text:
Mounting an USB wireless adapter to a Nexus 4
Brief problem
In short I am trying to mount an external USB wireless adapter to my Nexus 4 so that I can put the wireless adapter into monitor mode to use a tool called reaver.
System
I have a Google Nexus 4, running CyanogenMod 11 (11-20140308-SNAPSHOT-M4-mako), (Android 4.4.2) I have also flashed kali nethunter 1.21.
The problem
I can't get the wireless card into monitor mode using airmon-ng. After some searching I discovered that the wireless chip-set does not support monitor mode. So the only way I was going to obtain monitor mode was to use an external wireless adapter.
What I have tried so far
When I plugged the a USB wireless adapter into the Nexus 4, it was not getting picked up. I used the ifconfig command to try to detect it but then realised that the problem must lie with the Nexus 4 not providing the 5V needed to power the adapter. So I bought an otg y cable:

After using this I could see that any device plugged in was receiving power, but it still wasn't working. So I tried mounting a flash drive to see how that would work. It turned out that there was a software limitation preventing me from mounting a flash drive as the OS was missing the OTG components.
After doing some more searching I came across this. I then flashed it in recovery mode, and after rebooting I was able to mount flash-drives. I then plugged the external wireless adapter into the Nexus 4 hoping that it would detect it but still no luck. I also tried an alternative wireless adapter but still nothing.
Wireless adapter
I am using a "wireless 11n usb adapter". I am not certain but I believe it may be a driver problem. If so, I have no idea on how I would go about installing a driver on android. My wireless chip set is RTL8188EE.
The question
How do I mount an external USB wireless adapter to a Nexus 4?

I think you need chroot ubuntu for that

You don't say much about the wireless adapter and which chipset it uses.  This is critically important as it will determine which kernel wifi module you'll need.  I'm pretty sure Nethunter as distributed already has native support for OTG/host mode as well as some kernel patches to support monitor mode, but not 100% which chipsets are supported/recommended.
You're right that the N4 is lacking a lot of power to the external USB, but a Y-splitter should do the job.
FWIW-- I am guessing here, but I think the mako (Nexus 4) kernel source for Nethunter is here.  OTG is turned on here in the lollipop branch (not sure what version of android you're using).
As for how to install a driver in Android-- the drivers are usually created at the same time as the kernel and pre-included with Android itself if necessary.  I won't go into the ugly details of how to manually load the wifi module (or if it's even necessary as it may be built in), but given the lack of specifics that I think will help here (which wifi chipset, which version of Android, etc.), the best practical solution I can suggest is that you jump on the #nethunter channel in freenode IRC and ask for suggestions.  Binkybear, one of the lead developers of nethunter, owns and tests w/his Nexus 4, so he probably has some solid advice.  You may also want to visit the nethunter forums, particularly this thread.
The easy solution now that you've worked out the power issue will likely be to use an external wifi module that is definitely supported.
(Full disclosure-- I've contributed a little to NH.)

Thanks for your response, i am running android 4.4.2, and my wireless chip set is RTL8188EE.

Okay, I think you want CONFIG_RTL8188EE=Y set in your kernel .config.  CONFIG_RTL8187 is there- here's the source in the 3.10 kernel.  It's not in binkybear's kernel, but you might ask him to backport it.

Update- the major commits: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/f0eb856e0b6cbd21244afc0f252cec718ecf88fb , https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/8b138d4898a006d94de9fd8eab8cb8c49c08ba7e ) , https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/07b72bf334fcc12f73816866eaa44de42ca9894c , plus a few more.  Looks like maybe six for the whole directory.  (Also, there's a Lollipop build of NH that might have it already in the source.)  I spoke to Binkybear- he is looking into it.

Thank you for your help, i will look it to manually installing the driver. Has Binkybear, for anything that may help?

He told me he was going to look into it, but if you know or are willing to learn how to build and replace a kernel, it shouldn't be too difficult.  Still, if it's too challenging, you could drop by the #nethunter IRC channel I linked to above and discuss with Binkybear directly.  He's almost always online and a nice guy who expressed some interest in your issue and might be able to do it for ya.  I'm in the same channel sometimes so I might be able to help if I'm around too.

Installing drivers to the kernel may be a little above my knowledge, but I will give it the best go I can, failing that I will take your advice and contact Binkybear. Thanks for your help.

Sure thing.  If you are unable to locate him, find me on IRC... cheers!

There is a very good chance that you may not have a driver problem.
There is a very important detail everyone seemed to miss about using network connections via USB: they must be plugged in before the phone is powered on! The phone must also have Wifi and Data turned off, and potentially Airplane Mode! All before the device is turned on. Some devices can get away with not needing a reboot sesh, but this is the general rule explained with BobjGear and their Android ethernet adapters.
Secondly, another very important detail, is that sometimes, you need to manually configure the adapter and its ip address through ADB or Terminal Emulator. The commands follow this format, as described in this article:
ifconfig [eth0|eth1|eth2|etc] [IP] netmask [NETMASK]
route add default gw [GATEWAY] dev eth0

ifconfig is not a typo. You will have to figure out which network "slot" your dongle is attached on via netcfg. It will list all network components in use or idle, usually wlan0 is built-in wifi, rmnet listings are mobile data, and p2p0 is VPN. Your dongle will probably fall under eth0 or 1, or wlan1 or 2.
Finally, if all else fails, you may need to find an adapter that either a) has matching (or close to matching--starts with RTL8) chipsets, or b) a (Android/linux-confirmed) truly universal wifi dongle.
If that cannot be done, this XDA post explains how to modify a Nexus CM11 kernel (your lucky day) via modprobe to enable additonal drivers. You may want to contact him for help, as his flashable kernel is specific to a custom CM11 ROM posted on XDA, just to match the checksums.
Good luck!

Thank you for your help, i have tryed configuring the addapter and rebooting with the wireless card aleady pluged in, but still no luck. It isnt been detected by ifconfig

Okay, then there is a hardware problem then. I'll give it to fattire's answer/comments as he seems to be very knowledgeable about the drivers.


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Bluestacks Home Screen
I had installed BlueStacks and the home screen was like an Android tablet in landscape mode. Due to some problem COC game was not working, I uninstalled and reinstalled BlueStacks. Now the home screen is showing app categories and apps to download. How can I get back to the previous homescreen which was like a tablet?
Installing lauchers turns the screen in to portrait mode.
pls help

I'm not sure what you're asking actually. Do you want to set up BlueStack as tablet, or phone on landscape mode? I never install BlueStack, so I'm not sure either, but check the installation step carefully. Also, if by "app categories and apps to download" means Play Store, then you can just tap back. Please clarify.

Install Apex Launcher from Play Store. After you install Apex launcher open it and set it as the default laucher by pressing Home button and selecting Use default option. Some games require your device to be played in portrait mode and it will switch back to landscape once you exit the game, so I guess you Bluestacks is corrupted. So if using the default setting of Apex din't switch to the landscape mode try the following.
If it still is in Portrait mode then, select the "Tablet UI mode" under
Apex Settings > Home Screen Settings > Tablet UI mode

This way your homescreen will be displayed in landscape mode overtaking the default portrait mode. Even if the above settings don't work for you I recommend you to completely uninstall the Bluestacks which means you need to remove the data of you Bluestacks app when prompted while uninstalling the Bluestacks Player. This would redownload the app data while installing the Bluestacks again and you would have a fresh installation of Bluestack working fine.

Install Nova Launcher from the Play Store and then in settings of the nova app you can change the orientation.
However to uninstall a launcher go to the settings of bluestacks (somewhere at the statusbar) and uninstall the custom launcher.

source: Stack Exchange

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

authors: الشاعر الحصري

sort: votes


text:
Unbricking LG G3 stuck in fastboot using Qualcomm unbrick method
I have an LG G3 which does not have recovery mode or download mode. The only available mode at the moment is the fastboot mode.
I installed the the fastboot tool using the "minimal fastboot and adb tool": http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
And tried executing many fastboot commands as follows:
fastboot erase aboot
fastboot flash aboot aboot.img
fastboot erase boot
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot erase laf
fastboot flash laf laf.img
fastboot erase rpm
fastboot flash rpm rpm.img
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot erase modem
fastboot flash modem modem.img
fastboot erase misc
fastboot flash misc misc.img
fastboot erase sbl1
fastboot flash sbl1 sbl1.img
fastboot erase tz
fastboot flash tz tz.img
fastboot erase dbi
fastboot flash dbi dbi.img
fastboot reboot

However none of the commands executes successfully, I always receive:

FAILED (remote: failed to erase partition)

What could be the reason for fastboot failing that way? Could it be that there is no partition on the phone at all? Or does the bootloader need to be unlocked for this to work in the first place? Maybe the driver is not correct, but on the other hand I see the commands showing up on the screen of the device -- so it receives them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but LG devices don't have a conventional fastboot, the bootloader is locked by default and not unlockable (methods like Bump only overrides it). If you've previously enabled fastboot (and in turn disabled download mode) through the dd trick then you might need to resort to QCOM 9008 mode.

I will provide an answer covering all the steps that I had to go through in order to get that LG G3 working again.

Being stuck in fastboot mode
When that phone was given to me, the person owning it before had tried to flash some custom rom. After failing miserably the phone was stuck in fastboot mode.
Trying to get the phone out of the fastboot mode, I tried the following guides:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/unbrick-lg-model-download-recovery-t3060184 -- did everything preceding SOLUTION FOR ALL THE PROBLEM WITH NO DOWNLOAD MODE section.

Fixing the phone with the fastboot did not work for me.
Since I had nothing to use I decided to try the "Qualcomm unbrick" method

Qualcomm Unbrick:

There are 3 useful posts on how to get into the Qualcomm mode and how to unbrick the device: i) the reddit post ii) the open-freax post iii) the xda post
Start by following the reddit post
The tools to use: i) Qualcomm drivers: the drivers in the reddit link are legit ii) willcracker's tools: There are different versions of willcracker's tools (aka the BoardDiag tool). I used version 2.99a.

