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Access iptables logs on Android
I'm attempting to diagnose a packet forwarding issue on my Android 9 phone.  I've added a -j LOG rule to my FORWARD chain.  How can I access the logged messages?
According to this guide, I first need to alter the syslog configuration file which is either at /etc/syslog.conf or /etc/rsyslog.conf.  However, neither of those files exist on my phone.

Android has a different userland and indeed doesn't use these log files (even modern Linux desktop distros don't use these files usually). So, that guide is wrong today (even if it claims it was written not a month ago!)¹ for desktop Linux and wouldn't have ever applied to Android to begin with.
Now, iptables is not the usual way the Android userland interacts with netfilter / *btables in the kernel. So, it's unknown how that logging is exactly implemented – chances are that whoever built the kernel modules for the logging chain in the netfilter kernel side modified them.
If, however, the logging code itself is unmodified, then the packets will be logged to the kernel log (the thing you can read using dmesg on a desktop Linux). Now, it's unusual for an Android Linux to have the dmesg utility. Not that much of a problem – you can just read /proc/kmsg yourself.

¹ Hint: when you find a guide on a basic technology and it is from some random "tech advice" website, and especially if it claims a recent modification date, chances are it's machine-generated or cheaply-without-understanding-anything-copied-together content :( That's the sad state of the internet: Content generation from unquoted sources for the sole purpose of traffic maximization, hoping to scrape the bottom of the advertisement revenue barrel :( These clutter the top search engine results very reliably. Let me tell you (shakes walking stick at cloud) back in my day, searching the internet was actually better.

How does Android typically interact with netfilter?

through the netlink kernel interface, just like the iptables program does internally.

Oh, you mean like creating AF_NETLINK sockets?

https://netfilter.org/projects/libnftnl/index.html

"back in my day, searching the internet was actually better."  In my day, an "internet search" meant using AOL keywords.

@AugustVrubel :D not saying those were not the days, but honestly, Google's utility in finding technically accurate content has sharply dropped recently, especially since they default to "yeah I can just choose to ignore parts of your query, the search algorithm knows better than you" instead of "if a result doesn't contain all words from the query, it's not a result".


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Termux: am command - start intent without activity class
I'm trying to launch an intent to a shortcut of a flow on Automate (by Llamalabs) using the am command supplied by Termux, but the am command needs the Activity Class parameter to run the shortcut and I can't find it. Automate was able to run it fine without an activity class, but I just can't figure out how to do it with the am command.
How can I accomplish running a intent without an Activity class on the am command?
I did try running commands like this:
am start -a com.llamalab.automate.intent.action.START_FLOW -d content://com.llamalab.automate.provider/flows/58/statements/ -c android.intent.category.DEFAULT
But it resulted in this output
Starting: Intent { act=com.llamalab.automate.intent.action.START_FLOW cat=[android.intent.category.DEFAULT] dat=content://com.llamalab.automate.provider/... }

Error: Activity not started, unable to resolve Intent { act=com.llamalab.automate.intent.action.START_FLOW cat=[android.intent.category.DEFAULT] dat=content://com.llamalab.automate.provider/... flg=0x10000000 }

And I tried researching more on the am command, but still with no luck. I did find the monkey command built into the Android shell, but that doesn't work as it keeps saying that the window manager isn't running.
Parameters I have on the shortcut for the intent:
Data URI: content://com.llamalab.automate.provider/flows/58/statements/1

Action: com.llamalab.automate.intent.action.START_FLOW

Package: com.llamalab.automate

According to the developer, try am broadcast -a com.llamalab.automate.intent.action.START_FLOW -d $dataURI -n com.llamalab.automate/.StartServiceReceiver ? It will send an intent broadcast instead of starting an activity.

That worked. Guess I just missed it while researching. Thanks!

@AndrewT. found that you actually needed to broadcast rather than attempting to start an app activity.
am broadcast -a com.llamalab.automate.intent.action.START_FLOW -d $dataURI -n com.llamalab.automate/.StartServiceReceiver

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Transfer contacts from a phone with non-functioning screen
I have a HTC 510 Desire.An I try to tranfer my contacts but the touch screen does not work. How can I get my contacts?

Have you tried searching for other appropriate answers here? Here is a query with about a dozen questions of a similar nature (transferring data from a broken-screen device) with an answer.

PC companion software
The only way to do it is if you use HTC's pc companion software to sync the device with the pc and then use the software to the pc and then to your new device.
The software can be downloaded from HTC's site here

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


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App lock gives error SD card full, Unable to move video to app lock
The "App lock" app is giving an error saying my SD card is full and it is unable to move videos to App Lock. I am using a YU Yunicorn device, which has internal memory only, no Micro SD card.
Is there a reason I cannot add these files to the app?

