and ramdisk.
More on Boot & Recovery images can be found here

why all the tutorials I found says fastboot flash boot bootZ3monxtest01.img instead? http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3/development/root-stock-kernel-twrp-v01-test-28-09-t2889794, http://www.theandroidsoul.com/install-twrp-recovery-sony-xperia-z3-65251/, http://www.infysim.org/2014/09/rooting-guide-sony-xperia-z3-rooting-and-installing-custom-recovery.html# etc.

@eric flash boot boot.img is for flashing kernel.. flash recovery recoveey.img is for flashing recovery

then all the tutorials listed are wrong?

I looked upon the 1st link It says that the file bootZ3monxtest01.img is ADV STOCK KERNEL + TWRP v2.8.0.1 . The img is "Kernel+Recovery". The tutorials might not be wrong.

You flashed to the boot partition, while you should have flashed to recovery partition. To fix, grab the boot images, boot in to fastboot and flash the boot image to the boot partition. To install TWRP correctly switch "boot" out with "recovery" in the commands. Since you can't get to fastboot the only solution for you would be something like this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2646405

OP wrote "I can't even get into fastboot mode anymore".

Well. Then. I don't even know.

thanks guys I don't know why but I was able to get into fastboot again yesterday and solved my problem

Yeah the guide OP linked to is pretty much crap, I soft bricked my device in exactly the same way. I can still recover and all, but damn. Had to erase my user data in the process.


text:
Disable or uninstall side bar on android
I'm wondering if it is possible to disable or uninstall this bar that I show on this image. I'm sorry i don't know what it is named that is why I included the image (click to enlarge). I'm using Android version 4.1.

Here specified how to disable this Multi window feature in Samsung 4.1 Jellybean's feature.
You can disable it by clicking Multi-window Icon on Notification bar.

Answer with only a link isn't considered helpful.

Thats why I added the second line. :)
It's the method to disable Multi window.

Sorry didn't realize. Cheers.

No problms. cheers :)


text:
Add more functions to the home button circle shortcut
When you swipe up from the home button in Jelly Bean you get a cute
semicircle with a Google Now shortcut on top. This circle shape
makes it perfect for adding other shortcuts.
For instance, you could have the Gmail icon on the left side of the
circle and the Chrome icon on the right side.
Is there any way to get this functionality (different launcher, some
rooted app, different ROM)?

What phone do you want to MOD?

It's a nexus4. System version 4.2.2.

You can get this functionality with these launchers:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sudomakemeanapp.sudoquicklaunch
http://www.droid-life.com/2013/01/23/lmt-launcher-brings-pie-goodness-without-the-custom-rom/


text:
Android sdcard appears empty to Windows?
I have a Archos Cobalt tablet.
The external micro sdcard appears empty to the tablet and to the pc when the tablet is attached via USB, debugging on.
I have used app2sd to move apps to the sdcard. Without the card in they don't work so it must have moved them but it still appears as blank to the tablet and pc?
The contents of the tablets internal disk appear ok on both the tablet and in Windows so whats the difference?
I have also tried removing the card and plugging it in again.

If you only moved apps using App2SD, and put no other files: that's normal. App2SD uses a hidden directory (.android_secure), so you don't see it. It's contents are also encrypted. But if you put any other file there, you should be able to see it from both ends.

Thanks for that, now that I know what I'm looking for I can have another go (tomorrow)

Don't forget to report back afterwards. You can also answer your own question if your problem is solved, which we even encourage :)

I've done some research and it seems to be an oddity of the tablet.
When you do 'move to sd' whats happening is its moving data to another part of the -internal- sdcard. You can't move apps to the external one
e.g.
http://yatse.leetzone.org/redmine/boards/2/topics/259#.UTfGXxyeN8E
thanks anyway


text:
CyanogenMod logo loop
My mobile, HTC One X was on CyanogenMod 10.1 which received a update cm-10.1-20130304-EXPERIMENTAL. Once the update package download is completed, I tried to update it via update settings but it restarted on recovery mode and restarted without being updated.
So, I installed the update package via TRWP and once the update installation is completed, the phone restarted and the cyanogenMod logo is on loop.
Any suggestion ?

Cleared dalvik cache and it worked.

For some phones this can also be due to an outdated boot.img, I seem to remember that I once had to flash it manually via ADB (although it should be flashed with the ZIP from CWM recovery) and that made the bootloop go away.


text:
Reduce in call volume
I'm using Jelly Bean on my Samsung Galaxy Note. Plus I'm running Ultimate Rom v5.1 as mu ROM. The problem is minimum In-Call Volume is too high even though I have reduced it.
How can I reduce that in call volume than the minimum level?