Edit: Here another post providing photos for getting into Qualcomm mode

Troubleshooting
If you follow carefully the reddit post (and if you are a bit lucky), you might get through this process without a problem. However I had 2 issues

"device not found in dload trying flash programmer" -- I got this message when running the initial step of BoardDiag. Turns out, this problem occurs if you release the shorting of the pins a bit too early:

here l33tlinuxh4x0rsays:

once you have extracted the firmware and set up the program with the correct port you need to Check "AP" and "EMMC" then press start.
  Be sure not to select any partitions or change any other options than
  the firmware directory and comport. It should come back as PASS. If it
  throws an error about not being in dload mode you need to restart the
  shorting process. Hold the short for a bit longer this time.

FAIL on the EMMC test -- If you manage to get through the AP Chech test, and receive FAIL for the EMMC the solution is provided in the open-freax post:

If you’re lucky enough (again) both of the tests will be OK. If, like
  me, you have nothing but a huge FAIL on the EMMC test, in the options
  list switch « Read/Write » to « Erase », unplug/plug your G3 (always
  with your metal wire to have 9008 mode, that’s pain in the a*s but
  it’s mandatory) and click START again. Internal memory will be
  entirely erased. Do a « read/Write » again, this time it should be a
  PASS

For the remaining of the steps regarding the BoardDiag tool I suggest you follow open-freax post.

Installing back the stock ROM
I was unlucky with the ROM and managed to install one with malware on it. So you might want to invest some time to find the correct rom for your device.
There are two methods (or maybe more) for flashing rom to you LG G3.

TOT + dll method: for this method follow this post from the section 2015 (updated with pictures) TOT Method, also this post is useful
KDZ: for this method follow this post again, starting from How to flash ROM KDZ Method

To find proper roms you might try the following pages:

http://lg-phone-firmware.com
http://devtester.ro/projects/lg-firmwares/download.php
http://storagecow.eu/index.php?dir=Xda%2F

Other method for the Qualcomm unbrick
There is also another method for unbricking Qualcomm devices, but I did not have to use that one.
references: http://www.leakite.com/2016/06/revised-how-to-unbrick-qualcomm-android.html http://www.droidsavvy.com/unbrick-qualcomm-mobiles/

Yes this is what I'm talking about. +1 for digging into it and writing a detailed answer.

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


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SD Card Data Recovery with no root
My ZMAX Z970 can't be rooted, at least by me. I can't find where to do that.
I accidentally deleted some videos which were on my sd card.
I have not used the card too much since then and don't plan to until I get this resolved.
I can't find any undelete utility or method that a) is not a scam b) doens't need root access and c) actually works.
How can I do it?
Meta:
If you think this is a duplicate question, please make sure the duplicate actually has a viable answer to my question. Thanks!
The question pointed to as duplicate does not explain how to use the software on an Android phone or make it see the disk from the PC. I tried the software mentioned in that article and it does not see my phone, only local PC disks. Please enable a fresh answer that breaks it down step by step for SD card on no root android phone. Thanks.

See this as well. http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/61511/how-to-recover-data-from-lge-nexus-4-running-on-android-version-4-4-2/69132#69132

@Firelord, that's for a rooted phone. Right?

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7069/data-recovery-how-to-restore-deleted-formatted-files-on-hd-micro-sd-card I added that in garb of this one. Apologies for that since you demanded no root method. But anyway, its still duplicate in reference to this new link.

Photorec (a part of Testdisk collection)(Windows application) did the job for me when I tested it on my friend's micro SD Card once. You may try it.

@Firelord, I'm glad it worked for you. Photorec does not see my SD card when I have my phone connected to the PC via USB. What should I do to make it see it? Thanks.

Photorec will not see it that way. Since its an external SD-Card, you can remove it and plug into the system. Run the software and it will detect. Otherwise, if any of your damaged storage cannot be removed, then you'll have to take a dd backup of it and let the software run through it.

@Firelord, ok so this is really not a duplicate question. I can't "plug it into the system". I don't have a card reader. So you are saying, there's no solution without buying a card reader? Thanks!

I actually already mentioned in my last comment. You can use dd to take an image of your SD-card into a OTG USB drive. For info to how to use dd see this. A user also mentioned about using dd here. They sure now will help you. The general idea of command is dd if=sd-card_location of=OTG_USB_location/name.img

@Firelord, thanks for the link. I tried googling dd to find out what it was and just got a bunch of porn links. :)


text:
How do I prevent a system update from occurring?
We have 150 new XOOM Wifi tablets (MZ604) that we are distributing to high school students in 2 weeks. The tablets have stock ICS 4.0.4 on them, unrooted.
The requirement is the tablets run Adobe Flash Player 11 in order to interact with math and science curriculum that coincides with our textbooks.  Adobe Flash Player does not work with Jelly Bean, therefore we need to prevent the devices from going past the 4.0.4 update. The students can take the devices off-campus and use them with their home wifi connections, so doing anything to block the devices at the school network is not going to work.

There's an app for this. You can use it to install Flash Player on a Jelly Bean device.
You can also try installing Flash Player and then upgrading the device to Jelly Bean.

This gets me where I wanted to go in that I could download and save the APK for Flash Player that I could sideload (Adobe_Flash_Player_11.1.115.12.apk). This requires "unknown sources", which is less optimal than having the installer in Google Play, but better than trying to keep 130 kids from updating their devices. From a survey of the curriculum, it seems to be working under 4.1.1. Thanks for the pointer.

Why not use adb shell and look for the process id of that update manager software and uninstall it or even disable it?
Do you know the name of the package responsible for the update?
Two ways I can think of

pm uninstall com.motorola.xxxxx OR
pm disable com.motorola.xxxxx

Trouble is, if the student in question is extremely inquisitive and leans towards Android hacking... well, this will be the weakest thing you can do, since the tablet would be outside of your control and all hell breaks loose if some student happened to allow the upgrade to proceed!
Another way that has its advantage/dis-advantage:
pro: Reliable!
con: temporary root under ICS, un-heard of!
Why not use a temporary rooting procedure (its temporary and will disappear on reboot - z4root is one I know of that will allow it but 100% uncertain if it will work with ICS), the idea is - to obtain root temporarily, and nuke the updater from the /system/app directory and cleanly dispose of trailing data and what-nots associated with the updater apk.
Then that should put your mind at ease.
Trouble is, really, you're dealing with such inquisitive minds and they will invariably find a way around the lock-downs, unfortunately... :D
It sounds like a lose-lose case here which is outside of your control since those tablets are coming in and going out of school into the student's home that has wifi etc.
One thing though as a recommendation, by-pass whatever powers-that-be that has approved the budget for the tablets and go direct to Motorola and ask them is there a solution and explain the situation to them to see if they can knock up something to prevent it from happening? Surely on their end, they can blacklist certain known serial numbers or something...

I'm comfortable doing the whole root routine given that I work for Motorola and I write apps, but I really don't want to do this 150 times. The kids might get to this point, but the most likely candidate sleeps down the hall from me. I can keep him in line. ;-) Thanks for the ideas. I'll give them a try.


text:
Why does calling my wife's phone go straight to VoiceMail?
When using my Verizon HTC Thunderbolt running CyanogenMod to call my wife's Verizon HTC Incredible, also running CyanogenMod, it always goes straight to Voice Mail.  I can call other Verizon phones with no issue and my wife can call me with no issue and my wife can receive calls from other Verizon lines with no issue and she can call me with no issue.  Issue is only from my phone to hers.  I called Verizon and they said it is not a network issue and suggested an installed application might be causing the issue.  They suggested to put both phones into Safe Mode boot.  I was able to do this for Incredible, but failed using the directions they provided for the Thunderbolt. They said after boot starts, hold down volume down key for boot process on Thunderbolt.
How can I debug this issue of my phone going straight to Voice Mail?  What would cause just my phone to experience this issue?  Any advise and suggestions would be appreciated.

It could be your number being "blacklisted" on your wife's phone. There are a lot of apps on the playstore offering this feature, and some Android versions can do so on their own (just configure the contact in your contacts list correspondingly).
So here's what you could do:

check with your SIM card placed in some other phone (if that option exists; at least here in Europe we can move the SIM card around). Your call should be still blocked/routed to voicemail then, so you know the issue is not with your phone (e.g. dialing some prefix/postfix)
check your wife's phone for installed apps like Advanced Call Blocker etc.
check your wife's phonebook (errm, or let her check ;) for your record there and see whether it is blacklisted. If unsure, just delete it temporarily, then call her again.
At least CyanogenMod lets you manage a separate blacklist. With CM, it is found in the call settings. Check whether your number made it into this place.
if the problem still exists, repeat step 1. with your wife's phone (again, if possible)

My guess is either 2., 3., or 4. will reveal the cause.

cyanogenmod definitely has this feature

@ce4 oh yeah -- a separate blacklist in the call settings. Yikes... Will add this to my answer. Tnx for the hint!

authors: w̢in̡͢g͘̕ed̨p̢͟a͞nt̡͜͝he̸r̴


text:
Battery Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro
I've a Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro with Android 2.3.3. I noted that the battery ends really fast.
I don't have enable GPS service, Mobile data, Bluetooth. Only phone and wifi. In less than two days the battery is drill out. I don't listen music and I don't play any games.
I'd like to know if apps are closing correctly but I can't find any app which tell me which apps are runing (without mixing with the running services).
My guess is that may be the services (facebook, what's app, etc) are trying to connect and if I'm not connected to wifi there is no internet so they will keep trying and trying... Could it be the cause?
Thanks!

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but: "less than two days" is actually pretty good for an Android phone.  I've got one of the fanciest Android phones there is -- a Nexus S -- running Android 4, and I don't think I've ever gotten a full day's use out of it.  I even carry around a spare battery (http://goo.gl/kd4jO, which I recommend).

Really?? Even without playing, mobile data, bluetooth, etc?? I convinced my girlfriend to change the OOOOOLD nokia 1100 to a smartphone and now she is complaining (with reason) of the battery. In the nokia 1100 she had about a week of autonomy!!

@Diego but her old Nokia 1100 barely did anything that used battery. It's background services and data traffic that uses up the battery, and the old Nokia didn't multi-task or have anything other than background voice comms services running, and would barely have used any data connection, instead of the always on data you have now that's continually looking for updates. Smartphones are small computers that are constantly working, it's a rare laptop that can run more than 4 or 5 hours on a battery.

