text:
How can I use a dark theme for all webpages on Chrome for Android?
How can I use a dark theme for all webpages on Chrome for Android?
I don't mean having a dark theme for only the Google chrome UI (which can be done via Settings, Theme, Dark Mode) but also the webpages themselves, so this can be done with https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/morpheon-dark/mafbdhjdkjnoafhfelkjpchpaepjknad?hl=en on Google Chrome for desktop.
Example of website with no dark theme:

This is usually done with CSS injection, which this question asks (but not yet answered...)

@AndrewT. thanks for the pointer

Open Chrome
Tap the 3 dots in the top right corner
Tap Settings
Tap Themes
Select Dark

I haven't come across a site that this doesn't work on yet

Thanks, doing so changed the Chrome UI to dark theme, but not the webpages themselves, from what I can see.

Strange. Which version of Chrome are you using? Mine is 79.0.3945.136

I use the same version. Example of website with no dark theme: https://i.sstatic.net/lQBud.jpg do you have a dark theme?


text:
How can I access the browser console on Opera Mobile on Android?
How can I access the browser console on Opera Mobile on Android?
Browser console = something similar to the developer console window on Chrome, when pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl Shift J

Seems unlikely. It is a botched fork of Chromium. Most chrome://urls cannot be accessed. Even the official guide for remote debugging is outdated and no longer works.

Maybe some answers from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37256331/is-it-possible-to-open-developer-tools-console-in-chrome-on-android-phone might be helpful.

That feature seems to be unavailable for all major android browsers.
You could try Opera-mini instead.

Reset the console output by opening a new tab with the address debug:resetconsole

Open a tab on the page on which you want to do the inspection:

Run JavaScript code on the page by replacing the address in the address bar with the following address javascript:var%20n%3Ddocument.firstChild%3Bwhile%28n%20%26%26%20n.nodeType%21%3DNode.ELEMENT_NODE%29%20n%3Dn.nextSibling%3Bconsole.log%28n.outerHTML%29%3B
Retrieve the output by opening a new tab with the address debug:console

You can try this app that I developed it may help you,
F12 | Browser Console for Mobile Devices
But if you are developing something and want to access Console for it, then following the steps in following link will be a better option
https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/remote-debugging

source: Stack Exchange

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sort: votes


text:
What Lost Phone finder do you use and why?

Possible Duplicate:
Best lost / stolen device tracking app

I've used MobileDefense, but I want to make sure I'm getting the best protection. What lost phone finders have you used, and why do you like it?
I'm not using a rooted phone, so I'm not looking for features that require root.

Your question should be a little more specific.  What about MobileDefense don't you like or what feature are you looking for?  As it is now, your question isn't much different than "What's your favorite X app?", which is really more discussion based rather than Q&A.

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text:
How water resistant is the HTC Desire?
I read on another question that the Motorola Defy is a good choice if you want a water resistant phone. I assumed I wouldn't get the phone wet so water resistance was not a factor I considered when I was deciding which phone to buy. As it happened I ended up buying an HTC Desire.
However I do occasionally find it convenient to operate the phone in light rain, or with wet hands. So far no problems apart from a slightly unresponsive touchscreen sometimes, but I'm wondering how much of a risk am I taking here?

Could operating the buttons while they are slightly wet cause permanent damage to the phone? If so, how likely is it to happen in practice?

Mostly I'm interested in the HTC Desire, but if you have had a similar phone that was damaged by a small amount water then that would be interesting too.

If the water finds its way into the circuitry and causes a short, that could be bad, but I don't think there is any good way to quantify how likely that is to happen to any phone.  I have a Moto Droid and get it a little wet all the time and have never had a problem, although I have heard of people bricking their phone under the same circumstances.
If you do actually get it wet and it dies, it may not be bricked.  After it dries out it will probably work again.  You can aid the process by putting the phone in some rice or just blowing dry warm air on it.
It's also worth noting that many phone manufacturers install moisture detecting stickers inside the phone.  On the Droid it can been seen through a little hole under the battery cover that shows red plus signs on a white background.  If that gets wet, it'll bleed and that way if you try to return a broken phone and say it just died the tech can see if you got the phone wet, and even if that's not why it died, it'll void your warranty.

what does rice have to do with it?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/4269047

Didn't know about the moisture detecting sticker, interesting.

@Bryan, On your Droid it's under the battery cover, directly below the camera lens.  Its a little circle cutout about a 1mm across.  You should see white with little red + signs.

I have a HTC Nexus One and carelessly ended up with it being immersed in three inches of river water in the bottom of a plastic bag for over an hour. I assumed that it would be  write-off but dried it out anyway in the sunshine on the dashboard or the car and held it in the warm summer breeze for an hour on the journey home. I put the battery and cards back in and after a short period of irregular displays it worked perfectly. I was astonished!

Most phones work pretty fine with a little amount of water, but it also depends on your luck. My first Android volume buttons stopped working after I played Basketball with it in my pocket and sweat screwed it up. Under warranty got it replaced.

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text:
Does assisted GPS fix Samsung Galaxy S's GPS problems?

Possible Duplicate:
Does Froyo fix Samsung Galaxy S I9000's GPS problem?

the GPS on Samsung Galaxy S is said to be somewhat broken.  Is this true even when using assisted GPS?

This is going to be a difficult question for people to answer for you. There are a lot of Galaxy S users (including me) who've never had any GPS problems. There are some who seem to have more problems on some software versions than others. You really need to try it out on your phone and see.

More or less the same as: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2462/does-froyo-fix-samsung-galaxy-s-i9000s-gps-problem

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/6981/how-can-i-fix-the-gps-on-my-samsung-galaxy-s

Disclaimer: I don't have any problems with GPS on my Galaxy, but I do get a lock a few seconds quicker if I have the aGPS functions switched on. It also means that I get a "rough" lock while I'm waiting (this rough lock is the one with the big blue circle, which is about half a mile wide when I'm in my home town, or about 30m wide in London.
(On Froyo at least) the settings to turn this on and off are in Settings, Location and Security, then you can use both "Use wireless networks Location determined by Wi-Fi and/or mobile networks" and "Use sensor aiding Enhance positioning and save power using sensors" to switch the aGPS on or off

Guides to fix the GPS issues with Captivate and Vibrant have just been posted.
http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-posts-gps-fix-guide-for-captivate-and-vibrant-20101130/

Do you have a Galaxy S with a broken GPS? what do you mean by broken? My Galaxy S (2.1) GPS took forever to find my location without "Use wireless networks" as described by GAThrawn, but once I enable it I almost have no problems finding my location quickly

I am in the market for one, and I want to make sure that if the GPS doesn't work, I have some way to fix it.

maybe "broken GPS" that they say is similar to what I used to have. but when I activate assisted GPS the problem goes away.


text:
Does SAMSUNG I5500 GALAXY 5 can be upgraded into Android 2.2

Possible Duplicate:
When will my phone get the Android 2.2 update (FroYo)?

I'm planning to buy an android phone and I've heard that SAMSUNG I5500 GALAXY 5 is the cheapest one. My question is, does SAMSUNG I5500 GALAXY 5 can be upgraded into Android 2.2?

Upgrading it involves connecting your phone to your PC via Kies, if you have problems with doing that you can see the solutions in this question: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3246/fails-to-install-mtp-usb-device

It looks like Samsung have already released an official Android 2.2 update for the i5500 in the UK. So there is an official version, and it should be going to other countries and service providers, but unfortunately you may have to wait for it.
Source http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9431054&postcount=224 and http://www.samsungfirmwareworld.com/froyo-t1602.html
Also be aware that there is a specific post here for tracking when various phones are getting Froyo here: When will my phone get Android 2.2 (FroYo)? I've updated it with info on the i5500 and thta's a good place to keep an eye on for further info.


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SD Card unmounts automatically
Each and every time I restart my phone, a Samsung Galaxy Duos version 5.0.2, the SD card unmounts itself.  What could be the problem and what should I do to stop this.  Whenever this happens all the applications do not show up.

Have you tried another sdcard to see if it exhibits the same behavior?

I think it's probably with the phone.The problem doesn't persist whenever I go to the settings and firstly unmounts  SD card and then restarts.It's a solution I discovered and as a precaution I have to take before restarting the Os.Take note also that-After restarting I then heads to the settings and re-mounts back- However,you asked if I have tried another SD card.Well I have two handsets and each has the card and I have verify.Huawei doesn't exhibits what I see with this Samsung Duos.Another thing that tends to overwhelms me recently is that;pictures from my gallery doesn't uploads either through android browser or within individual applications.Thanks for your great concern.

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text:
Can the Samsung Galaxy Tab be used as a wifi-hotspot?
Is it possible to use the Samsung Galaxy Tab as a wifi-hotspot so that non-3G iPads can use the Samsungs connection to the phone network?

The Galaxy Tab comes with Android version 2.2 (Froyo), this version of the Android OS comes with the ability to work as a WiFi hotspot for up to 5 devices built in. This lets you share your Tab's 3G connection out to other devices over Wifi.
I've tethered wifi only devices like my Kindle 3, and a wifi Skype phone to my Galaxy S's wireless hotspot in this way and connected them to the internet with no problem, so I can't see any reason you'd have trouble doing that between a 3G Galaxy Tab and a Wifi iPad.
(it is possible for your phone company to block this facility, to date I think Verizon in the US are the only company to block it)

end of first paragraph -- I think you mean "WiFi" not "3G"

@matt well spotted, glad someone's proof reading!

I think Sprint charges an extra $20-$30/month for the WiFi hotspot feature. At least on the HTC/EVO that's what it is. I got it on the HTC/EVO so it will provide internet for any future Galaxy or tablet I might buy.

@Neal if there's one thing I'm constantly reminded of, it's to never be surprised by the greed of phone networks!