You could try with an equalizer app (some phones have this pre-installed). Or check the playstore for one of the many volume boosters (search for volume will bring up a lot), though they are normally intended to raise the volume above the limits, some might also lower it below, I didn't check all of them.

It's due to noise cancellation was on during a call. I turn noise cancellation off now it works fine.

I've been reading that increasing the volume to the max then decreasing it again to minimum seems to work

Thanks for your input. Can you throw in some reference (that you have been reading) to make the answer more credible?


text:
How do I disable auto-sync in HTC Sync 3.3?
Where in HTC Sync is the option to disable synchronization upon connecting the phone to the computer?
There used to be plenty of options in the old versions of HTC Sync. By old versions I mean versions like 2.0 that came with my phone. This is the version I have been using for two years now. I just thought I would update to get all the latest bells and whistles. But little did I know that the newest HTC Sync version is just one big splash screen with a picture of my phone on it and one big SYNC button. And it is very resource hungry.
I am downloading the new HTC Sync Manager right now. But I don't think it's compatible with HTC Desire or other older HTC devices. I think it's mainly made for the HTC One series of phones. So I don't expect much from it, but I'll give it a try anyway. Are there more sync options in Sync Manager than in the regular Sync?
What's a good alternative to HTC Sync that I can use with HTC Desire? Which ones are popular? I don't want anything too fancy. I don't need anything that's too much resource hungry and media focused. Just plain sync tool (PIM).
Update: HTC Sync Manager doesn't even start
The first time HTC Sync Manager started it was scanning my computer for media files. I aborted the operation and went to settings to change the language. It prompted me to restart the program so I clicked OK. It restarted and got stock at the splash screen. Now it does that every time and the only way to close it is to terminate the associated process.

Great software indeed... it should not stop working just because the user changes the language in the settings. Looks like I will have to install it all over again to erase any conflicting config files and such.

Do you still have a copy of the install for your old HTC Sync 2.x, is there any reason you can't go back to that if it does everything you're looking for? Newer isn't always better in software.

According to the download page of HTC Sync Manager, HTC Desire phones should be supported.
In my case when I first started the application it started loading all my media files from my pc (which took some time). After everything was loaded, the music etc was stored in my Media gallery of the HTC Sync Manager.
If you want to disable the synchronisation of your phone on connect, disable the option "Automatically start sync when device is connected" under the More tab. In my case that tab was only available when you connect your phone (probably to be able to use different settings for multiple phones).
So maybe you should just try to reinstall the latest HTC Sync Manager, because it should work for your phone too. Just be a little patient.

Yes, you were right. The phone needs to be connected first before the option actually appears. But I can't verify it right now because I am currently using HTC Sync 3.3.53 because that's where the link on HTC support website takes me. It wants me to download that instead of HTC Sync Manager. You have to select a product first, before you can see the recommended software for it. So I'm not sure how I got the HTC Sync Manager in the first place.

It looks like they are maintaining both software. So HTC Sync Manager isn't a natural replacement of HTC Sync. They are probably keeping HTC Sync alive because of compatibility with older phones. I believe this software is used for Windows phones as well as Android, maybe even for their legacy PDAs.

By the way, the link you posted is broken. "Sorry, the page you’re looking for can’t be found." But I have found this support page. "For HTC One Series, HTC Desire C and HTC Desire X phones, we recommend you use HTC Sync Manager. For older HTC devices, please use HTC Sync instructions below." The product page of HTC Sync Manager is here.

Entering only http://www.htc.com/www/software/ results in a "page not found". Apparently they don't like the idea of listing all their software on one page to make them easy to find and download. Instead you have to know what sequence of links to click to get to http://www.htc.com/www/software/htc-sync-manager/. So stupid! And for the regular HTC Sync they have a direct link to the EXE file (http://dl4.htc.com/managed-assets/support/software/htc-sync/htc_sync_setup_3.3.21.exe). And they don't allow directory listing of the dl4 download server to allow you to download whatever you want.

Why do they have to hide their sync software so deeply within the HTML code and force people to do some digging before they find what they're looking for? It seems intentional. I don't like HTC anymore. Not just because of this. I have been with HTC since I bought one of their PDA/GPS navigators. But I feel like their smartphones are always lacking something in terms of quality. It's all good on the outside and on paper, but they never seem to deliver what they promise. Always some hardware defects. And software isn't much better.

I think HTC is aiming too high. They are not Apple. The sooner they realize that the better. Either that I am just too picky and have high expectations from them. Well, either way... I know I will be jumping over to the Samsung ship this summer. And for syncing I will be looking for an independent alternative tool.

