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Android phone doesn't pops up with "USB connected" message
We have a Samsung GT i5800 with Android 2.1update1.
When I put a memory card in it, it recognizes it, great!
But: When I want to connect the phone via USB to my PC: this picture DOESN'T comes up:

And I can't see my memory card through my phone from my PC!
On other phones, the memory card is OK. (tried another android phone).
The USB cable is good, tried it with another phone.
What could be the problem? Are there any settings that I missed?

You should check your USB connection mode. This can be found in Settings -> Wireless and network -> USB Settings. This should be set to Mass storage to access the memory card. Alternatively, you can use the debugging mode by selecting Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging. After this plug your phone in to the USB, open the notification bar and tap the USB debugging notification to get to mount your drives.

I can't find this in the menu: "Settings -> Wireless and network -> USB Settings". And no matter if I turn OFF or ON the USB debugging, it still doesn't pop's up, to mount :\

Do you get the USB Debugging icon in the notification bar when you plug the phone in with debugging enabled?

after RESETING the phone to default settings, turning on the usb debbuging worked!! :)

Check Settings -> Applications -> USB Settings or Settings -> About Phone -> USB Settings, rather than the network settings.
I would also try a different USB cable, just to make sure, as well as a different USB port and a different computer if you can.  You can try wiggling the connector in the device as well and see if it makes proper contact intermittently.
As Al notes here this sort of problem seems to come up pretty often with Sasmsung phones, so you might just be out of luck.  If all else fails, though, I would try a factory reset.

Cable change worked for me.

I had the same issue with 2 Galaxy Mini. No matter what I tried, the USB notification did not appear when connecting the USB cable to 3 different ports in 2 PCs.
Solution:

Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging: enable
Changed the USB cable; maybe it had good fabric, but it was faulty.

With a new cable and the point 1., the USB notification now appears like a charm, as usual.
For me, SOLVED.
HTH

Wow, cable change worked for me! (My old cable worked for my computer. My coworker's cable worked for his. But my cable didn't work for his computer. Boggles the mind.)

Changing the USB cable did it for me. I had forgotten that there are two types of USB cables:

charging only, no data lines
charging AND data, has additional wires

If you are using the charging only cable, you will never see the USB notification.

This might happen if you have faulty USB cable, try using a different cable.
Sometimes the cable might appear to work because the "charging" lightning icon will appear at top, however it will work only for charging and won't work for data transfer.

HTC Incredible 2 (Android 2.3.3):

Settings -> Connect to PC -> Default connection type.

Where you can choose from

Charge only
HTC Sync
Disk drive
Mobile Broadband Connect
Media sync
Internet pass-through

Settings -> Connect to PC

Also has an option

Ask me
Ask me about USB connection type whenever I connect my phone to a PC

When connected to a PC there is also a message in the notification area, that provides quick access to the Connection type settings.

Go to Settings → Storage and you will see a USB symbol. Tap it → select Media and now you will be able to transfer file.


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Delayed updates on Facebook
I am sending messages on Facebook using my mobile (Samsung Galaxy Pop) wi-fi. Other person is using a desktop or laptop. There is a delay in the update of the conversation ... not real time updates happening like any other chat-box happening between computers.
Would there be a delay in the update of the messages?
Why am I getting delay in update of my messages?
Is it related to Android wi-fi?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/13030/how-do-i-enable-push-notifications-for-facebook-for-android/13032

I'm pretty sure it's just that the app is buggy.  Push messages have never worked right for me either.  The latest version of the Facebook app (released in the last week or two) is better, but not perfect.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Picture Frame widget resized
The size for the picture frame widget originally was 3x3. Now, inexplicably, it is only 2x2. How can I change it back or pick what size a widget should be?
I've created cue cards perfectly readable at 3x3 but at 2x2 too small to view the diagrams/text.

Powering off and back on restored the 3x3 picture size... makes no sense, but it worked.

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


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How can you set a default calendar to use for new events on a LG Android 2.2.1 phone?
My wife bought a LG-P350 phone running Android 2.2.2.
Is it possible to set the default calender to use when entering new appointments using the agenda application ?
She added the google account of my son to her accounts, and now , every time a new appointment is created, the last agenda of my son's account is selected.
I have found no obvious way to change this default.
I don't know if this is the stock application of Android.

Same with my LG-P920 with Android 2.2.2, is this an LG specific thing?

As no one is answering this question, I presume it is not possible.
So I looked for another solution and found the Business Calender Free edition. This program not only displays a very nice monthly calender, but , most important, let you choose which colour you want to use for each agenda you want to display.
Very impressive indeed.
Just thought I'd let you know ...

Thanks! I was looking for a way to prevent accidentally adding personal events to my shared work calendar. Ironic that the app that enables me to do that is called "Business Calendar" :).


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Can't find Package and Tools buttons on the top part of the Android SDK Manager
I have Eclipse installed on Ubuntu with the Android SDK and latest JDK and JRE. I'm trying to manage add-on sites in the Android SDK Manager, but I can't find the two tabs for Packages and Tools as I normally do on my Windows PC with the same settings.
I also tried installing the ADT bndle, but still the same thing.
This is a screenshot of what I have:

This is what I'm expecting:

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, and any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

Is the menu bar at the top of the screen, instead of inside the window? That's how Unity (the desktop environment in Ubuntu) works.

Sorry i dont quite understand you question...however i cant see the packages and tool tabs in any case

hi you are right! the question mark in your answer confused me a bit...i thought you were asking me (foolishly)..thank youuu


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How do I Change the Font Text Style in Sony Experia M without rooting phone?
I want to change the default font style on Sony xperia M without rooting my phone. How do I do this?

A good start would be the most frequented questions tagged "font". Have you checked them? Though, without root, I'm afraid you wont have much luck.

Here's a link that covers some methods for changing the system font on some android phones without root, I don't know if it works on your phone as well: http://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-change-the-fonts-on-your-android-phone-32078/

You will find many answer for your question.But here is the simplest way which is I have used.

Root your Xperia M (Use towelroot,Root checker,SuperSu)
Install iFont.(Other apps may not able to change font.Your phone will just rebooted)
It will reboot your phone.
And Here it is your font will be seen changed.


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Will Factory Reset remove root?
I got my Samsung Galaxy Y rooted a month ago. Will a Factory Reset harm the phone? Will it still have root?

No, Factory Reset will not remove root. However, you will lose all your data and all the apps that you installed. It will be good as new. Files in the external SD card will remain.
When the phone boots after a Factory Reset, you will be asked to log-in to your Google account again.

Thanks.
After factory reset i can't seem to find google play services on play store,which got uninstalled after reset,youtube too is not working i guess it needs play services
Tried downloading the apk but it would not install
Can you help

@Uzair In Settings > Security, make sure Unknown sources is checked so you can install the APK.


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Xposed Framework with KitKat ART?
I have an SGS-I8190 with CM11 from http://maclaw.pl/
I explored the Xposed Framework, but it is not compatible with ART. It switches back to the old buggy and lame Dalvik. XDA says, that ART provides a Bootloop in addition to xposes.
Is a workaround to use both, or do I have to live with either one?

As of this moment, it is a known fact (not necessarily an issue) that the Xposed framework DOES NOT WORK with ART.
So, you either:

Stay with Dalvik runtime, and get the advantage of using Xposed; OR
Uninstall Xposed framework, and get the advantage of using ART

After installing Xposed, the runtime gets reset from ART to Dalvik. Can you stop it please?
You can be glad that I implemented this, otherwise you would be in a
  bootloop know. Xposed isn't compatible with ART (yet). It's a
  completely different architecture with pretty much no documentation.
  Rewriting Xposed for the ART runtime requires understanding the
  concept, the code structure and many details to know how it works. I
  have already spent dozens of hours on that and some things are
  working. But still it's a long way ahead. Don't expect even a test
  version in the near future. So please don't ask when it will be
  available - you will surely know when it is ready. I have nothing else
  to say about that.


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Will Android be able to install OS updates without Google account?
I am working with android phones at work, we want to remove all google accounts from the phones before we give it to our customers.
I know that the phones are not able to receive app updates, but what about os update from android?

OS updates are provided by the device manufacturer. They are retrieved directly by the device and don't require any user account.
The only requirement for an OS update is a working Internet connection and enough free space on the device.

I would correct it to device manufacturer and / or ROM developer.

Adding to the answer Android plans to provide security patch updates through play store in future called project "Mainline", so with advent of android Q you will probably need to have a Google account to install at least security updates. Also Google has been trying hard to streamline the OS update procedure across vendors so you never know.
Hope my answer added some value.

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


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How do you set up a contact on a Motorola Moto G7 Power to dial in with pauses to a conference call?
How do you set up a contact on a Motorola Moto G7 Power to dial in with pauses to a conference call?
I'm helping a colleague with her phone. We're all working remotely and we are dialing in for conference calls. To dial in, one enters 3 numbers (the phone number, the access code and #, then 1 to confirm. I have my phone (Pixel 4) set up with a contact so that this happens all with one press. It looks like this in the contacts entry:
5551234567, 987654#, 1
To do this, the Pixel 4 has a second screen on the dialer with more characters:

The dialer on the Motorola looks like this:

I don't see a second screen access, a comma, a pause or anything to string the numbers together.

You can try conference calling apps (many on Play Store). This one is recently updated, has a good rating. Only con is it has 4 trackers. You can  try

In most standard dialers you have to type in at least one number or other character before left to the number-to-be-dialed a 3 dots menu appears that has an entry to Add 2-sec pause.
By selecting Add 2-sec pause a comma (,) is appended to the number-to-be-dialed.

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


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Where does APKMirror.com get its apks?
APKMirror.com hosts complete split apks, containing not just the base.apk but also many languages/multiple architecture support/vr apks etc. Take for example the contents of this chrome split apk:
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/chrome/chrome-88-0-4324-93-release/google-chrome-fast-secure-88-0-4324-93-5-android-apk-download/
.
├── autofill_assistant.apk
├── autofill_assistant.config.en.apk
├── autofill_assistant.config.ja.apk
├── base.apk
├── cablev2_authenticator.apk
├── chime.apk
├── chime.config.en.apk
├── config.ar.apk
├── config.de.apk
├── config.en.apk
├── config.es.apk
├── config.fr.apk
├── config.hi.apk
├── config.in.apk
├── config.it.apk
├── config.ja.apk
├── config.ms.apk
├── config.nl.apk
├── config.pt.apk
├── config.ru.apk
├── config.th.apk
├── config.zh.apk
├── dev_ui.apk
├── extra_icu.apk
├── image_editor.apk
├── image_editor.config.en.apk
├── stack_unwinder.apk
├── test_dummy.apk
├── vr.apk
├── vr.config.en.apk
└── vr.config.ru.apk

Where are they sourcing these from?