Yes you can.
Settings >  Wireless and Network > Mobile AP
This feature is built by Samsung, and different from the tethering feature that comes with Android 2.2 (Froyo). Using this one you can turn your Tab as a password-protected hotspot

@user3176 On 2.3 the feature is another level down under Settings > Wireless and Network > Tethering > Mobile AP. Also if you bought the device through your service provider then it is possible that they may have disabled that feature. Some networks (especially in the US it seems) disable the tethering features on their devices.


text:
Lag fixing using OCLF - could it do any harm?
I am wondering if the lag fix proposed by xda-developers could harm the device in anyway.
Quote from Google Code "Original use was for 'One Click Lag Fix' for the Samsung Galaxy S series, to create a loopback EXT2 device on top of Samsung's RFS in order to improve response time for applications."
Link to forum page about this: here.
How does it work exactly? What does "create loopback EXT2" mean?
I know the forum post clearly states it's been tested on a huge number of devices and it's working, but I want to understand what it does exactly and if there is any compromise by installing it?
Thank you.

Basically, it tricks the Android OS by using symbolic links and a large file formatted as ext2, rather than partitioning or formatting your device storage.  In this way it's very safe.  I've used it several times on several ROMs on my Galaxy S with no problems.

Thank you, Matthew. I'll give it a try then. Out of curiosity, if it's such a great solution why isn't it adopted by Google for future releases? This is me trying to understand if there are no strings attached / compromises and only good will come of it. :)

@Francisc: because it is basically a hack to allow you to use ext2 without repartitioning the device. This means there is two file system drivers to manage a single partition, the ext2 driver and rfs driver. Even though there are two drivers in play, the hack is a still gain since ext2 driver is much more efficient at managing files than rfs. Google would never adopt such a hack, they instead would simply partition the flash storage using ext4, which they did in Nexus S.


text:
Ffmpeg options for Android?
What ffmpeg options should I use to make video playable on Android Phone (specifically, LG Optimus)? I tried various bitrate and codecs and all combinations I came up with doesn't work (tried theora, mpeg4, h264).

The reviews I've read seem to indicate that the Optimus will happily play standard-definition Xvid and DivX video files in AVI format so try using the "-vcodec mpeg4" setting.
http://ffmpeg.org/faq.html#SEC20

I've been able to use any old AVI or MPEG files with the VPlayer app without having to convert them.  Another alternative is Rockplayer.  VLC for Android is supposed to be coming in the next few weeks.

I would highly recommend that you attempt the free MoboPlayer from the Android market.
It has highly optimised code for ARMV7, ARMV6 VFP, and ARMV6 -- as soon as it downloads it might recommend a different version from the Market version and will automatically start a download of the correct version.
In my personal experience video playback was exceptional on supposedly weaker phones -- although I don't expect it to handle HD content well.

These settings work very well on my ZTE Blade.  As they have similar hardware (CPU & Memory wise) they should work OK for the Optimus One.
Video codec: x264
Frame size: 512*288 (you may want to finesse that slightly for the Optimus screen size - 320*480?)
Bitrate: 768
Audio codec: aac
Bitrate: 128
I suspect that the frame size, codecs (audio and video) and bitrates should be fine regardless of which container (AVI/DIVX/MP4/MKV) that you pick to play it through.


text:
What purpose does the Notification Flash/Email setting serve?
The Notification Flash/Email setting (Settings > Sound & display > Notification flash > Email) appears to have no influence on the stock mail app or gmail app. So does it serve any purpose?
In the stock mail app, even if Email notifications (Settings > Notification settings > Email notifications) are on, the flash doesn’t occur, regardless of the system wide Notification Flash/Email setting.
In the gmail app, the Email notifications (Settings > Email notifications) setting controls whether the flash occurs or not, regardless of the system wide Notification Flash/Email setting.

Is this an HTC Sense based ROM?

Yes it is an HTC Wildfire running Android 2.1 with HTC Sense. Are the Notification Flash settings specific to HTC Sense then?

The Notification Flash settings are supposed to enable/disable flashing the LED on the front of the handset for events such as receiving an email or SMS.  If your handset has no LED (my HTC Desire does, my ZTE Blade does not) it has no efect but the option is usually still present as it's a stock option.

That behaviour is what I would expect from the Notification Flash settings, but it doesn’t have any effect on my email apps, as outlined in my question. After FoleyIsGood’s comment, I realise that my use of HTC Sense might cause behaviour in this area that is different from pure Android. I suppose I was looking to get some confirmation that the Notification Flash settings do work as expected for some people, whether they use HTC Sense or not.

The notification settings in each mail app (GMail & Stock) control whether a notification is made on the pull-down area at the top of the screen.  The one under sound and vision controls only the LED flash.  FWIW, the setting does work on my Sense-based HTC Desire.


text:
Deleting emails in the online GMail list, does not delete them on my Android 2.2 Samsung Galaxy S, is this normal?
This morning I decided to clean up my emails list in my gmail account using the Windows wb browser.
However when I opened the gmail application on my Samsung Galaxy S running Froyo 2.2, the emails I deleted online where still present.
Is this normal behavior or is there a setting which controls this.
I looked around for some setting, but found none. I also looked at the help on Gmail where is explained that you can clear the gmail's application data, but was just wondering whether there wasn't an easier way. All in all, this seems to be a logical operation no?

How soon after you deleted them on the web did you look in the GMail app? Do you have background sync turned on on your phone, and does your phone have a data connection at the moment?

@GATHrawn: Yes to all questions: I have background sync on, I had a data connection, and a mail just received in gmail for the web, was also there in the gmail for the android. anyway, regardless whether background syncing is on, if I press 'refresh', the data should be synced write than and there , no ? I just checked again, and the deleted items are still there on the phone.

Aha I have found it : the emails were still in the trash. Once I viewed the trash, highlighted them all, and than choose the 'Delete permanently', than when syncing on the device, the 'deleted' mails were gone too.
GAThrawn was so convincing in his reply that they should have been deleted, I investigated some more ... thanks.
I will keep my answer here, since it might help others in the future.

It shouldn't matter whether they're in the Trash, or not. I've never emptied the trash folder in Gmail, just let it auto-empty. At the moment I've got over 250 messages in trash. Pretty sure that GMail sets priorities on what it syncs and how often, so new emails are synced almost instantly, whereas I've seen deletions take up to 15 minutes (hence my question about how soon you looked). I just tested with a message I reported as spam on the web, and it was just over five minutes before it disappeared from my phone even pressing refresh.

Wait, people actually delete emails from GMail besides spam? :)  Yes, I agree with GAThrawn, it can take a couple minutes for gmail app to sync up with gmail.

I agree that it shouldn't matter, but I can only tell (and ask) about things I notice on my phone. I will do some further testing ...


text:
Is there an app that will list my phone's info in an easily copy/paste-able format?
There's a great Add-on for Firefox called InfoLister, all it does is provide a nicely formatted list of stuff and versions, for example here's what it lists for me:

Last updated: Thu, 27 Jan 2011
  17:03:32 GMT
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0
  (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US;
  rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203
  Firefox/3.6.13 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729;
  .NET4.0E)
Extensions (enabled: 23, disabled: 7):

Contacts 0.3.2
DOM Inspector 2.0.8
etc...

Themes (1):

Default 3.6.13 [selected]

Plugins (13):

Garmin Communicator Plug-In
Google Talk Plugin
etc...

Are there any Android apps that can generate an easily copy & paste-able list of the phone's version, etc. all in one place? Basically the stuff that appears in Settings -› About phone.

I also wrote an app in response to this question. It's free in the market. Let me know what you think. If you want more information, please let me know and I'll add what I can.
It's called "Android Information Text ".

Looks good, am impressed that one question on here got two different devs writing apps to solve the problem! You can find Reassembler's at http://www.appbrain.com/app/android-information-text/org.reassembler.textinfo

Well out of my own curiosity, I made this to start:
https://github.com/dieseltravis/AndroidBuildInfo

Here it is running on my Moto Flipside:

Upvoted for developer initiative!

Yes of course
SysHard Info - show system and hardware information on Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kinocat.andinfo
Copy Screen

What is your connection to this software? Are you the developer? It seems to be relatively new, so maybe you could share the qualities that meet the requirements of the question?

Who are you and what you want from me?

This stackexchange likes developers to reveal their connection to software they have created to resolve the question. The company name of this tool is similar to your username, and it is a recent build. Is there a connection? If so, you should be clear about that.

Can you only copy the info out of the Pro version?

@wbogacz: Indeed:  "ua" is the ISO country code for Ukraine; and "Andrey" is probably the Ukrainian variant of the English name "Andrew".

In case you wonder why, how to not be a spammer explains it: "Post good, relevant answers, and if some (but not all) happen to be about your product or website, that’s okay. However, you must disclose your affiliation in your answers.". As of current writing, it's unclear if this is an attempt to promote your app particularly or not. Is there a reason why you don't want to disclose it?


text:
How can I paste the clipboard content from the Android TeamViewer client to the computer running the TeamViewer server that I connected to?
I use the TeamViewer Android application.
How can I paste the clipboard content from the Android TeamViewer client to the computer running the TeamViewer server that I connected to?
When I press on CTRL + V</kbd using the Hacker's keyboard when connected to the host, it doesn't retrieve the Android clipboard. Also I didn't see any option in TeamViewer to send the clipboard content.

What have you tried so far? It should be possible with text, but likely not possible with files/folders if that's what you're after.

@l3l_aze When I press on CTRL + V</kbd using the Hacker's keyboard when connected to the host, it doesn't retrieve the Android clipboard. Also I didn't see any option in TeamViewer to send the clipboard content

I'm sorry. It looks like it could be caused by two options on the host -- one enables Ctrl + click as right click, the other is "clipboard synchronization". According to their website both should be available in Settings/Preferences -> Advanced, maybe under the "Extras" tab. I only have 2x Android to test and neither of these is an option, but it does still copy to the client clipboard (using 6.0.1 as client + 8.1.0 as host).


text:
How can I update my password in Cisco Jabber without having to reset Jabber?
I have changed my password in Cisco Jabber through some non-Android device. I also use Cisco Jabber on Android though. How can I update my password in Cisco Jabber for Android without having to reset Cisco Jabber?