Yes, sure.. I'm not saying that her old Nokia was better than a smartphone.. but it is a little bit shocking the difference :/

I'm not sure, but I suspect that turning off "Account Sync" improves the battery life.  You can do this easily via the "Power Control" widget; it's the button that looks like two arrows pointing at each other.  Of course that means you won't get notified when you get an email ...

Does this turn off all sync or only with the accounts in the settings?

There's a list of things one can do to improve battery life. The easiest (attention, black humor) is turning the device off, next to switching it to airplane mode. In general these two things are not worth a consideration -- but with all things operable, I've seen no smartphone yet lasting more than 2 days. My old HTC Buzz currently makes it a week (7 days, and still 40%+ left) -- but it neither has a SIM card inserted, nor Wifi enabled (so you see, most energy goes for being permanent online; I just carry the Buzz as backup, since I didn't yet transfer all apps to my new phone). My Motorola Droid 2 ends up at about 70% at the end of the day (after about 17h runtime; so it would basically last ~2 days), and I'm not really doing that much.
But to provide something useful, here comes a short (and incomplete) list:

One of the largest energy consumer is the display -- so this area is where you can save most:

make the display timeout as small as possible (and just as large as needed). 30s is a good value.
you probably do not need 100% brightness, so turn it down as low as possible. Handicap: if it is not bright enough when you need it, it's hard to find the appropriate setting. On some devices/ROMs some toggle-switches are integrated into the status area (if not, there are apps to do this), so you can blindly draw it down and hit the correct corner to toggle it up.

at least on the Motorola Droid, there's one consumer clearly topping the display using twice as much: UMTS up/download. So if you do not really need to constantly transfer big data, or rely on UMTS as there's no GSM available (unlikely), switch 3G off and force your phone to GSM mode. Not relevant for data only, but also for talk (just with less energy difference).
WiFi is also a main consumer -- even in standby. So when not needed, switch it off (same for Bluetooth).
as we are in this category: Though often suggested, GPS standby is not worth mentioning -- as long as it stays standby. Only problem here are apps that will then make use of it for localized ads and the like. So if you rarely use GPS, just turn it off as well.

I could almost write a book on this, as there would be so much more to be mentioned. So just some little additional hints concerning apps which might be of assistance:

Battery Saver has an interesting concept: Running a service in the background, it regularly checks the systems report on the strength of cell and Wifi signal (the system updates those data either, so that's no costly action). Finding one (or both) of them too weak to be useful (e.g. if you're sitting in a bunker, or some Faraday box), it switches them completely off -- and checks in intervals whether it makes sense to turn them back on. This is especially useful if you often experience "dead zones", where your cell radio would then power up to max, desperately trying to find some cell tower. And talking about "limiting your smartphone experience" makes no sense here: you either get no contact, as thee's no signal ;)
JuiceDefender is available in multiple versions (ranging from basic to plus to ultimate), and some hold it very high. It tries to save energy in several ways -- the best known being to "stutter" your data, by switching off all background sync, only permitting it in intervals. It offers much more possibilities, also depending on the version used.

Again, these are only very basic hints -- there's much more one could do. So you could use some Profile apps like e.g. Tasker or EasyProfiles, Timeriffic or Llama -- to adjust your settings based on different situations. So you can e.g. put your Android device to airplane mode when you sleep (time based), adjust screen timeout when reading ("when  runs"), switch Wifi off/on when leaving/returning home (location based), and many other things. Guess you've got the idea :)
EDIT:
If you're still awake at this point, and like to read more, checkout What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?


text:
Email won't stay deleted
I mostly use my computer for email, but obviously when I'm on the go it's good to have my email accessible at all times. That's what the email app is for, right?
So I have it set up to download emails, but to never delete them from the server. Essentially this is the same as I have on my laptop. Only my main computer is set to delete emails from the server when I delete them from my inbox.
The point is, while this works fine on my laptop, my phone will keep downloading the same emails, even when I hit the "Delete" button to remove them from my phone's inbox. Strangely, though, it will only do this a few hours after they were deleted (the mailbox is set to update every 15 minutes), and usually only when I receive a new email or two.
In other words, when I get a new email, the phone will start downloading some old emails seemingly at random.
What gives, and how do I fix it?

There are multiple approaches to this problem. The first an most effective is to switch from POP3 (which I assume from your question you are using) to IMAP, where mail is handled on the server instead of client-side -- so you can delete a message when you decide to delete it (and not when client X is retrieving it, as handled by POP3).
Second might be trying a different mail client (again, I do not know what you are currently using). For Android, I'd recommend K-9 Mail -- which is capable of handling POP3 as well as IMAP, and even Exchange (the latter via WebDAV).

Thanks, it seems to be working better already. I had the two running side-by-side for a little while, and when K-9 downloaded a new email, the pre-installed app downloaded one from three months ago.

Yepp, K-9 is great -- I use it for about 2 years now without any issues. Glad it could help you as well!

It's Gmail. It's "bugged".
It will delete emails correctly if you are using a Google address; but the deleted emails will reappear if you are using it with another provider.
For example on my app the email received @gmail.com will be correctly deleted and never come back.
While the email received @outlook.com, or any other provider than Google, will always reappear after deletion.
It's years that this bug is there. I and other users reported it many times. They did nothing to solve it, despite the numerous releases and updates.
So I can interpret that as a sneaky monopolistic way of Google to disadvantage the concurrence (especially with the masses of non-power users, pushing them to stick with the working account and drop the other).
Hiding themselves behind the word bug.
And that, together to the fact that this is the best answer, is pretty pretty sad.

I use a Samsung Galaxy SIII and Outlook and have had the same problem.  My approach (at Godaddy's suggestion) was to change the Advanced settings in Outlook email account settings (in the Outlook Tools menu) so that email is left on the server even after delivery (one check box) but deleted after so many days (another check box) and/or deleted after the email is deleted from Trash (a third check box).  Then I make sure to delete my trash on the phone after I have downloaded whatever I want to save on my computer copy of Outlook.

I think i have the solution to the problem. When setting up your email untick the push notification you then get a manual button, from there you can manually input incoming and outgoing settings. In the incoming settings there is a delete email from server, click the WHEN I DELETE FROM INBOX. From then on you will be able to delete from your phone to the server. HTH. Now the only problem is you can't set the the sync schedule.

I don't seem to have this option on my phone. I can set synching to Never, or every 15, 20 or 60 minutes. There is no Manual push in Gmail that I can see.

I just found the easiest way to solve this problem, completely by accident. Open your email app and click on settings; then click on the words "clear cache." That is it. Problem solved!

Me too after delete my email and less than a min later it all came back. And now I notice why. Because of ur Gmail app only can add Gmail email account in it. All ur Gmail.com email can be deleted and never come back again. The one that cannot delete is hotmail.com I add into my Gmail app.
Now the only way is remove whatever email acc that is not gmail.com account and it will be fine.
Download Hotmail app to add your Hotmail.com acc.
Don't add Hotmail or other mail acc to Gmail apps.

I had fits trying to figure this out. Make sure your setting in Gmail is on delete not archive. I changed it and they finally went away

I had several old folders still in my Outlook 'Deleted Items' folder. Once I deleted all of them from my 'Deleted Items' folder, the Gmail app (using Office 365 Exchange with push) correctly deleted an e-mail from both the Gmail app my Outlook Exchange account.

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


text:
How do I know if the person I'm chatting to on Google Talk is using Android?
On the Gingerbread version of Google Talk, I can see a gray-ish silhouette of the Android logo on my contact. Now on ICS, I can't see it anymore, thus, prevents me from knowing if a certain person on my contact is on mobile or not. Is there a setting that I'm missing here? How do I know if my contact is on Android or not?

Essentially, you can't. This feature was removed from the 4.0 version of Google Talk, and is discussed somewhat in the Android Police review of the changes from 2.3 to 4.0. There's no setting that will bring back the icons.
However, when you have a chat open with someone (provided that they do not have a custom status message set) it will inform you at the top if they are on a mobile device:

My hunch would be that Google doesn't really want you to care about this when you're on your phone. They want the Google Talk app to be as seamless and integrated as possible, and they want you to use it regardless of what device the other person happens to be connected with at the time.

Google Talk behaves extremely well with you being signed in at multiple devices concurrently, so the mobile indicator doesn't really mean much when you're signed in in both.

The reason why I am looking for such feature is because I often use it to check if a family member or a friend is on mobile (meaning not in front of the computer) or not. I hope there are tweaks or mods to bring back this useful feature.


text:
Where are the water damage indicators on a G2?
I got a G2 from eBay and it looks pretty nice.  I'm just inspecting to make sure everything is good before I start using it.  The battery has a white water damage indicator, which is good, but the battery could have been replaced.  Are there other indicators?  Where?

In this thread on the T-Mobile forums there are a few people talking about water damage indicators.  The OP mentions this:

When I remove the back of the phone and the screen is face-down on a table, the triangle is just above the left side of the micro SD card door.  It's visible even with the battery left in place.

...which another person confirms is a water damage indicator.
If you don't see any pink triangles I think you're in good shape.
Edit: Does your phone look like this with the battery out?  Because it looks to me like that white circle near the bottom right is the only water sensor on the body of the phone itself.

I don't see anything white or pink anywhere near the micro SD slot (which is not visible with the battery left in place).  There is a white rectangle on the bottom of the battery near the contacts, a white circle on the phone underneath the battery, a white hemisphere with a pink part on it inside one of the battery cover holes, and a small black circle with white "VOID" on it, with a hole in it.

I just edited my post, take a look and let me know if this is relevant at all.

Yeah, it looks like that, and I see the white circle.  The white/pink thing I see is inside the hole to the left of the FCC symbol, not visible at the angle your picture is taken at.

I think it would be a little odd if they put a water sensor inside the chassis in such a way, so I don't think the pink you see is a triggered moisture sensor.  Then again, I don't own a G2 and have never seen one in person.

I added pictures to my question.