ApkMirror.com just accepts APK uploads from users. Anybody can extract APK files from their device and upload them to APKMirror.com. However it is not guaranteed that every upload is published. For ensuring security of uploading APK files each upload is automatically checked regarding it's cryptographic signature if it matches the signer of other versions of the same app.
The APKMirror community has set-up some rules about what APKs are getting provided for download and which not. For more details see their FAQ.
Therefore to answer your question the uploaded APK files can originate for any source. Some are extracted from devices (e.g. originally downloaded via Google Play Store), or the APK files are extracted from alternative app stores, web-sites.
In case of complete split APK bundles most likely they have been downloaded by PC based tools from Google Play Store (e.g. Raccoon4) and then uploaded to APKMirror.com. This can work because the Play Store protocol just provides links to all split files and the download client decides which parts to download.

Actually, the easiest solution for uploading bundles is by using ML Manager http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/javier-santos-v/ml-manager-apk-extractor, which has apkmirror.com upload integration built in. It makes it super easy to upload both APKs and split APK bundles.


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Can't install my own app from Play Store
Not sure whether it's related to the problem or not, but this affects only my own apps. When I try to install any of them, it downloads twice for some reason, then I get this message:

Can't install [APP] Try again, and if it still doesn't work, see common ways to fix this

Other people can install and use my apps with no problems.
Here's what I tried:

I used Titanium Uninstaller to completely uninstall my app after testing it via ADB (yes it works fine with ADB and bundletools)
I cleared google play's data and cache
I cleared any data/cache folder related to my app
I completely wiped system, data, cache and storage of the phone I use for testing and reinstalled the firmware, first thing I did afterwards is trying to install my app and I got the same problem.

Here's what I got from logcat: (com.shakibb.dlala is the package name for my app)
05-22 00:20:54.624 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] com.google.android.finsky.download.DownloadBroadcastReceiver.b(1): Intent received at DownloadBroadcastReceiver
05-22 00:20:54.626 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hmr.a(59): com.shakibb.dlala: onProgress 1472622/1472622 Status: 200 URI: content://downloads/my_downloads/39.
05-22 00:20:54.634 17611-20434/? W/zipro: Error opening archive /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/files/Dlala | الدلالة : Achat Vente en Algérie ����-5.bin: Invalid file
05-22 00:20:54.638 17611-25829/? W/zipro: Error opening archive /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/files/Dlala | الدلالة : Achat Vente en Algérie ����-5.bin: Invalid file
05-22 00:20:54.658 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] frp.a(11): Selecting account [aNaMyeNBhJG7ajSBD6GdsUVaT9A] for package com.shakibb.dlala. overriding=[true]
05-22 00:20:54.668 975-975/? W/StatusBar: removeFakeNotificationViews()---removeNotification for unknown pkg: com.android.providers.downloads
05-22 00:20:54.669 975-975/? I/PhoneStatusBar: updateNotificationCountChange,mLastHasNotification:true , hasActiveNotifications:true
05-22 00:20:54.691 799-1554/? I/libPerfService: perfSetFavorPid - pid:0, 0
05-22 00:20:54.707 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hmk.a(5): com.shakibb.dlala from 2 to 3.
05-22 00:20:54.715 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hmr.e(-1): com.shakibb.dlala: onComplete
05-22 00:20:54.715 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hmr.i(1): Download com.shakibb.dlala removed from DownloadQueue
05-22 00:20:54.717 288-288/? I/installd: free_cache(0) avail 8150192128
05-22 00:20:54.717 799-1026/? I/NetworkIdentity: buildNetworkIdentity:
05-22 00:20:54.718 799-1026/? I/NetworkIdentity: networkId = DJAWEB_F8826
05-22 00:20:54.719 799-1510/? I/NetworkIdentity: buildNetworkIdentity:
05-22 00:20:54.719 799-1510/? I/NetworkIdentity: networkId = DJAWEB_F8826
05-22 00:20:54.721 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] kct.a(100): Prepare to copy com.shakibb.dlala (adid: com.shakibb.dlala , isid: QnPaZv5KSVC13AUwZp9Qaw) from content://downloads/my_downloads/39 (expect 1821314 bytes, isCompressed: true)
05-22 00:20:54.721 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hvz.a(7): APK integrity will be verified using [SHA-256] method
05-22 00:20:54.728 975-975/? I/KeyguardUpdateMonitor: handleBatteryUpdate index=0 updateInteresting=false
05-22 00:20:54.729 1316-1762/? I/BatteryConsumeMonitor: init var lastPlugType : 2 lastBatteryChangedLevel : 87
05-22 00:20:54.732 799-820/? I/libPerfService: perfSetFavorPid - pid:23836, 5d1c
05-22 00:20:54.732 23836-23870/? W/Finsky: [410] ctj.a(1): Copy error (source-FileNotFoundException) for com.shakibb.dlala (com.shakibb.dlala): java.io.FileNotFoundException: No such file or directory
05-22 00:20:54.736 256-755/? E/Vold: Failed to find mounted volume for /storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.android.vending/files/
05-22 00:20:54.736 256-755/? W/Vold: Returning OperationFailed - no handler for errno 0
05-22 00:20:54.737 23836-23836/? W/ContextImpl: Failed to ensure directory: /storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.android.vending/files
05-22 00:20:54.737 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] kct.b(174): Retry download of com.shakibb.dlala (adid: com.shakibb.dlala , isid: QnPaZv5KSVC13AUwZp9Qaw) (inhibit 1024)
05-22 00:20:54.741 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] kct.a(318): Downloading full file for com.shakibb.dlala (com.shakibb.dlala)
05-22 00:20:54.742 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hmk.a(3): Duplicate state set for 'com.shakibb.dlala' (0). Already in that state
05-22 00:20:54.742 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hmr.a(38): Download com.shakibb.dlala added to DownloadQueue
05-22 00:20:54.744 23836-23836/? I/Finsky: [1] hmk.a(5): com.shakibb.dlala from 0 to 1.

My device is: Meizu M2 running flyme 6.2.2


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Accept Android SDK Build-Tools on Windows 10
I'm trying to understand why there is no GUI way or Post-Installation process to accept the android SDK Build Tools license:
Failed to install the following Android SDK packages as some licences have not been accepted.
   build-tools;28.0.3 Android SDK Build-Tools 28.0.3
To build this project, accept the SDK license agreements and install the missing components using the Android Studio SDK Manager.
Alternatively, to transfer the license agreements from one workstation to another, see http://d.android.com/r/studio-ui/export-licenses.html

After searching a lot I found the command for sdkmanager.exe but the directory tools/bin/ does not exist in C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk.
Can anyone help me to accept the license to move on? :)

You can view and accept all licenses of the Android SDK and related components using the following command:
android-sdk\cmdline-tools\latest\bin\sdkmanager.bat --licenses


text:
Contacts synchronisation
I synchronized my Samsung S2 with mail Exchange account, and downloaded my contacts from Exchange server, but now I want to upload my contacts to my Gmail account. In my Gmail mail app I created new account but when I click sync my contact, nothing happens, no contact were uploaded to my Gmail acoount.
What to do ?

There are many ways to sync your Exchange contacts to Gmail.  The easiest way is to do this on your computer.  This involves exporting your contacts from Outlook into a CSV file, and then importing that file on https://mail.google.com site.

Export your Outlook contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file.  Steps to do this vary for different Outlook versions, so search your Outlook's help for exact instructions pertaining to your particular version (e.g. Outlook 2010 instructions are here.)
In your browser open Gmail, and navigate to "Contacts" section (click on the "Gmail" to reveal the drop-down.)
On the main Contacts screen click on More button and select the Import... option.
Click the "Browse" button in the "Choose FIle to Upload" window, and navigate to the folder where you saved the CSV file from step 1.
Click the "Open" button, then select the "Import Contacts", and the contents of the CSV file should import to your Gmail account.
Either wait a bit, or manually force a sync via Settings -> Accounts & sync screen on your phone.


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MyTouch 4g MMS over Home Wi-Fi
Why can't I receive or send MMS on my My Touch 4g through my home Wi-Fi? I have bad coverage at home so I have to use my Wi-Fi connection. I'm sure my settings are right - I have it set to T-Mobile Data. Does it have to be set at MMS? It works fine when I'm away from home on the 4g network.

MMS messages can only be received by your carrier's internet service (3g,4g,etc.). Sadly the capabilities to do this over wi-fi are not available yet, hopefully they're working on a fix for this!


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HTC One X - recording filters high frequencies
I've got an HTC One X, on which I'm trying to record uncompressed WAV audio.
In particular, I'm interested in a 13.5 kHz sound. Other Android devices pick up that frequency easily, and so do iOS devices, but the HTC One X doesn't.
For example, the spectrogram below shows the same recording from the HTC One X (top) and an HTC One V (bottom), recorded with the same app (called Hertz, but any will do), with identical settings (mainly 44,100 Hz sampling rate).
Why is the One X not picking up the same?

Is the microphone different?
Is there any low-pass filter applied that I'm not aware of? If so, how can remove it?

Trying with different apps (e.g. Audalyzer) doesn't make any difference.

It doesn't say it on HTC's website under the specs for the One X, but this review points out that the phone has dual-microphones, used for sound cancellation during phone calls. My guess is perhaps your recording app is recording from the wrong microphone? Or using both to cancel out the pitch you're looking for?
I'd look for settings in your recording apps about using the dual-microphones. I don't have a phone with two, so I can't test that for you :/
Good luck though!

Thanks for the insightful comment, I didn't notice that about this phone. Unfortunately I haven't yet found an app that can let me choose what mic I want to use, nor any settings that would stop the filtering.

I have the same issue. After playing around with One X a little bit I'm pretty sure the issue is with the noise cancellation thing, most likely software issue.
There are 2 microphones on the One X - one at the bottom and one at the top. I played a high frequency sound on my earphones and tested 2 cases:

I put both speakers next to the bottom mic. Sound level was very low, but it was there.
I put one speaker next to the bottom mic and one next to the top mic. This time sound level was pretty much 0.