After I changed my password in Cisco Jabber, (amazingly) I can still sign in:

However, instant messaging, phone services and voicemail are not available:

I know I could reset by  Cisco Jabber application, but I would rather avoid that, since as its name suggests it resets everything:

Notes:

after clicking on the sign out button, the user is redirected to screenshot 1, and they can still sign in even without specifying the password. The user isn't asked for the new password, amazingly.
restarting the Cisco Jabber application or rebooting the phone after signing  out doesn't help.

On the second screenshot I see a link to "sign out". I'd expect it would allow you to sign-in again with the new password after having properly signed out?

@Izzy thank you good point I forgot to mention: after clicking on the sign out button, the user is redirected to screenshot 1, and they can still sign in even without specifying the password. The user isn't asked for the new password, amazingly.

Ah, I already wondered why/how it shows a sign-in page if you hadn't signed out :) Doubt it does the trick, but worth a try: Sign out, close the app, go to the app's page in Settings › Apps, force-close it, delete cache, optionally reboot right after that. That might make it lose its "token", so it should ask for complete login data on the next try. Again, not sure it does (might have saved that elsewhere) – but worth a try.

@Izzy restarting the Cisco Jabber application or rebooting the phone after signing  out doesn't help. And it looks like in Settings › Apps I don't have the option to remove the cache.

Then I'm out of ideas. Consider approaching their support: sign-out should sign out, so sign-in then should ask for user and password. I'd name that "bug".

I had this same problem and resolved it by going to Accounts -> Instant Messaging and manually changing my password there.  Then reset the program and when you open it again it should work.


text:
How can I view which program wakes up my Android screen?
From time to time, I see my Android screen turns on. How can I view which program wakes up my Android screen?
I use unrooted Android 6.0 on LG4. The screen is locked.

Is your device rooted?

@beeshyams no~~

It's likely a wakelock created by an app to keep the screen on.  You can try solutions here to identify the truant app and uninstall that

You should look into dumpsys. This works without root, using ADB.
First, enable developer mode on your phone (tap the build number in settings -> information/about this phone 7 times). Then go to settings -> developer settings and enable USB debugging there.
On your PC install ADB, there are many versions, minimal ADB and fastboot is quite nice.
Once you got all that you can execute adb dumpsys on your PC within ADB to get a f**kton of increible information, from detailed battery usage to SMS history, LCD debug information, wifi radio information and a ton more. All without root, so that's pretty cool.
The dumpsys utility is divided into multiple modules, which you can individually access by appending their names onto the adb dumpsys command.
The module you should be looking at would probably be usagestats, so give adb dumpsys usagestats a run. That should show you which app was active at the time your display turns on.


text:
How to copy the phone number of the sender of a text message in Android default messaging program?
How to copy the phone number of the sender of a text message in Android default messaging program? Does one have to go through "create a new contact" through the + menu, or is there any faster way?
I use unrooted Android 6.0 on LG4.
I don't see any "people & options" in the menu:

I did not pay attention on the phone and Android version when I answered. I will delete my answer.

@ReddyLutonadio you're welcome to keep the answer, it's still very useful to know for more recent versions.

Does one have to go through "create a new contact" through the + menu, or is there any faster way?

You can copy the phone number without selecting "Create a new contact". I don't know if there is a faster way but here is how to do it:

On the default messaging app, open the text message (SMS) whose phone number you want to copy.
Click the 3-dot, then "People & options".
Long press the phone number. A message "Copy to clipboard?" will appear, click on "Copy".

Edit: The answer is probably more useful if using Android 7 and above. I deleted, then restored it based on the comments. If it is against the rules, moderators please take the appropriate action(s).

Thank you, I don't see any "people & options" in the menu: https://i.sstatic.net/uKcdO.jpg


text:
Change app sub-menu/folder style to iPhone-style
On the "desktop" of my phone, I can move my apps into folders together by dragging one on top of the other. However, as opposed to the iPhone (where they form a reduced-sized grid), the apps gets combined into a folder where I can no longer identify each of them. Is there some way to change this sub-menu/folder style to replicate the iPhone's functionality?

You can achieve iPhone like sub folder view by downloading any launcher. Here is the link which you will find helpful
 GO Launcher -Theme.
If you are interested in making it replicate iPhone's theme as well, then you will have to download additional theme which are compatible with Go Launcher app. Similar case goes if you download other themes.
The folder view in GO Launcher shows only 4 apps at a glance by default whereas iPhone shows 9 apps in a folder.
So in case you need the folder to preview 9 apps.Try downloading LineLauncher and follow these steps to achieve it:

Download the Line Launcher.
Set Line Launcher as homescreen.
Go to preferences->Folder/Icon ->click on Preview of the folder icon.
Select Thumbnail 3x3.


text:
Configure Android black box
My apps on my phone keep bugging out on me, but I can never catch them in the act. Is there any way to keep a black box of my phone state (perhaps polled every 1 minute) for the past x minutes so that when I catch a bug, I can save the last x minutes and debug them later?

Run a system monitoring app, then go back through the morning log until you find it. This is just an idea which helped me with data consumption on new Sprint Pro hotspot which should have not been released yet.

It would be better if you could also provide a link to the "system monitoring app" you mentioned.


text:
Install ROM to save android samsung galaxy mini GT-S5570
I rooted this device about a year ago and attempted to install a rom however as I failed to find that much information on how to do it I ended up going into the stock recovery mode and attempting to install a zip file I had downloaded. I did this by choosing "apply update from sdcard".
Obviously this is completely wrong and my phone is now always stuck in a bootloop. It also seems I have filled up the entire memory of bogus files as when I tested to install a file through recovery mode I get the error "No space left on device".
My question is if there is any way I can install some ROM(or anything) so that I can use this phone again. It seems I can't do this through the phone as I don't have a custom recovery so if I can do anything from my mac that would be great.
I have also tried using heimdall-one-click to unbrick however it could not identify my device.

Can you boot into fastboot mode?

When I follow instructions for fastboot mode white text appears on my screen it does however not show android logo as the tutorial I followed said it would.

What does the text say?

First it says something like lcd_backlight_ctrl start. It mentions something about re-check normal boot and a little kernel.

authors: รัญชนา พุ่มแก้ว


text:
How can I group apps together in the menu view?
The menu view of the phone lists all of the apps I've installed.  All of them.
The phone came pre-installed with 2.5 pages of apps, and I'm up to 5.  I've had the phone for 3 weeks...
Is there any way to group them into folders in order to reduce the clutter?
Note (1): I am using a Samsung Galaxy S with Froyo
Note (2): My phone's GUI is in Hebrew, so I may be getting the terms wrong.  This is what I mean by "menu view":

follow up question, is there a way to auto arrange icons say in alphabetical order?

That screen is meant to be just a list of your apps. As you're using Samsung's built-in TouchWiz interface, one thing you can do is move those apps around, so that they're in an order you like and related apps are on the same page. Just press the Menu button, and press Edit and you should see little (-) signs appear on the apps, now you can drag them around to change their order, or drag them to the left or right edge of the screen to move them to a different screen.
However the better way to do this, is by arranging the apps on your home screen, rather than the apps list.
You can have up to 7 home screens on a Galaxy S, and you can add things like Folders to the Home screens to further organize your apps. Think of the home screen as being a bit like the Windows desktop, you can add/remove/organize shortcuts to apps here and even delete them as much as you like and it won't cause any problems.
To copy an app's icon from the App list to the Home screen, just long-press on it for a second or two and then the view should change from the APP list to the home screen, and you can drop the icon wherever you want. Add folders to the Home screen by long-pressing on an empty bit of the Home screen, then select Folders, New Folder. As long as the folder was open when you left the Home screen, you can drag an icon from the Apps list to there the same way. To move an app around the Home screen, long-press on it, and then drag it to where you want, or drag to the Remove bar at the bottom to delete the icon.
On a Galaxy S with TouchWiz you can add or remove Home screens (up to 7 of them) by going to the Home screen, pressing Menu, sleect Edit and then either press the (+) sign if available to add, or drag a screen to the Remove area at the bottom to remove. If you have Froyo (Android 2.2) you can also do a pinch zoom out on the Home screen to swap between screens, or add/remove screens.

My phone's in English, but hopefully you can find the equivalent menu options on yours.

Wow. I've been using Android for a year now, and only just discovered home-screen folders thanks to your answer. :)

@Graham Glad to hear it, I always think it makes getting out of the bed in the morning worthwhile if you manage to teach someone else something they didn't know, and also to learn something new yourself!


text:
How can I view my Google Contacts groups with my Samsung Fascinate?
My phone's contacts sync with my Google Contacts, but they are all in the same group (called "Google"). I would like for the sub-groups that I have created in Google Contacts to be accessible from my phone, so I can view/organize my contacts by these groups. Is there any way to achieve this?

Do you mean have the groups themselves (for organizational purposes) or just the contacts within the groups accessible?

I mean the groups themselves (for organizational purposes). See my comment on Bryan's answer.

I have edited the question slightly to reflect the clarification.

The Groups tab in the contacts app shows the individual Google contacts groups, including the built-in ones ("Coworkers" etc.) and my custom groups, and they are browsable.  This is on my Galaxy S Vibrant running 2.2, with TouchWiz.

I guess I'll have to wait for 2.2 then--they definitely don't show up on my fascinate running 2.1.

The SGS phones are nearly impossible to brick and easy to revert to stock for warranty purposes, if you want to consider a custom ROM.

It sounds like 2.2 is coming out in a few weeks. If I'm not happy with it, or it gets delayed again, then I'll consider rooting. Thanks for the tip!

2.2 is out, and this solution now works!

