text:
Computer can't access Internet through USB tether
My phone is a Motorola G13 with Android 13. My computer is a Thinkpad W541 with Debian 12. I'm trying to access Internet on the computer through the phone's 4G. I've tried to use the phone as a wifi hotspot, and I've tried to share the connection through USB.
In both case, the computer connects to the local network correctly. The computer gets an IP address and a DNS server through DHCP. I can ping the DNS server from the computer. On the phone, I can access websites through the data.
However, if I try to ping an external IP from the computer, I get a "network unreachable" error. Same with curl, same with any other protocol I could think of. Same after booting up the computer with a Ubuntu Live USB stick. Both through wifi and through USB tether.
From all this, I'm inclined to think that there is some issue on the phone, that prevents the packets to be properly routed from the wifi/usb network, toward the 4g network. However, I have no idea how to actually find and fix the issue. I have already tried to change all the relevant settings I could find, and did a factory reset on the phone. None of that had any visible effect. I couldn't find any relevant help through googling either.
Any suggestion would be appreciated.

USB tether interface :
curl --interface enx1e8d3a3d4e80 1.1.1.1
curl: (7) Failed to connect to 1.1.1.1 port 80 after 1 ms: Couldn't connect to server

ethernet interface :
curl --interface enp0s25 1.1.1.1

<title>301 Moved Permanently</title>

301 Moved Permanently

cloudflare

EDIT : I've tried with a Windows 10 computer, and the network panel tells me "No Internet access : Your device is connected and can access other devices on your local network, but may not be able to reach the Internet." So the issue is definitely from the phone, not the Debian computer.

EDIT : To answer comments :

Ping the gateway (your cell phone) :

this works fine.

verify DNS resolution

the dns answers, but the answer doesn't give an ip

Have you tried another tether method, like WiFi hotspot

Exact same results as usb tether, as far as I can tell

another (friends) device with a similar plan/carrier

I haven't any on hand, I'll try to see if I can find one.

Sounds like your carrier is blocking tethering... Does your cellular service include tethering?

I don't see anything saying that it doesn't, and the carrier's help page includes instruction to turn on the wifi hotsport on various phone brands.

Try something more simple then... You said you are getting DHCP... is it complete with IP, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS servers? If so, verify connectivity to each step... Ping the gateway (your cell phone), ping an IP address directly (8.8.8.8), ping your DNS server, verify DNS resolution... You need to know where it is failing. The issue here is you can't verify the phone is working OR the cellular provider is supporting tethering on your plan. Have you tried another tether method, like WiFi hotspot or another (friends) device with a similar plan/carrier?


text:
Remove PWA and Service Workers from Android
I have a website that used to be a PWA with a service worker, but now it's just a normal website. However, when I try to add a shortcut from within Chrome to the homescreen, Android still tries to install it as an app instead of just adding a shortcut.
I've cleared the website cache from Chrome on my phone, but this behavior persists.
Why does Android 14 still think this website is a PWA? Where is this information stored, and how can I delete it?
I've tried everything I can think of, including clearing the cache and checking the service worker, but I'm still having this issue. Any help or guidance on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
No /system/build.prop in Nexus 7 (2012 / Wi-Fi) + Android Lollipop 5.1.1 after fresh installation
I've just updated my [old] Nexus 7 (2012 / Wi-Fi) to Android Lollipop 5.1.1 following the "standard" procedure I've alway gone through since I've owned it;
Here's what I've done so far:

Booted into the bootloader
Unlocked the bootloader via fastboot
Flashed everything via fastboot using a custom bash script

#!/bin/bash
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-grouper-4.23.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
sleep 5
fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-6.0.4.3-grouper.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img

*This did nothing more than flashing the stock Android Lollipop 5.1.1 (LMY47V) (nakasi) firmware for Nexus 7 (2012 / Wi-Fi) images downloaded from Google Developers, aside from the recovery image, which was the ClockworkMod Recovery 6.0.4.3 image instead.

Booted straight into the recovery mode
Downloaded and pushed SuperSU using adb push UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.46.zip /mnt/sdcard/0/
Installed SuperSU via the recovery mode

And here is where I got stuck. The idea was to edit /system/build.prop in order to force the first setup to allow me to skip the Wi-Fi connection step, however apparently there's no /system/build.prop whatsoever in the system.
Here's what I tried through the adb shell (as root):
user@debian:~$ adb pull /system/build.prop .
remote object '/system/build.prop' does not exist
user@debian:~$ adb shell
~ # ls -la /system/
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for localtime!
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for GMT!
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for posixrules!
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root             0 Jan  1  1970 .
drwxr-xr-x   22 root     root             0 Jul 23 07:40 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root             0 Jan  1  1970 bin
~ # find / -type f -name 'build.prop'
~ # exit

The /system partition wasn't mounted; I've noticed this only manually browsing the /system/bin/ folder, which was empty.
I mounted the partition within the recovery mode by browsing to "mounts and storage" and by selecting "mount /system"; afterwards I've been able to run adb pull /system/build.prop ., edit the file and upload it again running adb push build.prop /system/build.prop.
To unmount the partition afterwards, one might browse to "mounts and storage" and select "unmount /system".

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


text:
ADB Debugging on LG Watch R
I got a LG Watch R for a programming project. First, I had a Gear Live that was now replaced. When I follow the guides step by step, I never get the "authorize this computer" like I did with Gear Live. My machine runs on Windows 7. My steps were:

Setup LG Watch R with my Note 3
Dev Mode enabled, enabled ADB Debugging
Plugged the Charging Station in my PC (got detected as "Android Composite ADB Interface" with Samsung as Company
Normally the popup should appear on my Smartphone asking me to authorize the machine
In the CMD, adb devices does return unauthorized

In the device manager, the Watch R is recognized as "Android Composite ADB Interface" from Samsung. I have tried an answer to "ADB doesn't recognize Samsung Gear Live or LG G watch" on Stack Overflow, but it doesn't change much as it is already recognized as ADB Composite.
I'd be grateful for any tips.

I ran into the same problem. It turns out that the watch has to be connected to an Android phone running the Android Wear app; then the "authorize" dialog will appear on the Android phone. After you authorize you can unpair the phone.

Sorry it took so long, but i tried that too - the authorize dialog didnt appear - tried it on my laptop as well. When resetting my Note 3 i get the dialog in an instant.

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

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


text:
New access permissions for Google Maps v9.1.1
I recently got an notification for the latest Google Maps update 9.1.1. With this update, the app asks for 2 new access rights: Phone and Device ID and call information.
After checking the changelog, I cannot connect the need for those 2 permissions with the new features introduced.

Changelog:

Dynamic Routing Around Closures
Quick Facts cards on Points of Interest with time and weather
Bug fixes

After reading what an app can do with this permissions (read my call log, start phone calls, read the remote number of an active call), it doesn't feel right to simply give permission to use it without knowing what the actual benefit is.
I checked the Google Maps webpage and did a search on Google, but couldn't find any explanation for this new access permissions.
Can anyone tell me what this permissions are used for, or point me to a source where I can verify the use of these rights?

I agree, I see no obvious reason for these permissions to be added based on the change log.
Yes I can invent some reasons that maybe it "needs" them for one feature or another (clicking restaurant near you and calling from the app directly).
But the point here is that there is no explanation. It is dead wrong for Google to behave this way, as it causes behaviour of "default acceptance" in all future cases. Including non Google ones.
Just like the windows pop-ups...  this application is asking for "internet"...  you have no choice but to say yes, and frankly no way to find out why.
Now, today, you are basically as secure as if there were no permissions at all. Every app needs everything, and everyone just clicks yes.
Well done to everyone.


text:
Missing silent, vibrate or sound toggle on Lollipop's power button
The "silent, vibrate or normal sound" toggle function have changed somehow on my Nexus 5 to merely an "off" function when I hold down the power button. I'd like the old options back, but I can't find any settings dealing with the issue.

Power options before & after Lollipop
Has it disappeared completely with the new "none, priority, all" slide?

This is a known issue with Lollipop, please see the following:
Issue 79445: No silent mode

If your phone is rooted, you can get the pre-Lollipop power options back:

Download power_menu.zip, a mod by Ynych on XDA Forum.
Boot into custom recovery: press and hold Volume down + Power when the device is in powered-off state.
Install the mod by flashing the zip file.
Reboot the system.

Source: Bring Back Airplane Mode & Audio Toggles to Your Nexus 5's Power Menu - WonderHowTo

Update your phone to the latest android version (Marshmallow). With that you will be able to mute your phone again.
Be aware of apps that can play a sound and vibrate even when your phone is on mute.

Are you sure? I have Nexus 5 on Marshmallow, and I still only see "Power off" when holding the power button. Can you provide a screenshot?


text:
Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 (SM-T210) KitKat upgrade issue
I have Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 (SM-T210) and recently upgraded it to KitKat.
I just noticed now that I lost my Samsung account. It's not on my application list either. Is there anyway to reinstall it? I've done factory reset and it's still missing.

Search in Play Store.

What is the app called?
As far as I understand I think you are looking for Samsung Link.


text:
No IMEI on Samsung Galaxy Ace
A week ago, my sister gave me her Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830I. She said that she could not call or text anyone and could not receive anything. I looked around on her phone and on the Internet to find the root of the problem. I found that the phone had no IMEI number. I typed *#06# in the keypad of the phone and a box appeared. It had the words "IMEI" but there was no number under it. When I go to Settings > About phone > Status, this is what it says:
Network: T-mobile UK
Signal strength: -83 dBm 14 asu
Mobile Network type: UMTS
Service state: Out of service
Roaming: Not roaming
IMEI: Unknown
IMEI SV: 01

I hardly know anything about Android, so could you please explain everything simply?

Most phones will have the IMEI number written on the back of the phone, remove the cover and the battery to see the number.

That is a bit tangential to the issue. While it's correct that most phones have IMEI number written somewhere, the issue here is the phone itself doesn't recognize it as it's lost/removed/deleted (it's possible, there are many cases similar like this)

Is the phone rooted or has a custom ROM been installed?  A factory reset + flashing the stock ROM might correct this.


text:
How to force browsers not to reload recently seen page after resume?
When I visit a website then switch to another app, then switch back to the browser the page is reloaded which I have just seen. It happens not just with builtin browser - I also tried Opera Mini and Maxthon.
How can I keep the recently seen page after resuming the browser?