So it seems that what the top mic picks up is cancelled from what the bottom mic picks up. I haven't figured out how to disable this feature.
Any luck on your side?

No luck on my side either. HTC confirmed that it's a noise cancelling feature implemented in hardware, so there is no way around it. I found this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=700958, tried but didn't work for me.


text:
How can I delete multiple emails on the HTC One X?
I just got the HTC One X and I cannot find a way to select all my emails and delete them in one go. I have to select them one by one the delete them, after which I have to repeat the process again the clear the trash bin. I had the HTC Desire before and that did it with no problems.
Has anyone found a solution or am I missing something?

What email client are you using? The default one?

You should do the following:

select one e-mail (check mark next to the mail)
click on "menu" (top right corner) and "select all"
now you can delete all emails


text:
Restoring LG Optimus 2X P990 back to stock LG software
I have flashed a lot of custom ROMs onto my phone, like CM7, kangs and such of CM9 before it's released, MIUI, and so on. I didn't want to wait till the third quarter of 2012 before I got some IC on my phone. Now that we're almost that far into 2012, I was wondering how I could restore my phone back to LG's stock Gingerbread software - the one that i had before I flashed CM7 - and unroot my phone.
I have lost my backup so I cant restore. I'll have to use smart or NVFlash or something like that. How can I restore my LG Optimus 2X P990 back to original LG software, so that I am ready for updating it to LG's ICS release?

There is a zip file that is posted in this video description that you can flash via Clockworkmod or your favorite custom recovery that will revert your device completely to stock (including removing the recovery image and such).
The video goes through the process step-by-step, for your convenience, but it's basically flashing that file via CWM, and then being happy :)
It also goes through how to unroot, if needed!

so if i flash the zip file and unroot, i am back into stock, so i can install new updates from lg without problems? It also removed cwm recovery? It says G2X, i have the O2X, will it still work? Or is it two separate files?

As this site points out, they're the same, one is just the international version and one is not. And yes, the .zip file should remove CWM recovery and unrooting should allow you to perform the OTA update.

But it looks like the interface and launcher, etc is completely different on the g2x, than my o2x was. And i dont want that

it should all be returned to whatever the stock one was...

and it should update to ICS soon anyways you said, right? So you'll just have it for a little bit before the update if it turns out to not be what you want.

So, the ics update for the G2X and the O2X would look the same, so, if i'll restore the one for the G2X, like in the video, it would work, and then i could update it to ics when it comes. (By unrooting it first) I can always just root it and flash back to CM7/CM9 if i dont like it, or if it doesn't work

Completely true. Backing up first would be advised, or you could do a fresh CM7/9 if you'd like to revert :)

smooth, i'll download the zip and wait for ics from lg, but you are 100% sure that the G2X version would NOT harm my Optimus 2X P990?

here is another video that is specifically for the Optimus 2X, but everywhere I can find the P999 and P990 are referred to as the same device, except one is T-mobile. I cannot say I am 100% sure this will work however, as you said, if it fails, restoring to a CM image would not be difficult while we look for other options.

I'll give it a go, i can live with a non european looking(G2X) until the update comes, because then it will look normal, right?

Will this also install the lg recovery? It's come to my attention that the T-Mobile G2X and the LG G2X are not the same devices, i THINK, not certain, that the LG G2X has the same layout and stuff as my optimus 2x had

a crap, bootloops without recovery

use the answer to this question to install a new recovery, sorry it didn't work! :(

Fixed it, ended up using SmartFlash to flash stock rom. Got the firmware from XDA

glad you got it solved!

Yeah, me too, thanks for the help though:-) Now i'm ready for ics from LG:-) Tried another update from lg, and it worked, so i am sure ics will be updated safely. If ics from LG comes in this century..... lol

feel free to update my answer with the steps you took, or add your own answer!

I fixed it:
I ended up using SmartFlash to flash stock ROM. Got the firmware from XDA.
Links:
SmartFlash tools & drivers: http://android.modaco.com/content/lg-optimus-2x-2x-modaco-com/335494/13-apr-smartflash-stock-baseband-release-1035-21-20110405/
Firmware: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1035041
Steps:

Download firmware for your location
Download SmartFlash tools and drivers
Connect phone to computer on the S/W Upgrade screen - description below
Let windows install the drivers
Open SmartFlash
Go to "Rom copy D/L
Select CP bin and AP bin files - description below
Make sure "normal mode" is selected
Make sure "erase CAL data" is unchecked
Make sure channels and such are matching your phone - you'll recognize it
Select start and wait till it's completed and your phone will be up and running again with Stock ROM!

CP bin = *.fls file in firmware archive
AP bin = *.bin file in firmware archive
Get into S/W Upgrade screen by pulling your battery out, holding the volume down button and plugging your pc cable in. Hold the volume down until the S/W Upgrade screen appears


text:
Android failure to boot on LG
I need to recover data from my AT&T LG Thrill Android Phone
Background:
My AT&T LG Thrill phone's battery died a couple of days ago because I forgot to charge it. When I charged the phone and tried to turn it on, it showed the LG logo followed by the dropping balls and the AT&T "Rethink Possible" screen. I then get a mesage that the Application Google Services Framework has crashed and the phone goes into a loop with the dropping balls showing again followed by "Rethink Possible" screen. This sequence repeats itself over and over and the phone does not get out of this loop.
I have been able to go into the recovery screen (both Safe Mode and the Android Recovery Service) and have cleared cache, etc. However, I DO NOT want to wipe user data and restore to factory settings as this will wipe all of my data (pictures, application data, etc).
Solution Needed:
I need a suggestion to a way of accessing my data so that I can back it up onto an SD card/computer. I DO NOT want to root the phone as this may void the warranty. What I'm looking for is a way of perhaps putting the original flash image on the micro SD card and then have the phone read that image. Or some other similar solution that will get the phone out of this loop and allow me to get to the data.

When you are in recovery mode you should be able to use adb to get your data.

There are two suggestions I have for you, both of which involve installing the Android SDK on your computer:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
This is sort of overkill for you, because there is a lot of things in there that you don't need, but the most important thing is adb. If you don't want the SDK lying around, you can install Virtualbox and install the SDK on a Linux VM.
Once you have adb installed, you can do:

Post the output of adb logcat online. This will give you some insight as to what is causing the crash.
Do:

adb pull /sdcard
adb pull /data
This will pull your data off of your phone and onto your computer. Once your stuff is safely off your phone, you can do whatever factory wiping you need to do.

Downvoted because these won't be mounted when the device is booting, and as the device cannot boot there is no way these will be mounted - also, the device may not be in USB Debugging mode.

There is no way to fix this issue without wiping it sorry, and as you cannot boot your device you cannot use the SDK to backup your data partition because:

It is the data that is most likely causing this issue
The data partition won't be mounted during boot time

Also, the above (or below) answer is assuming that you had USB Debugging enabled - did you?
Alas, you will have to wipe your device (including cache, dalvik-cache (if possible) and user data).


text:
Can an app that has permission to access the photos copy them?
i'm really wondering and can't find answer. Google Play from the store every downloaded apps want to access photos. Permission content read the contents of your usb, modify or delete the contents of your usb storage
My question is, can the application copy and send the photos to the application owner if they want? They are virus-free applications available in the official store I am talking about.
My device is an Xiaomi Android tv box running Android 9.

What you are looking at is the static permission to get read/write access to the shared storage (/sdcard respectively /storage/emulated/0).
Since about Android 6 this static permission you grant by installing the app is no longer enough for actually accessing the files on the shared storage. Instead the app has to additionally ask you to get access to those files at run-time. And this time you can chose to deny access. Additionally apps usually ask for this permission at that time when they really need it. This means if access to shared storage is only required for one functionality you never use you should not see this permission request dialog and thus the app never gets access to the shared storage.
But if you get this permission request and you allow it then the app has full access to ever file on shared storage including your stored photos. An app can do anything it want with files it has access to, including sending them to a server in the internet.
Google also recognized that "all-or-nothing permission" was not a good decision. Starting with Android 10/11 the way to access devices shared storage has totally changed and now allows to grant/deny access on a finer granular level.

Thank you very much for your explanatory, instructive important comment.


text:
Android 9 - What is the "Browser App" setting in the App Info page of web browsers?
I don't understand this option. Can someone clarify for me?

This is what I figured it's for:

If I'm on chrome's App Info page and I set "Browser App" to chrome
because I don't want the flow to jump over another browser, will it
change other browsers to redirect to chrome when I tap a link?

If not then what is it? How is it different from "Set as default" option then?
I am not used to Android please baby step this explanation if possible

A lot of apps on Android show "web content" (e.g. HTML web pages include din the app or loaded from the Internet).
As this is very common Google decided that the apps can use a so called WebView for displaying such content so that not each app developer has to include an library for HTML parsing and rendering.
On the other hand we know that web browsers get frequent updates because of security vulnerabilities and new features. Also there is not "the one web browser".
Therefore since about Android 4.x (nur sure which exact version) the WebView is not a part of the Android system anymore. Instead it is provided by a web browser app installed on your system. If you have multiple web browser apps installed you as the user can choose which one to use in other apps as web rendering engine. The setting you have highlighted is exactly the point where you as the user can specify which web browser should be used by all apps that want to display web content.
Typically on Android there are two variants you can choose from:

Google Chrome
Google WebView component (effectively a Chrome but without app icon an UI to the user. this app is only usable by other apps).

On Samsung devices additionally Samsung Internet is available.
No data sharing
One important fact should be mentioned: If an app uses e.g. "Samsung Internet" via WebView this "web browser" starts over fresh and saves all data in the app-private directory of the app it is running in.
Therefore no app or a WebView that is running as part of an app can access your saved user data in your main web browsers (like saved from data, passwords, browser history, cookies, ...). Effectively each app has it's "own web browser instance".


text:
Where do the <unknown> items come from?
At the quick settings dropdown are some items that have no icon and just a label . They cannot be re-arranged and are obviously useless.
Please have a look at the Screenshot
.
I would like to know how I can find the apps or files that are responsible for those and/or a way how to get rid of them.
It is an Android Oreo with some EMUI on top.