Go to Contacts. Hit menu --> Display options. Under "Choose contacts to display" tap the account (gmail) and then check the groups you want.

This controls which of my Google Contacts groups are displayed in my list of contacts, but they are still only considered part of the single group "Google". I want to organize my contacts by Google Contacts group.

@Matthew what do you mean by "organize" do you want to sort them in the order of the group they're in? Or something else?

@GAThrawn: Browse by group and send message to group would be the two biggest things.

I don't know if there's a way to do it specifically in TouchWiz, but on my Droid I had to install Groupy to accomplish this.  It works but be careful and test it out first as if you add groups and sync in the wrong order you'll end up with tons of duplicates.


text:
How can I determine why my phone won't sleep?
When my phone won't go to sleep, what is the best way to trouble-shoot what the problem and/or offending app is?
(In my case I am running CyanogenMod, and so I don't know if the solution will be the same or different than for stock Android)

What version of CyanogenMod?

Sorry - CM 6.1.0-DS

In stock Android, there is a developer setting "never sleep when plugged in". Is that turned on?

I couldn't find a similar option in CyanogenMod, but it could be there somewhere.

The setting Al mentioned was found under Settings -> Applications -> Development on my Galaxy S until the 2.2.1 update, check there if you have it.

Thanks - just found it.  In my case, it is not checked and thus isn't the culprit, but it's nice to know where to find it.

First, look at which apps are runnng (including services).  Then use Titanium Backup to freeze on of those apps (exclude regular system apps/services, unless you've determined nothing else is the culprit) and see if your problem stops.  If you haven't found the offender, un-freeze and try another.

Just out of curiosity, are there other apps like Titanium Backup that can freeze an app?

I'm not sure.  There are definitely other apps that do backups and uninstalls. So you could always back up the app, uninstall it, and restore it if it's not the problem.  Of course, you can screw up your system if you mess with a system app (though not permanently as the device/filesystem/etc. will be fine).

When your phone wont go to sleep, check for wakelock using apps. Programs like "Wakelock detector" will help you to do that. Good luck!
Reference: Wakelock , Wakelock detector


text:
What is hard reset and what is factory reset?
It is mentioned at XDA Developers that one should do Factory reset or hard reset. I'm a bit confused about what is hard reset?
Factory reset I suppose is using the option in settings to reset phone to the factory state i.e. when it was unboxed.

A hard reset is traditionally when you kill all power to the device and then boot it up from that state.  Normally you remove the battery, then put it back in and boot up.  You're right about factory reset — it erases all your settings and data, leaving the OS.  Unfortunately, some people use "hard reset" when they really mean "factory reset".

Thanks very much for the short & sweet answer. So that means, it doesn't stop using battery when I switch off my phone? And what extra boot steps it has to take for hard reset than simple reboot?

Most Android phones actually do shut off entirely when powered down.  Powering down and then back up should be sufficient.  I would suspect a reboot would be fine as well -- a "soft" restart is usually when you close an application and restart it, rather than restart the entire device.  For example, you could "soft reboot" old versions of Windows by exiting to DOS and then starting up Windows again.

I think "hard reset" has become synonymous with "factory reset", as far as phone tech support is concerned anyway. A "hard reboot" would be where you yank the battery and then restart the phone, while a "soft reboot" would be selecting restart from the power options menu.

"You're right about factory reset -- it erases all your settings and data, leaving the OS."
Does that mean that Factory Reset is exactly the same  thing as wiping /data and /cache?  I would have thought from the name that it resets your phone back to its "factory" state by reformatting all internal memory and flashing each partition from an image on a real embedded ROM in your phone, but that appears not to be the case.
I guess if such a thing existed, it would be easy to restore a "bricked" phone. Manufacturers must be under a lot of cost pressure.  ;)

@lsiden It doesn't format and flash, sadly. A locked bootloader might do that if you modify /system, but a standard factory reset only hits /data and /cache as you say.


text:
Anyone know the LG Ally screen density?
I'm doing some android development and one of the specific devices I need to test on is the LG ally. The tech specs on their web site list the display resolution as 480 x 800, but I also need the density in order to emulate the screen properly (the difference between 160 and 240 dpi is huge).
Anyone know the screen density for the LG Ally?

It's about 290 DPI (just crunch the numbers: Use the pythagorean equation to get the "pixels" diagonally, then divide by the screen diagonal).

No problem.  It's easier if you have the screen width/height (then you can just divide the pixels wide by the width, or the px high by the height) but those measurements are harder to come by.


text:
Problems rooting an evo shift
I'm on day 2 of the great quest for permanant root.  I have followed the guides here and here to the letter and still my hboot shows "S-On".  Hboot says:
SPEEDY XE SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-0.93.0001
RADIO-1.07.00.1129
eMMC-boot

Visionary will temp root, I go through all the steps, the md5's match, but when I go into hboot, it always says S-ON.  How do I get this thing rooted?

Did you try to permaroot anyways?
I'd try a factory reset and then try again.

I wiped everything and tried again from the start and it took.


text:
How do I know what radio firmware I'm running?
I'm gearing up to mod my phone and reading the Cyanogenmod Installation Support Line which is helpful-ish right up until step 1.3, "1.3 Radio ...aka Which EBI am I?" They refer you to a post that makes almost no sense to me and which seems to be pretty damn important. I can't tell from it where I would look to see which EBI I am. In Recovery Flasher it shows my Phone Type as "EBI0/32B"
Looking at the wiki I find a whole page (I searched for "EBI0") I do see instructions for turning the phone off and holding down the back arrow while I power it back up. Here I see the following:
DREA100 PVT 32B
HBOOT-0.95.000
CPLD-4
RADIO-2.22.23.02

Sep 2 2008

I think this means I'm a 2x radio and thus can safely install DangerSPL. Am I on the right track here?

Yes, based on those posts you definitely have a 2.x radio that does not require the modified kernel.  Your radio version is also listed as supported on the DangerSPL page.  I think you're good to go, best of luck!


text:
How can I ignore the AT&T software update?
(Update 2016-01-09: I got rid of the phone after it auto-upgraded to Android 5, so I don't have this issue anymore.)

I keep getting this message every 10 minutes or so on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (non-rooted Android 4.1.2):

How can I ignore it?
I want to skip this update as the penultimate one introduced some nasty bugs.
EDIT: Apparently I cannot kill the AT&T service:

Also, I restarted the device and the AT&T service is launched at startup.
So I tried to remove the AT&T service from the startup using Startup Cleaner 2.0, but the AT&T service still get launched...:

You are not obliged to follow through and accept the update. Why not just back out of it by using the onscreen-back button or press the home button?

@t0mm13b The dialog box keeps appearing.

Can you not go into Manage Apps from settings and disable the updater (I'd imagine it would be called Samsung-Updater or similar)?

@t0mm13b You mean disable auto-update apps in Play settings? If so I still want my apps to auto-update, just my OS not to  auto-update.

Not in play settings, no, in System Settings > Apps, under the header ALL, scroll through the list and see if you can pick out a service or an app called similar FWupdateService or similar. Hint: It is not Google something...

@t0mm13b Thanks, following your advice I tried, see my edited answer.

one other suggestion, disable wifi temporarily, does the dialog go away? it appears to wait until wifi gets activated? could try blocking the ip address on your wifi network to mitigate the dialog box?

@t0mm13b Disabling wifi does not the dialog go away (which is totally stupid, another AT&T trick to blow their customers'  money).

The only last resort - root it and nuke the service completely...

I called AT&T, and this is a mandatory update. Other than rooting, there's no way to avoid the message. You can avoid the download by not going onto WiFi. If you install the update, you need to re-enter WiFi passwords EVERY time you reconnect to a WiFi network. Horrible! I'm avoiding this thing even if have to keep hitting the home key when the message pops up.

:( Yeah I'm tired to deal with bug introduced by updates too... did the wifi password issue appear in the latest AT&T update (i.e. the one I'm trying to avoid)?

I didn't do the update, but the AT&T guy said that would be a new "feature" of the update. That's one of the reasons I'm not doing it -- in addition to being fine with the version I have and the blogs saying this new thing is full of bugs, as you also say.

So, I know this is old, but for the record...I found a way to block all updates without root. I downloaded a tool called debloater (google it) and blocked:
wssyncmldm.apk
wssyncmlnps.apk
LocalFOTA.apk
Now it stopped trying to download the update that would always make my back soft key not work. Done and done, and no root required.

I just wrestled with this on my galaxy note 9.0. In /system/app there is a file called (for me) FWUpgrade.apk
Even though I am rooted it refused to rename or remove it in a file explorer... I tried a few.  I eventually just used terminal to chmod 666 it after su-ing to get root. Then I removed it no prob. So, at the term prompt:
su
cd /system/app
chmod 666 FWUpgrade.apk
rm FWUpgrade.apk

Theres a FWUpgrade.odex too, so I rm'd it too.
dont know if it worked cause of the chmod or because I was root and I could figure out how to give su permissions to the file explorers I tried. One told me no, the other told me it it worked, but it lied. Hope this helps!

Hey, thanks for editing the command line commands for me, I was having some trouble with that! However, I don't think rm'd should be changed to removed, as I was referring to the actual command "rm". Which does happen to be remove, and since it still says "rm FWUpgrade.apk" where it counts, I guess removed work but by that standard it should say, "...just used terminal to change its mode to 666 after super-ing user to root" :)

I find it strange that a chmod on the APK worked. Typically, /system is mounted read-only, requiring a mount -o remount,rw command before changing anything. More than that, in Linux, file permissions don't determine whether or not you can remove a file, directory permissions do. So I would have expected a chmod 777 /system/app rather than anything acting on the APK.

I think you may have something there, although my AT&T upgrade reminder has stopped bothering me since I did this, so idk what to tell you. Perhaps coincedence? I believe that I may have done a mount -o remount, rw command earlier while messing with something else.