You can't prevent that. If the system (or App) reload the content, this is because it has decided to reload it. There is no option to prevent that.
But you can create your own browser that will handle the resume as you want ;)

Yeah, just to paraphrase, this is unfortunately due to the Android OS decided it needs to free up memory being used by the Browser by stopping it from being open in the background. Someone may have written a browser app that saves the page data and reshows it, even if the app's activity has been killed, however. Good answer.

I agree with the answer.  I will add some speculation: the browser isn't actually reloading, in the sense of reissuing the HTTP GET request; rather, it's simply re-rendering the existing HTTP response that it presumably has lying around in its cache.  I say this because I've seen this happen without network connectivity; if I then tap the "reload" button, it gives the error you'd expect ("Cannot load page because I cannot connect to the Internet" or whatever.)

If it has decided to reload it, then it would have been a very bad decision since it would be "killed" the the ability to use apps simultanously. But the answer coming from @offby1 is right - there is a re-rendering instead of a reloading - so I would accept this answer

I tried Google Chrome and it was worked as it should be! No rerendering at all - can somebody verify it?

@laplasz: browsers had to rerender if it has been killed by the system (generally when a foreground apps needs more memory). With chrome, rerendering is a bit obvious because chrome displayed a grayscale screenshot of the page while it's rerendering. If you want to prevent rerendering at all, you should avoid switching to a heavy application (e.g. games). How much states are preserved across rerendering depends on the quality of implementation of the browser.

@LieRyan have you tried switching apps? When I am doing the ALT+TAB like app switching from built-in browser to Helloworld app and back, the re-rendering happens all the time. HelloWorld app needs no memory I think. So you think that Chrome makes rerendering but in a smart way?

@laplasz: hmm... by itself switching apps (either by pressing Home key or by the task switcher) shouldn't kill the browser, something is a bit strange with your browser or the page perhaps that makes it have to close the browser and rerender all the time. How many tabs do you have in the built-in browser? Wild guess, but perhaps you have too many tabs open to fit the browser into the memory and that's why the built-in browser got killed as soon as it's no longer a foreground app, while Chrome has less tabs and stays around longer?

@LieRyan have you tried switching apps? i have 2.3.4 and the built-in browser only have 1 tab. please try it yourself with the built-in browser. (when I tried Chrome I tried at my colleges phone)

Update - maybe this rerendering thing only happens before ICS, because now I tried the built-in browser in ICS, and there were no re-rendering at all. Can somebody confirm it, that this thing is depending on OS?

@laplasz: IIRC, the stock browser on 2.3 does not do any rerendering, if the browser gets killed the page will be refreshed, and I think sometimes you may even lose the active tabs. However, even on those older versions, as long as the browser didn't get killed, you should still be able to switch to another application and go back to what you're doing. Since you're consistently getting a refresh every time, your browser must be getting killed for some reason; are you running an automatic task killers?

To be honest I have a custom rom - but i dont have any task killer app. I will try on original 2.3 software and come back with the result. Again, I have no tabs, just one active...

@LieRyan by the way how can I check that browser gets killed or not after switching? and again when there is no data communication the browsers can open the page when I switch back - so no reloading as offby1 said

let us continue this discussion in chat

You may try to use swap memory. It works for certain amount of time and relies on the quantity of apps you've got open at the same time and how heavy they are. Research about it, but you need unlocked bootloader and being root. Other option could be a device with more RAM (>= 1GB RAM).
Cheers.

Just uncheck "Don't keep activities" from the "Developer options" under general Android settings.

Unrelated... It was unchecked already and it still happens. Are you sure that your web pages do not reload when you switch between tabs?


text:
Cannot receive calls but can make calls on my tablet HCL ME Y2
I recently bought a HCL ME Y2 tablet with Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) installed.
It has a SIM slot and when I use the Phone dialer (the blue phone icon app), I can make calls over GSM but when someone tries to call this number, the phone vibrates for less than a second while I hear a single ring at the calling phone and immediately after I get the message that the phone is busy.
I cant even sent SMS / receive SMS on the tablet.
I Couldn't find any solution to this, any input?

I had the same problem and resetting the device fixed the issue. Give that a try.


text:
Getting my data off of a G2 with a broken screen
I have a T-mobile G2 (aka HTC desire Z) with a broken screen. I have not rooted it or ever enabled debugging.
I would like to get the data off of this phone and onto my replacement. Is there any way to do that? The phone doesn't even show up when I run adb devices.
(My pictures are on the sdcard, so they're okay. I'd like to get my other application data off though. Especially SMS history and some notes from a memo application.)
Is there any method I can go about to do this?

Other questions you might want to check: Broken screen while debug mode was disabled. How can I re-enable adb?, Broken Screen + Using adb shell to run vnc server, How do I backup data (sms/contacts) from a device with a broken screen ?. At least one of them should prove helpful ;)

I looked at those questions before. Most of the answers require you to have rooted your phone previously. http://android.stackexchange.com/a/23928/19271 Does not seem to require it, but it presumes more than I understand right now.(CWM recovery image -- Where do I get that? CWM appears to require having been previously installed, but that's not entirely clear.)

CWM stands for ClockworkMod, and usually is installed via the ROM Manager (.apk available on that site or via playstore). While you could probably install this .apk via ADB, you run into the chicken-and-egg problem trying to install CWM with it. There should be flashable images available (see CyanogenMod Wiki for download and full instructions).

chicken-egg is right. Right now, I can't even get the phone to show up under adb devices.


text:
SD can't mount and mmc0: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card dmesg error
My android device (Samsung Galaxy S with cwm) stop mounting properly the internal SD card to /sdcard/ mountpoint: normal boot fails and cwm recovery says "Can't mount sdcard" while trying.
Through adb shell terminal, I've seen that mmc* devices are not recognized at all
shell@android:/ $ cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

  31        0       7680 mtdblock0
  31        1       7680 mtdblock1
  31        2     256000 mtdblock2
  31        3      17920 mtdblock3
  31        4      12800 mtdblock4
  31        5      16384 mtdblock5
  31        6     176128 mtdblock6
  31        7      11264 mtdblock7

shell@android:/ $ dmesg | grep mmc
<6>[    0.000000] sclk_mmc: source is mout_mpll (6), rate is 51307692
<6>[    0.000000] sclk_mmc: source is mout_mpll (6), rate is 47642857
<6>[    0.000000] sclk_mmc: source is mout_mpll (6), rate is 47642857
<6>[    0.000000] sclk_mmc: source is mout_mpll (6), rate is 47642857
<6>[    3.073948] s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.0: clock source 0: hsmmc (133400000 Hz)
<6>[    3.074154] s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.0: clock source 2: sclk_mmc (51307692 Hz)
<6>[    3.075282] mmc0: SDHCI controller on samsung-hsmmc [s3c-sdhci.0] using ADMA
<6>[    3.075468] s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.1: clock source 0: hsmmc (133400000 Hz)
<6>[    3.075675] s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.1: clock source 2: sclk_mmc (47642857 Hz)
<6>[    3.075966] mmc1: SDHCI controller on samsung-hsmmc [s3c-sdhci.1] using ADMA
<6>[    3.076208] s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.2: clock source 0: hsmmc (133400000 Hz)
<6>[    3.076413] s3c-sdhci s3c-sdhci.2: clock source 2: sclk_mmc (47642857 Hz)
<6>[    3.076671] mmc2: SDHCI controller on samsung-hsmmc [s3c-sdhci.2] using ADMA
<3>[    4.682865] mmc0: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card
<3>[    6.288432] mmc0: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card
<3>[    7.897690] mmc0: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card
<4>[    7.959521] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (50 bytes)
<4>[    7.971173] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (7 bytes)
<4>[    8.009624] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (3 bytes)
<6>[    8.022843] mmc1: new SDIO card at address 0001
<4>[    8.062894] bcmsdh_sdmmc: probe of mmc1:0001:3 failed with error -110

Is it an hardware problem or can I try to fix? Thanks.

mmc0: error -110 whilst initialising MMC card
This means that the internal SD card has failed.
The common workaround for this is to install Android to an external SD card. I can't comment on the Samsung Galaxy S, but I am currently doing this for a Samsung Galaxy Tab using the following instructions: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/internal-sdcard-damaged-1471227/
Hopefully you can find some instructions specific to your phone.


text:
How can I live without a trackball?
I've been using a Nexus One for the past year and half and am very happy with it as a phone.  I am not, however, happy with my carrier and so will be trading up very soon.  Amongst the current crop of 4G phones, the Nexus S has caught my attention, largely due to its similarity to the Nexus One.
One major difference between the two has me concerned, however — I absolutely love the trackball on my N1 and am having trouble picturing how I'll be able to use a phone as effectively without one.  My main concerns are:

Text entry.  I tend to edit my emails / text messages / etc. as I write them by jumping back and forth frequently.  The trackball makes this very easy to do with great precision.
Games.  I play a number of puzzle games (Shortyz, Vexed Pro, Andoku, etc.) which all benefit greatly from the "scroll-and-click" interface of the trackball.

Does the Nexus S (or Gingerbread) offer anything to fill the holes left by the removal of the trackball?  I've seen mention of a "brand new text-selection paradigm" introduced in Gingerbread, but haven't the faintest idea what that's in reference to.
I had been hoping for something like arrow keys on the soft keyboard, but if a setting for them exists, I'm not able to find it.

just breathe and you'll live...

@Joset: breathing is necessary, but is not sufficient to sustain living. To live, you also need water, food, and a phone with a trackball. Some politicians would also want to include housing, sanitation, education, and/or healthcare, but they were not basic needs in any sense since you can sustain life without all those luxuries; however it is not possible to live without air, food, water, and a phone with a trackball; they are the only 4 basic needs of humanity.

@Lie I'd add heat and shelter, and unlimited internet access to that list and I think you're there.

I think people are taking @Joset's comment too seriously and/or missing the point.

@Joset — But this is serious! :-D

Keyboards like Smart Keyboard and Better Keyboard (*Tap ?123 and then <> key to access) do indeed have arrow keys that can appear below the normal onscreen keyboard or as a separate keyboard containing arrow keys alone.
The caveat being, the onscreen keyboard will use up some of your screen real-estate while in use.
As regards games, most non-HTC Android devices are without trackpads and D-pads too (unfortunately!), so most game devs would bear that in mind. I don't know if the onscreen keyboard would work in the games you play, however.

I'll definitely give both of those keyboards a look, thanks!