Those are may be tiles reserved by the Automate app.

Good tip, I have Automate installed and this could be an option. I need to check that.

Dear moderators, I made a mistake and up and downvoted the comment of @ballzak. I should be upvoted. Can you correct that, please? I am sorry for the inconvenience.

@ballzak You were absolutely right, they came from the Automate app. Unfortunately I made a mistake at your comment and clicked the downvote without reading the warning. Could you pleas create a new one so that I can upvote? Thanks

Do you use Automate app? Those are for making a custom quick settings functions. You can customize them from the app by adding a "quick settings" block and defining its action.

How can I find apps responsible for creating these tiles?

Check in the manifest of each app for Tile Service. It will have android:name=".MyQSTileService" & android:permission="android.permission.BIND_QUICK_SETTINGS_TILE"> & service as action android:name="android.service.quicksettings.action.QS_TILE".

Since you don't know which app created this checking the manifest is going to be painfully slow. I used this app apk analyser to check for service and found for example eu.faircode.email.ServiceTileUnseen (it's an email app and the tile corresponds to unseen mails).
How to hide them?
I am not conversant with EMUI but here are things you can try to get them out of sight:

Customize tiles by

swiping down from the Status bar to open the notification panel.

Touch the pencil icon on the top right corner.

Drag Icons from the top part to the bottom part

Or use an app like Quick Settings to delete those  bothersome tiles

You can improve the answer by suggesting edit to reflect the steps on your device

Customize tiles doesn't really help. The icons are already out of the default sight, but I don't really like the idea to have such things on my device without any clue about their origin. I need to check "Quick Settings".
Most promising seems to be the "Apk Analyzer" and the tip of @ballzak in regard to Automate. Is it possible to lookup the manifest via Termux and its tools?

I don't think it is possible via Termux - that could be a separate question


text:
Unsigning and resigning apk inside apks makes an app don't work in some features
(It's optional to read)

Let's say I have an app called X, this is the older version of
the apk that I got from google. I have important data in the app, thus,
if I uninstall it, I'll lose them. However, I want to update it, since
google play store doesn't provide the app anymore (only available on
the official website of the app), I need to download it manually. So,
somehow (I watch a tutorial from YT) I need to sign the latest version
of the app. Silly of me, I made a mistake that I unsigned the new app
and then signed the app afterwards without knowledge of which
appropriate sign type I need to apply.

Problem:
So I have unsigned (Removing signature verification) an app using NP Manager (the property says the app has signature status of V2, thus I killed the signature verification v2) , and then I signed the app and do the same i.e. signing the app using the signature scheme V2 (NP Manager has 3 options: v1+v2, v1 and v2 [Android 7.0+]).
At first, it worked successfully, i.e I could install it perfectly, some features worked and nothing seemed to be wrong, alas, there was one (Idk what it's called) bar/menu/section when I opened it, the app stopped immediately (forced close). I had tried to do trial-and-error by investigating what's wrong and the problem seems to come from the unisigning and signing.
My question:
Is it either unsigning or signing the app can harm the app itself which causes some features don't work though the app might be able to be installed successfully? If that's so, how to prevent this problem? Is it because the original signature and rhe new signature I give differs and crash somehow?
P.S. I'm only interested to know as to why the unsigning and signing makes the app error and how to solve it. I hope you would explain the error that happens in my app and why signature matters.
Thanks in advance!

Android OS checks the signature only at installation time. The verification information is saved and can be retrieved by the app at run-time (but the number of apps that do so is very low).
In general apps work no matter how and using what key/certificate they are signed. Only a few apps implement measure against app repackaging/resigning so they check their app signature at runtime and if it does not match the quit or show an error message or something like that.
That an app starts working an then suddenly crashes sound more like a bug of the app. Most likely the app has been developed for an older Android version or a different phone model (there are sometimes slight differences between different models).
Also it does not make any difference if you first remove a signature for an APK and later sign it. By default a new signature totally replaces the old signature.

"By default a new signature totally replaces the old signature." Are you sure of that? So if one wants to double-sign (like it's done with reproducible builds at F-Droid, carrying the original dev's signature as well as F-Droid's, while at F-Droid's signing the private key of the dev is not present), one must explicitly say so?

@Izzy When I execute apksigner sign then the new signature totally replaces the old (tested with build-tools v29 and 31 and an APK that had a v2 only sig). But I have not seen any option to change the apksigner behavior between replacing and adding a signature.

There's the --next-signer option. But in all examples I've seen so far, it only goes after the first signing key. I just tried it, result looks the same as without (signatures seem indeed to be replaced). Guess I'll have to ask my team mates at F-Droid…


text:
Is JPA/JPP/JP3 an android 2.2 ROM?
Sumsung Kies is offering a firmware upgrade to
PDA:JPA /  PHONE:JPP / CSC:JP3
Is this Android 2.2 or 2.1?

someone must know what these random letters mean. And shame on you Samsung for using letters which mean nothing to the user and not displaying the version of android which it relates to.

Have some patience. Not everyone is on the same schedule.

It is a Froyo ROM, according to comments I've read around XDA.

A custom Froyo ROM based on JPA
Blog entry detailing the European Froyo update rollout, references JPA

Can you link to any of them?

Edited answer to include some links.

As Saiboogu says JPx is a 2.2 Froyo ROM, I'm pretty sure the last released 2.1 update was JMx.
For anyone who's struggling to understand Samsung's build numbers, they seem to use a 3 letter code where the first two letters are the software version (going up in alphabetical order) and the third digit refers to a specific customization of that software version, generally network/country specific customizations change the last digit when your operator pre-saves their APN settings, boot logo, and any operator bundled apps directly into the ROM.

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


text:
Can I install live wallpaper on a Samsung Galaxy 3?
I am proud owner of Samsung galaxy 3 with android 2.1. Unfortunately it doesn't supports live wallpaper. So is there any alternatives/options for installing live wallpaper with or without rooting ?
Thanks,
Ankur Shah

Just curious: why should you want to use live wallpapers ? Doesn't that drain your power much quicker ?

And yes I received my Samsung Galaxy S this week - my first device and I am very impressed.

It looks like it is possible with root.
Here is the relevant thread on how to do it (after you're rooted).
And how to get root here.


text:
My Samsung Galaxy S front-facing camera doesn't work in camera app, Gtalk or Skype -- How can I use it?
One of the reasons I brought my Samsung Galaxy S was because it has a front facing camera.
However I have found since buying it:

Camera app can't use it
Gtalk doesn't support video calling on android
Skype isn't supported (Update: skype has announced support, but not working on Galaxy S yet, and is voice only)

So what can I actually do with my front facing camera or did I just waste my money?

What carrier? I have noticed Sprint stating in their advertising that it provides video chat without a wifi connection which is a dig at the iphone.

I thought you could at least take a picture of yourself with the front facing camera...but was unable to set the camera in front facing mode to do so.

The built-in Camera app on the Galaxy S can use the front facing camera. It's called "Self Shot Mode" and I've used it on mine once or twice, easiest way to grab a quick picture of you and a friend when there's no one else around to take the shot.
Open the camera app, press the square symbol at the top-left (the mode button), press Self-Shot, smile at the funny person on the screen!
Update November 2010: As an update, the official Samsung Froyo release has changed the way this works, there is a new icon in the top-left of the camera screen, that looks like a camera with rotating arrows around it, pressing this button swaps between the front and rear cameras. Picture of the new button to swap between cameras
See this table for a list of which Galaxy S models have the front facing camera (and other differences between the models in the range).

I can't find this "Self-shot" mode. I see "Single Shot", "Smile Shot", "Panorama", "Beauty", "Continuous", "Vintage", "Add me", "Action Shot", and "Cartoon".

@GWL Page 51 of the Samsung GT-I9000 Galaxy S manual http://www.samsung.com/download/FileView.aspx?cttfileid=3015199&type=Mobile+Phone&typecode=18&subtype=GSM%283G%29&subtypecode=1802&model=GT-I9000&filetype=UM&language= or if you prefer a (blurry) picture of my phone taken by another phone http://www.jard.co.uk/random/IMG00021-20101013-0152.jpg

Well, at least I've been using the front facing camera for video phone calls. Seems to work well enough between Samsung Galaxy S phones, haven't tested with other phones yet.

I wrote an app that uses the front facing camera of the EVO and Epic.  It is silly, but it's free. :-)  Check out "RealMirror".

There is an app just called Mirror it does the same and is free too.

qik and fring both support video chat using that camera, but only to other cell phone users using qik or fring respectively. fring launched with skype support, but that was quickly disabled after a spat between the two companies.
At the moment (October 2010), there doesn't seem to be any way to video chat from android to a PC. :(
Update: There is a leaked version of Yahoo IM that includes video chat: http://phandroid.com/2010/10/19/yahoo-video-chat-app-leaked-thanks-to-mytouch-4ghd-rom/
Update (12/17/2010): http://www.oovoo.com/ now has a client in beta that will allow PC <-> android video chat. Currently the Epic is supported, but they say it's "coming soon" for other Galaxy S phones.

No fring pc version. Thats bs man!

According to their spec THIS is how a developer would take advantage of the camera.  I'd be really surprised if the pre-installed camera application didn't do this, but the point is that it's definitely accessible to the outside world for taking advantage of, so it's just a matter of time before someone does (if no one yet has).
If you have more money you'd like to spend, and can't wait to use it, I can write you an app that takes pictures with that camera for about $500.  :)


text:
Where can I find a good comparison of available custom ROMs?
I'm looking for a good comparison of custom ROMs' features and quality.  I would prefer a comparison that is actively maintained.

The Android Release Matrix at AndroidSpin is pretty comprehensive.
There is also the PDAdb.net Rom Respository, although I don't think it's as user friendsly as the AndroidSpin db.
Last (and least relevant to your question) is theunlockr's list of Android Roms (I just thought it was worth mentioning).


text:
How to change the 'hosts' file to redirect URLs?
For windows machine we got the hosts file to edit to redirect url's to other domains. Is there a file like that on android?
I'm looking to redirect a very long url to a shorter one using the hosts file, is this possible? This can also be used to redirect a list of known spam domains to nothing so the worst flash/gif adds are removed.
I'm running Android 2.1 on a rooted samsung galaxy S

It should be possible since there is the "AdFree" app for rooted users.  It doesn't look to be open source, however...