See the white circle right above the battery contacts? It's in the picture. That is the phone's water damage indicator. How do I know? Because mine is bright red. Trust me, there'd be no doubt...


text:
Can we connect external Bluetooth Dongle in Android Tablet?
For my survey I want to attach an external USB Bluetooth Dongle to an Android Tablet. Actually I want better range of the bluetooth, so I will use an antenna for the external bluetooth. I want to know :

Which Android version supports it?
Can an external Bluetooth work if the Tablet already has an internal Bluetooth ?
Any suggestion of Android Tablet in the market ?

As far as I know, Only Custom ROM's like CM10 support External USB Dongles (Till ICS).

If you are able to connect an external Bluetooth Dongle to the Android device, it ought to work for you, even with an intrnal Bluetooth present.
Android devices with OS v3.1 and above shall support USB host capabilities. So, it is advisable to experiment with devices with the above operating systems. However, it will be on your end to make the dongle work for you; i.e. by creating a separate application for the same.

As written in Android Developers website link "USB accessory and host modes are directly supported in Android 3.1 (API level 12) or newer platforms. USB accessory mode is also backported to Android 2.3.4 (API level 10) as an add-on library to support a broader range of devices."
Is USB OTG (USB On The Go) a supplement to that hosting capability? What is USB OTG anyway? link .

@Darkpain: USB On-The-Go defines portable devices which can act as USB masters. So, in the situation you are trying to tackle, the Android Tablet will act as a USB-OTG device.

and by masters, I meant the host device, which will allow connecting other USB devices for data transfer to it.


text:
Package Install via Market sometimes fails and gives seemingly random error message
Some times when I install an application, the installation will fail.
However, the errors it throws are not only incorrect, but seemingly... random.
An example is, it'll fail and throw 'Insufficient storage space.' Blatant lie, I have plenty of space on the phone.
Another example is 'Package file is invalid.'
When I go to redownload the app, it usually installs just fine. On rarer occasions, it'll throw another (can't remember if it's the same) error, but then it'll install just fine.
I'm using stock market, on a stock Droid 3.

The logs will shed some light into these errors. If at all possible, try to get the logcat from the phone during the update, when you get the error message.  You can use ADB from your computer, or an app like aLogcat, for example.

Problem is random when it does it and I don't install apps too often, but next time I see it, I'll check out LogCat

You can get 'Insufficient storage space' messages if you don't have enough space on the internal SD card for the market to be able to download the APK into a temp or data directory.  When you reboot your phone or exit from certain apps various caches/data directories are cleared, freeing up space on the internal SD card.  This is why this error appears 'randomnly' - because as you use and close apps, the amount of disk space changes.  There are several apps on the market that can force cache clean ups for you.
'Package file is invalid' can occur if you have disk errors or networking errors that corrupt the downloaded file.  This is why this error appears 'randomnly', as SD card file system issues or dropped/bad packets corrupting the file won't occur every time.  FYI, SD card file system errors are often a result of not unmounting the phone properly when connecting it via USB or by yanking the SD card from a reader without unmounting it first ("safely remove hardware" in Windows parlance)

I rarely mount via PC and I don't think I've even ever removed the SD card.


text:
How can I update my HTC Desire when the OTA update is missing?
I have an HTC desire and have Orange as a provider in the UK. The software information displays my firmware version as being "2.1-update1".
I discovered that my phone is not up to date, because after hours of searching I discovered that the reason I cannot find the google app 'phone to chrome' is because the version is not recent enough. There are no updates pending as I have the system software updates check box for schedules updates checked. On checking for updates a message states that there are no updates available for my phone. Is the reason that other users are able to update because they have different devices and service providers? From looking around for update news, my phone should be updating.
From various webpages (example) it is said that this update can be done manually by using HTC sync; is this safe? Are there risks from not getting the update automatically? Or are you only bypassing the service provider in this way and not much harm can be done? A warning that this removes all previous saved data is given, but this will not equate to rooting and voiding any warranties though?

Yes, it's up to the carrier whether to distribute the update over their network, but it looks like the update did roll out on Orange.  Strange that you didn't get it and can't see it.
That said, updating via HTC Sync is perfectly safe and will not void your warranty.  It's nothing like rooting.
I would think you should be able to take it into an Orange location and they'll update it for you, but I would just do it with HTC Sync myself.  Your link is for the 2.3 update, rather than the 2.2 update; I don't know whether you can go directly from 2.1 to 2.3 with that update, but it shouldn't hurt to try.

would me not being able to see updates maybe be due to having unlocked my phone in the past to use foreign sim cards while abroad? And can I still then take it to orange? Thanks

@Vass It shouldn't have affected it, no. Updating won't re-lock you either :)

after installation of the new android update via HTC sync, will I even have a browser installed, or even the android market app to download programs to set it up again? thanks

@Vass Yes, it's an official update with the Google apps.  You're overthinking this :P


text:
How can I read epub or mobi files with Kindle?
I have purchased some ebooks which I have received in both EPUB and MOBI format.
Can I read these MOBI or EPUB files with the Kindle application ?
I copied the MOBI files into the kindle folder, but they do not show up in my Kindle main screen.

I will answer my own question in the hope in helps others: I just had to reboot my device, and now when I start Kindle the MOBI files which I had copied to the Kindle folder are present in the main screen.
So obviously the Kindle application must be restarted when you add ebooks to its folder (without downloading them via the Kindle store).
UPDATE
Added the Kindle folder:
/sdcard/kindle

Force closing and/or clearing the data, does not bring up an EPUB file I just copied to the folder. Will let you know after some more testing.
UPDATE 2
For those interested: the Calibre software, can convert any e-book between numerous formats (including EPB and MOBI). So, if the EPUB format is not recognized, just convert it to MOBI and use the converted file.

You might also need to force a re-scan of the SD Card, so that the app recognizes new media in its folder.

Does this also work for the ePubs? Can you also confirm the path in your answer to the specific Kindle folder where you put them, so it gives others a starting reference?

This worked for me with the .mobi file in the /kindle folder

I was missing everything but force closing and relaunching the app, thanks.

For my Nexus 5x which doesn't have an SD card, I needed to create the folder /storage/emulated/0/kindle and place my .mobi files there.  Opened up Kindle app, and they are there!

If you are wondering where to put those .mobi files (or perhaps any other files that your android kindle app can read) if your Kindle app is located in the external storage (external sd - card), just put them at:
Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files/amzn1.account.x
x: is a 28 characters long string that will be different for each user

As of 2018, Kindle did not recognise epub. So I used a web site to convert it to a mobi. But it still did not recognise it. I remembered that apps now needs runtime permissions to access the virtual SD card. So, it the app properties, I gave it the storage permission, and restarted Kindle. Now, it worked.


text:
How to root lenovo A7000?
I have tried to root lenovo  a7000 a with kingo root application with no success. My computer will be infected due to this method as the download page for apk file forces me to download malicious file.SRS Root claims to support this device but is SRS Root safe? Is there any other way to root my device ?

Please check http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1184/how-do-i-root-my-android-device

@rjt.rockx The link that you mentioned has the name A7000 in the rooting guide index, but its reference is to this question itself. It was last edited few minutes ago before your comment. The gist is that the link isn't helpful to OP here.

This article posted one day ago seems to have worked for some people. The instructions are rather vague though. Proceed at your own peril.

Looks like this tutorial explains the process better. Try it out and see if it helps.

@Vinayak I followed the tutorial. Everything worked fine until the second last step. The download never started(My device is fine)

You're supposed to put the phone's battery back in after you pull it out. That was mentioned in the comments of the first article.

maxritz from XDA Developers has built a ClockWorkMod (CWM) recovery that works for Lenovo A7000-a by porting the CWM recovery for Lenovo K3 Note.
Here's a link to the recovery file: A7000-CWM-Final.zip
You'll need a Windows computer and Smart Phone Flash Tool to flash the recovery file. Instructions on how to flash CWM using SP Flash Tool are listed here and here.
Once you've flashed the CWM recovery, you'll need to get the latest version of SuperSU and flash it by booting into CWM recovery (do that by turning the phone off, depressing the volume keys and then pressing the power button until you boot into CWM) and selecting the ZIP update package.
You can get the latest version of SuperSU in ZIP format here: http://download.chainfire.eu/supersu
According to maxritz, you'll need to delete the recovery-from-boot.p file from the root filesystem /system as it may overwrite the recovery and undo your changes. You could do that by using a file manager app like AROMA Filemanager that works in Android recovery environment. Usage instructions and download links for AROMA are available here.

NOTE: Rooting your phone will most likely result in loss of warranty.

Doesnt work for me...gives me a BROM Error 5054 saying the ROM doesnt match...any help..??

@VineetVerma try following the instructions from this XDA post

@Vinayak...this is not working for me somehow...with volume+ it fails at 5054 BROM Error, but with volume - nothing happens at all...:(...please suggest

@VineetVerma I googled that error and it seems to be associated with flashing incompatible firmware. I can't be of much help here but you should ask for help on the relevant XDA thread. If you're open to alternative solutions, I've had some success rooting phones using KingRoot. Let me know if it works out for you.

@VineetVerma You can also try your luck by flashing firmware available on 4PDA. The instructions are in Russian though.

Try using the Framaroot app. Just Google it, copy it to sd card, enable installation from Unknown sources , and follow the steps it suggests.

I have installed Framaroot. Whenever I open the app it says" Your device seems not vulnerable to exploit included in Framaroot."

Then, try using MTK Droid tools.

@Arun, as suggested here, MTK Droid Tools should help out since it has a root option and is mostly not flagged by antivirus. If it doesn't work, download latest SP Flash Tool (support for mt6752 added), a custom recovery and flash your recovery using that tool. Once you've a custom recovery installed, rooting seems piece of cake. http://androidxda.com/smart-phone-flash-tool

@Firelord I downloaded MTK Droid tools v.2.5.3 from here. I scanned it with antivirus and it contained a threat "Linux.CornelGEN.755". Is it a virus or adware ? The antivirus(Bitdefender 2015) deleted the exe program when I tried to resolve it. Can you (or anyone) please refer a secure source for downloading it? Thank you.

It is secure. I have personally used it to root and install a custom recovery to my device. It uses such things to root your device and access it's kernel.