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


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Data Monitoring for OTA update
After enabling Data Monitoring, if I do OTA update download and install, will data used during OTA download be monitored?

Yes. Why do you think it won't?


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Android data recovery
Hi I really need help on this one, my Samsung j1 has a broken screen, it's just blank and gives no visual. When I connect it via USB my laptop recognizes it, but I can't access the data because I have a pattern lock on the screen (which is needed to unlock the phone before the computer allows access), and the screen is non-responsive to touch. Can anyone suggest any software or anything that'll help me recover my previous data? Please help. USB debugging isn't activated.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Looks like you've found the perfect tags for your question -- but might have missed the fact that our tags often also have wikis attached to them. Have you already checked with the "Data Recovery" section of our broken-screen tag-wiki? Or with our data-recovery tag-wiki? I bet you'll find your answer in the former.

Thank you for the help. Unfortunately it didn't help me but I understand more now, I'll try the otg cable but here's to hoping I can get the unlock pattern somehow


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LG Aristo 2 and Xbox 360 Controller with USB OTG
I'd like to connect my phone (LG Aristo 2) to an Xbox 360 controller. It is wired, and I've connected it to my phone via USB OTG. It doesn't function currently; no button presses make any action. Is there a way to get this controller working with this phone via USB?

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


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Messaging apps no longer work right after last update - Galaxy S8 Plus
I updated 2 days ago.  Samsung Galaxy S8+    REV1.0
Now I no longer receive message notifications on my lock screen
The field to set the individual SMS/Message tone has disappeared as well
and ALL messages have the SAME sounds now.
I have no longer the option to  "Add a field" in the message apps either
Notifications are all turned on!
I use the Android message app and the Verizon message app.

It is Samsung's Oreo update.  They removed the feature.  Complain to them. The more that complain the more chance the will fix it.


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Music playback stops when the phone sleeps
I got a new Sony Xperia V (LT25i). When listening to music on the phone it stops playing music as soon as the phone goes into sleep. I have tried both Walkman player and 3 and both give the same problem.
Clarifications:

I play from SD card and internal storage.
It is a new phone, there is no app killers running that I know of.

do you have any task killer app running on ur phone?

or any app like CPU tuner? If yes, apps like these have settings that force closes applications when put to sleep.

If you're streaming music via your WiFi connection, you might wish to check your WiFi settings, and there go to "Advanced settings". Here is defined how WiFi should behave when the phone goes to "standby". The default usually is to disable WiFi, so you might want to set it to be kept alive:

WiFi advanced settings and sleep policy
While screens might look a little different depending on the device being used, these screenshots should help you identifying the settings :)

I realise this is an older thread, but have had the problem using WiFi to stream from Huawei phone to wireless speakers. Music stops when phone goes to sleep, but little you can do to phone except in developer mode turn stay awake on while charging. Finally solved problems by installing "Insomnia" a free simple app that switches between sleep on or off. Other stay awake apps just didn't work.... Happy days!

Thanks for your answer! Can you provide a link to the app within your answer?

I was having a similar problem but was playing mp3s from my SD card. I used the vlc player instead and the problem was resolved :)


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Disable force close vibrations
I am developing some applications for Android and I'm getting some errors and force closes.
This is rather annoying, although not as much as annoying as the loud vibrations the phone does (a long vibration and 3 quick ones). This is very unpleasant for me and for my workmates.
I've set Sound >> Vibrate to "Never", but it keeps coming on and on and after searching through almost all the entire phone settings, a solution is still to find.
The device is the SGS running Froyo.

You're probably not going to like my answer, but I don't think there's anything you can do about it. I've tried to turn this off myself in the past, but the Android OS is such that you will receive a force close vibration no matter what. Now, regarding your application actually force closing, here are my two best guesses (since I can't see any of your code):

You are trying to use a feature that requires documentation in the manifest file.
You are overburdening the UI stack by not threading processes that take a long time to accomplish (i.e. contacting a server and receiving data, handling remote data, etc.), which can be solved with AsyncTasks.