I'm still playing around with it, but Smart Keyboard is just impressing the heck out of me, for more reasons than I can get into in a comment.  I suspect they're going to walk away with three of my dollars soon.  :-)

I'll be honest it's probably not something you'll miss at all after a few weeks. My previous Android phone was an HTC Magic, apart from text selection I found the trackball pretty useless on that. Since upgrading to a Galaxy S, that has no trackball/pad/d-pad at all, I can honestly say that I haven't needed one since about the first week, I think I've found two games total that needed a trackball, and they had so many "needs a trackball, doesn't work on my phone" type one-star reviews, that the devs must have changed them by now.
Gingerbread has a text selection feature based on tapping in the text and dragging your finger that works very well, Samsung's Touchwiz interface has had an incredibly similar interface for text selection since Eclair (I think) and that works well.

And on the games note, with so many developers releasing their games on both Android and iOS these days, there's going to be less and less of them making any use of the trackball at all. As the iPhone doesn't have a trackball and it's easier for them to use a similar control scheme on both platforms, makes sense for them to use a totally touch/accelerometer/gyro/compass based interface.

Shoot, I was hoping the hubbub was about something more impressive than the new text selection.  I have enormous fingers; in a quick test, it took me four tries to successfully place the insertion point between a pair of "t"s.  :-/

@Ben I had that problem on and off, until I realised I was really pressing down on the screen. Being a capacitive screen, it only needs the lightest of brushes of your finger, and the lighter you press the smaller and more accurate your touch-point is. Also once you've put the cursor in roughly right the right place you should be able to drag it the few characters to the left or right as needed fairly easily.


text:
Diagnosing Bluetooth crash
Over the past several weeks, I've been receiving Bluetooth crash notifications immediately after reboot on my Pixel running GrapheneOS. Graphene recently pushed an update to suppress these notifications, and describes them as "harmless crashes occuring on service shutdown for the Android Bluetooth service".
What's confusing to me is that I've never used Bluetooth on my phone; I always have Bluetooth disabled (under both the quick settings toggle and system settings), and airplane mode enabled. Does this mean that Bluetooth is on by default in the BFU state, similar to how the "Sensors off" toggle doesn't apply while the phone is powered off?
Below is an example of the crash logs I've been getting. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
type: crash
osVersion: google/bluejay/bluejay:14/AP2A.240705.004/2024070201:user/release-keys
uid: 1002 (u:r:hal_bluetooth_btlinux:s0)
cmdline: /vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.bluetooth-service.bcmbtlinux
processUptime: 0s

abortMessage: hardened_malloc: fatal allocator error: double free (quarantine)

signal: 6 (SIGABRT), code -1 (SI_QUEUE)
threadName: binder:811_2

backtrace:
/apex/com.android.runtime/lib64/bionic/libc.so (abort+164, pc 64a24)
/apex/com.android.runtime/lib64/bionic/libc.so (fatal_error+44, pc 4e504)
/apex/com.android.runtime/lib64/bionic/libc.so (deallocate_small+1572, pc 4bbc4)
/vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.bluetooth-service.bcmbtlinux (android::hardware::bluetooth::hci::HciFlowControl::~HciFlowControl()+36, pc 1c4e4)
/vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.bluetooth-service.bcmbtlinux (android::hardware::bluetooth::hci::shim::Deinitialize()+104, pc 3fdc8)
/vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.bluetooth-service.bcmbtlinux (android::hardware::bluetooth::aidl::bcmbtlinux::BluetoothHci::signal_handler(int)+116, pc 51594)
[vdso] (pc 88c)
/apex/com.android.runtime/lib64/bionic/libc.so (__ioctl+4, pc cde84)
/apex/com.android.runtime/lib64/bionic/libc.so (ioctl+156, pc 7133c)
/system/lib64/libbinder.so (android::IPCThreadState::joinThreadPool(bool)+296, pc 50848)
/vendor/bin/hw/android.hardware.bluetooth-service.bcmbtlinux (main+2628, pc 65664)
/apex/com.android.runtime/lib64/bionic/libc.so (__libc_init+116, pc 5d304)

I don't know the Android Bluetooth service(s) very well but it is not unexpected that the service runs even if you have disabled Bluetooth in settings. If an app tries to access Bluetooth functions who should otherwise respond to the functions, telling the app that Bluetooth is not available at the moment?

Thank you, that makes sense. I hadn't considered that possibility.


text:
Does Huawei Backup save SMS messages which are stored on the SIM card?
Does https://play.google.com/store/apps/details/?id=com.huawei.KoBackup
(and in particular version 7.1.1.310_OVE from April 2017) which I understand being the official Huawei backup utility, backup SMS which are stored on the SIM card? I always took for granted the answer is yes, especially because it saves the contacts which are stored on the SIM card, and it doesn't make much sense for a backup utility to miss such important data as SIM sms. However some research revealed that many other SMS backup apps miss these messages, and I couldn't find any explicit info about Huawei backup.


text:
fastboot commands are not executed, although device is being recognized
I am trying to flash a TWRP recovery onto a Blackview BV5500 (MT6580) in Manjaro Linux.
Android Platform Tools and Android udev Rules are installed.
I have no access to the system, so I can't unlock OEM in developer options.
The Problem:
The phone is recognized by fastboot
fastboot devices
E531C1ZM94110604    fastboot
But when I execute commands like
fastboot oem info
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot flashing unlock
there is no response at all; no error message. It is not going back to command prompt, so it looks like it's doing something or waiting, but nothing happens (I waited for a long time).
I spent many hours searching for a solution, but nothing worked. What I tried so far:

Changing cables
Changing USB ports (USB2 and USB3)
sudo fastboot and sudo $(which fastboot)
additional udev rule for manager to ignore handling the device in
/etc/udev/rules.d/20-mm-blacklist-mtk.rules
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0e8d", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"
additional udev rule to make an permanent entry in
/etc/udev/rules.d/80-persistent-usb.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", ATTR{idProduct}=="*"
SP Flash Tool throws an error COM_PORT_OPEN_FAIL(1013)

Strange thing I noticed, when in fastboot mode lsusb returns
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0bb4:0c01 HTC (High Tech Computer Corp.) Dream / ADP1 / G1 / Magic / Tattoo / FP1
but when it's booted into system lsusb returns
Bus 001 Device 014: ID 0e8d:2008 MediaTek Inc. Cyrus Technology CS 24
Like it is recognized as two different phones...
I am out of ideas. Any help is welcome!
Thanks a lot!
-tom

if you can't unlock OEM in developer options you can't unlock bootloader from fastboot. use mtkclient instead. is there any response if you try to flash something? if not try recent fastboot binary, it should throw a error. the last part of your question is normal, each mode has it's own vid pid

If I need to unlock OEM in developer options first, does it not defeat the purpose of fastboot oem unlock?
I am using the lastest fastboot version 35.0.1-android-tools.
Trying to flash recovery leeds to the same result, a empty line, no error message and freeze until I cancel.
I will try mtkclient and report back.

@alecxs I installed mtkclient following the ArchLinux instructions here: https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient . I have all the modules (including mock) in ~/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ but running ~/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/mtkclient/mtk_gui.py tells me it's missing the mock module. Looks like a directory issue, but I am somehow lost. Can you help?

you don't need the gui just run command from cmd line

@alecxs When I try to run python mtk.py from cmd line it tells me it's missing the colorama module, altough it is installed along with all the other modules here ~/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/. Pip3 tells me requirements are already satisfied. I reinstalled everything, made sure to install with python3 and pip3. I don't know how to solve this...

I don't know about Manjaro or ArchLinux but no issues with Ubuntu here. maybe try re_livedvdV4.iso

@alecxs Ok, I will ask in the Manjaro Forum. Thanks for your help!

maybe try older release instead of main https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient/tree/2.0.1.freeze


text:
Different types of downloads on Cyanogen OS Website
** This question is for Cyanogen OS and not Cyanogen Mod.
On the Cyanogen OS download page, for my device (YU Yuphoria), I see 3 different downloads for my device, i.e.
cm-12.1-YOG4PAS47N-lettuce-signed-fastboot-5d674b9b61.zip
cm-12.1-YOG4PAS47N-lettuce-signed-806afa8c62.zip
cm-12.1-YOG4PAS47N-lettuce-boot-debuggable-c915697c50.img
It is clear that the first one is the firmware which is to be flashed over fastboot, but I'm skeptical about the second & the third one..
What do the 2nd & the 3rd link provide?

Signed fastboot zips:
  These contain the complete rom and can overwrite everything including your data partition. These cannot be flashed via recovery - extract their contents and flash via fastboot.
Signed zips:
  Normal, stock or TWRP recovery flashable zips that won't overwrite your data partition.
Boot-debuggable images: (This is only for developers/testers)
  These are boot images (kernels) that enable adb root and the developer menu options. To be flashed via fastboot. (e.g.fastboot flash boot cm-12.1-YOG4PAS47N-lettuce-boot-debuggable-c915697c50.img)

Source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/official-cm11s-roms-ota-updates-t2906746


text:
Booting into custom recovery with a locked bootloader
I'm planning to flash a custom ROM on my device, but too lazy to take backups.. My favorite backup tool being Titanium Backup, I want root access on my device before I unlock the bootloader. But unforunately to flash the SuperSU file I need to have a custom recovery on my device as my stock recovery doesn't allow me to flash SuperSU zip. And to flash a custom recovery I need to unlock my bootloader. Can I however boot into Team Win recovery without unlocking my bootloader through this command?
fastboot boot twrp.img

This will allow me to root my device and take backups easily before I unlock my device bootloader. So is it safe for me to do so?

Just a side note, if you manage to root your phone without unlocking it, then you probably won't need to unlock it to install a custom recovery/ROM either.

You're right. I could use Flashify to flash TWRP but I won't do it as flashing through fastboot has its own essence and fun.

You can't fastboot boot with a custom image and a locked bootloader, at least for my Nexus 6P, 7.1.1.

tl;dr
No, you can't use fastboot boot to boot into a custom recovery if the bootloader is locked (as Jerry Chin noted in a comment).

Longer Answer
Android Security Internals says in Chapter 13: System Updates and Root Access (in section Recovery, subsection Custom Recoveries):

A custom recovery is a recovery OS build created by a third party (not
  the device manufacturer). Because it is created by a third party, a
  custom recovery is not signed with the manufacturer’s keys, and
  therefore a device’s bootloader needs to be unlocked in order to boot
  or flash it.