@Arun, Please try VirusTotal for better answer. https://www.virustotal.com/en/   Other than that, you can minimize the risk if you use Sandboxie application on Windows, but if it is malware for Android, then it should be avoided as sandboxie can't help.

@Firelord As per this page on virustotal , it is classified as Ad ware. Thank you for such a quick response!

That's weird. It worked out fine for me, without any threats. Check whether the file was provided by rua1 himself.

First, I’d like to recommend Framaroot. But it didn’t work for you. So try iRoot for PC version. iRoot has two versions for Android rooting, which are both safe and fast. Basically, the PC version has the higher success rate. But if your Lenovo A7000 is with Android 5.1 and up, it may be still useless.

Can you please find us some posts where users have used this tool successfully on their Lenovo A7000? Every one-click root app depends upon a vulnerability and linking those posts would increase the assurance that the tool is worth trying (as well as taking a risk).

I tried iRoot App..its a spam app...spams ur system with virus and ad apps....never go with that


text:
How to install Google Play services on an Android 7.0 emulator?
I have the stable version of Android N Preview SDK released last month. The emulators are working perfectly but there is no Gapps available for Android N and there is no way I have found to install Google Play Services in the Android N emulators.
Can someone please assist me with installing Google Play Services and/or Gapps on an Android N emulator?

Did you ever get Google Play Services working on a 7.0 emulator? I can get it to work on 7.1.1, but the same method does not work on 7.0.

@gavsiu not yet

I would suggest using OpenGApps and ADB, but there's probably a better solution.


text:
Why don't smartphone vendors ship without unnecessary gapps
I was wondering why smartphone vendors like OnePlus, Samsung etc ship with lot of unnecessary gapps
The user should have the independence or liberty to pick them on their own instead of getting forced and bloating the device with unwanted stuff
Like I understand PlayStore is important but for others we have alternatives. For example.

Google Maps alternative MapMyIndia, Apple Maps
Google Drive alternative Dropbox, Proton Drive etc
YouTube: Not everyone wants it
Play Games: Who needs it. When you can login with Facebook, Twitter or something else?

Actually even Playstore have alternatives like Aptoide and not everyone needs it

Because not everyone wants to care so much about making their phone apps fast or better, just convenient. They want the simplest way to fill their needs. Customer support for devices don't want to have to support everything available, so they supply the one set that costs less in money and supporting manpower. GApps fills the gaps for the customer, the device manufacturer, and the provider.

@wbogacz your reply is not convincing. The logic your gave feels more like a personal opinion

@wbogacz also I have edited the question. I asking more from bloatware point of view

What's bloatware in your opinion might not be so in every user's opinion. Mostly users prefer convenience and availability over anything else. As you are concerned only with bloatware, while in my opinion privacy is an even bigger issue. So vendors don't follow individual's desires, they address a market. But in my opinion the biggest reason behind the inclusion of Google bloatware in OEM devices is business. OEMs are bound in agreements with Google. They get benefits by doing so. Also, being the core developer, Google has a monopoly in Android market.

So Google is paying vendors for bloatware? Otherwise why would oneplus or Samsung make them system apps and not uninstallable?

Google doesn't have to pay the vendors, vendors are already paying Google to get Google Play Service included in their devices. See this answer for a basic understanding: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/216646/218526

Vendors don't explain to public why their product must come with X piece of bloatware or is devoid of it. In its absence, the users are left to analyze vendor's actions and device's performance and behavior to reach some sort of conclusion. Better to ask in private some ex/employee of  a vendor who might have been involved in decision making of shipping X bloat.

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


text:
android's linux kernel scheduling mechanism vs harmony os's deterministic latency engine
I was reading upon Harmony OS and found that android's Linux kernel scheduling mechanism has some limitations as mentioned here: https://harmonyosofficial.com/
From Harmony OS website mentioned above:

Unlike Android which uses the Linux kernel’s scheduling mechanism,
Harmony OS uses a “deterministic latency engine” that provides
“precise resource scheduling with real-time load analysis and
forecasting and app characteristics matching.” The result is a 25.7%
and 55.6% improvement in response latency and latency fluctuation
respectively. In addition, Huawei says the microkernel can make “IPC
[Inter Process Communication] performance up to five times more
efficient than existing systems.”

Video tweet with explanation
https://twitter.com/HuaweiMobile/status/1159725806320594945?s=19
I didn't understand these limitations properly. Can someone explain me in easy words along with the use cases?
How can this Harmony OS's new kernel benefit users/developers? Also, I'm a software engineer so I understand terms like scheduling etc. But I don't know how Linux Kernel does it vs Harmony's kernel

In this statements I don't see any limitation. It is just a statement that the kernel behaves more like a real-time kernel with lower latency. Hence multiple processes have to wait less time before they get CPU time to do whatever they want.

Why can't Linux kernel implement this if it's so good

Usually improvements are a trade-off. Looks like Huawei has optimized the system for IPC however this advantage most likely means that some other part of the scheduling system now faces some disadvantages.

What parts? What is IPC?


text:
Wifi Hotspot dnsmasq no DHCP ACK
I am creating a Wifi hotspot with hostapd and providing DHCP/DNS through dnsmasq on an Android 5.0.1 device.  When a client connects to the Wifi hotspot it is subsequently unable to obtain an IP address through DHCP.  The dnsmasq server claims to send a DHCP ACK response but no packet is seen in wireshark.
dnsmasq is started with the following options (formatted for viewing).
/system/bin/dnsmasq
--keep-in-foreground
--no-resolv
--no-poll
--dhcp-authoritative
--dhcp-option-force=43,ANDROID_METERED
--pid-file
--dhcp-range=2001::2, 2001::10, ra-stateless,infinite
--enable-ra
--dhcp-range=192.168.42.2,192.168.42.254,1h
--dhcp-range=192.168.43.2,192.168.43.254,1h
--dhcp-range=192.168.44.2,192.168.44.254,1h
--dhcp-range=192.168.45.2,192.168.45.254,1h
--dhcp-range=192.168.46.2,192.168.46.254,1h
--dhcp-range=192.168.47.2,192.168.47.254,1h
--dhcp-range=192.168.48.2,192.168.48.254,1h
--dhcp-range=192.168.49.2,192.168.49.254,1h

The dnsmasq logs show that dnsmasq receives the DHCP REQUEST from the client and attempts to respond with DHCP ACK.
I/dnsmasq (10989): started, version 2.62 cachesize 150
I/dnsmasq (10989): compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt no-DBus no-i18n no-IDN DHCP DHCPv6 no-scripts no-TFTP no-conntrack
W/dnsmasq (10989): warning: no upstream servers configured
I/dnsmasq (10989): IPv6 router advertisement enabled
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.49.2 -- 192.168.49.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.48.2 -- 192.168.48.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.47.2 -- 192.168.47.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.46.2 -- 192.168.46.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.45.2 -- 192.168.45.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.44.2 -- 192.168.44.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.43.2 -- 192.168.43.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCP, IP range 192.168.42.2 -- 192.168.42.254, lease time 1h
I/dnsmasq (10989): stateless DHCPv6 on 2001::2
I/dnsmasq (10989): SLAAC on 2001:: prefix valid infinite
I/dnsmasq (10989): read /etc/hosts - 1 addresses
I/dnsmasq (10989): using nameserver 8.8.8.8#53
I/dnsmasq (10989): update ra:true|wlan0|rmnet0|97
I/dnsmasq (10989): internal inf is wlan0
I/dnsmasq (10989): external inf is rmnet0
I/dnsmasq (10989): set table number:97
I/dnsmasq (10989): update_ra count:0
I/dnsmasq (10989): link local address:wlan0
I/dnsmasq (10989): failed to send_ra: face_enumerate, parm.found_context
I/dnsmasq (10989): failed to update ra:send_ra
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCPDISCOVER(wlan0) c0:bd:d1:4a:3a:0f
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCPOFFER(wlan0) 192.168.43.127 c0:bd:d1:4a:3a:0f
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCPREQUEST(wlan0) 192.168.43.127 c0:bd:d1:4a:3a:0f
I/dnsmasq (10989): DHCPACK(wlan0) 192.168.43.127 c0:bd:d1:4a:3a:0f android-e55b7f59c0dfe96

Wireshark shows the reception of the DHCP REQUEST packet from the client but no DHCP ACK is ever sent.  Instead, the host is issuing ARP requests for the offered IP address.

I cannot understand why the host is sending ARP requests for the offered IP address instead of sending the DHCP ACK.  Can anyone help me understand what I am seeing and how it can be fixed?  Thanks.
EDIT
The wifi hotspot was created by monitoring all commands sent to the netd socket during standard wifi hotspot creation through Android and replaying those commands with /system/bin/ndc.
ndc netd softap fwreload wlan0 AP
ndc netd softap set wlan0 Redskins wpa2-psk DanSnyderSucks
ndc netd softap startap
ndc netd interface getcfg wlan0
ndc netd interface setcfg wlan0 192.168.43.1 24 up multicast running broadcast
ndc netd tether interface add wlan0
ndc netd interface getcfg wlan0
ndc netd network interface add local wlan0
ndc netd network route add local wlan0 192.168.43.0/24
ndc netd ipfwd enable
ndc netd tether start 192.168.42.2 192.168.42.254 192.168.43.2 192.168.43.254 192.168.44.2 192.168.44.254 192.168.45.2 192.168.45.254 192.168.46.2 192.168.46.254 192.168.47.2 192.168.47.254 192.168.48.2 192.168.48.254 192.168.49.2 192.168.49.254
ndc netd tether dns set 501 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
ndc netd nat enable wlan0 rmnet0 1 192.168.43.0/24
ndc netd tether ra true wlan0 rmnet0

EDIT
Any suggestions or ideas on where to even begin debugging would be greatly appreciated.  I have tried comparing logcat logs and kmsg logs but I have been unable to exact any useful information.