That's important information to anyone else coming along, @RonKyle. I just want to get the exact command sequence for posterity. I'll try it on my wife's AT&T S3 when I have the chance.

Yeah I didn't really think of it until your comment... you'll have to forgive me,  I'm not super-familiar with Linux just yet... but I do know it wouldnt let me rm the apk until I chmod 666'd it, afterwards it did. I know I didnt change the permissions on the directory, just the file, so...? Also, what did you mean by comal? Command list? Or a typo? :)

I have been using a Note 3 on AT&T for about four months now and I have so far managed to avoid unwanted firmware updates without rooting. I am still running Android 4.3.
I don't want kitkat. It doesn't remember wifi passwords. I have also heard of issues with bluetooth functionality and sd card access limitations. Also, battery life seems to be negatively impacted by these updates. I have dodged the updates  two different ways.
One way is by going into the application manager in your settings when you see that annoying update message come up. Select "running" apps in the app manager and you will find "att software update." You can't delete it but you can turn it off or force it to stop. That is a temporary fix. Eventually that message will come back again if you do this.
If you want to block the update for a long time as in maybe a 90% chance of never dealing with it again, there is an app called Ad Blocker. The developer is Smartdog Studio. It disables wifi from being used by whatever apps you want. It's purpose is to block ads from apps that use wifi even though they don't require it to run. If you apply ad block to an app that beeds wifi to run, the app simply will not run at all. But when you go to other apps that you want to use wifi with, your wifi will work with those. This app effectively blocks the software update.
It can be glitchy though. Can turn wifi on and off when you have multiple apps that are capable of completing the same task.  Like web browsers for example. If I click on something that is trying to take me to a website, and I have multiple web browsers on my phone, there is a screen that pops up basically prompting me to pick a browser. With ad block on the Note 3, that screen that comes up often turns wifi off. Set defaults to avoid that. And if you have over 300 apps on your phone, and you try to go into ad blocker, it will most likely time out and crash. So if you want it to work well I wouldn't install anymore than about 275 apps on the phone. Otherwise it should be fine.

I use nova launcher. Hold finger on screen choose short cuts, activity, scroll down to att update tap on left side. Uou will see the app below it. Click on it it will send it to desktop.
When you click on it you can edit The dm connection settings.  Click on profile then change to mformation(thats not a typo) Then click on the name choose edit. Then delete all fields except the profile name then save. Try running software update from settings, about device. My device will no longer connect
to the dm server. Im saying good by to lollypop!
I have screen shots.

It would be better if you add the screenshots. If you can't, then feel free to post it on the comment and let other integrate it to your answer.

After my Galaxy Note 3 got all messed up by Lollipop update, I rooted by phone and installed DisableService app from Play Store.
Using DisableService, you can disable  AT&T Software update service.
Good luck.

I haven't tried this, but in your APN settings there's a setting called "fota," which stands for "firmware over the air." Removing that APN type and rebooting your device could stop those updates.

FYI this can be helpful for android owners. I did switch from att to tmobile service after 2 years plan for my galaxys4.The problem I could not get any 4g signal. I was ready to switch back to att free galaxy s5 2 years plan. But I read that the band shift of tmobile and att are different so I found on internet a way to update the ATT shift band to be compatible to Tmobile. For that I need KitKat firmware and I am under lolipop 5.01. I know there is a lot of problems with lolipop(even when I was with att lolipop was terrible, draining battery phone cell signal very weak etc...). So I found away to down grade to kitkat and guess what my 4g is fully functional. it was a firmware problem. So i confirm lolipop is the worst update ever. (lost of 4g, draining battery....) so I am good now with Tmobile. The next step was to root my phone to avoid he update to lolipop.I did use disableservice to kill the ATT update.I Hope this will help for you future next move.

How did you down grade to kitkat? (I stopped using my phone after the auto-update to Android 5)

Please focus on answering the asked question (prevent nagging of "AT&T Software update"). Your background/opinion is not relevant and cluttering the answer, making it hard to know what your answer trying to convey.


text:
How can I prevent the AT&T update software from using my 4G connection?
Is there any way to prevent the AT&T update software form using my 4G connection (i.e. using Wi-Fi only when available)?
By default it seems to use the 4G connection when there's no Wi-Fi connection, as the screenshots below show. I use Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III with a rooted Android 4.1.2.

Following saloalv's answer, I tapped on "Android OS" (which is the process listed as being the one who used my 4G connection): I don't see any "restrict background data" option.

I do see the "restrict background data"  option for other processes though:

Open data usage in settings, tap on AT&T software update, scroll down and tap "restrict background data".

Thanks. I added 3 screenshots at the end of my answer: I don't see the "restrict background data" option for Android OS (where AT&T software update seems to be somehow encapsulated) :/

@FranckDernoncourt seems that either this is part of android design, and system apps don't have that setting, or AT&T did something to make sure you can't restrict background data. This procedure would have worked for an user app though


text:
Google Play Games: how long do XP and achievements last?
If a game that uses the Google Play Games service disappears, are the associated XP and achievements removed from the Google Play Games' player profiles?

If by disappering you mean deleted app from playstore, No an app can't be deleted once published in google play store(Ref.). The "Delete" button only works for unpublished version of your app. It shoud instead be unpublished and  wont be displayed in the PlayStore results but the old users will continue using the apps and receive updates. See here

When you unpublish an app, existing users can still use your app and
  receive app updates. Your app won’t be available for new users to find
  and download on Google Play.

And once an achievement is published it cannot be deleted (Ref.). But you can reset the players achievement's progress in the google play developer console or by using the Management API methods programatically only when the app is published.

Deleting an achievement
Once your achievement has been published, it cannot be deleted.
You can only delete an achievement in a pre-published state by
  clicking the button labeled Delete at the bottom of the form for that
  achievement.
Resetting an achievement
You can only reset player progress data for your draft achievements.
To reset achievements in the Google Play Developer Console, click the
  button labeled Reset achievement progress at the bottom of the form
  for that event. To reset achievement data programmatically, call the
  Management API Achievements methods... Read More

So that means the app won't be listed in the playstore results for new users but the game data will be stored for the users having installed the app before the app is unpublished.

The XP and achievements stay on your profile forever (unless you delete the game from your profile).


text:
How can I make my photos automatically geo-tagged?
Is there a way I can make photos taken by Camera be automatically  and reliably geo-tagged, so that the location is recognised when I upload them to Flickr?
I have 'GPS' enabled in the camera, but it seems that if the GPS is not enabled or not 'ready', it isn't recorded (when I check the photo's details in Gallery, the location is 'Unknown').
Alternatively, is there a way I can geo-tag a photo after I've taken it? (edit: made this a separate question)
If it's relevant, my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S.

As long as you have GPS switched on on your phone (on a Galaxy S the easiest way to do this is from the buttons that appear when you pull the notification bar down from the top of the screen) and have GPS switched on in the camera, you should see the "satellite receiver" GPS icon appear and start flashing when you open the camera app. As long as you see this then your phone is trying to geo-tag your pictures.
Be aware that even in the best of conditions your phone can take 30 seconds or more to get a decent GPS position locked, so wait a bit after you open the camera app before you take the picture.
You can also speed up the GPS lock by making sure that you have the assisted GPS features switched on, see this previous question for details on how to switch those features on.

Thanks. It's a pity the Camera app doesn't give any feedback as to if it has obtained a position lock or not...

The flashing satellite receiver icon stops flashing once it starts to get a lock in any GPS using app, it should on yours too?

the Camera app has its own icon, and I don't know that it ever stops flashing (if by flashing you mean the "radiation" kind of animation). I just took a photo after waiting around 15 seconds, the icon was still flashing but it DID geo-tag it.

You can install the application Tasker and use it to always enable GPS when the camera is launched.  Enabling GPS for apps that need it is one of the more common uses of Tasker, but it does so much more than that.
Here's an article with information:
http://lifehacker.com/5599116/how-to-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-fully+automated-superphone

Why would you switch GPS off at all? It's not as if it uses power at all until you launch an app that uses GPS?

Once I tested my location based android app while developing, I noticed it can take forever to get a location, when GPS is on. When just 'Location through network' enabled, the location comes within seconds. Use this anwer, when the answer of GAThrawn doesnt satisfy you.

It seems to me that Camera doesn't use 'Location through network' when GPS is disabled/slow, which is a shame.

Oh, too bad. Well, Location through network is not very accurate. Maybe useless for photo tagging...


text:
What is the best way to provide feedback to an app's developers and request a feature?
Following on from an earlier question that I posed on how to free up space on my Android phone it became clear that a key issue is to request that more developers allow their applications to be moved to the SD card.
What is the best way to let the developers of my favourite apps know of this request?
I considered giving them a low rating in the market and writing in the comment that I would give them 5 stars if they included the "Move to SD card" option. However since I really like the applications and want them to be widely adopted to encourage further development on them I don't really want to turn away potential new users by giving a low rating.

If you want to provide feedback and/or do have a feature request that you want to have answered it would be best to write an eMail provided in the Android Market.
It's located below the description and images of the app.
Also you could check out the website if the developer does have a bugtracker and/or forum (which is often the case).

I considered giving them a low rating in the market and writing in the comment that I would give them 5 stars if they included the "Move to SD card" option.

Please, please, please don't do this.  Us developers hate it when we are "threatened" with ratings.  "5 stars if you do X", usually when X is the most random and obscure feature request, often not related to the app.
The rating of an application should be based off it's current quality.  If it's missing a feature that you think would be good for it or if you encounter a bug, then email the developer.
The problem with rating down an application (that does not completely deserve it) is that the user typically does not change their rating, even if their "threatened" feature request was added.  Additionally, developers cannot respond directly to comments to make the user aware that they added the feature or fixed that bug.  If you email the developer, then they will be able to contact you back!
In the case of "Move to SD Card" option, it might not be recommended to do such a thing.  For instance, if an application has widgets, it is not recommended to move to SD Card.  See more examples and info here.