And in Chapter 10: Device Security (in section Controlling OS Boot-Up and Installation, subsection Bootloader):

In order to ensure device integrity, consumer devices are shipped with
  locked bootloaders, which either disallow flashing and booting system
  images completely or allow it only for images that have been signed by the
  device manufacturer.

Thus, if you try to use fastboot boot twrp.img, the bootloader will find out that twrp.img is not signed by the manufacturer's key, and would refuse to boot into it.

And just in case we are not sure whether fastboot allows bypassing the restrictions that a locked bootloader introduce, we also have in Chapter 13: System Updates and Root Access (in section Bootloader, subsection Fastboot Mode):

Commands that modify device partitions, such as the various flash variations, and commands that boot custom kernels, such as the boot command,
  are not allowed when the bootloader is locked.


text:
Flashing of factory image failed Yuphoria
I was flashing the factory image of my YU Yuphoria through the flash-all script, everything completed successfully, but when it came to flashing system partition, the command line got stuck at "writing system" in the last sparse system.
It took a hell lot of time.. In the other sparses of system, writing system took maximum 20-15 secs but this time it took more than 15 minutes and still no luck..
I panicked but couldn't find any other solution.. So I closed the command prompt.. Opened a new command prompt, typed in
fastboot -i 0x2A96 devices

I got:
????????????    fastboot

The ??? made me panic more.. I tried booting into my recovery through fastboot..
E:\Mobile\adb>fastboot -i 0x2A96 boot twrp.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
FAILED (command write failed (Unknown error))
finished. total time: 5.009s

I almost came to the conclusion that my phone is hard-bricked.. I removed the battery, re-inserted it, tried to boot into recovery through the hardware key combination.. But god was kind enough to me, my phone booted into TWRP which was already flashed.. Now I'm still in the recovery but confused what to do.. Shall I flash some custom ROM through the recovery and reboot? Shall I format the system partition? Please suggest something..

At this moment, can you flash any partition from fastboot mode?

Didn't try the fastboot mode thereafter.. What I did is, copied a custom ROM to my SD Card through PC, flashed it through TWRP.. Everything's fine now, except that I'm seeing a minute depreciation in the battery performance..


text:
Unable to complete setup CyanogenMod 12.1
I recently flashed CyanogenMod Nightly 12.1 on my YU Yuphoria, followed by ARM64 Micro Open GApps package. When I booted after successfully flashing, I had to do the system setup which is to be done anytime when the data is reset. I almost completed it but when I reached the step where I need to sign into my Google Account, it shows
Checking info..

And then in 1-2 seconds I get an error screen saying
Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped.

What could be the reason behind it? I'm not able to complete the system setup and use my custom ROM.

Its incompatible GApps problem. Try some other. The details you gave are not sufficient to reach a relevant decision.?

I was confused before flashing.. My YU Yuphoria is a 64-bit device but I wasn't sure whether the CM nightly is 32-bit based or 64-bit based.. So I asked on the official YU forums, and they asked me to download the ARM64 Micro Package..

What happens if you tell it to skip, then finish the start up process it, Then go into the settings and add the account from there?

@jer3my I thought of doing it but then I wouldn't have been able to restore the data (settings, WiFi passwords etc) saved in my Google account..

Problem solved..
The problem persisted only till the time I had been using Open GApps.. Then I checked out for GApps on the official CyanogenMod website and got an idea to try CGApps instead of Open GApps.. So I downloaded the ARM64 package of CGApps and flashed it.. Thankfully it worked for me.. So if someone's facing problems with Open GApps, CGApps is definitely worth a try..

Mark your own response as "answer"

I'm sorry I couldn't get you.. Do you mean I shall mark my answer as my accepted answer to the question?

That is correct.


text:
How can I view an Excel file in MS Outlook OneDrive on my phone?
I have a Moto E.
I have an Outlook mail account that has some MS Excel files I uploaded from my computer to OneDrive.
If I log in to my Outlook account (using the Chrome App) and go to OneDrive in my Outlook account, I can see my documents listed. I can open one of my Excel documents. But, when I try to open another one, I get an error:
"We can't open the workbook because it contains features that we can't show in the browser."
There is also an Download button below the message. When I click on that button, it just reopens the same error page.
I really don't know why one file opens and one doesn't. They were both created with MS Office 2007 versions of Excel on a computer. They open fine on a computer.
Anyone have any ideas?
Note: I am only using the Chrome app. I am not using the Outlook app or the OneDrive app.
I only want to open/view the file.

I realize that there is a lot going on here. There are a lot of layers/systems working: Android, the Chrome app, the Outlook website, OneDrive, Excel...
One thing I have tried to do with my new smartphone is to NOT load it up with things. I thought the most efficient thing to do in this case was to use the Chrome app to access the Interest where I could check my Outlook account through the website. But, I also realize in the short time I have had my phone that there are times when getting/installing an app is the best way to go.

I found an easier solution than going through my Outlook mail account to One Drive. I tried the MS Excel app for Android. You can access a One Drive account through it by signing in to your Outlook account. So, if I need to check email, I will go to that website. If I need to access One Drive, I will use the app.
I really don't like some app versions of various websites.  I have no problems using the Yahoo! email web page through my phone. I like it better than the app. And, I can use the Outlook website just fine. I don't see a need for the app. I guess it is personal preference on stuff like this.
Thanks for all the replies.

The issue is with Chrome not working properly with some web apps, especially MS ones. Basically Chrome is trying to load a OneDrive app, which is also trying to load an Excel app, all of this on a mobile device using nothing but JavaScript.
The solution I use is to open Office documents such as Word and Excel in Google Docs. Google Docs is a free download for Android devices and is able to open most common Office formats.
I would also suggest downloading the OneDrive app as this will allow you to open files stored in your OneDrive from other Android applications directly without having to download them locally first.
If you're having problems downloading Excel files from within Chrome, it's likely because the wrong default program is selected for that file type. Since this is being done in the Chrome app, you need to go into the app settings screen on your Android device, find Chrome and choose the option to restore or remove default associations. Once you do this, the next time you try to download an Excel file from within Chrome, you should see a dialog box asking you which program you want to open this file with.

Thanks for the reply, Andrew. I am going to try the OneDrive app first. I was hoping to just access the file through my Outlook account using OneDrive. I was hoping I didn't have to download it and then use another app to access the file. I also have MS Word files in my One Drive account.  I cannot find the settings on my phone for the Chrome app to select the program to open certain file types. I have seen such windows on a computer.

In Android only the running program can decide which external app  to use when launching a file type. There's no way to change this outside of the program (unless you're rooted and want to edit some Linux files).

Instead, when a program interacts with a file type it doesn't support for the first time, it prompts the user to select an application to use. Once made default the only way to change it is to go into the originating app's settings (from Android-Settings-Apps) and choose the option to rest defaults. This will let you choose a new program to use the next time that app encounters an unsupported file type.

Thanks for the info. I am still new to my smartphone. Apparently, I didn't have any app to open an Excel file which is why I didn't get the prompt you mentioned. I did try the OneDrive app. But, apparently I still need another app for the Excel file. Good thing this is not a pressing issue for me.


text:
ADB Wi-Fi connection disconnects when device goes to sleep in Moto G 2014
I can connect the device via USB and manage to play the app from Android studio without issues. Then I do adb tcpip 5555 and adb connect <IP_ADDRESS:PORT> without problems. Same goes for running the app.
But for some reason, when the device goes to sleep (screen shuts down), so does the connection to ADB.  I configured the Wi-Fi settings to be "Always" so that shouldn't be the problem. I tried restarting the device and the PC, even re-installing the drivers but no luck.
Here's what I get from Logcat in the last seconds before the screen shuts down:
07-28 20:23:17.924     997-1222/? I/PowerManagerService﹕ Nap time (uid 1000)...
07-28 20:23:17.924     997-1222/? I/PowerManagerService﹕ Going to sleep due to screen timeout (uid 1000)...
07-28 20:23:18.477     997-1222/? D/bsthal﹕ activate, handle: 2, enabled: 0, index 5
07-28 20:23:18.490     997-1219/? I/DisplayManagerService﹕ Display device changed: DisplayDeviceInfo{"Schermo incorporato": 720 x 1280, 60.0 fps, supportedRefreshRates [60.0], density 320, 294.967 x 295.563 dpi, appVsyncOff 0, presDeadline 17666667, touch INTERNAL, rotation 0, type BUILT_IN, state OFF, FLAG_DEFAULT_DISPLAY, FLAG_ROTATES_WITH_CONTENT, FLAG_SECURE, FLAG_SUPPORTS_PROTECTED_BUFFERS}
07-28 20:23:18.496      997-997/? V/ActivityManager﹕ Display changed displayId=0
07-28 20:23:18.551      317-317/? D/SurfaceFlinger﹕ Set power mode=0, type=0 flinger=0xb7459550
07-28 20:23:18.557      317-317/? D/qdhwcomposer﹕ hwc_blank: Blanking display: 0
07-28 20:23:18.796      317-804/? I/qdhwcomposer﹕ handle_blank_event: dpy:0 panel power state: 0
07-28 20:23:18.800      317-317/? I/qdhwcomposer﹕ enable_dcabc: Done setting OFF mode
07-28 20:23:18.800      317-317/? D/qdhwcomposer﹕ hwc_blank: Done blanking display: 0
07-28 20:23:18.801      317-317/? I/SFPerfTracer﹕ triggers: (rate: 26:893) (compose: 0:2) (post: 0:0) (render: 0:16) (19:9416 frames) (20:12477)
07-28 20:23:18.801      317-317/? D/SFPerfTracer﹕ layers: (5:10) (FocusedStackFrame (0xb74da368): 0:156)* (DimLayer (0xb756f868): 0:19)* (DimLayer (0xb7572170): 0:7)* (StatusBar (0xb755f198): 2:8497) (com.android.systemui.ImageWallpaper (0xb7564e30): 0:499) (com.teslacoilsw.launcher/com.teslacoilsw.launcher.NovaLauncher (0xb7592e58): 0:195) (NavigationBar (0xb7562cf0): 0:18) (ColorFade (0xb7568e60): 20:22)
07-28 20:23:18.805     997-1347/? D/SurfaceContro
device not found

And when the screen shutdowns completely, the device simply disconnects mid transmission.
It seems I can connect to it after it had disconnected and went in IDLE. This is the log i managed to get by connecting to the device the second it disconnected:
http://pastebin.com/afqpA0Ch
EDIT: I tried creating a new user on the phone and connecting it via wi-fi to adb, and it seems the problem does not present itself with this new account. I'll try factory-resetting the device and see if I can solve the problem for good.
I have a Motorola G 2014, XT1068, with Android 5.0.2, and running Android Studio on Windows x64 Home Premium.
How do I stop the device from disconnecting from ADB?