Ancient question, but I think these commands would have solved your problem:
ip rule add from all lookup main
ip rule add from all lookup default

basically, you have iptables rules stopping packets getting out.   You'd have found the issue if you assigned a static IP address to your client and tried to ping both ways.


text:
Cubot X9 does not turn on after update, also not recognised by computer (unknown device in Device Manager)
I have Cubot X9, ordered from China. after the update it gave me an error.
The phone restarts, but I cannot enter recovery mode. I tried to flash new ROM, but it gave an error.
Now nothing works, and I cannot enter recovery mode.
The PC does not recognize the phone because it is off, I installed the drivers but to no effect.

How to fix this problem?

Try but has no effect; x
There is no VID and PID code, how to find the right driver?


text:
Device does not boot after crash without power plug
In the last few weeks I'm faced with a somehow strange behaviour of my Android device (Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, GT-I9295, Android 4.2.2, Kernel-Version 3.4.0-2015525):
If the phone crashes resulting in power-off when doing some CPU or network intensive task, it is not possible to boot it afterwards unless it is plugged into the power outlet. Even using a so called Battery Power pack as external power supply doesn't help.
In some cases, it boots until the PIN input. In other cases, it completely refuses to boot.
Any suggestion?

Problem solved: the reason was a defect in the battery. There was a small crack over the side of the battery. It was replaced by the shop where I bought the Phone last year.


text:
Galaxy Gio doesn't find GPS satellites after minutes of searching
I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Gio (GT-S5660). When I try to connect to the GPS satellites, 75% of the time the built-in GPS is unable to locate me within a few minutes. I keep seeing the blinking GPS icon. The other 25% of the time I get a GPS signal within 15 seconds.
Is this unusual behavior? If yes, what can I do to find the cause of the problem? Are there any known "death grip" issues related to GPS chips?
I should note that I don't have a data subscription for my phone and I've disabled mobile internet on my device, but I have offline maps (certain areas in Google Maps and my entire country in MapDroid) so the GPS chip should be able to operate without data or WiFi.

I wonder if it's a similar problem to the Galaxy S.  You could try some of the tools from the answer to this, but the rest won't apply.

I discovered an app called GPS Test that assists in finding satellites by showing how many are currently in view. Basically, I just move my phone around until I can pick up enough satellites. Then I hold it still until my position has been locked in. After the lock-in I just use my phone like I normally would.
I look like an idiot when I try to pick up a GPS signal by holding my phone up weirdly, but at least it works now.
For those of you who are interested, you can find a full write-up of my solution here. You can download the app for free on the Google Play Store.
By the way, I'm on Gingerbread now. Samsung has released an official update since I posted my question a few weeks ago. As far as I can tell, the GPS reception didn't improve after updating.

Apparently Samsung has a lot of problems handling the GPS feature.
It is no news that the Galaxy S is really flawed regarding location (see this). Personally, using one, I have felt the pain, as I had the same problems. I don't know if the problem is the same with the Gio, but some of the things I've tried were:

Turn GPS off and then back on;
Reboot the phone;
Bang my head on the wall.

It also appears that the problem tends to be resolved by upgrading the OS. What is yours?
More: there are several ways to reduce the GPS problem on the SGS, check that thread out, I hope you get some ideas for your problem.
Personally, I don't think the "death grip" is a problem, nevertheless you can make some tests to check out if it really makes a difference (I actually don't know where the GPS receiver is located within the phone).
The fact that you have no Internet connection is also not a factor.
Also make note that you can obtain a course location via network triangulation and/or wifi networks.

I'm on 2.2 Froyo, waiting for an official Gingerbread update.

Without a data plan you actually have two big problems with GPS.
Firstly without a dataplan the coarse location via network triangulation or wifi networks won't work properly, as your phone needs to query Google's central database of phone network tower IDs, Wifi point IDs and their location, this is a huge amout of data that's updating constantly, so your phone only ever has a small cache of recent data for the location near where it was last needed. This means that with no dataplan your phone can't quickly get your rough location to help it out (coarse location is accurate to anywhere from about 30m to 2 miles depending on your location, better in more urban areas, and you're missing out on this).
If you have no data then another problem you'll have is that your phone will almost never have the current assisted GPS data. The GPS satellites periodically transmit an almanac of all their current, precise actual locations (which can vary from their predicted locations by quite a long way for various reasons), this data is only transmitted by the satellites on a very slow bandwidth transmission, rebroadcasting a few times an hour. Most phones just connect to a server over the internet to quickly grab this almanac data, yours needs to wait until it's received the entire message from the satellites before it can properly calculate your location.

Is it feasible to cache some of this information beforehand, if only just for a certain radius around a certain lat/long coordinate?

@Pieter The assisted GPS data can be downloaded and cached beforehand over Wifi and this is valid worldwide for a few days (you can use an app  like GPS Status that will tell you how old the data is, and will force a download if necessary https://market.android.com/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2) the wifi/cell tower data is only valid for fairly small geographical areas, so I don't know how you'd cache that in advance for travelling.

After downloading the assisted GPS data, I still had trouble connecting to the GPS satellites.

I have Galaxy 3 (GT-I5800) and 7" Galaxy Tab at hand, and I can confirm their GPS performance is abysmal. It also seems to deteriorate over time.. unless I'm imagining things.
The best way to get lock is to be outside, stand still and open the Google Maps. It can still take minutes and sometimes it just doesn't get lock at all, but if you move, or start some random Android app first, you can keep going for half an hour and not get a lock once.
My guess is that Samsung engineers are just plain bad at designing GPS antennas and the software side is not brilliant either.
I don't know how the GPS could get worse over time except some connector coming loose or drivers accumulating crappy data, but that's how it feels in practice. The effect remained the same on the Galaxy 3 after upgrade from Android 2.1 to 2.2. If anything, it went worse.

If your net is enable, The agps module would be active, which can accelerate satellites searching. In my experience, if your apgs is active, you would locate your location in 5s~10s(find day). That only gps locate your location is so slow that any guys can`t bear it. :-). So, try enable your wifi/3G net.
By the way， the gps chip manufacturer provide an agps server, your mobile pad will connect this server by your net while you start gps location. Sometimes, the server can not be accessed， but it`s little possibility.
May good luck!

I found out that I can access GpsTest2 (similar to LbsTestMode) using the access code
*#*#3214789650#*#*

Could this help in trying any possible fixes? My default settings are M-Based, supl.google.com:7276.

I also recently purchased the Galaxy Gio S5660 and was quite disappointed as it seemed the GPS did not work at all.
I had to enable the location assist just to get some form of location that seemed vaguely accurate and even then its best only went to 120m accuracy.
I installed both GPS Test (as mentioned by Pieter above) and GPSFix from the android store and now I get up to 4m accuracy indoors. I have not tested this in real navigation conditions as yet but the change so far is very impressive.
It seems both GPS Test and GPSFix improve the AGPS functionality by updating some information on the phone. GPS Test does this via the menu - Settings - Update AGPS. To check I restarted the phone and then tried GPS Test again. Within 20 seconds I had a fix with 4m accuracy. I was not moving during my tests which can also have an impact as suggested by others.
I also have the Galaxy S2 and found that the S2 detect the satellites from the same location with much better strength. This to me indicate the antenna of the Gio is not that good. I attempted to change the position of the phone, removed the back cover,  and tried some strange looking stances but no real improvement.
My phone configuration:

Samsung Galaxy Gio GT-S5660
Android: 2.2.1
Baseband: S5660XXKB9
Kernel: 2.6.32.9-perfroot@DELL104 #1
Build: FROYO.XXKC4

Typing *#*#3214789650#*#* worked for me
once gpstest2 opens up you can then go to commands->Get position
it gave me lock on some satellites and i was able to get my accurate position in maps without WiFi and gprs
I also found a useful app in android market known as 'gpsFix' which pretty much does the same thing but it had trouble finding satellites when i was indoors.

try installing "gps booster" from the android market (nay, google play).
It runs automatically once you start your gps and enhances the performance of the in-built GPS unit.
To maintain a gps lock you can also consider installing tracker booster. it's easy to use and can be run in the background.
I hope this helps.

There are two GPS Booster apps, this by Snowak and this by octy. Which do you refer to?

I find it hard to believe that an app could improve the GPS performance.

@Flow Likewise. My end goal here is to improve the answer by placing the links, saving future readers the effort of search the apps.

@Zuul This was not meant to be criticism or alike. I can't even rule out that the apps do in fact work. It was just meant as side note.


text:
What is the difference between Fastboot and HBoot mode?
and why can't I see an option to boot into recovery mode on my HTC Hero (Orange UK)?  Is it already in recovery mode when I can see the Fastboot/HBoot menu?
Initial menu after holding vol-down when booting:

Initial menu after holding vol-down when booting (click image to enlarge)
If I press back, I get the following screen:

(Click image to enlarge)

Where are you looking for the option to boot into your recovery?

I thought I might see it as an option on the skateboard screen.

Do you have Bootloader as an option on your HBoot menu? When I select that on my EVO (it's the first choice) it takes me to another menu, which has Fastboot, Recovery, and a couple of other things to select. Choosing Recovery on the second screen would be what you want.

Do you know what partition(s) the skateboard screen loads from? (boot? boot+system? )

I'm not sure where it lives, actually. I don't think it's on either of those, though, since I've overwritten both without modifying my HBoot at all. Yours is definitely different than my EVO's, too. On what would be the equivalent of your first screenshot I have four options to choose from. I also have an "engineering" version of HBoot, but I don't know if that would add extra menu items or not.