Also, if you are getting frequent force close errors, please use DDMS. It's an absolute God send for this kind of stuff. I know a lot of people who just try to "figure out" where they went wrong. Debugging is a skill in its own right.
Sorry I couldn't directly answer your question. I instead tried to pinpoint where else you may be going wrong with your applications, which, to me, would seem to be a bigger issue.
EDIT:
To show you how I arrived at this conclusion:
I firstly tried to look through all settings (including my Galaxy S manual), and obviously no cigar.
I noticed that there are two classes that a developer must look into to at least see if this vibration can be turned off programatically (for your specific program). These classes are the Notification and Vibrator classes. Upon inspection, you can see that there's nothing within these classes that will allow you to do that. It's a system property. Realizing that you must put in a "vibration" intent into the manifest in order to even manipulate the vibration should further prove this point:
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE"/>

I wasn't really prepared to mess around with the actual Android low-level code so I brought the issue up with my friend (who has been messing around with the actual Android kernel and OS itself for a while) in order to validate my suspicion. He said that this property was built in. In other words, you would have to override the property within the OS itself in order to change the force close vibration. For me, that was the end of me trying to turn off this property.

Thanks for your answer. The force closes and errors are not my main concern, I mean, I am building and testing some wrappers for native libraries, so I expect to get a lot of them; and it's not that I can't solve the problems, I just can't stand the vibration the phone makes when I can't :) (btw, I was simply making a cheap joke in the question...)
Thanks for answering though. Perhaps you can improve your answer by mentioning the steps you took when trying to turn it off and why you think there is nothing to do about it.

Haha I know exactly what you mean by the force close vibration being annoying as all hell. I'll edit my answer to show you what I attempted.


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Can (ringer) volume only be locked by hacks/apps or is there a easy way?
I tried several apps to lock the volume button, because when touching them acidentally this always changes my ringer volume. This seems to be default function of volume button - change the ringer volume (how does this make sense? media volume would be better)
Those mentioned apps offer locking of media, ringer, notification ... volume. Some don't work at all (maybe phone specific problem, xperia arc 2.3.4 rooted). One app actually has a working volume locking "function", RingGuard, but a very ugly hack. If the volume gets changed acidentally, a popup shows up and asks you to keep this setting, if not, volume is set to former ringer volume, the locked one. It works, but this is very ugly solution and also if I set the phone to vibration mode, this app also wants confirmation. Ugly.
I'm really wondering, is there no "clean" way to simply lock the ringer volume on my phone without a ugly additional app, maybe by system settings. Even my old J2ME phone could do this?


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Use my smartphone as hotspot only
I often turn on the hotspot on my phone to use the data connection on my laptop throgh wifi.
Anyway, the connection is often unstable. For example, when a Whatsapp message arrives, then the connection slows down, or it falls down.
I know that I can block the access to internet for every single application.
I was wondering if there is a easy way to block all internet activities of my phone while I use it as hotspot.
Thanks in advance!
Note that I don't have a rooted phone.

With root you need to add a simple iptables rule.

@IrfanLatif thanks, but I don't have arooted phone. Is there a more "plain" way to this?

VPN based firewall can be used to block connections but it's not as robust as iptables or ip route/ip rule is. You can check existing VPN firewall apps if they provide an option to block all apps in single step.

Press the whatsapp icon until the circled i shows up, and tap that. click Notifications and turn them off? Don't forget to turn them back on. Alternatively (again long press to get the circled i) and tap Force stop. Then when done open whatsapp back up to restart the process.

@JimClark this is a very basic solution, and I'm aware of it. Anyway, whatsapp was just one example of app that connects to internet... I'd like a plain solution, i.e. something that can be performed using basic apps found on the store.

@IrfanLatif ok for the VPN, but then, how do I do this?


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Samsung tablet keeps asking to allow data access when plugging to PC by USB
I cannot access data on my tablet by USB, because when I plug it in, it keeps popping a dialog to allow access, when I pick allow, the dialog pops up again, and so on endlessly.
This is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A, my PC is on Ubuntu.
Update: After some more tests, I determined that if when I plug the tablet to the PC by USB, the tablet screen is turned on, it works fine. However if I plug the tablet with the screen off, the issue described above occurs.

Please add a screenshot

@beeshyams The dialog shows on the tablet, I cannot take a screenshot.

Maybe the cable keeps disconnecting, and therefore it's doing it. Try a different cable

@Abochur I tried three different cables. All of them work fine on another device. Also, the tablet charges fine if I plug it (using the same cable) to a power outlet.

Could it be the USB port instead? This really does sound most likely to be caused by the cable repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting, which is a common failure mode.

@DanHulme That was my first thought too. But the same USB port on the PC, with the same cable, plugs succesfully to my phone (which is also Samsung). And the port on the tablet works fine when charging on a power outlet.