You might find this question helpful and related. See if any of those solutions work for you.

Have you installed any Battery saving apps? I had the same problem in Moto G2 and the problem was due to the Battery Doctor app that I used to kill apps and improve performance on screen lock, which also disable the wifi and restricted my whatsapp communications. Make sure you change the settings or uninstall those apps and try. These apps block your wifi network even if you have set your wifi mode to stay alive when your device screen is locked.

A few days ago I installed Qualcomm's "Snapdragon BateryGuru", though in less than 24Hours i uninstalled it. I don't have any other applications that do this. I'll try and re-install it and reset the settings from it.DCHP settings shouldn't be a problem. I had the leasing time set to 24hours for a few years and didn't give this problem a few months ago.  I did set a static IP for the specific MAC address of the device, though that doesn't change anything.

If you have uninstalled it then it wont have any effect on your wifi mode. Don't reinstalled the app again.!! This will make it worse since you dont want to have one more app that may chage your settings. Look for some other apps related to battery and performance which do these things normally. If not then it might be your routers problem so try using the adb using a different network and see if the problem persists.

Check if this tiny app Wi-Fi keep Alive from google play store helps.

Wi-Fi works ok (i still get real-time push notifications only using the Wi-Fi network). Tried Wi-Fi keep Alive but to no avail. As soon as the screen goes black, it disconnects from adb. I'll paste a more detailed log for logcat in a few minutes

So it seems the problem was with the settings of the device. Having a Screen Lock (even if SmartLock is enabled, and you are in a "safe location") disconnects ADB on device idle. Only way around it for me was to disable the device screen lock.


text:
Downgrade nVidia Shield to Android 4.4 KitKat
I mistakenly installed 5.0 Lollipop on my nVidia Shield tablet, and I regret it. Is there a way to revert back to KitKat? I've tried finding a way, but no luck so far.

possible duplicate of Can I downgrade to an earlier version of Android after installing an OTA update?

Also check https://github.com/drtaglia/drtaglia.github.io/issues/13 for the steps

One way would be to flash a factory image to your tablet, which would restore it to the state it was when you first bought it.
Depending on your model (wifi, or wifi + lte), you can find official factory images to for the SHIELD tablet on this nvidia website:
https://developer.nvidia.com/develop4shield
Following the relevant links, you will get to a website from where you can download the factory image. The bundle should also contain instructions. Hope this helps.

canot download any factory image from https://developer.nvidia.com/develop4shield, any sugestion? Nvidia show to me the message "require registration", but i was logged in yet... edit: i found this: http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/Tablets/NVIDIA/, but nos is a official source...

@Carcheky I just tested the link and it works for me.... Did you click the Download OS Images button?

I have just gone through the whole process successfully. Below you find all the necessary steps for a downgrade for OSX (and likely for linux).
Install the Java8 Runtime
from here: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572?locale=en_US
after installing, verify from command line if this runs without issues
java --version

Download the Android SDK
Obtain it from: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Then you have to execute this command to download fastboot:
./android update sdk --no-ui

You only need the fastboot executable, which you can easily find:
~/Desktop/SHIELD/android-sdk-macosx: find . -name fastboot
./platform-tools/fastboot

Then add its directory to the path:
export PATH="$PATH:$PWD/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools"

Download the Factory Reset Images
From https://developer.nvidia.com/gameworksdownload pick the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet WiFi Recovery OS Image for linux. Make sure you download the Update 1.2.1, this is the last one before Lollipop was introduced (I also tried with the factory image, but the tablet was freezing very often). Then, unzip it from the command line, then execute the shell file.
unzip extract-nv-recovery-image-shield-tablet-wx_na_wf-19485_417.6426.sh.zip
chmod +x extract-nv-recovery-image-shield-tablet-wx_na_wf-19485_417.6426.sh
./extract-nv-recovery-image-shield-tablet-wx_na_wf-19485_417.6426.sh

Everything that follows is performed in the folder where you unzipped (it contains a few *.img files)
Put your SHIELD tablet into fastboot mode:

Turn off the device
Press "Volume Down" -> "Power", hold "Volume Down" and leave Power buttons till device boots

Flash the tablet
fastboot oem unlock /// AND FOLLOW SCREEN INSTRUCTIONS
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot flash staging blob
fastboot flash dtb tegra124-tn8-p1761-1270-a04-e-battery.dtb
fastboot reboot-bootloader

Reboot the device
Use the volume up/down and the start button to select "reboot" when the commands above have completed.
Reference to the official instructions (not as verbose)
https://developer.nvidia.com/sites/default/files/akamai/mobile/docs/HowTo-Flash-SHIELDTablet-Recovery-Image.txt

authors: ℳ                            .


text:
Install a new OS after wiping out the OS on Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G
I have wiped the OS off of my Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G (T679). Now all I get is the flash screen.
How can I install a new OS at this point?

All credit goes to stubbakatt over HERE for the files and original instructions. I simply walked through it myself and re-wrote out the instructions in a way that caters to my brain.
Disclaimer: This has been tested on two machines - one running Windows 7 32 bit, and one running Windows 7 64 bit. This has not been tested on an XP machine (though it should work the same) or on a Mac. And of course, I'm not responsible if you brick your device, proceed with caution, etc. etc.
FILES NEEDED:

Drivers: click here (Google Docs automatically pulls up the content of the .zip - simply go to the top left and choose File then
Download to download the .zip) - if you're rooted/rommed, you
probably already have these, but just in case these are the drivers I
used
"Back to Stock" - Odin, ops, factory image, etc: click here (Google Docs automatically pulls up the content of the .zip - simply
go to the top left and choose File then Download to download the
.zip) - this is the main stuff that Odin will use to flash your phone
back to it's factory state

STEPS:

Make sure the computer recognizes your phone with the drivers above (again, this is probably already the case if you're having to do this!)
Unzip the "back to stock" .zip file to wherever you want - preferably somewhere easy to get to (desktop?).
Power down your phone. Once it's off, hold down the volume-down button and press power. Hold both down until you see the "Warning!!" message with the yellow triangle at the bottom. Once you see that, hit the volume-up button. This puts you into Odin/download mode.
Plug your phone into your computer.
Among the files you unzipped from the "back to stock" .zip file, open "Odin Multi Downloader v4.43.exe". Once it opens, the Message window at the bottom left should read "Added!!!" and "Detected!!!".
Make sure all four of the Options are checked (One Package, Auto Reboot, Protect OPS, Reset Time [mine's set to 300 seconds]). I don't know if this is all necessary, but at the very least One Package and Auto Reboot appear to be.
On the right side, click the "OPS" button, and select/open the Ancora.ops file.
At the bottom, click the "One Package" button, and select/open the "T679UVKJ1_T679TMBKJ1_T679UVKJ1_HOME.tar.md5" file.
The Message window should do an md5 check and end with "Check MD5... ok". If it doesn't, try redownloading again - don't want to flash a corrupt file!
If all of that is good to go, then select the "Start" button.
Your mileage will vary, but for me it took about 5 minutes, then the phone reboots itself into recovery mode (the little white box with the progress bar), then about 30 seconds after that and the phone fully reboots. Don't unplug it yet. After a few minutes (actually, the 300 seconds set in the "reset time" in Odin), it will say Pass!!! and you're good to go and unplug the phone.
However, we're not quite done yet. Our goal is to get back to a factory state. You'll notice a lot of your stuff is still in place - apps, etc. That's because this process doesn't touch the /data partition of the phone. In addition, it's possible you COULD still be seeing the Superuser app. If that's the case, simply go into your application settings (settings > applications > manage applications), find Superuser, uninstall it. It will say uninstall not successful, but it should disappear.
The last thing to do is simply a factory reset - this will wipe out the /data partition, back to stock, and you'll be done. This could also take care of Superuser, but I've never tested it to see since it's easy enough to do it before the factory reset.

So there you go - hopefully you're now sitting on an "out of the box" Exhibit II 4G to do with whatever you please.
Original post


text:
Is it possible to boot Amazon Fire Phone with a vanilla build of Android Lollipop?
I was wondering if it would be possible to run a vanilla Android Lollipop build on Amazon Fire phone. Google won't support it by default, but is there a patched version of the Lollipop ROM that could be used to run Android on it?

Nope, I don't think so because over Amazon Fire phone are working over their own version of Android based ROMs, not the Android ROMs. I don't think that there are chances you can go past !

But aren't there any patched ROMs like the Cyangen Mod that can work with it?

I am not sure on this which is the reason why I have posted my answer over the comments. Maybe we should wait a bit more while for other member to confirm this one out as I am afraid but I haven't tried doing anything like that before! :(

Thanks a lot for your response. Yes, given the current fire phone offer, it'd be great to get hands on the hardware which is pretty good. Let's wait.

For everyone who has dreamed about Android on the Fire phone: It is possible. You can install CM11 (Android KitKat 4.4.X) on your device. The procedure is described here on XDA: [ROM][STABLE] CM-11 for Safestrap v4 2015/08/10
There are some issues and bugs, but if you are interested in it, then go for it ;)
Fresh Installation

From Safestrap(the recovery you have to install), go into Wipe Menu and Swipe to perform a factory
reset.
Flash the ROM File
Flash PA Gapps Modular PICO
Flash the latest SuperSU package if you want root
Reboot
Enjoy!


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Typing any keys on an external keyboard open apps. How to revert this?
I was typing like I always do using a USB keyboard with External Keyboard Helper Pro bought from Google Play. I usually type in Evernote. In a moment, I'm kind pressing more than one key a the same time - probably a Fn, Ctrl or Alt and other. I have no idea what I pressed. But since then, I can't type anything because the keys open other apps. If I press "e" in the keyboard, the e-mail on my tablet open, and if I press other key, other app open.
I tried to figure it out, search in the settings from my tablet and in the settings of EKH, but I don't have any shortcuts configured. I'm thinking that I press some kind of shortcut that activated other shortcuts, but I don't know how to go back to what it's like before.
How to fix/revert this?

Have you tried restarting the device?

And maybe simply power-down the keyboard (unplug, remove batteries if any) to reset it?