"HBoot" mode is something of a misnomer, really, that I usually see when people mean "reboot into your HBoot menu". I think the reason these got conflated to each other is because Fastboot mode activates by default when you land on HBoot on most (possibly all) HTC phones. They do exist separately, though, as devices without an HBoot menu can still have a fastboot mode. This is definitely a little confusing, though, since what's really happening is that you're getting rebooted into HBoot which is then immediately loading Fastboot. You should be able to get to the bootloader's main screen by selecting Bootloader from the Fastboot screen.
Essentially, though, HBoot is just a bootloader, which gives you the ability to chain-boot into several other partitions or modes (including fasboot). I say it's not really a "mode" because it doesn't really allow for any interaction, it just loads and waits for you to choose something else from the menu (with one exception, see below).
HBoot also has the ability to install a properly named and signed zip file if placed on the root of your SD card, which it will attempt to do right after the bootloader has fully loaded. This seems to have been designed as a sort of last-ditch reflash method, and used to be a part of several manual rooting methods on HTC phones (which is now largely unnecessary). The exact naming convention depends on your device, but they're usually of the form PC[some number]IMG.zip.
Fastboot mode is the state your device goes into so that it can accept fastboot commands, which largely deal with manually flashing partitions on the device. Notably, you can flash unsigned partition images when in fastboot. It's handy for recovery purposes, but also useful for development and generally hacking around (depending on what you're doing). You can read a bit about the details of fastboot here.
Your "recovery mode" (or recovery partition) is different from HBoot. It is a separate partition on your device which contains a very basic kernel and GUI that can be used to repair and/or restore your system, with the features varying depending on the exact recovery you are using. Typically a manufacturer will ship their devices with their own "stock" recovery, but there are many custom ones available which are more robust. There is a related Android Enthusiasts question which also discusses this.

For Nexus One, fasboot is not active when HBOOT menu is shown.


text:
How can I override the Device Administrator security policy so that I can disable the lock screen?
On Android 2.2 Froyo, I added my Corporate Exchange Email account to the phone, however, the security policy set by the "Device Administrator" requires that I enter a 4-digit PIN at the lock screen and a maximum 10 seconds idle.
How can I hack my Android, through root access or otherwise, such that I do not need to follow this security policy. I am very annoyed at having to enter the PIN every time I want to use the phone, because I open/close it so often through out the day?

The proper way to do this is to ask your administrator to change the policy, and if you don't agree with their policy then don't attach your phone to their server. Also 10 seconds idle time is incredibly harsh, you must be able to make a legitimate case with them to change this. You might aslo find this previous question helpful http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1568/remove-corporate-settings

If you buy the TouchDown app (30 day free trial available), the lock code will not be on the phone, but on the app. That's ever so much better.

Yeah except touchdown sucks and it doesn't actually sync with your other email or calendar.  You have to USE touchdown.

There is an altered version of the 2.2 email app here that disables the security features.  You need root to replace the app with this.
Originally posted as a comment by hagope

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


text:
What is my phone doing when the boot takes a long time?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S with stock Android 2.3.3 (with carrier modifications, regretfully).
Usually, when I reboot the phone, it shows the boot animation for a few seconds, then goes to the lock screen while it finishes booting.  Every once in a while (though more often lately than it used to), the boot animation screen gets stuck for about 5 minutes before showing me the lock screen.
This happens both on clean boots (i.e. shutting it down from the power button menu and then restarting) as well as when the phone freezes and I restart it, or when it crashes.
What is the phone doing at this time?
Why does it do it sometimes and not at other times?
How can I avoid this?

Download and install the Android SDK.  On your handset's manufacturer website find and download USB drivers for your device, and install them.  On your phone go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development and enable the USB debugging option.  Now when connect the phone to your PC via USB, you should see the "USB debugging connected" ongoing notification.
On your PC (I'm assuming Windows) start command prompt by going to Start -> Run, typing "cmd" and pressing enter.  Navigate to the "platrofm-tools" sub-folder of where you installed the Android SDK (e.g. "C:\AndroidSDK") by typing the following:

cd C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools

and press enter.  Now issue the following command:

adb devices

and press enter.  If everything was installed correctly, the adb service will start and show your connected handset's serial number:

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
  * daemon started successfully *
  List of devices attached
  HT035xxxxxxxx    device

You can now issue the adb logcat command to review your handset's logs in real-time.  Reboot while your handset is still plugged into USB (you will need to re-issue the adb logcat command when the phone restarts) and you will be able to see what your phone is doing during those long boot-up sequences.

If I had to guess, I would guess it runs fsck. On Linux and EXT3/FAT filesystems there's no way to check the file system when it's being used, so it's usually checked on boot.
However, it taking 5 minutes on such small disk sounds abnormal. Be sure to have backups of all data you have on your phone, it's possible that the hardware is failing.
If you have a memory card in it, it might make sense to take it out and run some diagnostics for it on a real computer. If the problem is in internal memory of the phone, then, well, apart from rooting the device it's hard to know.

AFAIR Samsung does not use EXT3. It uses a proprietary file system called "RFS".

Ext3FS is not a "de-facto" standard in stock ROMs (including Carrier modified ROMs, ie with carrier's bloatware) and assuming that it exists - see this answer I posted previously on different but similar subject matter. Ext3FS is more commonly seen on full-blown Linux desktops - not smartphones... hence -1 from me :)

t0mm13b: If the phone runs FAT variant, the result is the same. Linux cannot check filesystems when they are mounted, thus root filesystem can only be checked on boot time.

You can use the live boot app by chainfire, it will show you what your phone is doing while it's booting. It needs a rooted phone with SuperSU installed.


text:
How much battery does using live wallpapers drain?
I know they are unnecessary, but they look so cool!

Different wallpapers drain the battery differently. It really depends on how many different factors the wallpaper is paying attention to. Is it just being pretty or is it altering itself based on every movement of your phone?
The best way to find out is to simply test it yourself. Spend one charge of your phone running a live wallpaper. When you get near the end of the battery charge, open up your phone's settings. Go to "About Phone" -> "Battery" -> "Battery Use". This screen will show you all services that have used up more than 2% of your battery's charge.
Your first reaction will probably be that it is taking up a lot when you see "Display" draining the most but that isn't taking into account wallpaper. The live wallpaper, if it has used more than 2% (some don't), will show up as it's own service.
They will pull more than a normal wallpaper (that's a given) but some won't effect it the battery charge nearly as much as say your widgets or the brightness of the display. Turn down the brightness and you could probably offset the difference in battery charge of running a live wallpaper.


text:
HTC One M8 - Locked after Android 6 update
So, I received a marshmallow update which buggered up the phone. After boot, it kept on saying android.process.acore has stopped with Google+ and an infinite loop asking me to report the error.
I don't know what I did but now I just get a screen saying:
*** Software Status: Modified ***
*** LOCKED ***
*** Security Warning ***
M8_UL PVT SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-319.0.0000

I'm stuck on this screen and none of the options do anything.

Hboot
Ramdump
Reboot
Reboot Fastfoot
Power down

What is going on?

Can you consider forcefully powering off the phone? Since unplugging battery is not an option for your device, try long-pressing the power button for few seconds until the device stops working. After that, boot into [tag:recovery] and do factory reset. (The OTA upgrade is actually a dirty flash.) Let us know the results.

Thanks for replying. It does not boot into safe mode. It is currently on the setup screen (after update), I can't get past wifi options. All the google apps are crashing constantly (bringing error report popup), as a result the phone crashes.

No, not safe mode but [tag:recovery] mode. Both are vastly different things.

Sorry... Are you talking about the the recovery mode in bootloader options? If so like i stated in the question, none of the options do anything. The phone just boots into the bootloader again.

You probably need to find the current RUU and run it, it will restore your phone to out of box condition, except current release of software.

Any instructions on how to do that? I have absolutely zero knowledge regarding these topics.

I have recently discovered the same problem. Here are the steps which helped in my case (un-rooted phone just stopped loading after vacations):

I plugged in the cable to PC-USB. Th phone was not recognized.
I pressed on the phone something like "checksmartsd"
The phone was recognized by the PC and started as usual.

By "reboot" everything was fine. By "shut down" and "launch" the menu appeared again (phone not plugged to the pc). I chose the same "checksmartsd" and it worked.
I have no idea why it worked. I hope it helps somebody.
Best,
Eugene


text:
How accurate is google gps location?
How accuate is location data using gps?
My partner went to visit his young daughter at her mother's house, he says he stayed there for 30-40 mins. However, his gps location showed him going to the house, staying there for less than 10 minutes, and then leaving. By pressing the locate button on the device manager I could see the gps recorded location moving in real time. (With his permission to do this btw, his daughter's mother is still in love with him and has no respect for our relationship or our family.)
This matters to me because she wanted him to take her somewhere, but he said he is just going to see his daughter and not running around after her taking her where she wants to go.
So how likely is it that he stayed at her house for 30-40 mins when gps location shows him going up the road, being at the house for around 5 mins and then going back down the road.
I know it can be a bit out because when we are home, it shows a small, dark circle and our house is not within that circle but across the street.
Edit: no its a different issue because he definately was at the location (her house).
The issue is that he says he stayed at the location for 30-40 mins before going on to his next destination and the gps data says otherwise. It says he was there for 4-5 mins and then went to his next destination, which is about 30 minutes away from her house and all the time the location was quite specific, only a couple of cars length and width. So if he really stayed at her house for 30-40 mins then the gps was tracking him going to his next destination when he was still at her house which seems unlikely.

What could be happening is that when he entered the house, the phone cannot get a GPS fix inside the house, so it reverted to network location. Network location can be off by many miles depending on the density of cell towers on the location.
The only time that Google Location history can record accurate location while indoor is if the house has a Wi-Fi hotspot and the Wi-Fi is recorded in Google's database.
When I lived in a house where the only Wi-Fi hot spot was very weak, my location history often shows me to be in a neighboring district, an area that I have never been at. When I lived in an apartment with large number of hotspots around though, indoor location can be pretty accurate.

In my personal experience, it's pretty darn accurate. I use Google Location History to help track my time sheets, and I can easily see the exact time I walked out the door at my client and got in my car and drove to lunch, and then from there to my next client, and so on. I'd say the worst it could be is a minute or two off.
The only time I've seen it wildly inaccurate is when I had my tablet also reporting location services from home. Then I saw constant spikes between the two locations throughout the entire day until I disabled it.

authors: عبد النبي معوض


text:
Google maps audio navigation isn't working
I have a Samsung Galaxy S6. When driving somewhere, I start navigating in  Google Maps, and the route appears on the screen, but there are no audio (spoken) directions. Bizarrely, the only time anything is said is "you have arrived" once I reach my destination.
The problem isn't something obvious like audio being muted because when I play a test sound I do hear it. I have Android version 7.0 and Google Maps 9.69.1 installed.

under map settings > navigation > voice selection - check if it set to default and also disable Google voice detection ( sometimes that messes up , though not supposed to)


text:
retrieving and classifying Notes with time and date of creation
I wrote hundreds of messages in 'Notes' of my smartphone (the system app), and I would like to retrieve them and put them in a CSV file, (or Excel) with one column for the content of the message, and another with time and date of creation of the note. Is it possible?
My device is Huawei Y330-U01
Android 4.2.2

Maybe, maybe not. To give a good answer on that, we need a few more details: which device and Android version are you using? There are hundreds of "Notes" apps, and each manufacturer makes its own choice for each of its devices (well, almost). Also: is your device rooted? Can you use ADB? What OS are you using on your computer? These details help for "unconventional solutions". Good luck!