This is a workaround more than a fix, but it works for me on another Samsung device.
Install Samsung SideSync app from the Google play store on your device, then install Samsung SideSync app on your PC (http://www.samsung.com/sidesync).
After one more "allow access" popup, it won't ask again as the SideSync app will keep the allow access permission open.

how about Mac OS host?


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How to enable the DayDream feature in the Nexus10?
I know that in Android JellyBean 4.2 there's a new feature called DayDream. I want to access it in my Nexus10 but don't know how.
How can I enable and use it?

Here's what i need to do:
1st Step: Launch the Settings app, scroll to the bottom, and tap About Phone.
2nd Step:  In the middle of the screen is the listing for Android Version. Tap this item until you see a jelly bean appear on your screen. You can then tap and hold the giant jelly bean until your device vibrates. You should then see interactive beans floating all over your screen. And yes, you can fling them. Go ahead, try it.
3rd Step : After doing, this the BeanFlinger Daydream will be unlocked. You can find the Daydream option by going to Settings > Display > Daydream.
Hope it Will Help to all of the  Users Facing this Same kind of Problem.

For me this only unlocked the BeanFlinger daydream, not the daydream menu itself. Is this really necessary on the Nexus 10?

@onik You're right: this process is not necessary to turn on daydreams, only to unlock the 'hidden' daydream.

Go to Settings -> Display -> Daydream and select your desired daydream. After this, tap When to daydream and select when you want it to work.
Now, when you charge/dock the device, leave the screen on and after a while, the daydream will start. For me, this required me not to lock the screen manually by pressing the power button, and disabling Stay awake from Developer options.

Thnks for your Support. but i am not getting the option Daydream inside  Settings -> Display.

Many Many Thnks to you. but i found my Solution on myself.

Tap Android version from Settings -> About Phone for the few times until big Jelly Bean appears. Then touch and hold this big Jelly Bean. Now, you can see several small Jelly Beans moving on the screen. Finally, you can see BeanFinger option on Settings -> Display -> Daydream.

thnks for your support. but i just found my solution same as you have said.


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In using a VNC to control a computer, is it possible to have the cursor go to where you touch?
I don't have an Android device, but I'm thinking of getting a Nexus tablet, and using android-vnc-viewer to make the Nexus an input device to control the PC, and provide faster cursor movement/text editing. Both screens would be a mirror of each other.
From VNC videos that I see on YouTube, such as in this video, after optionally zooming in, you can touch the screen, and slide it to move the view. However, the cursor remains centered. The cursor seems to only move when you touch a button/control.
Once I'm happy with the view, can I lock it? Screen touches would then just move the cursor to where I touch. I already know of text manipulation commands once a cursor is within text such as words, sentences, or paragraphs; I'd rather not have to double tap to move the cursor and select, as I have some RSI (repetitive strain injuries)/Tendinosis.
Thanks for any information.

The app has multiple input modes. In the default, tapping the display moves and clicks the mouse. In another mode, the display acts like a trackpad, so dragging along the screen causes the mouse to move accordingly on the remote system. See the "input modes" sections of the documentation for details. You can change the input mode from the app menu without disconnecting.

Thank you! I believe that I want either “Touch Mouse Pan and Zoom”, or “Mouse Control Mode”.


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Is there any Android TV that could act as a Bluetooth center?
I'd like to develop an app for Android TV that can control BLuetooth devices.
Is there any Android TV that could do that ?
Alternatively, could a TV box such as the Xiaomi Mi TV do that ?
http://www.mi.com/en/mibox/

It would be helpful to know if there are specific devices you are trying to connect/control or if you're wondering about the possibilities of connecting general Bluetooth devices.

I am wondering about the possibilities of connecting to general Bluetooth devices from the TV. For example, any Android TV app able to  play music on a Bluetooth speaker would prove it's possible.

The official Google Android TV support page has instructions for connecting devices via Bluetooth. This page (written in January 2018) specifies these steps for connecting Bluetooth speakers:

Find and select Settings from the app menu
Select 'Bluetooth' (may be under Wireless and Networks or Remote & accessories)
Use the Pair button on your speaker (or other device) to start the pairing process
Follow the dialog on the screen to complete pairing.

According to this answer on Stack Overflow, you should be able to connect up to 7 devices as long as they are above Bluetooth 4.0. The MiBox you linked to does have Bluetooth 4.0/3.0.
All this considered, yes, controlling Bluetooth devices via an Android TV is possible.
However, in relation developing an app to control Bluetooth devices, there are several in the Play Store now, but development questions are best handled on StackOvervlow.

Thanks @jlehenbauer do you know any app for Android TV controlling a bluetooth peripheral ?