I'd like to add that there is no way for a developer to contact a commentator from a market comment. That's why I also don't like bug reports or feature requests there, because I can't ask the commentator for more input. The comments in the Android market are meant to tell other users what you like and what you don't like about the app.

Don't give them a lower rating !
I , for one , really look at the rating to see if a program is worth investigating. A fine program , just without the option to move to SD , is not, all of a sudden, a bad program.
Look at their web sites, or at an email address visible in the market of in the program.
If none is found , clearly specify it in the comments, but do not give it a worse reading.
At least, that't my opinion, here :)

If "Move to SD card" is an important feature for someone, they should rate the app lower if it doesn't have that. When I rate an app, I'm giving it a rating for how it works for me, not what I think other people should rate it.

There are applications that are not able to be put onto SDCard, due to some features that need to be within the system's borders, i.e. Widgets, so it's not fair towards the developer for rating the app lower due to some of Android's restrictions.

I've seen quite a few apps where the developer specifically says to leave feedback on their website, not on the Market comments. Remember that if you open up the details for an installed app from your Downloads list in the Market app most of them have a "Visit the developer's website" link.
Apparently they can't see any more of the comments than we can and don't get a way to search through them or see historical comments, so your comment is very easily lost in the list quite probably before they ever get a chance to see it, whereas if you click the link to go to their website most of them have somewhere that you can leave constructive feedback and requests (normally either blog post comments or a forum).

This is a good question, and one that I changed my mind on after reading each of the responses.  After some thought I'd say consider your audience.
The audience for the comments is the Android community.  Most devs probably look in there but some might not.  You should rate and comment on the app honestly, and with the intention of providing a useful resource to other Android users.  If you want to point out that it lacks some functionality, then go ahead, but first off be sure you are correct, and that it is functionality that is possible.  As far as "5 stars if you do X" comments, it isn't a very clear and efficient way to critique the app.
To communicate with the developer, you should email or post in their support forum if they have one.  It gives them the opportunity to respond, ask follow up questions, correct any misunderstandings and possibly educate you on how to better utilize their app and the platform.

Every app has an associated e-mail address, most also have a website (on which you may find a contact form, Facebook/Twitter account or other means of communication).  Use these to get in touch.
Feel free to leave your request in the comments, it may be useful information for other users, but you don't have to give an unnecessarily harsh 1-star rating at the same time.  Unless it is an app that attracts hundreds or thousands of comments, I suspect that the developer will read every comment that is posted anyway, regardless of the rating.  If you give the app an artificially low rating you are hurting the developer.  A lower average rating means fewer downloads.  Also, it's counter-productive.  Like anybody else, developers don't like being threatened/blackmailed.
Send a polite e-mail and you are more likely to get the response you want.  Appeal to their ego.  Tell them how awesome their app is, how you can't live without it and how your life would be complete if only they would add the feature you want.
In the specific case of SD card installation, this is such an incredibly simple thing to implement that, if you let the developer know that somebody wants it, they will almost certainly add it in the next release.


text:
How can I geo-tag a photo after I've taken it?
Is there an app for that? :)
(For when automatic tagging fails)

Actually I found such an app, after a fair bit of searching.
Photo Geolocator (Google Code)
Currently you can't look up locations via an address, so it only really works for nearby locations, but that's still better than having to edit images on a PC, IMO.

If you know where the photo was taken then a desktop app that lets you edit the picture's  EXIF info, like Microsoft's Pro Photo Tools, will let you add a Geotag later. In Pro Photo Tools it's as easy as using the built-in Bing map viewer to put a pin on the map, no need to mess around with latitudes and longitudes if you don't want to.
As for editing on the phone, I can se a lot of apps that let you view or erase the EXIF info, including plotting your pictures on maps, but can't see one that lets you add this info on the phone.
You could use something like GeoLogger to log your position on the phone, so that you can use that later on to add to photos if they haven't been properly geotagged.

On Android you can use the free a Photo Manager/a Photo Map/androFotoFinder  app:

Select one or more photos in gallery view that should receive the same geo-info
From Menu use "set geo"
pick a geo from a map
press ok

For details see Howto-geotag-multible-photos.
The app is available via f-droid.org installer or as apk internet download but not on google play store.
Note I am the author of the app and i manually geotagged more that 10 000 jpgs with the app

authors: نهي عبدالصبور


text:
Android Market won't download apps and Google Talk won't sign in after changing to @gmail.com address
I have tried the suggestions here and here with no results.
Google suggest changing back to @googlemail.com, waiting two days and restarting the phone, but that hasn't worked either.
Anyone had any luck with this?

Good question! I want an answer to this, lots of people having the same problem: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Talk/thread?tid=6083ec77fd817408&hl=en

May be silly question, but have you logged your phone in with the new @gmail account? I went through this grief a while back... I'm racking my brains to remember how I got past it - will let you know as soon as I do!

@foleyisgood: Thanks, but yeah I had tried that. Jim posted the 'solution' that I ended up using below.

I had this issue with my old G1. The only resolution I was able to find was to do a factory reset on the phone and re-enter the Google ID with the @gmail.com extension, as OS version I was running does not have the ability to remove your Google account.
Newer OS versions do seem to have the ability to remove your Google account from the phone and re-enter it with the new extension as I've been able to do this on Froyo at least.

Yeah, this is exactly what I ended up doing. It's a real shame it has to come to this though!


text:
Unlock not working (ADB FLASH)
So I'm trying to flash adb my android (mostly following this guide), and I'm getting stuck at the unlock device step.  I can successfully unlock, but once I reboot my device it reverts to being locked.  Apparently I'm unable to continue to the next step without having my device rebooted after it's unlocked.
(I have tried using the volume keys to reboot bootloader, and terminal to reboot it.  Neither work.)
I'm using a mac, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and my initial problem was that my phone was (and still is) stuck in a reboot cycle.  I'm pretty sure this was caused by trying to copy too many files to my android via USB cable (not the sd card, I don't have one).

EDIT:  So this is exactly what I've been doing.

Open terminal
cd to platform-tools, where I have an up to date adb, fastboot, and a zip file as well as the uncompiled version of image-yakju-jdq39 (Factory Image "yakju" for Galaxy Nexus "maguro" (GSM/HSPA+)).
Volume up+Volume down+ power on (I get a screen with Fastboot mode in red at the bottom, and a picture of an android being operated on.  I don't think it matters if I change the "start" thing with the volume buttons, but I'll keep it there.).
Plug the USB cable in.
./fastboot devices, I get my phones serial number on terminal
./fastboot oem unlock.
Terminal gives me this:
...
OKAY [ 10.016s]
finished. total time: 10.016s
While on my phone I get the unlock confirmation screen, which I follow through with, and now my phone says it's unlocked (and in blue at the bottom:  Fastboot status - OKAY).
./fastboot reboot starts my phone, but it's clearly still stuck in a bootloop.  So I forcefully turn it off, and go back to the fastboot mode, where it's back at the locked status.  Is that supposed to happen?

I went ahead with trying to flash my phone anyhow, and it's still stuck in bootloop after this:
usernames-MacBook-Air:~ username$ cd Desktop/adt/sdk/platform-tools
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot devices
014E38590B016008    fastboot
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot oem unlock
...
OKAY [  9.316s]
finished. total time: 9.316s
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-maguro-primelc03.img
sending 'bootloader' (2308 KB)...
OKAY [  0.296s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  7.966s]
finished. total time: 8.262s
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot flash radio radio-maguro-i9250xxlj1.img
sending 'radio' (12288 KB)...
OKAY [  1.547s]
writing 'radio'...
OKAY [  4.364s]
finished. total time: 5.910s
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot flash boot boot.img
sending 'boot' (4400 KB)...
OKAY [  0.558s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [  2.547s]
finished. total time: 3.106s
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot flash system system.img
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.006s]
sending 'system' (425579 KB)...
OKAY [ 53.344s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [1502.494s]
finished. total time: 1555.844s
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  0.031s]
sending 'userdata' (137559 KB)...
OKAY [ 17.258s]
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [244.587s]
finished. total time: 261.877s
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$ ./fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
sending 'recovery' (4900 KB)...
OKAY [  0.620s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  4.519s]
finished. total time: 5.140s
usernames-MacBook-Air:platform-tools username$

You haven't successfully unlocked it at all. It's hard to tell what you're trying to achieve from your jumble of wrong commands, but all the times you tried to run fastboot oem unlock it reported a USB error.

So how should I fix that USB error?  I switched USB ports (the other one doesn't even recognize the phone).

It seems you are getting an error on the fastboot oem unlock step. If you don't get the bootloader unlocked, then you might as well forget the remaining steps.
To make sure the device is actually in the right mode, I recommend putting it in the bootloader manually.  The easiest way to do that is to first turn the phone off. Now hold the volume-up and volume-down buttons, and then press the power button.You'll now see the Android roboto with his front panel open. Check to see that the text below it starts with "FASTBOOT MODE" in red. At the bottom of the screen you may also see the lock/unlock status.  Now plug the device into your computer and try the unlock command. If you have a bootloader that shows the lock/unlock status on the device screen, it should change right away. Once you're unlocked, you can proceed with the flash commands.  If you get past the unlocking and still have problems, come back with a new question.

That's what I had my phone in - it looks like this  http://droidviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/fastboot-mode1.jpg
It says: Fastboot mode,
Product name - tuna,
Variant - maguro 16GB,
HW Version - 9,
Bootloader version - Primela03,
Baseband version - I925...,
Carrier info - none,
Serial number - 014E...,
Signing - production,
Lock state - locked

OK, so you are definitely in fastboot, and you are definitely still locked.  We should now look more closely at the error message you're getting when you do fastboot oem unlock.  Can you post the complete messages you see when you do that (looks like you omitted something above because I see ...).

It was just baseband version - I9250UGLL1, and serial number 014E38590B016008.  I also updated my original question with an edit explaining what steps I did.