I looked at the site for the app you mentioned, External Keyboard Helper Pro, which has some tutorials. This section may help:
EKH Tutorial 5 - Application shortcuts and Text strings

A nice feature in External Keyboard Helper is the possibility to add
Application shortcuts and Text strings to keys. In this example I will
configure Alt+G to start Gmail and Alt+M to start Maps. I will also
make it possible to quickly write http://www.apedroid.com by just
pressing Alt+A.
First I enter the Advanced settings and choose to setup some
Application shortcuts.

Perhaps that setting has what you need?

Trish, I tried! But I don't have any shortcuts configured in The app or in The Android settings.

I fibd this list of shortcuts. It's like I activeted somehow "search", but I don't know what it is! Android Keyboard Shortcuts: Apps
• Search + B: Open browser
• Search + C: Open contacts
• Search + E: Open e-mail
• Search + G: Open Gmail
• Search + I: Open calendar
• Search + M: Open maps
• Search + P: Open music
• Search + S: Open text messaging
• Search + Y: Open YouTube

Your Windows key is probably broken and always seems to be pressed since Windows+E is the stock Android shortcut for email, whether you set it or not.


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Loud speaker on my HTC One turns on almost every time I answer an in coming call
My HTC One is about 18 months old. On almost every incoming call I receive, the loudspeaker turns on. Other than the fact you look like an idiot saying 'Hello' only to have your phone on the loudspeaker as if you don't know how to work the thing, it's actually pretty sore when you get a full blast 'HELLO' directly into your ear. I'm wondering if it's an Android issue or specifically an HTC One thing.
I honestly can't remember if it happened directly after an update, and I don't really have any odd apps, at least none I think would affect in-coming calls anyway.
This question is very similar to mine, but the apps which were un-installed to rectify the problem, are not and have never been on my device.
What is the possible reasons for this, and how to fix this?

This is certainly not the default behavior of the M7 or M8; I've used both.
The way I see it, it's one of the following:

Some option in HTC's phone app or system settings has been enabled to invoke this behavior. I'd suggest reviewing the settings to confirm this isn't the case.
You may be experiencing some troubles with your touch screen. It's possible the touch digitizer is registering false positives, effectively tapping areas of the screen without you doing so.
You may want to check that touches are registering correctly by using an app similar to Yet Another MultiTouch Test and selecting the Paint Tester option. If touches are registered without actually touching the screen, this may explain the odd behavior.

I hope it's not the latter!

Cheers Paul, the second option never entered my head! I really hope it's not that, but I'll be sure to investigate. And I've checked and unchecked and and every option I could find relating to calls and none have had any effect.

There also exists the possibility that you're tapping the loudspeaker button with your cheek. Perhaps give that a test as well; does it go straight to loudspeaker without even holding it?

Concerning touch problems: does it only occur when plugged in? Cheap chargers often aren't grounded properly, which may cause the touch screen to go haywire.

My first thought was that it was my beard which was triggering it, but I've tested it at every angle and even experimented with my girlfriend (who has very little facial hair) and the problem persists. And I would generally remove the charger cable if I was about to answer a call.

If you are actually cheek-tapping, you could try to turn off the display by pressing the power button after picking up the call. This makes sure the display stays off when you're actually talking. Secondly, see if there is any helper options turned on under Settings > accessibility.


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Cannot turn on WiFi and Bluetooth on Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
I have Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 running on Android 4.4.2. I just bought it 3 months ago. It's not rooted (I don't want root it). I also have "Terminal Emulator" (downloaded from Play Store).
I can't turn on WiFi and Bluetooth. MAC address and Bluetooth address also don't show up on settings. When I press the WiFi button (on the quick settings), it turns green for 3-6 seconds, then it turns back to white again (same as Bluetooth button).
Could someone point me what's the cause and how to fix it?

What happens when you try to turn them on exactly? Can you describe the steps involved and any errors if applicable?

Check Here This article may help you.

Ok,when i press the wifi button(on the status bar),its turn green for 3-6 second then its turn back to white again(Same as bluetooth button)

I fixed this very problem on my coworker's tablet. What I did was download the factory image, extracted the modem.bin file, and flashed it via Odin. No root required and this method will not remove any personal data from your device. Just need a PC, Odin, a good USB cable, and the device.
Since this question is older, here are two links.

If your device is running Kitkat (4.X) go here.
If your device is running Lollipop (5.X) go here.

Both links include the Odin software as well in their forum post.
Samsung USB Windows drivers can be found at the top of this page.
Once you have everything downloaded;

First, install the Samsung USB Drivers if you haven't already.

Open the factory image with your favorite archive manager, I use 7-Zip

Extract the file, if the extracted file is a tar/tar.md5 file, open it again with an archive manager.

Look for the modem.bin file and extract it to your desktop/folder/etc.

Once extracted, open up Odin, uncheck F.Reset Time, and hit the "phone" button, I know the device isn't a phone but that's where the modem file goes. Select the modem.bin file from where you extracted it.

Now, make sure your device is powered off. Hold the Volume Down button, the Home button, and press the power button. You should see a screen warning you, that changing your OS could harm your device and etc. Hit Volume Up to put the device into download mode.

Once the device is in download mode, you can connect the device to the USB cable that's connected to your computer.

If done right, your Odin screen should look something like this.

except for, in the top right, where it says ID:COM, you should have some info in there.

Once everything is set up and you are connected, press start and DO NOT DISCONNECT THE DEVICE, until it either reboots on its own or you see PASS! above the ID:COM box. If the device doesn't reboot on its own but you see PASS! in the box above ID:COM, simply hold down the power button to turn off the device. Press it once more to turn it back on.

If everything went according to plan, you should have WiFi and Bluetooth working again.

Sometimes it's not hardware failure,* software problem.. like missing driver.. leading to the same problem.. have you try reinstall your tab to the latest firmware?
  Prepare carefully !!* if you choose to reflash your tab with odin.
  google.. and you can find how to flash your tab.
*if you can't find firmware exactly match with your tab, then forget about flashing.

Source: Jokowi's Answer in
 this XDA thread


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Google Playstore force-closes
I have a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet. I cleaned up some applications, deleting them via settings, and now I receive an error message when I open some applications. The message reads

The application Google Play Store (process.com.android.vending) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.

This error keeps appearing, usually three or four times with option of forcing close or reporting error.
Maybe I uninstalled some key file that I needed unknowingly. I cant find anything on updating this application or reinstalling factory setting only for this. Can anyone help?

Have you tried the usual methods to try fixing a truculent app?

Yes, tried the usual methods with no luck.

You may need to wipe and reload the device?


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Link2SD not working completely
My Link2SD doesn't seem to be fully working. I noticed this when updating the Facebook application. Google Play prompted me of insufficient storage. I first uninstalled some apps but I got curious so I checked Link2SD's storage info, I got this:

(Click image to enlarge)
As you can see, the internal storage only has mere 70mb left. What's peculiar is, these are the only apps I have NOT linked:

(Click image to enlarge)
I tried moving one linked app (Amazing Alex) to the sd card (normal Android way) and sure enough, the free space on my internal storage got bigger by about an additional 20mb-ish.
Why is this happening? Why isn't Link2SD moving the data to my sdext2? How do I solve it?

Did you check with the Link2SD FAQ? It describes some similar issues, though not exactly what you wrote. But maybe while reading all the questions there, you encounter something deeper which could explain your issue -- as you know best what steps you took, it might be more obvious to you than to others.

I have encountered this problem with link2sd multiple times already. You can try to recreate your mount script via link2sd, reboot and then relink all your application files, lib files, and dalvik-cache.. hope this solves your problem.

Unfortunately, it doesn't solve it.

then my last resort to that problem was to reflash your rom.. sorry dude.. i know it hurts.. but have a backup just in case..

Many people have that kind of problem and I have the same one. moving apps to SD card just delays a bit the problem because something else fills up the internal storage. I finally figured out and it works great. I have a Galaxy Tab 7 but many android devices will experience that. There are 2 important folders. The one called /data is actually not really just data but it is where Android install the application apk and some of the data related to it. If you force the apk to install on SD card, it will still use some of the /data space (small amount) for some data.
the problem I discovered is in /data/tombstone, you will find 10 files named tombstone_0#. These are debugging info collected by android. These files build up over time. You don't need that for a normal user. Delete all of them. These 4 files were using 1.4GB of my 1.89GB internal tablet storage.
To do so, you will need to root your device. Yes, you must. And it won't explode don't worry, I've done it and many others too! Then get a program like "Root Explorer" to browse and delete the junk. It will request and be granted root privilege if you rooted your device before and you will be able to do whatever you want.
To root your device, just google "root android my device model" and you should find quickly how to root your device.
This problem is a design flaw. When there is a low internal storage, Android should start a background task to clean up that junk.

Often the system recreates some of the files that were previously linked to sdext2.  This often happens with libraries, but can affect other components (apk, dex) as well.
For libraries, Link2SD has a “Relink all library files” command in its menu.  There's also an option to do this each time the system boots.
You can also look at your linked apps and see which components are still linked (symbolized with a little arrow -> in the app list) and manually relink components if necessary.


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Specific URL Blocked
I have a Nexus 9 and a HTC One M8.
On both Devices my Access to a specific URL is somehow "blocked" through browser and  through App.
With blocked i mean the following behavior:

Website (or the App) is able to load some text Data. This process takes quite some time.
Pictures and Video wont load at all.
There is never a "Connection Problem" Error
If i connect to the URL over Mobile Data everything works.

Things i tried:

Access URL over PC (works)
Reboot Device / Reinstall App
Reboot the Modem
Deleted the Cookies  / Cache in Chrome
WiFi Turned off and on / Delete the WiFi and added it new
Ping the URL form the android Device (0 Packages lost; 45ms avg)

As far as i can tell the Problem occurs between the communication from my Devices to the Modem.
The URL is www.viki.com
But i have really no clue what i could do next (besides Factory Reset, wich i would like to avoid)
Thanks for your help in advance.

There may be packet loss occurring on your network. Try pinging the site.
Windows:  ping www.viki.com(Windows will auto 6 pings)
Linux:    ping -c(x) www.viki.com(where x is the number of times to ping)
If the result is that there is substantial packet loss(above 10%) try clearing your DNS Cache.
Windows: type cmd within Windows search to get Command Terminal then type:ipconfig/flushdns at the C:>
Linux: Depends on the Linux distro.  usually located in /etc/init.d  Once in the /etc/init.d directory see if there is a file named "dns-clean"  if there is just type:  ./dns-clean  then try to log on to www.viki.com again.  Hope this helps but keep in mind that there could be other causes for your problem but this is a good start.  Good Luck!