The original link is dead. I pulled this short guide from way back machine, copied here:

With the first few official Pre-Alpha builds of CyanogenMod 7 being
  released, it’s worth noting that a new feature has been included that
  allows you to change the hostname on your device from the Settings
  menu. If you have a supported device, you can get the nightly builds
  from the TeamDouche Mirror System. Once you’ve flashed (I take no
  responsibility if you break something – make sure to read up on
  issues/pitfalls/requirements before flashing), open the Settings menu,
  then choose Applications, then Development, and select Device Hostname
  at the bottom. This setting persists between reboots and ROM upgrades
  (unless you wipe).
Warning: I accept no responsibility if you brick your phone while
  doing this.
I ditched my iPhone due to problems my local provider was having and
  got an HTC Dream instead. I promptly rooted it using the Cyanogen Mod,
  but noticed that by default, Android reports the hostname as
  ‘localhost’. I don’t really like this, so I set about finding an easy
  way to change it.
First off, even rooted, the / partition is mounted read-only when you
  boot normally, so you need to boot to Recovery Mode (Home+Power). In
  the recovery menu, choose to boot to console. From there, browse to
  /system/etc/init.d.
IMPORTANT: Make a backup of ’05userinit’ before continuing! You can do
  this by simply running the following command – ‘cp 05userinit
  /05userinit’ (without quotes). This will create a copy of it in the /
  directory. If you screw up your editing, you can just rm the messed up
  version and cp the backup back in.
To add the command to set the host name, we’re simply going to echo in
  the following two lines:
echo  >> 05userinit

echo hostname NEWHOSTNAME >> 05userinit

Note that there are two spaces after the first ‘echo’ command. This
  creates a blank line at the end of the file. The second echo adds the
  hostname command. This way, whenever your phone boots, the hostname is
  set. Also, be sure to use two greater-than signs (>), as that
  appends – if you only use one, it overwrites the contents of the file.
Make sure the edits are correct by typing ‘tail 05userinit’ – as long
  as it isn’t blank, and there’s more than just the hostname line,
  you’re golden. Reboot the phone by typing ‘reboot’ at the prompt and
  hitting ‘Enter’, and you’re done.
Once you’ve booted back up, open up your terminal emulator of choice
  and type ‘hostname’ (by itself, no parameters) – it should echo out
  whatever hostname you specified.
Update (April 6th, 2010): To change your hostname on Cyanogen 5.x, add
  the following line to the bottom of /system/etc/init.d/01sysctl — and
  make sure you make a backup of 01sysctl before editing it!
echo NEWHOSTNAME > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname

Just to clarify, this is only possible on rooted phones. should we add that to the tags?


text:
How will a swap partition/file affect the system?
Some friends told me that their Android phones have very little (<100MB) available memory for regular apps, because the OS and some un-killable services take most of the RAM. For example, one phone with 512MB only shows 90MB available memory, so only 2-3 apps can run at the same time.
I'm wondering if creating a swap partition/file will help, but I saw mixed opinions all over the web and I'm not sure what to do. Here are my questions:
(1) Will there be many not-oftenly-used memory pages to swap out, especially in OS and those un-killable services?
(2) How will swapping out small memory pages hurt flash memory life span? Does the flash (or SD card?) do wear-leveling automatically?
(3) Will swapping really help performance when running multiple apps? I assume if the answer to (1) is yes, it will.
(4) Will writing to flash be too slow and thus hurt responsiveness when swapping happens?
(5) Is it true that Android keeps the swapping mechanism from the Linux kernel, so as long as there is a swapping partition/file, it will do swapping without extra configuration?
Thanks for reading.

I don't think there will be much benefit with swapping for Android, as the Android Application Life Cycle is a much more advanced form of swapping.

(1) Will there be many
  not-oftenly-used memory pages to swap
  out, especially in OS and those
  un-killable services?

You can't swap the OS kernel even in Desktop Linux and Android already kills services when it needs more RAM. If your device vendor persists that you have to have useless services running all the time, then root your device.

(2) How will swapping out small memory
  pages hurt flash memory life span?
  Does the flash (or SD card?) do
  wear-leveling automatically?

Even if the SD-card does wear-leveling, swapping will hurt quite a lot.

(3) Will swapping really help
  performance when running multiple
  apps? I assume if the answer to (1) is
  yes, it will.

Not in the context of Android. Unlike traditional OS that will keep trying to chug in processes as you requested it, Android will Force Kill older, unused processes and reclaims their memory; this killing is fast as applications will already save their state when you task switch.

(4) Will writing to flash be too slow
  and thus hurt responsiveness when
  swapping happens?

Probably, probably not. Will need benchmarks for that.

(5) Is it true that Android keeps the
  swapping mechanism from the Linux
  kernel, so as long as there is a
  swapping partition/file, it will do
  swapping without extra configuration?

I don't know whether Android keeps the swapping mechanism, but even if it does (or if you compile your own kernel), you will still need some configurations. It's usually just having an fstab file that points to the swap file and doing swapon -a.
In fact I have reasons why swapping may actually hurt performance: it prevents Application Life Cycle, Android's memory management scheme, to work correctly.

Thanks for the answer. I still have questions though. On a Samsung Fascinate, 10 un-killable services occupy about 110M memory. There are 22 other killable services running but "Running Application" shows no application running. It's my friend's phone and I didn't know what exactly she did before, but it seems that it is quite possible that many services/apps could run at the same time. I don't think all these background services/apps use all the pages they required when they started. Besides, save app state + reload and restart app + restore state would be slow as well.

Another way to think of this problem is this: assume flash life span is not a problem, should Android do swapping? If not, what is the key difference between Android apps and desktop apps that makes swapping not useful on Android? I don't think Android Life Cycle works for desktop/server applications.

@evergreen: Application state is saved when the application goes to background (e.g. when user press home to switch task). Later, when some other application needs memory, older applications or background services will be force killed (FK  takes practically no time). This means task killing is immediate, since application state is already saved a long time ago. When you reload an application that's already in memory, you will get the fastest reload time; but if the application is already unloaded, then the application needs to do full reload (which is the same situation with swapping)

@evergreen: if you use a task killer, then you will force applications to unload, and you will always have to do full reload, instead of the fast reload when the application stays in memory. If you use a swap file/partition, (older) applications will be swapped out, and restoring will take almost the same amount of work as full reload. Except: with full reload, the application developer has separated out persistent data with temporary data, and can optimize what to save and what not to improve storage. While with restoring swap, you leave application developer no say, and swap out everything.

@evergreen: Even when assuming flash life is not a problem, Android should not do swapping, because the Application Life Cycle does a better job. Android Life Cycle is designed for memory constrained environment, in desktop and server environment, you have a gigantic amount of memory, and users do much more multitasking, and they do not expect background programs to be killed by the OS. The weakness of Android Life Cycle is it requires application support. Application must be ready to be killed any time, and must save state at predefined points. Such complexity is extraneous for desktop apps.

There is definitely a benefit to swapping, despite what everyone else on the Internet will tell you.  Try it and see for yourself.  Empirically, on a G1 or other phone with low memory, swap makes the phone run better and faster.
Yes, Android has Life Cycle "task management" built in, but it's not very good.  It routinely kills processes when it runs out of memory, and the apps are expected to save their state using "Bundles" so that when you restart them, they restart in the same state they were last in.

Once Android determines that it needs to remove a process, it does this brutally, simply force-killing it. The kernel can then immediately reclaim all resources needed by the process, without relying on that application being well written and responsive to a polite request to exit. Allowing the kernel to immediately reclaim application resources makes it a lot easier to avoid serious out of memory situations.

This would be great if it actually worked, and would be better than indiscriminate swap.  But the apps don't really save their state; they just save the minimal amount of information to get back to that state.  (And some apps don't even bother to do this.)  Getting back to that state takes time.  Since swap actually saves the entire state of the app, which just has to be reloaded, it makes switching between apps much faster.
If you switch to another app from the browser, for instance, the browser almost always gets killed, and then it has to reload the entire page from the Internet when you switch back to it. This takes wayyyy longer than reloading the state from swap, wastes your money if you're on a data plan, and causes state problems when the web page is dynamic.
Many apps take much longer to start up than they should, or don't actually return to the same state when they're restarted, so swapping them out works better.
I'm guessing the people who are happy with the stock system use their phones differently.
Should I use a swap partition with Cyanogenmod?

If you leave it to the Life Cycle, it will be the application's decision to cache extra data to improve performance (e.g. loaded web pages). If you use swap, it's the OS' decision, but the OS isn't in the best position to determine what to save and what not to save to best optimize performance, so it have to save and restore everything. The Browser does not redownload pages from the Internet if you switch tasks, I've often open Browser, switching to a bunch of heavy games and other activities, and return to Browser with my last page with everything in place loaded instantly.

Right.  Neither system is optimal, but swap is better for most apps.  The browser only reloads the page if it is killed before you re-open it.  On a phone with low memory, it will almost always get killed.

@LieRyan - "return to Browser with my last page with everything in place loaded instantly" does you browser restore scroll position on the opened pages after reload? That is what Chrome doesn't do (though I like this browser very much) which is very unfortunate when you stopped reading on a middle of some rather log web page before switching to, say, take a call...

I have a Spice mi-435(only sold in India) which has a RAM of only 340M. Hell ya, the swap files help a lot. My phone runs ICS on such low RAM and definitely entered many out of memory states and there the swap file helps a lot. All the application states are transfered to swap when not in active use. This gives my phone room for more applications and RAM hungry apps to run smoothly with much much much less lag than before. Though there comes a problem when i open the app i have been using before. It takes time to load its state as the SD is much more slower than the high speed RAM on board. But, the swap option is better for so less RAM. I would recommend to swap partition for RAM less than 512M but not for more than 512M.
Hope it is helpful.