Oh nevermind, I switched USB cables and that seemed to do the trick.

However now I'm getting a failwrite error when I run  ./fastboot flash recovery radio-maguro-i9250xxlj1.img

The second argument to fastboot is the partition that you want to flash the image named in the third argument into.  I don't think you want to flash a radio image into the recovery partition.  If you are wanting to flash the radio, then do fastboot flash radio radio-...  Also, you are on a Mac, don't you want to do fastboot-mac?  I use Linux exclusively, so I don't know much about that part. However, I do know that you need to flash each image into the right partition or you will run into big trouble.

My file is just named fastboot, not fastboot-mac (which comes up with errors).  I didn't modify the file names since downloading them from http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#download.  I don't really understand what you mean by flashing images into the right partitions... care to explain?

Also, is it possible that my troubles have something to do with low disk space on my android?  I'm pretty certain the bootloop was caused by copying too many large files via USB to my phone (my phone doesn't have a micro sd card, so not that).

The device's internal memory is divided into partitions. Typically, these are boot, cache, radio, system, ramdisk, recovery and userdata. Part of the build process generates individual .img files for each of these partitions. You can flash these individually with fastboot flash  . Sometimes there are scripts like flash-all that take a zip of img files and put them each in the right partition automatically.

Whatever you do though, don't flash an image into the wrong partition. Bad things like bricking can occur. There may be failsafe checks, and maybe the bootloader has the ability to reset everything, but I wouldn't chance it.

Ahh, that makes sense.  Any ideas about what is going wrong this time?  It looks like the files are going through okay, but the phone is still broken.

When there is a bootloop, it usually means the kernel is panicking, in other words there is something wrong with what you flashed into the boot partition. Double check that you have the correct images for your device. Also, as a sanity check, you might want to try flashing the factory images from developer.android.com. if they don't work, then you probably have a hardware failure. Again, make sure to get the exact correct images for your device and variant.

If you still get a bootloop, try doing adb logcat from the host while the bootloop is happening. Depending on how far it's getting, you may see some error messages that will help identify the problem.

authors: سجاد الدفاعي


text:
adb device not found
When I enter ./adb devices  I get Device not found.  Yet I can successfully unlock my phone via ./fastboot oem unlock.  I can't turn on debugging since my phone is stuck in a bootloop and won't start up.
I am in fastboot mode, and I don't have an sd card.
I'm using a Mac, Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Maguro), SDK, and terminal

Find a recovery, such as CWM or TWRP, and download an image. Then use "fastboot boot recovery.img" to boot into the recovery file and reflash a stock ROM, which should solve the problem. Note that even if you don't have a sd card, you should have a partition called /sdcard on the internal memory, which you usually can push files to. Also note that adb access can usually be gotten in recovery. Good luck!


text:
How do I transfer iPhone contacts to an Android phone?
I know someone who just got an Atrix 4G and previously had an iPhone 3GS. I was asked how he could move his contacts from the iPhone/iTunes onto the Android device. I have never owned an iPhone and have had limited interaction with them. Does anyone know the simplest method of getting iPhone contacts onto an Android device?

You can sync the iPhone contacts to iCloud. Then, use your PC to log in to iCloud in order to export them all in a single VCF file. Ultimately, import the VCF into Gmail and voila!

I just saw that you are using iPhone 3GS. If you don't have an iCloud account, export the contacts directly via your PC: http://www.copytrans.net/support/how-to-transfer-contacts-from-iphone-to-android/

I'd probably suggest using Google Sync to sync the iPhone contacts with the Google account, then using that account for the Android.

Probably the best way, I can't find a simple way to export iPhone contacts to .vcf.

Is there any way to dump them to a simpler format like CSV? GMail will happily import a big CSV of Contacts.

I just got word that Google sync worked well for him, thanks.

The easiest method I've found has been using a desktop/browser. Here's an article explaining how, but for the recap:

Make sure that the you are using iClound and that the contacts sync setting is on.
Log into https://www.icloud.com/ with your iTunes details and select "Contacts".
Select all contacts. The article suggests scrolling, but it's quicker to select the first one and use CTRL + A (or ⌘ + A for Mac).
Select "Export vCard..." from the cog icon in the bottom left of the screen.
Log into Google Contacts and select "Import..." from the "More" menu.
Upload/import your vCard and merge duplicates.

That's it! Pretty much as soon as you've imported and de-duplicated you should see your contacts start showing on your phone. You may want to delete the extra Group that's added but it's up to you.

I know this has been solved already, but I just faced the same problem and found an easy solution that maybe helps someone else. If you don't really like going over Google Contacts to sync from iPhone to Android, you can also use "Bump". It's a small application that works on both platforms and works perfectly between the two. I just ended up moving all my contacts in a simple bump ;-)

You can use an app that transfers the contacts via bluetooth or wi-fi, this one, for example.


text:
Recipients complain they receive Text Message from me with a half hour delay
I have a G2 w/ Android 2.2 on T-Mobile and Some of my friends complain that they receive Text Message with a half hour delay. One friend is on T-Mobile and one is on ATT so I'm not sure if it's a network, sim card issue, phone issue, android issue, or if it's just their phone....
How can my friends fix this issue? New SIM card?

Is this just a one-time occurence?  It's probably a temporary network issue; SMSes get delated all the time.

Even if it's not a one-time thing I still concur with Matthew Read, my wife and I are both on Verizon with a Droid and a Droid 2 (R2-D2 edition!) and sometimes our texts between one another are delayed or duplicated for seemingly no reason, but it's intermittent and rare.

Gotta concur with @Matthew and @JonnyP. SMS is pretty unreliable.

I think it's a carrier issue.

Also, I have friends who insist they'll never use AT&T again because AT&T takes too long to deliver SMS. So maybe it's not an issue that is unique to any one carrier.

@Amanda - I had that exact issue when I was on my parent's family plan years ago (they've been on AT&T since before they merged with Cingular) and I couldn't wait to get off AT&T.

There was a point a couple of years ago where I had persistent problems with SMSs not being delivered, or being delivered hours late to one particular person. That person was my girlfriend at the time, so you can imagine how well it went down that I seemed to be ignoring her all the time. After much backwards and forwards with the network they ended up issuing us both with new SIM cards and we never saw the problem again.
SMS was never originally designed to be used the way that we all use it today, and is unreliable, but if this keeps happening bug your network and they may be able to do something to help.

I'd love to know if getting a new SIM card helps you out!

@Amanda, yeah i told the other person to get a SIM card and it helped. I also upgraded to the G2 :)


text:
How third party cookies are handled in Android browsers?
Is the default browser able to write third party cookies (on Safari/iPhone, only able to read, but not to write)?
What about other Android browsers (Firefox...)?

Found the answer via this site: http://www.grc.com/cookies/forensics.htm
Third-party cookies are accepted by the standard browser and also by Firefox.


text:
I want Android to remember my currently playing song and playlist
I am currently using the stock Music Player for my phone.  Whenever I pause a song, leave the app, and go back to the app, it sometimes goes back to my "All" songs view, not remembering what I was currently playing.  It appears that this behavior depends on whether or not the App was closed.  For instance, if the app closes by my actions via the Task Manager, or it closes on its own based on memory/CPU management, it loses track of what it is doing.
Is there a setting, or another music app, that allows me to play songs and have that song and playlist remembered even if the app is closed?
I'm running FroYo (2.2) on a Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S series).

Please let us know which device you have - since different phones may have different music players.

Try holding the Home key, switching to another app from the list of apps that pops up and doing whatever, and then going back.  Does it keep its state in that case?

@Matthew, I'll add an additional detail I found out.

@Matthew, but to answer your question, yes, it does keep its state.

The Android version of Winamp seems to do a fairly decent job of this.  I barely use it (this particular aspect isn't that important to me), but I've just fired it up after about a week, and it picked up exactly where it left off.

I downloaded this a few days ago.  It brings flashbacks of 1998.

One thing you can try is to increase how long apps stay in memory.  It's pretty simple to do this on a Galaxy S -- install One Click Lag Fix from the Market, open it, go to Alter minfree and change it to Moderate (check Set On Boot too).  I use this setting and apps usually only get killed if I play Angry Birds for a while and the phone needs to kill them to free up memory.

Matthew, I'm interested in this app, but the link seems to be expired and a search didn't bring it up in the market. Does it have a new name?

@Chance Looks like they changed the package name from com.rc.QuickFixLagFixR2 to com.rc.QuickFixLagFixR2D, I've updated the link.


text:
Can't remove app icons from the desktop
I installed AdwLauncher. In the beginning it worked well.
But now, I can't delete the app icons from the desktop.
The situation is that when I longpress the desktop, the list doesn't show up so that I can't add shortcuts, apps or widget to the desktop.
Also, when I longpress the app icon on the desktop, list doesn't show up so that I can't remove, delete or edit the icon.
My cellular is HTC Desire. Is this a bug problem or I just set up in a wrong way?
Restarting the phone didn't help.
I used "home switch" to change the launcher back to HTC sense, then changed back to ADW but it still remains the same.

does restarting ADW (or the phone) helps?

Have you accidentally locked the Desktop?  The option to "Unlock Desktop" should be on the Menu (possibly under the "More" option).


text:
Sync arbitrary files with a server
I'm looking for a way to keep a file (keepass .kdb) on my Droid2 in sync with one on a server.

This is just a file on the filesystem - not contacts, calendar, etc.
I need bidirectional, not just push or pull.  If the server's changes, download it, if the Android's changes, upload it.  Yes, this may result in conflicts that need resolved.

I'm using Unison to achieve this between PCs, but there's no Unison client for android.  I've found hand-waving about installing OCaml on Android and running Unison on that, but I'm hoping for something native.
Botsync sounds promising, but it's unidirectional - when making a config, you choose if it's upload or download.
I've seen sugarsync, but given that this is my KeePass file, I'd prefer to keep it on my own server.