My device is Huawei Y330-U01
Android 4.2.2

Possible duplicate of Get notes created using "Notes" default app and export them to PC

It is possible (at least in my device)  and I've provided a generalized idea using my Mediatek device running Android 4.2.1.
The idea is very simple. Most of the notes apps I tried so far stores the notes inside a .db file located in their personal space under /data. We have to get the relevant .db file(s) and then export it into a .csv file.
For a non-rooted device

Find the package name of your "Notes" app. You can use ADB command by launching the app in the foreground and entering the following ADB command from PC:
adb shell dumpsys activity | grep mFocused | awk -F 'u[0-9]+ ' '{print($2)}' | cut -d '/' -f 1

The output shown for my device was:
com.mediatek.notebook

It is possible that the aforesaid command may not work for your device, so either you troubleshoot it by yourself, or install an app like OS Monitor → launch your "Notes" app → launch OS Monitor → locate your "Notes" app amongst the processes and tap on it to see the value corresponding to Process.
Suggested by Izzy -- If all else fails, then try App Browser or Adebar to find package name. I tried the former and it does the job nicely.
Take backup of your "Notes" app by issuing the following ADB command:
adb backup <PACKAGE>

where <PACKAGE> is the package name of the app whose backup you want to take. The file will be saved as backup.ab in the directory from where ADB is executed.
In my case, I ended up with the backup file backup.ab (~1.7KiB) in my Home directory of GNU/Linux using the command:
adb backup com.mediatek.notebook

This step is needed because I'm unaware (as a non-root user) of any other way to get my hands on an app's internal files residing in /data.
The .ab file cannot be opened in my PC so I used Android Backup Extractor (see usage in its README.txt) to convert into .tar archive which then can be opened by any archive viewer (like Ark, WinRAR, and so on).
Some other methods to unpack the .ab file are mentioned here.
Open the converted file (.tar for me) and locate .db file under apps→<PACKAGE>→db→<.db>.
Open that .db in an SQL viewer like DB Browser for SQLite. You can then export the file into .csv using File → Export → Table(s) as CSV file.

For a rooted device:

You can either follow all the aforementioned instructions, or copy the .db file(s) from /data/data/<PACKAGE>/databases/<.db> into your PC and proceed with aforesaid step 5.
You may try SQLite Editor to view the database(s) directly on Android if you only intend to see the content of your "Notes" app, since data and creation time probably would be visible in .db file.

We're good to go now!

My method works on user installed apps like Notes or Simplenote as well.


text:
"Can't reach Google at the moment" when using Google Now
I have Nexus 4 running on Lollipop 5.0. Everytime I input a command via voice, or typing to set a reminder in Google Now, I get

Can't reach Google at the moment

I've changed languages from English (US) to English (IN) with no results.
Does anybody know a fix for this? Alternatively, is there another way to set reminders via voice command just like Google Now?

Anyone searching for a fix either refer to the answer or you can check the discussion at https://productforums.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!msg/nexus/eoGV3ReWCrQ/wD3mcZL3zF8J

I only had this problem while connected to my home wifi.  It would only work once in a blue moon.  The other voice to text functions worked fine though.
I decided to log into my router and change the default DNS servers to some free opendns servers.  Fixed the problem right away.  Hope this helps someone.

I have the note 4 and I had to go into settings >> Accounts >> Google >> Search. There the option 'Voice & Audio Activity' was paused. I selected and turned the switch on 'On' and google voice search is back into action.

In Google now cards...Settings>Now Cards>Delete card preferences
This will disable now cards.
Re-enabling will bring it back.

Does this fix the issue or is it just for disabling Now?


text:
How can I put my Nexus 7 back to factory default ?
I have a Nexus 7, that I rooted and upgraded once, but it now seems that something changed it. As it is registered in Google Play, there are way too many applications that I cannot install on it. I keep seeing statuses like "This item is not compatible with your device." while it was listed as being compatible with the tablet, as it was even analyzed in a magazine for the nexus 7.
I am ready to put it back to factory defaults, as it came out of the box. Where can I find the files to put it back ? I am familiar with CWM, and ADB.
Thanks :-)

Have a look at one of these toolkits, they each have an option for installing a stock rom back on to your device. Have included links to osx, windows and linux:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1837401 (mac)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809195 (pc)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1848036 (linux)

Actually, I am using Linux most of the time (at least the time I can play on my tablet). I'm stuck with Windows at work.

I've added a link to a Linux toolkit :)

Since it is a Nexus device, you don't have to root it.  Google supplies factory images for the Nexus Devices at https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
With these images, you'll be able to reset your Nexus 7 back to factory default.


text:
How do I know when "adb backup" is finished?
I have a non-rooted Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and I wanted to try the "adb backup" feature. Possibly in preparation for rooting, but that's not really relevant to the question.
I want to back up everything.
I used this command on a Windows 7 command line:
adb backup -apk -shared -all -f c:\mybackup.ab
My phone prompted me for my password, which I entered, and clicked the button to begin the backup.
I let it run for several minutes, and the cmd window returned to C: prompt.
On the phone, it was still flipping through filenames.
At some point, it stopped flipping through filenames but the back up selection buttons were still greyed out.
C:\mybackup.ab existed, and was about 1GB in size, which is significantly smaller than I thought it should be, especially since I said to back up the apk files and the whole "shared" space (/mnt/sdcard).
What should I see (on the PC and on the phone) when the backup process completes?
How long should I wait, if I estimate I'm using about 10GB of the 32GB of space?
Edit: ... and/or is that the wrong set of command line arguments?

I tried running it a second time, got a different filesize (more like 1.7GB) when it had returned to prompt, and my phone had its screen off and was unresponsive until a few seconds after i hit the power button and saw the boot animation (but not the google logo, like a "soft reboot")

Are you sure that the adb backup command is fully supported on an unrooted device? My only experience is using Galaxy Nexus Toolkit, and that gave me issues with backing up when I was not root. If it tries to backup protected system partitions, it will probably be denied.

I thought that was the whole point of adb backup, from what I read about it on the Googlenet. If I were already rooted, I would use a more robust backup tool like Titanium.  If I can't get adb backup working, then it's not the end of the world; it's just a big pain to reinstall everything (especially where the Amazon appstore is involved) and restore settings manually... and lose "critical" things like my Angry Birds progress.

If adb backup tries to backup things like /system it will fail for sure on an unrooted device.

I will try explicitly excluding /system and see if it makes more progress.

Tried again with -nosystem and it completed. The file size was 7.5GB which definitely sounds closer to correct, and the backup process actually exited on the phone. Can one of you please post your comment as an answer so I can mark it as "best"?

Done! Tried to write as much as I can :)

The adb backup command won't work fully on an unrooted device as it will attempt to backup things like the /system partition, and without root access the phone will deny you this for safety reasons. I'm glad to hear running it with the -nosystem flag worked out for you :)
If you want to do a complete backup you need to be rooted. The /system partition, according to this page:

contains the entire operating system, other than the kernel and the ramdisk. This includes the Android user interface as well as all the system applications that come pre-installed on the device. Wiping this partition will remove Android from the device without rendering it unbootable, and you will still be able to put the phone into recovery or bootloader mode to install a new ROM.

This means that your backup does not include anything related to your operating system, only your apps and their settings. If you decide to root your device, you can create a very solid backup from CWM Recovery where all partitions are backed up to the sdcard on the device, including the system and boot partitions.

Ended up here after trying the steps HERE. I'm linking because this is a key detail for those of us trying to backup a non-rooted phone (like the Verizon Note 4). Should the file size change as backup occurs? I decided to do -shared also and the phone is just sitting there on "Shared storage" with no file change. Wondering if that's expected behavior.

I think the ability to adb backup /system varies on a per ROM basis.

I know this is really old, but I just want to add that the phone should explicitly tell you that the backup is done using a toast notification, in the same way it does to show that the job started.
Also, in my case, with a non-rooted phone, it would get stuck trying to backup a specific app and the shared storage. To solve the first problem, I got a list of packages using this command and simply remove the failing one and the flag -all from the command:
http://www.digitalinternals.com/mobile/android-adb-list-installed-package-names/416/


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Is there any way to shoot a full sphere panorama (horizontal + vertical)?
I've tried a few apps for shooting panoramas on my Android device (Galaxy S4), but I cannot find one that is able to shoot both horizontally and vertically.
I would like to be able to capture a whole room, to eventually be used as a custom Google Maps Street View panorama on a website.  Is there any way to accomplish this?

You can do this with your native camera app. But you have to have JB 4.2 (Not 4.1.x).

Go to the camera. Tap on the camera icon and pick the item that looks like a small globe with a panorama stretched over it. That's the Photo Sphere mode.
Take a picture as usual.
Keep your camera steady.
You should see a message to align your camera with the blue dot. Tilt your camera up, down, left, or right slowly to match the center of the screen with the blue dot for the next area. The picture will snap automatically when you get there.
Keep going for as long as you wish to take as many images as possible and make your complete Photo Sphere.

Note: this may look a little weird if you try to take pictures of people, since they tend to move between shots. Landscapes and interior shots are your best bets.

Google calls this a "Photosphere" if I recall.

Samsung didn't include the stock Android camera software with my S4, but I was able to install it easily.  No root required.  The APK filename was SGS4_Photosphere_Gallery.apk, and I found it at http://d-h.st/tK6.

Something worth stressing: keep your phone in the same spot, and rotate it. Don't rotate yourself, or otherwise move the phone from its starting position in space, or that'll mess it up. It's easier if you have something like a tripod you can use to ensure it stays in the same place.