Swap file helps even on systems with higher RAM. My quad core 1gb ram 7 inch tablet gets a major multi-tasking boost from chucking in a 2gb swap, on the uhs-1 micro sd card. And of course, the price of memory goes down rapidly, and even at constant write, nand flash is supposed to last years.
Im basically of the opinion, because the performance difference is so radical, that probably anyone with less than a really large amount of RAM should be doing this. In fact it should probably come as a standard option in android (along with bigger app caches, and a proper sized internet cache).
I mean you have a 64-128gb micro sd (uhs-1), or even the uhs-2 that came out this year, plus a 16-64gb internal nand, often "fast" nand, which is a kind of primitive ssd or even SSD, as are used on windows slates - your not exactly filling all that high speed space up with much. The speed only really comes into play with video, or loading apps into memory - which is exactly the use here.
Of course ideally, manufacturers would focus more on RAM, than resolution or extra cores, because clearly the system speed benefits a lot from higher ram - and they should probably also up the speed of the internal storage too (like switching to full ssd type systems, or at minimum "fast" nand. But in the mean time, while high resolutions tend to cause a sort of RAM deficit in all devices, a swap file, and caching to a reasonably snappy external sd makes a lot of sense.
Indeed it would be nice to see some browsers keep fuller caching too, most browsers are either slow, or low feature, rarely fast and full featured - and thats partly because the space for the app cache on the internal drive is tiny. They are designed to operate within a low memory and storage environment, and that whole story is changing. Even if the ram isn't up to chop as much as it should be, the storage certainly is, and it can be pretty darn fast on UHS-1 standards (or the uhs-2 released this year), even if its not "fast" or ssd.
And the cost of external memory, is peanuts really, even for higher capacity uhs-1. At least a 64gb uhs-1 is perfectly affordable (50 bucks where I am, but it would be less USD), much cheaper than the device, and 32 gb and under is basically a couple of tenners.
Plenty of lessons to be learned from the desktop really, especially now the specs are getting higher - the slowest performance link is loading from storage to ram. The more you can do to mitigate that, the better.


text:
Can I boost/improve reception on my Droid?
With a rooted phone and an app you can overclock or underclock your processor.  Also, off Android, with some hacks you can boost power of a wifi router and wifi antenna.  It seems to me that if you can do those things you could boost the reception of your cell antenna some how.  Am I right?  If so, how?

Put your droid in a can? ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantenna

As a telecom engineer student, I know that one of the main limitation for power is the EIRP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalent_isotropically_radiated_power).
Overpassing the EIRP is one of the must known way to increase wifi router power (by adding a better antenna, which leads to an increase in gain, and in power RX/TX). This power is perhaps fixed by the software in Android handsets, and you could use this parameter to leverage the emission power.
But, as far as I know it's illegal (at least in France).

Not really to do with actually altering your reception per-se, but you can update your PRL (preferred roaming list) of your phone for newer cell towers which might give you better reception.  On Verizon, dial *228 and follow the prompts.

updating your radio may help (if there is update for your phone).
after some search its seems there is.

BE VERY CAREFUL: you can brick your phone flashing your radio if do not know what you are doing

...and I don't know what I'm doing, but luckily I knew that before bricking anything.


text:
Is there a media center extender app for Android?
Is there an app that will work as a Windows or Linux media center extender?

HomePipe is one such service.
Subsonic is an open source server / web based solution.
A free alternative solution is ampcache / amdroid


text:
How can I edit or remove people from the favourite contacts widget on my HTC Legend?
How can I edit or remove people from the favourite contacts widget on my HTC Legend?

You can access them through the group "Starred in Android" in GMail

The group name is actually "Favorites" on my phone

@Casebash: The phone calls them "Favorites" but if you pull up contacts in Gmail, the group will be called "Starred in Android" there.

For editing, this question should help, although it's specific to the HTC incredible. For removing, it's the same idea (select contact name, not icon) then remove them from the Favorites Group. Hope it helps.

To change whether a contact is a favorite or not, go to your contact list, click on the contact name, then toggle the "star" in the top right corner of the contact screen.

That's what I was going to answer, but does this custom widget on the Legend use that flag or its own algorithm to determine favorites?

I have the same issue on my HTC Desire - I think adding a person via the widget adds them to a Favourites contact list but I don't see any way of editing this list (I don't seem to have the same contact list ui that you refer to - my People list doesn't have stars in it).

The People page does list the favourited people as belonging to the group "Favourite", but if you edit the contact then "Favourite" isn't one of the listed groups.

@therefromhere Ah, must be one of those HTC Sense-only kind of thing

I think this might be a bug to be honest - I'm on 2.1 still, I'll investigate further and report it if it's not fixed in 2.2.

I don't have a star on the contacts screen

@Casebash it must be because you are using HTC Sense.  On a stock phone there is a big star in the top right to favorite contacts.

@therefromhere: It must be a bug in 2.1.  I'm running 2.2 on my Incredible, and "Favorites" is listed in the groups, so to remove them I just un-check the box when editing the contact.

Removing it from "favourites" or "starred in android" didn't work for me. I don't have any star either on my HTC Wildfire.
You have to find your contact in the "Phone" list (this one where you go when you want to call someone, middle bottom of the desktop). Then you touch it, wait until menu arrives and... tap "remove from favourites". Interesting that you won't find this option in "People" app, or in contact details either.

You can also go to Contacts > Details and add or remove the star to make them favorite or not. It worked for me.


text:
How to enable Wifi Access Point / Hotspot on my Moto Droid (2.2) without editing the Kernal or flashing the ROM?
I want to enable the Wifi Access Point (AP) functionality on my Moto Droid.  I don't mind rooting but I'd like to do this without having to edit the kernel or having to flash the ROM.  I have seen apps that enable wifi tethering but they require a netfilter enabled kernel.
Is this possible?  If it is, how do I get it done?
Here are a few points I want to clarify because I anticipate several people telling me to use PDAnet, which is a great app that I love but does not fit my needs here...

I want to enable my Droid as a Wifi AP, not just tether via wifi.  The point of this is that I want to be able to connect devices that are capable to connecting to wifi without having any client software on them.
PDAnet doesn't allow for wifi tethering at all.
Verizon does not offer Wifi AP service on the Droid 1.

When I first rooted my Droid (with EasyRoot), I remained on the stock ROM until I got annoyed by the OTA update message (and ended up switching to CM6).
However, I was able to use Wireless Tether without doing anything else.  No new kernel, no mods, nada.  Just root on vanilla Android.
If you've already updated to the latest version of Android via OTA, then I'm pretty certain you'd have to downgrade your phone to get root to work unless there is a new method to get root now.  I know for a fact that EasyRoot no longer works with the OTA update.

Uh oh, I didn't realize that EasyRoot didn't work anymore.  I never got the most recent 2.2 OTA but I just got a new replacement Droid that arrived with FRG22D.  According to Unstable Apps I should only have to flash back to the earlier 2.2 FRG01B version to get rolling.

Which Kernel version is running on your Droid?

Currently I'm running ChevyNo1's Ultra Low Voltage 800mhz kernel.  I get really good battery life out of it just running it at the normal 550mhz.  Tried the 1ghz and my phone kept rebooting/wasn't stable.  But before I switched to this I was just using the stock kernel (which also only lets you overclock to 800 mhz). If you're interested in a new kernel, Chevy's kernels provide lots of options (ultra low, low, medium voltages all the way up to 1.25ghz if your phone can run them stable).

I believe SuperOneClick works for rooting the Motorola Droid on 2.2.
http://shortfuse.org/?page_id=2
After rooting your phone, you can use Wifi Tether for Root Users.
https://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/


text:
How can you see your Facebook Groups in Facebook for Android?
I downloaded facebook for Android latest version just now.
This version is much better than the one which was pre-installed on my Samsung Galaxy S phone.
But can I see my Facebook groups somewhere in this version ?

Groups are not available in the Facebook app.  You'll have to go to the website via m.facebook.com or touch.facebook.com

"Groups" was released on Facebook only a short time ago. The app pre-dates it by quite a bit.

@Al it's slightly confusing, because there are two different group features on FB.  There is the old Group system and the New one they just rolled out.

Wasn't the old Groups called "Lists" though?

No the old groups was similar to fan pages, but with some different permissions. I believe they predate android.

Facebook have just released version 1.4 of their official Facebook app for Android, this has support for both the new Places and Groups features (this is the new Groups feature where you can group your friends, not the old Groups feature which is a bit like the current Pages feature).
If you've already got the official Facebook app installed, then you should be able to update though the Market app. Otherwise just download it from there!

@GA Thrawn: this still doesn't show me a list of all my groups, ready for me to enter a comment on the group page.


text:
How do I upgrade firmware on my Samsung Galaxy S without using windows?
So far Samsung has been rolling updates out using its windows only software Kies, and not over the air like the rest of the android world.
Is there anyway that non windows users can get these updates?

I'd get a virtual machine and run windows in that for updates. Will probably be the easiest for you, if you're not comfortable with flashing. Usually the ROMs for Samsung come out as Odin packages (program Samsung uses for flashing i guess).
The forum for Galaxy on XDA has alot of resources to get you started. http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=665
If the above doesn't help you, you can use a custom recovery. ClockworkMod Recovery has just been updated today. Follow the steps on http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734166. With this you will be able to flash updates from Samsung when the community releases them as update.zip, from your sdcard.
This REQUIRES root on your device, but is probably your only solution without Windows. Before you start with this, sit down and read the resources on the forum. Flashing a wrong firmware COULD damage your phone. Be aware of your phone version. The above guide is for the Galaxy S i9000 International version.

So I have to pay the windows tax in order to update my linux based phone. No thanks.

Actually, ClockworkMod recovery went into stable today. I'll update my post.

I can't understand what the step 2 "Flash Recovery." in the linked ClockworkMod instructions mean. Could you please explain?

@imz - Sure! Old post you responded to :) You have to open Odin and in the PDA box, chose the recovery.tar.md5 file. You should get a newer recovery and rom for your Galaxy S though. Things have changed alot in 2 years time.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PPIbHmU2G4M/UAw2OOtr3mI/AAAAAAAAAes/IEKauXD6RKE/s640/galaxy+tab+odin+flash+clockworkmod+recovery.jpg.

Going through the Galaxy S Flash/Root/ADB/ROM guide on XDA, I just spotted this:

I'm running Linux/OSX. Can I still flash my firmware? Do I need to
  install windows?

If you are running
  Linux you do not need to install
  Windows. You can either run Odin in a
  virtual machine or alternatively use
  Heimdall by Benjamin Dobell. Heimdall
  runs natively on Linux and has reached
  a well tested release state.