I Pinged the URL with my Android 100 Times: 0 Packages Lost, avg Ping Time 44 ms. Does not seem to be the Problem :/

Try going into the Wi-Fi Networks menu option on your devices and "forget" or delete any access points that you haven't used recently. Most of the time when I have issues connecting to websites that is the cause.


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Can an Android app with device management and microphone permissions spy in background secretly?
As far as I know, since Android 12 an app needs to have a Foreground Service Worker (with an active permanent notification) to run in all the time without being stopped when no activity is in foreground. The guide to background work also states that the only real alternative is to use scheduled tasks. My question is, can those tasks initiate microphone recording and most importantly, will this be visualized in the notification bar so the user would spot the recording?
I know that it is possible to achieve the same level of spying with permanent location tracking permissions, but I'm pretty sure nothing of the kind exists for microphone permission. How strict is Android in this regard? Will an app stop recording as soon as no Activity is in the foreground? Can the app bypass this limitation if it has full device management permissions?
My current research tells me that background recording is impossible since Android 9 and a visual indicator in the right-top corner is shown when any recording is active since Android 12. I would love to get more insight in the specifics.
In this regard, I do not want to discuss the possibility of zero day exploits, but de-facto working methods that spy-ware can make use of in the Android threat model.


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Are there any microphone access logs?
Is there a way to figure out when a microphone was active in the past and what app used it?
The requested timespan is 2 weeks and the device presumably was never in USB debugging. The device runs Android Pie (9).
My first idea was to extract logcat logs, but those are deleted once the device has been restarted, except for errors which are hold on for longer.
I'm currently researching with my personal device (Android 12). I can read my detailed logcat since the beginning of the device session (incl. all errors of this year) using:
adb logcat -d -T '2022-01-01 00:00:00.000'

But I cannot spot any entries that indicate my voice messages in Telegram, for instance. What do I have to look for? Unfortunately, this method is useless if the device was restarted recently, since I only can retrieve errors this way.
I can also print the last 50 events recorded by the RecordActivityMonitor using:
adb shell dumpsys audio

I probably need a few hundred times as many entries to retrieve the entire last 2 weeks, but I suspect that a restart would reset this log as well.

You can get a timestamp of when an app last used the microphone. History is stored in /data/system/appops/history/. Get it using appops get <PKG> RECORD_AUDIO or my app PMX (see this comment).

@IrfanLatif Yes, I tested appops get org.telegram.messenger.web RECORD_AUDIO and sadly, this gives me only the last data plot, I really need all activity in the past 2 weeks, is there no other way?


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App compatibility with sky device WHY ? Is possible to make it compatible without having to change device
Door dash driver App is not compatible with sky device D63 android 13. Playstore say it should be android 6+>.Why and can it be made compatible without changing device.

For reference a Sky Device D63 is a Android Go device with only 2 GB of RAM. Given that Door Dash has a end-user and driver app, linking to the one with the problem would be useful for future readers.

As Android Go disables "draw over other apps" perhaps might be useful: Enable Display Over Other Apps Android 10-11 Go Edition (Nokia 1.4) when "feature is disabled because it slows down the phone"? but be prepared for crashing if you have too many things running.

I'll try that thank you


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What size should the background image be so it is not scaled?
What dimensions should an image file have so that it will not be scaled when set as a wallpaper for the lockscreen or homescreen?
This question is NOT the same as What is the default resolution of a wallpaper that fits the homescreen exactly in an Android phone?. I only have a single home screen.
I already tried the dimensions of the screen. That does not work since the image is zoomed in slightly, so that it can be zoomed out when pulling down the notifications menu.
On my phone, the Nokia 5.4, the screen resolution is 720x1560.
My best guess at the best wallpaper resolution is 792x1778, however that size is still not perfect.

It sounds like your phone will scale the image regardless, but here are a few options you can try:

See if there are any scaling options
Check for a scrolling background option and fiddle with it until it doesn't scale
Edit the image to have a border around what you don't want scaled to a point where the border is off-screen. This can be done on a computer with GIMP (free) or Photoshop (paid)
Check your settings for a "reduce motion" option

If you need help with option 3, I'd be happy to make some test images.

Option 3 is what I tried already, it gets tedious quickly. I checked option 4, this particular animation can't be disabled.
But option 2 lead me in the right direction. Whilst there are no options when setting the wallpaper from the gallery, I was able to use a live wallpaper app to set a static image.

The particular app I used is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lb.lwp_plus, but there are probably loads others that do the same thing.

If you want, you can try screenshotting the image and see if that works, and then putting it as the wallpaper.
I did that with my iPhone and Android device, and it usually just puts it scaled. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is 1900x1080, so it would be the size for the wallpaper, and if the image is scaled to that, it should fully display without any problems.

If you have a computer that is 15 inch, usually it would be 1366x768 so if you have an image that exact size it will be fully displayed. Same concept as the phone, most phones, and hopefully yours to.

No, this does not work. As I mentioned, the image will be zoomed in to accomodate the "zoom out" animation when sliding down the notifications.


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Manually lock device in Android 5.0 Lollipop
I have just upgraded my Nexus device to Android 5.0.1 from 4.4.2 and I can't find a lock button. Previously, you could tap your picture in the setting pull down menu.
I'm not asking how to set a lock timeout or how to have it lock when I turn the screen off/push the power button. I know how to do that and usually I don't want my device to lock when I turn the screen off. However there are times when I know I'm going to step away from my device and want to explicitly lock it without having to wait for the timeout.
Is this a feature they have entirely remove with 5 or is it just hiding?

Yes, they have removed this toggle in the quick settings menu. Custom ROMs may be able to restore the toggle.

I explicitly said in my question I'm not looking for this.

See updated answer.

Yes there is a way without resorting to 3rd party apps or jumping through hoops:
1) Check that you have some kind of security set up (PIN, Pattern, Password) or you can't get a lock icon. To do this, go to Settings -> Security -> Screen security-Screen Lock and choose a method. "Swipe" is not a security measure. (For Smart Lock, see note below)
2) Press the device power button twice in quick succession. (The first time, the phone will start to go to sleep, but you needn't wait until it completes - just press again to wake it before it completes the sleep process.) Some devices call the "power button" the "lock button" which is what yours is about to become.
3) The lock icon (a padlock) appears bottom center of screen.
4) Tap the lock button.
5) The device locks instantly with the message "Device will stay locked until you manually unlock".
6) It means it - none of your Smart Lock features will override that statement. If you want to put the device to sleep immediately, you can do so.
I'd love a less mechanical way, but that works and if it's a workaround, it isn't bad at all.
Smart Lock: I can't confirm whether Smart Lock "Trusted Voice" or "Trusted Face" methods are relevant to this, but I can confirm that even if you have a trusted device, place, face, voice or use on-body detection, they won't stop this method from locking the phone.
(Disclaimer: I'm using a Moto G 2nd Gen with Android Lollipop so how you make your baby sleep may need a slightly different lullaby ;) )

Pressing the power button twice quickly does not give me a padlock anywhere on the screen.  I have a patter setup and am pressing the button twice before the screen even starts going dark.

Well maybe the trick is to delay pressing the second time. As I said, "The first time, the phone will start to go to sleep...". So maybe you have to wait for the display to at least darken before the second press. Maybe try it and let us know ;)
(Of course, it may also depend on the device - Android isn't working its magic alone, right?)

AFAIK, there is no option to manually lock the device on Lollipop.
You can use 3rd-party app such as Lock Screen App (free) that has Device Administration privilege to force lock the device (similar to Android Device Manager).

On the other hand, maybe you can try the new "Smart Lock" feature to prevent the phone locking when turning off the screen.

You can set it to keep your phone unlocked when you have a trusted Bluetooth device connected to it, when it's in a familiar location like your home or work, or when it recognizes your face.

If "Smart Lock" is active and "Power button instantly locks" is set, then you can manually lock the screen by tapping the "lock icon" on the bottom of the lock screen.

After tapping that, Android will confirm it by displaying a message,

Device will stay locked until you manually unlock


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Play Store Android apps are not updating in Android Lollipop (Error code: 495)
I have installed the latest factory image for Android Lollipop version from Google site to my Nexus 5 device.
When I am updating apps from Play Store, "Update all" option is not working. Some of individual apps like Maps, Calendar also shows indefinite spinner. Google Fit, Google Keep, Maps and Play Music apps are not updating. Getting error:

Could not be downloaded due to an error (495)

Did you turned off the auto-update function in the Play Store?

NO. it is enabled. I have tried with disabling it but same issue

Also, try clearing the cache and the data stored by the Google PlayStore app by heading over to the application manager and see if that works for you ?

Done. Still same issue. I an see playstore app is udated shall I remove all the updates?

Well, I don't think that it will make any difference anyway can try doing that too !

Google fit google keep, Maps and play music apps are not updating. Getting error: could not be downloaded due to an error (495)

Try the following...
<<1>>

Go to Settings > Apps > slide to "All" apps.
From the list of apps find Google Play Store > Clear Data and Clear Cache.
From the list of apps find Google Services Framework > Clear Cache.
Now, try to install or update app from Google Play Store.
If it still didn’t work try uninstalling Google Play Store updates.

If the above steps couldn't solve your issue,
<<2>>

Go to Settings > Accounts > Google > Remove your Gmail account.
Again go to Settings > Apps > slide to "All" apps.
Force Stop, Clear Data and Cache for Google Play Store,Google Services Framework and Download Manager.
Now again go to settings > Accounts > Google > Add your Gmail account.
Restart your android and re-run Google Play Store and update/install your apps.


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Remove Google Search Bar on Nexus devices running on stock Lollipop
I have been reading for days about how to remove the Google Search Bar from the top of my Nexus 6 since I never use it. I have gotten mixed answers on exactly what file to delete and where it is.
I have heard quicksearchbar.apk but it's not in /system/app like in previous versions. Does anybody know where the file/files are I need to delete in order to get rid of the search bar, or else, how to remove it? Preferably not downloading another launcher, since I don't want to bloat my phone when I could reduce the size.

My apologies, I answered but Xposed won't work in ART and that's the only runtime in Lollipop. Really then Nova may well be the way to go. It's a third of the size of the Google Now launcher, so I'd install Nova and get rid of Google Now Launcher and you'll actually gain space.