Updated the link in my post. @Sammy I wouldn't want to trade for an iPhone, especially now that I've seen how bad the UI of iOS 7 is, they're going backwards instead of forwards imo. But that's a totally different discussion :-)

The disable the option "Automatically start sync when device is connected" under the More tab did not work for me. Even after this is unchecked, it still starts the program when I connect my phone. Sometimes I'm just looking for the charge. Yet I have to wait for the program to load on each plug-in, then manually disable. Real pain.


text:
How to change the thumbs up icon in Facebook Messenger chat?
In Facebook Messenger in the web browser or the messenger app, there is a thumbs up sticker button out by default. People I know changed it to some other icons by default, but I can't ask them how.
I don't see any option for it, yet somehow it was changed. After you change it, it will say

<person name> set the emoji to <emoji here>.

Can anyone tell me how to change it?

Mine doesn't show the option of the I either - you have to go into a chat and click the persons name at the top - there it will give you the option to change color text and emoji :)

Using Facebook Messenger, at the conversation window, go to:
Details (top-right) --> Emoji --> Pick your Emoji.
There's no option to change Emoji using the web version yet.

I don't see that option on the app

@omega Facebook Messenger, not Facebook app. Check again, it should be there.

Yep I did, those options are not there for me

is it android or ios specific? I am on android

@omega I'm on android too. My Facebook Messenger version is 53.0.0.17.308 if that helps.

I'm on 52.0.0.19.66 on note4. When I check for updates on play store, messenger app is not there.

i finally got the update to do this now


text:
Can an app installed from Play Store being dropped support due to changing requirement in Android version?
Can an app installed from Play Store being dropped support due to changing requirement in Android version?
If a very low percentage of app users still uses a very old Android version, and the developer decides to drop support for this old version, does the Play Store offer an option to refund the payment?

Besides, when you've bought the app "back then" for the price less than a portion of popcorn, nobody promised you life-time upgrades (neither for the app, nor for the refill of your popcorn bag). You've bought that version specifically, with the option of being able to use any future versions if there are any, if they are compatible with your then device, and if the dev decides to publish them as updates. Considering the low price and the high amount of work required from the dev, that's only fair.

Can an app installed from Play Store being dropped support due to changing requirement in Android version?

App developer (free/paid app) is at complete liberty to support/not support later Android versions, with or without continuing support for earlier versions. You will find many apps not supporting Lollipop or Marshmallow, and on other hand supporting/not supporting earlier versions.
Developers have two choices (nothing is binding), as cited Support Lower Versions of Android as an example, relating to autoback up feature of Marshmallow:

Updating an existing app to support auto backup.
Giving your new app support for lower versions of Android

Google Play Store policy doesn't discuss this, so only inference is that the app will be on Play Store:

As long as it complies to Play Store policy
As long as developer wishes

developer decides to drop support for this old version, does the Play store offer an option to refund the payment?

No refund is possible. See this answer for details and also read the comments, which relate to your question If a paid app stops working, can I get my money back?
Edit: An important point of compatibility pointed out by Izzy. I have a paid call recorder app bought 4 years ago, which worked fine but is not compatible with  current Huawei phone and developer can't fix it since information about chip set (Kirin ) is not made public by OEM. I can't obviously ask for a refund

There is a term called "Buyer Beware". The same way old phones or old operating systems are stopped being supported, the apps can also share the same fate. Especially when considering the fact that apps evolve much faster than phones or OSes.
Technically when you buy something, a contract is made between two sides that both sides are obligated to abide. If they specifically don't promise such a support, than neither Google Play nor Dev don't have to pay you back.


text:
AutoSync is disabled in Android ICS LG P920 3D. How turn it on?
After upgrade Android from 2.3.x to 4.0.3 I can't turn on auto synchronization.
When Im trying I get msg:
AutoSync is disabled. Synchronization is enabled manually by server policy.

In Settings -> Accounts & sync have a disabled switcher as on the screens below.
Do you know how can I turn on auto sync?
Device model: LG Optimus P920 3D.
Android version: 4.0.4
I'm abroad and using wifi and roaming GSM.
Screenshoots:

Just to clearify: Are you talking about ActiveSync (MS Exchange), as the error message mentions a "server policy"? If not, which AutoSync do you refer to exactly?

It sounds like you are trying to sync a MS Exchange account. I imagine the newer versions of Android correctly follow the policies set forth by the Exchange Server, and in this case the server admin has not allowed auto sync. The older version of Android likely didn't implement the proper security requests of the server, so you were able to have auto sync despite the Exchange admin having told the device not to do that. So now, you'll have to talk with your Exchange admin to ask them to enable this feature.

Thanks for advice, problem was with MS Exchange.
I had to delete MS Exchange account and recreate after this Exchange asked me about permission for account and everything works fine.