Which takes us to here Heimdall - Cross-Platform Open-Source Flashing Software:

What is Heimdall? Heimdall is a
  cross-platform open-source utility to
  flash ROMs onto Samsung Galaxy S
  phones.
How does it work? Heimdall uses the
  same protocol as Odin to interact with
  a device in download mode. USB
  communication in Heimdall is handled
  by the popular open-source USB
  library, libusb-1.0.
What platforms does Heimdall run on?
  Linux, OS X and Windows (XP, Vista, 7
  etc.)
What Galaxy S variants has Heimdall
  been tested with? I've tested Heimdall
  with a Galaxy S GT-I9000 (8 GB) from
  the United Kingdom and Galaxy S
  GT-I9000 (16 GB) from Australia. I
  don't have access to any other devices
  to test with at present, but community
  members have confirmed it to also
  function correctly for the AT&T
  Captivate.

Hopefully this will help us all out!
Though obviously as this is effectively a replacement for Samsung's Odin software it's more designed towards people who are happy grabbing their ROMs from various places across the internet and flashing them on in a fairly custom way, as opposed to Kies which is (supposed to be) pretty much plug and play.

Pretty nice to see that there's something like that. On the next update, i will give it a try.

There is a further problem if the other computer (which runs a GNU/Linux) is ARM. So to flash a new OS onto the Samsung Galaxy S through the USB cable from the other computer, I'd need something like heimdall for ARM. It's not among the available pre-built downloads, will have to try to build it for ARM then... Is this possible?

@imz running a minority OS on minority hardware, I think you're probably going to end up doing a lot yourself, unless other enthusiasts happen to have hit the exact same problems as you, with  the same exact combination of circumstances.

Ok, I've put up a separate question: Is obtaining heimdall for ARM possible? Either the result of my work or someone else's exploration will be the answer.

If you can find someone or somewhere who has a direct link to the update, you can probably download it to your SD card using your mobile browser. Im not sure what the key combos are for the Galaxy S to get to your Recovery, but im sure with some web searching you can find out how. Once you are in Recovery, you can flash the update. I am basing all this on how it works on other Android phones but have not actually seen it done on a Galaxy S variant. You may try this site for Samsung Firmwares: http://www.samfirmware.webs.com/

Interesting... I'd like to know the details, I've even asked a specific question about this possible way: reinstalling the OS without even a USB cable -- http://android.stackexchange.com/q/27765/13117 .


text:
Why don't some widgets work on Cyanogen?
I have a HTC Hero CDMA that I upgraded to Cyanogen 6.  I'm on version 6.0.0-Heroc-testing2.  Before installing Cyanogen, I had the official Twitter widget and official Facebook widget on one of my screens.  Ever since upgrading, I have not been able to add the Facebook widget or Twitter Widget.  Both of the apps work fine, but when I go to the list of widgets I can add, neither of them is there.  I'm using the default home screen/launcher that comes with Cyanogen.  Other widgets such as Beautiful Widgets work just fine.
Is this a problem with Cyanogen, the home screen, or something else?  I have a hard time believing these widgets are only compatible with HTC Sense.

Are you sure that you're using the official, downloaded from the Market versions of Facebook, and Twitter? From what I remember most Sense phones come with HTC versions of Facebook pre-installed with Sense widgets (can't remember about Twitter, no one I know with an HTC uses it). Try redownloading from the Market and double-check to see if you've got multiple Facebook widgets?

Can you download another home launcher like LauncherPro (I highly recommend it) and see if the widgets also don't work there?  It could be a problem with the launcher you are using (ADW or Launcher2).  Or you could re-flash CM6 with the other launcher than the one you chose.
If these are the official Twitter/Facebook app widgets, then I doubt it is because of HTC Sense no longer being available.
Additionally it sounds like you are running a test build of CM6, so it may be a bug.  Check out their forums to see if anyone else has your problem or to report the issue.

Just checked and there is now a stable version of CM6 for my phone, so I'll see if that fixes it.

@Jay that might fix your problem.  You may want to do a full wipe of data/apps/cache before you upgrade to the release version.

I updated CM to the latest stable build and now it seems to work.  The problem was with the test build.

I'm not able to reproduce that. On my g1, with actual cyanogen mod 6.0 i'm able to add the facebook and also the twitter widgets (both, big and small).

The version the OP is running should not be a test build. 6.0 is their stable, but checking out their forums is not a bad idea.
Changing the launcher is a good troubleshooting step, but shouldn't make a difference in this case since CM ROMs do not have sense running. So if a widget works with LP it should work with the default launcher of CM and vice versa.
The OP should follow GAThrawn's advice and make sure the official widgets from the marketplace are being used. Since the OP has a Hero it is possible they might have a sense version of one of those apps installed and sense anything will not work on a CM ROM.

The testing2 part of the build version is throwing me off which why I said that :)

Ah, maybe he is using an older version of the 6.0 build. The latest 6.0 for the Hero should be a stable build.


text:
Can I sync Firefox bookmarks with Android?
Is there any way to sync my Firefox bookmarks with Android?

I believe Fennec (Firefox mobile) will have this feature, but it is currently only in alpha. You can get a copy of the alpha here.  Note that you'll need about 40mb+ of internal storage space free to install it.

Firefox mobile does support this natively now, via the Mozilla Sync service (built-in to mobile, and a free add-in for the desktop Firefox). Note, that it has been massively slimmed down since the early betas, the current Firefox 4 beta 3, only needs about 6mb and is enabled for app2SD, it's available in the Android Market http://www.appbrain.com/app/mozilla-firefox-web-browser/org.mozilla.firefox

I don't see a FireFox extension that bring bookmarks to your phone permanently. There are a few suggestions in this question but they are designed more for sending links on a one-time basis.
Getting the Del.icio.us FireFox add-on and the Del.icio.us add-on for the Android dolphin browser might be the best bet. (I knew I saw this somewhere on here... props to this answer which mentions Del.icio.us for Android.)

Xmarks Premium allows to synchronize all bookmarks between different PCs (supports Chrome, Firefox and more) and different mobile phones/tablet (Android, iPhone, Blackberry) for 12$/year.

If you have a HTC phone and Windows, then HTC sync will do this.


text:
Is is possible to sync my Samsung Galaxy S with an exchange account, but only the calendar, not the emails?
I managed to sync my Galaxy Samsung S running Froyo with an exchange server.
But I am really only interested in the calender data, not the emails.
Someone knows how to do this ?

I hope someone comes up with a different solution: as far as I can tell, the solution presented in the answer by Al Everett, doesn't work.
My work around : I have created a folder called 'Inbox server' on the exchange and set up a filter to move all incoming mails from inbox to 'inbox server'.
Since the sync only syncs the inbox folder by default , effectively, no exchange emails are synced now.
But if anyone else has another solution or comments, please let them know. I will be glad to read them.

Try this: Go to the account for the Exchange server and change "Email check frequency" to "Never". Check the box to "Sync calendar".

@Al Everett: I might be mistaking but I think that no calendar information is sync'd when this option is cleared. I will try again, but I think I already tried this a couple of days ago.

If it doesn't work, then as far as I can see there is no way to sync to Exchange WITHOUT getting the e-mail.

I use this configuration every day. It works. (Epic 4G)

@TREE: AFAIK when you set the email check frequency to never, it means that this account will not be checked regularly. If you set sync on, it still sync the calendar AND the mail. At least I haven't found a way to not sync the emails.

This could be a difference in specific versions of the Samsung software. If I set email check frequency to "Never" my calendar definitely still syncs. It isn't instant like push, but IIRC the calendar is never instant. Basically, you can't control the calendar sync frequency whatsoever.


text:
Dualboot with Boot Manager on Galaxy Nexus
I own a Samsung Galaxy Nexus (GSM/maguro), running AOKP with ROM Manager and ClockworkMod Touch Recovery installed. I want to try MIUI using Init2Winit's Boot Manager application and with the same data and settings as my AOKP install. Since the Galaxy Nexus only has a single internal memory partition, I'm afraid Boot Manager will not work properly because, as the documentation said, it is based on loading another ROM from external memory.
Now I can install MIUI to the 2nd slot in Boot Manager and have the option to wipe System, Data and Cache, but what will be wiped? Is it possible to use Boot Manager on the Galaxy Nexus?

I've used Bootmanager on my Nexus S without issue and I believe that you will be able to wipe the system, data and cache of your second slot without it affecting the original rom.
But this will be easy for you to test:
Make a nandroid backup of your phone.  Always make a nandroid backup!
Once this is done you can go crazy and try installing MIUI but make sure you install gapps too (or the miui equivilent - sorry I'm woefully inexperienced with MIUI but I'd imagine they also didn't distr the google apps with the rom) - (the last time I installed a ROM using rom manager I needed to hunt out a different version of gapps than the ones that come with CM or AOKP - something to do with these version being scripted as opposed to just flat APKs).  You need to install gapps as you'll need to have the market to install bootmanager again in order to change roms.  There is a way of doing this manually through the shell and fastbook, but it's not fun.
If anything messes up then restore your nandroid backup and you are back to where you started.
Have fun :)

Very good insights, thank you. I'll try this (hope soon, but I'm too busy), because my actual AOKP ROM is very unstable, phone is rebooting instantly and I became unhappy. Question about single internal memory partition is still open, I need to test it, if this is really solution. Pls be patient.


text:
USB To 3.5mm Jack mircophone
I want to record live music directly from my sound board on my Samsung Galaxy. I assume this would be done by connecting the 3.5mm microphone jack on my sound board to the Galaxy's USB port.  There are plenty of products that work on Windows, but what about Android?

Could you please clarify? Am I right that you want to connect your Phone's USB port with the USB connector of a USB-2-Audio adapter and then connect this 3.5mm port to your soundboard?

Yes, that is correct. If there is another way then I'd like to know, please.

That a equivalent of looking for a USB-OTG mechanism which may or may not be supported by the kernel?

I assume the USB connection isn't the main point? You could look into a TRRS splitter to fit your 3,5mm plug into the headset jack on your phone. Here's one example, just to give you an idea of what I mean.
This way you can use a normal recording app to capture analog audio from your soundboard. Just be careful to check the levels since the jack isn't a line in jack, but a mic in jack.