@RossC I know it's old, but AFAIK Xposed is somewhat supported on Lollipop again. Probably your answer could work now?

You need to use a third-party launcher app like Nova Launcher. In Nova Launcher, you can hide the persistent search bar by navigating to : Go to Nova Settings > Desktop > Persistent Search Bar > Select "None".

I finally found how to remove it in this case:

No Nova installation nor any other issues with launcher installation
No "three dots method" as they don't appear on my screen
No apparently root needed
No apk removal

I found the way (in my Spanish interface):

Ajustes -> Aplicaciones -> Todas -> Aplicacion Google -> Borrar Caché / Borrar Valores por defecto
Ajustes -> Aplicaciones -> Todas -> Launcher3 -> Borrar Datos / Borrar Caché / Borrar Valores por defecto

Sorry if I make a mistake in direct translation but I really don't know how it appears in English interface:

Settings -> Apps -> all -> Google App -> Remove cache / Remove defaults
Settings -> Apps -> all -> Launcher3 -> Remove data / Remove cache / Remove defaults

I use katkiss ROM - Lollipop 5.1 on an Asus Transformer TF101. Hope this works as it worked for me!

The problem is... you're using custom ROM and different device (but at least you mention it). Also, there's no Launcher3 on Nexus devices.

I heard you can go to  Settings >> Apps >> select all apps tab -> find and click "Google Search" and disable it, then reboot. However this will disable all Google search functions.
Otherwise you may be stuck with the alternate launcher option.

In 5.0 Lollipop the "Disable" button is grayed out when going to Settings > Apps > All...I can force stop but that obviously does nothing. I KNOW there is an .apk file I can delete with the terminal, posibbly Velvet.apk and Velvet.odek but I'm just not positive which file/files to delete, and don't want to brick my phone without being positive.

@WillHughes I have the disable option in Lollipop 5.0.1 here, however, removing all that functionality may be a bad option.

I got my phone about a week ago and rooted it, is there already an update to lollipop 5.0? If so how do I go about updating my rooted phone without undoing the changes. I heard with custom recovery and bootloader etc its dangerous to update things

@RossC - Did you do anything special to get that diable option? I have a rooted device with 5.0.1 and it's greyed out.

I tried using Nova Prime launcher. It totally changed my home page but did remove the bar and the google cards page too.

I know how irritating it is to see this Google bar. You don't need anything to remove it. Just tap on your home screen in the middle of the screen. The bottom options open up showing wallpaper, widgets etc. Just above those options is the tiny dots. Click on those dots and you'll see that the first option is to remove the search bar.
Hope you enjoy your clean home screen with this :)
Gaurav

I followed your instructions and I do not have anything that lets me remove it like you are talking about. Are you using the Stock Google Now Launcher? That is what is used by default on a Nexus 6.

On Android 5.1.1 (CM 12.1)  this method works. Long press on home screen, in the bottom there are wallpapers, widgets, settings. Above them there are  3 dots in a sort of triangular shape. You can disable the search bar from there.

for turning Google search bar OFF, hold finger in screen, swipe up the 3dots up the widgets button, in the top of page you can turn search bar off.
was it as easy as it looked?

Probably you need to provide more info on this (e.g. device model? custom ROM?). On my device (Nexus 4, stock Lollipop 5.0.1), long-pressing the home screen will show "select wallpaper" on stock launcher, or "wallpapers, widgets, and settings" on Google Now Launcher. No 3-dot on the widget button, etc.

@AndrewT. Maybe he meant tap-and-hold inside the search bar – i.e. the element you want to "modify" (read: kick)? Could you verify that? I've got no Lolli, so I can't. I usually removed it that way: tap-and-hold, then move it to trash :)

@Izzy just tried that, but the search bar is not a standard widget you can remove and add. I think it's the same for stock Android ROM since.. I dunno, but at least JB, when I got Nexus 4.

authors: Ильгар Джаббаров


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Viber deleted, but my account is still shown on my friends' Viber contacts!
I have deleted Viber app from my phone, but my account is still shown on my friends mobiles as a Viber user.
Is it a bug? What do I have to do to remove my account from my friends mobiles?

Uninstalling the app won't deactivate your Viber ID. If you want to deactivate your Viber ID, you have to reinstall Viber and do the following procedure:

Open Viber on your Phone
Tap on More
Tap on Settings
Tap on Account
Tap on Deactivate account
Enter your phone number
Tap on Deactivate account again
If you have a PIN enabled, you will be asked to enter your PIN
Tap Deactivate to confirm

More information: Viber Support Knowledge Base - Deactivate or Uninstall Viber on Your Phone

When you register a Viber account, that account is directly associated with your phone number (same case with Whatsapp) If another person who has Viber installed on their phone has you in their contacts, Viber will scan the contacts (which is why it needs accessing to your contacts as a permission) crosscheck them with the database and match your number with your account.
In shorter words: You deleted Viber application, not your Viber account.
If you want to delete your account then do as following:
Viber > More Options > Settings > Privacy > Deactivate Account

This is proper behavior. Account deactivation would impose a flaw.
In addition to what was said in other answers there is a normal scenario that you may want to continue using the same Viber account in other phones, tablets or PCs (Windows, Linux).
Therefore expectation that Viber should deactivate your account when you remove the app from a device is what would be unacceptable for practical use. It is like deactivation of your mailbox when uninstalling your e-mail client.


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How can I keep apps from moving off the home screen?
I am using Samsung tablets for workers in the field. They only need to use one app but some users keep moving it off the home screen and then they can't find it.
How can I keep apps on the home screen from moving?

A work-around you could use on Android to refrain from having apps move or be uninstalled by either accident or someone trying to purposely do so:
Settings -> Accessibility -> Dexterity and Interaction -> Press and hold delay -> Custom
From here, you can just set an obnoxiously long press and hold delay so that when icons are held down to be either moved or uninstalled, it takes however long you've set the interval for to actually initiate that command. So, a) doing it by accident becomes harder and b) Someone who doesn't know you've set that feature will assume it doesn't work and not opt to wait 35 seconds of holding an icon down.
Just my little trick, at least.

The stock home screen doesn't support locking/pinning the apps permanently.
You could try 3rd-party launchers for this purpose: Solo Launcher, Nova Launcher, etc. are some of those. Locking a desktop is possible in these launchers.

On Samsung devices with One UI, with the default home screen of One UI Home, it is possible to keep the app shortcuts from moving off the home screen.

On the home screen, long-hold on an empty space, then select "Settings"

Alternatively, open the Settings app - Home screen

Enable "Lock Home screen layout"

Lock Home screen layout
Prevent items on the Home screen from being removed or repositioned.

Settings -> Accessibility -> Press and hold delay -> Long


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Are my phone contacts notified when I install WhatsApp?
When I install WhatsApp, I read that it tries to add all other WhatsApp-registered numbers in my phone Contacts list to my WhatsApp contacts.
Are all of these contacts then notified about this, or is this strictly just convenience on my end, while remaining quiet to other users?


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How to open Gmail links in Gmail app or browser?
I often use links to some of my Gmail messages; these links have the form:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/XXXXXXXXXX

and I use them for future reference in, for instance, Evernote notes.
When I open such a link in Chrome on my desktop, the corresponding mail message is opened as expected. However, if I open those links in Chrome for Android, I only get the main window of Gmail, not that specific message.
Does anybody know of a way to open permanent links to Gmail messages in an Android app?

As of 5 Oct '18, and as far as I am aware, there is no way to do so. The desktop web interface, mobile interface, and mobile application use different unique IDs and links for the messages.
For instance, using the desktop interface, you get the main/u/#/ links. On mobile web, you get mail/mu/mp/###/ links. There is no way to correspond the two.
Furthermore, the UUIDs are different for the interfaces. On mobile, you get a ~16 alpha-numeric ID. On desktop, it is ~35 alpha-numeric.
Maybe there is a method that the mobile web interface uses to shorten the length of the desktop IDs, but I can only speculate as to what it is.
But none of that would matter, because you would have to feed the link into a program or script to convert the link to/from whatever.
This does not even cover the use of multiple accounts, which have their own number in the links for the desktop and mobile web interfaces.
That being said
There is a sort of workaround that you might try. It requires a bit more work than copy-paste of a link, and it does not get you the desired outcome, but it is close.
Taken from a Web Applications Answer, you can modify your link to be a search result instead.
Follow his workaround steps. Getting the original message ID.
Your mobile link should look something like this:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/###/#tl/search/rfcmsgid%3A<MESSAGE.ID>

And the desktop link:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/#/#search/rfc822msgid%3A<MESSAGE.ID>

It adds to the number of items you will have listed in your notes, but it should get the job 85% done.


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Asus Zenfone 5 phone not turning on after factory reset
I received an error message on my phone

Unfortunately, the process.android.process.acore has stopped.

So I have tried to factory reset it. Now it doesn't turn on at all. It just shows the Intel Inside logo. I am clueless about what to do. Any help?

You have two options, either you can send it to the service center of ASUS as it is still in warranty period, or you can flash the stock rom. But you may have some warranty issues in future if you flash it by your own.
For stock rom and guide visit following.
Asus Support
XDA

Can you boot into recovery (power +volume up) if yes then again click reset phone with the help of volume buttons if that doesn't help then either give it to service center(if in warranty)or else flash new stock ROM
As I know it is having Snapdragon™ 636 processor so how can you get "Intel inside "message well here is a way to flash stock ROM on your phone just make a Google search " Asus zenfone 5 flash stock ROM " and view the top result in video as I can't provide specific tutorials for each device.


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No status shown below display name
When I look at the list of my Viber contacts, I see three different statuses which are online, offline and last seen at. However, there's one particular contact which doesn't have any of it, I mean nothing is written under the name on his contact profile on my phone. What does it mean?
He can't have uninstalled Viber cause his account looks recently refreshed. He has updated his photo along with his Line App. So what does this really mean?

possible duplicate of What do Online and Offline mean in Viber?

@bmdixon I don't think it's a dupe of that question. From the original title, this question seems to ask the meaning of those status, but the question body clarified the OP's intent. I've suggested an edit to clarify it.

Viber has a privacy settings where you can hide that status
you can find that by clicking the "more" button... that is the three stacked horizontal lines, then choose settings then privacy. you get something called "Share 'Online' Status" you can untick that if you want to hide it. Note that you can change it once every 24 hours

I know it's not asked by OP, but it would be better if you could add the step to do that for the sake of completeness

no problem, i added it