I was going to suggest sugarsync... but I understand the concern

Take a look at http://sparkleshare.org/ - relatively new project, Android client in the works, I believe.

You might want to consider another option here, if you want to use this for KeePass password database. This won't work for other sensitive material, but since you asked specifically for KeePass, here's what I do:

Protect the database with the password (I assume you have, already), and a key. This will give you a two-factor authentication ("something you know" -- your password, and "something you have" -- your key). The password database can only be unlocked when both pieces are in place.
Copy the key to the local storage of all your devices, and give it some inconspicuous name. Preferably put it in a crowded directory where it would seem like some configuration file or some random noise file created by a program.
Upload your database to a third-party storage service (I use Dropbox, but other options would work just as well). It goes without saying that the service should have an Android client if you want to use it on your device.
DO NOT upload your key there -- use another method to copy it to the devices you need. Dropbox in particular keeps a copy of the files you upload and then delete at least for a week for backup purposes (quite convenient, I must admit), but if your key is on the server already, it's not more secure than a normal password-protected database.
Configure your KeePass clients not to remember the location of the key (remembering the location of the database is fine).

In this way, you can upload your database to a random website, and even if your password gets compromised for some reason (i.e. keyboard loggers), you can only use the database from devices that have the key AND now which file is actually the key.
For convenience, you might want to have key-only authentication on a mobile device (secure passwords are tedious to type on a mobile device, and you obviously don't want to use anything short and easy here). But I would recommend against this, as in this case the security is even lower than a password-protected database -- instead of a password you have in your head, you use a "password" (the key file) that is on your device.
KeePass doesn't give any hints whether it requires key, password or both -- which works to your advantage.

+1 for good info, I agree that pass&keyfile should be "enough" for a keepass file.  I'm leaving the question unanswered in hopes that there will be a "here's a program that does sync" answer in the future.  Thanks!

You may have found something you are happy with now but I have compiled a binary of unison that works on android - it is possible using the hand-waving instructions you are talking about - I used them to cross-compile the linux source within ubuntu 12.10 using the android NDK and with a few alterations to the code it is now working. Follow the instructions at https://sites.google.com/site/keigoattic/ocaml-on-android and then you will need to do a few things. There is a file called pty.c in the unison source - find the following section:
// openpty
#if defined(__linux)
#include <pty.h>
/*#define HAS_OPENPTY 1*/
#endif

and comment out define HAS_OPENPTY 1 as shown. You also need to open ubase/util.ml and edit:
let homeDir () =
  System.fspathFromString "/Your path here"

Comment out from here:
    (if (osType = `Unix) || isCygwin then
       safeGetenv "HOME"
     else if osType = `Win32 then
(*We don't want the behavior of Unison to depends on whether it is run
  from a Cygwin shell (where HOME is set) or in any other way (where
  HOME is usually not set)
       try System.getenv "HOME" (* Windows 9x with Cygwin HOME set *)
       with Not_found ->
*)
       try System.getenv "USERPROFILE" (* Windows NT/2K standard *)
       with Not_found ->
       try System.getenv "UNISON" (* Use UNISON dir if it is set *)
       with Not_found ->
       "c:/" (* Default *)
     else
       assert false (* osType can't be anything else *))

...To here!
Then you'll also have to edit Makefile.Ocaml
   CWD=$(shell pwd)
    EXEC_EXT=
    WINOBJS=
    SYSTEM=generic
    # openpty is in the libutil library
    ifneq ($(OSARCH),solaris)
      ifneq ($(OSARCH),osx)
      #  CLIBS+=-cclib -lutil
      endif
    endif
    buildexecutable::
        @echo Building for Unix
  endif
endif

And comment out #  CLIBS+=-cclib -lutil as shown.
And as far as I can remember that all worked. The other step once compiled is to mount your android system partition as writable and copy unison to the /system folder where all the rest of the shell commands are.
Hope that is helpful to someone...I lost a lot of sleep getting it compiled.

I've also followed the cross compilation root as indicated in ChC's answer
I've released UnisonSync that allows you to unison without dealing with the command line (and without rooting) on Google Play:
From the proof of concept, which was quickly running, to a production ready app it took much more time than expected, but now it works and is very handy to sync my publications and datasheet repository.

I'll probably consolidate the instructions to cross compile at some point soonish and put the binary unison/dropbear somewhere, for those that prefer to use the command line.

I do exactly what you ask with FolderSync. It's a very nice piece of software, with plenty of options and features. I use it as a personal dropbox alternative using SFTP over SSH with keyfile for authentication. You can even set it up to automatically detect changes on the local replicas and trigger an immediate upload. On my phone i use it to upload pics on my server as soon as i take them, and it works just perfect.

I use unison by mounting the android with sshfs. As ssh server I use SSHDroid.
But be warned, unison with sshfs is really slow. Though with one single file it should not matter.

A market search revealed aFileSync which claims to sync files via FTP and also has support to auto-sync files. You will need to be running an FTP server on your own.
There's also SK Sync, but users have reported mixed results with it.
Obviously, before you try any of these programs / apps, please backup your files both on the PC/server as well as your Android device.

aFileSync sounds like it has all the behaviors that I want.  The reviews are a bit scary, and I'll have to setup a FTP server to see how it goes.

I don't know of anything native that does this. There are many file sync apps but all the ones i've seen are either unidirectional, or rely on the user to manually sync the file from the phone to the cloud. What you are intending to do should be possible with the Dropbox API but I don't know if you are willing to create your own custom app that keeps watch over the specific files you need sync'd

I'd considered the custom app route, but if I do that it'd be writing a native Unison client rather than a dropbox one (so it'll stay on my server).

For synchronize files from Android is new version of my app BotSyncPlus. When you wrote about BotSync, there was only one configuration for upload or download. But now a new version BotSyncPlus is available, where is multi-configuration.


text:
S5 automatic notifications
My S5 device is automatically connecting to the wifi in range, receiving notifications (such as what's up, facebook etc...) then turning wifi off.
Wifi timer is always disabled.
Any solution please?

This is not normal behavior, so it is probably related to this Wifi Timer app of yours. Try uninstalling the app and see if the problem goes away.

Thanks Stephen, but what's the application name as I couldn't find it through application manager.

I'm giving the method to disable this in Xperia phones. Maybe Samsung follow the same. Tap on Settings\Wifi\Advanced settings\Scanning always available. Disable Scanning always available.

I don't think that's happening here, as scanning doesn't connect to a Wi-Fi network, it only scans for available networks, as the name suggests.

Thanks Mani, but this won't solve the problem. I tried all possible solutions in Advanced Wifi settings without any success.

@StephanHanna - Okay. Have you tried power saving mode?

Power saving mode has nothing to do with the wifi auto connection. However, I usually use this feature and the problem still unresolved.

Okay. I'll come back with some solution if possible.

authors: เฉลิมวัชร พุฒพัฒนะ


text:
Tell app to lower volume
Is it possible to tell a specific app to lower volume, using intents?
I would like to be able to use Tasker to tell the HEOS app to lower the volume.
EDIT:
Heos is a streaming system, controlled through an app. When the music is playing, and my phone is on the same wifi, I can control the volume of the system by opening the app and pressing the volume rockers.
But it is rather cumbersome to open the app each time, so I was hoping to create a custom widget to do this instead.

Volume is system wide and not application wide, unless an application has it's own volume management, meaning there won't be a bulletproof proof solution, only application specific solution.
System wide volume can be altered on settings.db.

Heos is a streaming system, controlled through an app. When the music is playing, and my phone is on the same wifi, I can control the volume of the system by opening the app and pressing the volume rockers.
But it is rather cumbersome to open the app each time, so I was hoping to create a custom widget to do this instead


text:
How to setup a Tasker profile to switch ariplane mode at night UNLESS I actually use the phone?
I'd like to switch all radio communications off for night, that is airplane mode.
However, sometimes I drive during night, sometimes I stay awake for late. So it is difficult to set it up just with specified hours. My clever idea is to use more conditions (contexts) than just time.
PROBLEM - definition
How to setup a Tasker profile to keep all radios off during specified night hours UNLESS I actually use the phone?
In a simplistic example, the "usage of phone" could be defined as "screen is ON". But how about if I'm downloading something, or making a phone/skype call while driving on a motorway during night (and I wish the screen to be off to save battery).
So a more specific definition of "phone in use" would be a combination of:

screen is on OR
pending GSM phone call OR
pending skype call (or I'm logged into skype account) OR
pending download via GooglePlay store (or a downloading manager) OR
at least one active Bluetooth connection.

So the tasker profile should do the following actions

run within, say, 22:00 and 07:00, and
check if one of the above conditions are true.
if false (i'm not using the phone), switch all radio communications
off
if true (I'm using the phone) then do nothing
however as soon as ALL of those conditions switch to false, switch all radio off

Please let me know how you would approach it. I know each phone is different, and I know I need to play around with a Tasker for a while, but as much as I'm good in logical thinking, doing this in a graphical mode instead of text mode seems a bit non-intuitive at the beginning...
MY PHONE SPECIFICATION:

Samsung galaxy s4 GT-i9505
Android 4.4.2
device not rooted (I want to double check one thing with the retailer
before I can root the phone).

I would create a Profile for each of your preconditions, as well as an entrance Task for each one. The task would simply set a variable (separate for each task).
Then, have an exit task for each precondition. It would clear its own specific variable, and then run the "Airplane Mode" Task.
The "Airplane Mode" task would check all precondition variables. If any are set, do nothing. However, if they are all clear, and the current time is between 22:00 and 07:00, it can safely activate airplane mode.
Finally, have another Profile for the time. When 22:00 rolls around, it will simply run the "Airplane Mode" task. Another one for 07:00 will run "Normal Mode" which would simply deactivate airplane mode.

I don't think Tasker can check conditions for all of the specific preconditions you mentioned (such as a pending Google Play download), but the logic should work as long as you find the proper conditions to use.