You are correct that the USB connection is not the main point.  That seems like the way to go.  Thanks for answering.


text:
Unable to access text messaging after updating to ICS
I have a Droid RAZR and the stock messaging app just keeps loading forever and Handcent SMS crashes when I access it. I have tried to leave it be and let it load but nothing happens.
I would use SMS Backup & Restore (or another backup app) like I have in the past but since the messages don’t load the progress bar just says “NaN 0/0″ and does nothing. This is the only thing preventing me from doing a factory reset/clear data since I have lots of messages on this baby that I need to keep.
I'm not sure if the messages have already been deleted, but if they were, wouldn't the apps work?
This is just one of my many problems I've been running into with ICS.

Any hint concerning your activities between "it worked" (as I assume it did -- or you would not have "lots of messages to keep") and "it crashes"? Maybe phone rooted, and messed around with something? Not accusing -- just asking to figure out any hints...

The second it was updated to ICS I couldn't access text messages with any app. Handcent crashes automatically. Never rooted the phone or have done anything radical to it before, just installed the update.

I assume that was an official update -- so I'd contact customer care (in parallel to hoping for answers here). You may not be the only one affected, and maybe they already have some solution.

I do know that if you have a lot of messages on your RAZR before upgrading to ICS, it actually will try to pull them all in again to the text messaging app. I have seen this with both stock and GoSMS on a Droid 4 and it did take a little while on my RAZR MAXX the first time I opened up the messaging app after upgrading to see all of my messages re-appear, as they first appeared as if they had all been deleted.
If you are getting the little circular loading symbol, then it is likely the case - for a couple thousand messages, it took nearly all day to load them all. Not sure why, but this may also be what's effecting you. I guess the only solution is to wait it out and see what happens. Hope this helps and good luck getting your messages back.

I was having the exact same issues with my text messaging. I did a complete factory reset, wiped the internal memory and everything, and now it's working. Sucks because I lost everything, but at least the phone works now.


text:
Android Ice Cream Sandwich Performance on HTC Vision / Desire Z
I've got a HTC Vision / Desire Z (aka. T-Mobile G2), and I flashed a custom Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) 4.0 ROM on it. Unfortunately, performance leaves a lot to be desired.
I've tried the following so far:

Overclocking to 1.8Ghz (device locked up, so I reverted to the safer 1.4Ghz)
Limiting background processes to 2 (under Developer Options)

I'm wondering what the impact of enabling "Don't keep activities: Destroy every activity as soon as the user leaves it" is. Would that be a good thing, or would it hurt performance? Are there any other options I should consider for optimizing ICS performance on the G2?

It's not a good idea to have an aggressive auto-killer, as it means much more CPU work, because Activites always need to be recreated.
Which custom ROM did you flash? Do other users have the performance issues?

As I recall, it was this ROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1492461
I was thinking that what you said might be the case -- activities would have to be recreated. I don't know if I'm running into my upper RAM limit though, which would be a performance problem in and of itself.
I'm not sure if other users have the same performance problems that I do. It's a fairly old, single-core device, so I'm just not sure if it's just going to run like crap in general. Figured I would ask.

Did you check if the RAM is filled and how it's filled with some Android app or by using top / htop, whichever is available in a shell?

Negative -- I was unaware of those commands in the terminal emulator. I'll try those.


text:
How to use an external sdcard as internal in Android Lolipop 5.1.1?
I have seen option of making external sd card to internal in android 6 mobile phones but i have  android lolipop  5.1.1 how can i  make it adoptable or get that option is it feasable to get that option i found  some commands  but that command is not found in my /system/bin even after rooting to
sm has-adoptable

sm set -force- adoptable true

/sbin/sh: sm: not found

can i find some sm binary and use it ..i tried but my  phone got problem

You can't. That feature was only introduced with Android 6 and doesn't exist before that.

have you considered installing custom rom (if any)?

Duplicate of android improve internal storage

@irfanlatif not its not duplicate bcoz i want to confirm that in andorid lolipop 5.1.1  is it possible to  use sm command and weather this adaptable feature is with  android 5.11

@alecx i am cureently trying alternative options like link2sd install location or swapping storage before  any  customized rom bcoz  i think its  risky to load custom rom  and dont know whether custom rom is available for my phone or not

@Androidquery if you make a quick web search you'll get hundreds of results discussing Adoptable storage was introduced in Android 6. Storage Manager (sm) is deeply integrated with other parts of Android code. It's not a standalone command, so can't be used independently. That's explained in the accepted answer to linked question.

@Irfanlatif it was not clearly said in any posts that it will not work  so i confirmed it with this post becoz once trying  sm command my  android  had been crashed i have to recover it from images so confirming before trying again ... thanx irfan

Does this answer your question? Partition MicroSD card to exFat and Ext 4 for link2sd?

sm is actually not a binary, it is a shell script for java program which does not exist/work on 5.1-lollipop
# Script to start "sm" on the device, which has a very rudimentary
# shell.
#
base=/system
export CLASSPATH=$base/framework/sm.jar
exec app_process $base/bin com.android.commands.sm.Sm "$@"

to answer the headline
a completely another solution for rooted devices only:
you can mount ext4 disk image (or ext4 partition) with same permissions like /data
(mount script example)
/su/su.d/40sdextimg start-up script with executable permissions
#!/system/bin/sh
until grep -qw /data/sdext2 /proc/mounts
  do
    mount -t ext4 -o loop,rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime /storage/31D1-1308/data.sdext2.img /data/sdext2
    sleep 1
done &

then you can move apps and create symbolic links
(that's what Link2SD does)
mkdir /data/sdext2/com.textra-1
mv /data/app/com.textra-1/base.apk /data/sdext2/com.textra-1/
ln -s /data/sdext2/com.textra-1/base.apk /data/app/com.textra-1/base.apk

or bind mount whole folder
(assuming 2nd partition is mounted /data/sdext2)
mkdir /data/sdext2/media
chmod 0770 /data/sdext2/media
chown 1023.1023 /data/sdext2/media
chcon u:object_r:media_rw_data_file:s0 /data/sdext2/media
mv /data/media/. /data/sdext2/media
mount -o bind /data/sdext2/media /data/media

it's of course easier, moving whole folders is possible with same command. on per-app-selection is what Link2SD provides, for better performance and stability one should avoid moving critical apps to external sd as much as possible. i recommend moving apk only

@alecx will these scripts to start  sm to shell will work on android lolipop 5.1.1  as previously  i  pushed sm and sm.jar file downloaded from a site of different device and tried it   gave java class error  then ABORTED  error crashed the android and i had to recover through  system and other  images...will this  work and not damage the phone or os again.... as irfanlatif commented  that adoptable storgae has been introduced and work on only Android 6.0 and above

@IrfanLatif An even simple approach is to mount SD card 2nd partition (or a loop file from first partition) directly to /data/app (or /data/data or /data/media). No extra steps required. But this should be..... kindly modify the script and tell me detailed  steps to this  simple approach  script

@Androidquery just install Link2SD

@Androidquery as suggested by alecxs go with Link2SD. Setting up manually requires some advanced skills you may not feel comfortable with.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q/219678

create some file on your MicroSD Card with dd + mke2fs (see link) 2. create mount script in '/su/su.d' (see above example '40sdextimg') 3. create empty folder '/data/sdext2' (mount point for Link2SD) 4. reboot and check Link2SD storage info (invite me to some chat if you need more help)


text:
Is there a way to call/invoke a (private) Java function in an app?
Is there some tool that can be used in ADB shell or something similar (without root possibly) that can invoke a function in the app, while it is running?

Rooted device
On rooted devices private function in apps can be called quite easily (in most cases) using a tool like Frida. Frida is like a mixture of a "scriptable debugger" and Xposed framework with the difference that you don't have to deal with low-level code like regular debuggers and the disadvantage of Xposed that when changing your scripting code you don't have to reboot the whole phone.
Frida allows to write JavaScript code that is executed within the app and you also have an interactive shell for finding or creating class instances, calling functions and so on. Frida is like a Swiss-Army-Knife for reverse-engineering and third party app debugging.
Unrooted device
On an unrooted device and an app that is a regular release app (not a debug build) you can't invoke a function within the app without modifying the app.
For example you could try to decompile the app using apktool, modify the Smali code to execute the function e.g. if a certain UI button is pressed and recompile and resign the app with a new certificate. But be aware that Smali is a very low-level language - so even if you are familiar with Java and Android development modifying Smali code will be challenging

If you resign an app, it won't install without fully removing the app, including the app files. Or is there some way to keep them, for I would like to preserve these files.

@hiddenhospitalresearch That is correct, you have to delete app data. If you install the app via adb you can use adb install -r <abc.apk> which will delete app data. If the app allows backup via adb you can try to backup the app data using adb backup <packagename> (check .ab file size afterwards success = file size is larger than 1KB) and after replacing the app restore the backup data.


text:
Samsung Andriod Mobile does not detect 5GHz Wifi from Verizon Router
I have Verizon Fios Router that has following network

Fios-95QSI-5G
Fios-95QSI

My laptop detects and connect to 5GHz Wifi, but not my Android Samsung. How do I fix this?
Below are the specifics

Samsung Galaxy J3 Prime (SM-J327T1)
Android Version 7

I have a family member that also owns this phone, even though T-Mobile advertised it as being 5.8Ghz capable... It isn't! Unless it's just firmware locked, but that seems unlikely.

I have updated the questions as is is clear that the question is on the 5GHz Wifi system not 5G.

in settings of Fios Router enable 2.4GHz Wifi for more compatibility

I am sorry to tell you..
Your phone is not 5g.
Your phone was created in 2017 before there were any 5g carriers or even 5g phones.
Network technology for this phone is limited to 2G, 3G, and 4G but don't fret! this is still a really nice phone and supports wifi!
Why don't you just use Wifi?  It's fast.. faster on most ways.. slower in a few others.

Not your downvoter, but I think he is talking about the 5.8Ghz wifi band. Indicated by him mentioning his dual band verizon router.

Lol so it was a 5th gen cellular question then?

Yes, unfortunately you will have to purchase a new phone to connect to the 5Ghz band.
Your phone only supports 802.11-b/g/n over 2.4 GHz.
This information is from the Samsung website, under the show all specs tab for the phone.
https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/all-other-phones/galaxy-j3-prime--t-mobile--sm-j327tzkatmb/

@Señor CMasMas, get some beamforming action going, it has much better object penetration.

According to Phoneandmore this phone has 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4Ghz, 5Ghz). Where did you got the information from that it is a 2.4GHz only?

@Robert. We own one, its lies. Look at other sources, you will find conflicting Information