When you say control, what exactly do you mean?

I mean connect to the peripheral in Bluetooth LE and send it command. The app on the Android TV would for instance connect to a Bluetooth speaker and play music on it

It sounds like this is possible using the steps above with a somewhat recent (less than 1 year-ish old) Android TV device.

Do you know if these steps can be done programmatically @jlehenbauer ?

No, but I'd imagine the much-referenced Tasker might be able to help.


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Gingerbread ROM for Nook Color?
Does anyone know a good place to get a Gingerbread mod for Nook Color?

I would search the XDA forums (http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=864).  They have custom ROMS but don't know if any are Gingerbread.

Where have you already looked?

My recommendation, and the ROM I'm running is Phiremod
I can definitely confirm it's Gingerbread, based on Cyanogenmod 7 and built specifically for the Nook Color.

my brother is using this one as well, and it works wonderfully and looks incredible.

I would start with the latest ClockWorkMod Recovery and then the latest build of CyanogenMod 7.1.


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Looking for an app to update/sync all services on demand
The problem: When I goto the toilet at work, there is no signal at all, so my  smart phone isn't particularly useful at the times it should be.
The solution: Run an app via a button/shortcut/widget that forces Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Google+ etc to update before I go so I have some reading material.
Does such an app exist?

You want to update it after your done with your toilet business? Din't quite understand when you want this button!

Sorry, meant before I go; clarified that now.

i can't think of anything but tweetcaster, one app jus open it once and it updates your fb and twitter.

Settings -> Accounts and sync -> Sync All (bottom left). This will sync every app that register there, like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Google+, but not all the apps.

Some shortcut needed!


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How do I store pictures on SD card by default?
How do I move the photos I have in my gallery to my SD card? Someone told me to download an app that allows you to do this, but it didn't.
Also, is it possible to save them to the SD card by default, rather than the internal memory? Someone told me to open the camera and select settings, but there was no option to change it. I think my phone is an HTC wildfire. It's the smallest white HTC on the market and it has 'with HTC sense' on the back.

How do you know your photos aren't currently on the SD card?  I have a different phone but they're stored at /sdcard/DCIM/ by default.

If your phone is an HTC the pics will be on the SD card by default.

It defo isn't on my memory card because my internal storage is low and all I have are pictires

Connect your phone to computer with USB cable, and select USB Drive from the notification. Then browse your SD card and search in DCIM folder, all your pictures should be there. If they are, then you are low on memory due to some installed apps.

@Matthew_Read In phones with larger amounts of internal memory, internal memory is rigged into multiple dynamic partitions.  One of these partitions actually gets mounted to /sdcard.  An actual physical SD card gets mounted to /storage/extSdCard and linked to /mnt/extSdCard.

I have (or rather had, until a few minutes ago) a Desire C, with SD card, but photos storing on internal Memory. Unfortunatly, the previous suggestion is no option in Desire C, as there is no "storage" option in the camera app. The phone should, but does apparantly not always, default to storing pictures on the SD card.
What I did to try and solve this problem, I connected the phone to my PC as USB storage. (This connection mode is important, otherwise you cannot do the following.)
My pictures where in the \DCIM\100Media folder on the internal storage.
I did the following

Copy the 100Media folder on the internal storage.
Paste it into the dcim folder on the SD card (in my case there was a dcim folder, if not I'd suggest you can just create it. I haven't tried that).
Remove the 100Media folder from the internal storage (and keep it on the desktop, just in case). At this point is no 100Media folder on the internal storage, but there is one on the SD card.
Unplug the phone from the PC, as camera does not work when connected to PC in USB storage mode. Try to make a picture. Actually the phone asked me: Do you want  to switch to SD? Happy to oblige.... It did apparently not create a new 100Media folder in the internal storage, exactly as I had hoped it wouldn't.

After making some test pictures, I checked by connecting to PC again as USB storage, and voilà, the pictures where on the SD card now.
Looking back, I may have had a question on storage when I first inserted the SD card, but I do not remember. I might have, since I got this queston now. If I did I must have answered it incorrectly.

First confirm that your photos and videos aren't in your SD Card. To do that Unmount and Remove your SD Card from the Phone and try to use the Camera and see your previous photos.
If they are still coming up then the photos are stored in your phone internal memory.
If the photos are not coming and shows any warning message something like "Please Insert SD Card" then all your photos and videos are stored in SD Card.
I don't think so that the Photos and Videos are stored in internal memory as it is for System Data not for User Data
There might be a different folder where it stores the pictures on your SD Card.

Of course internal memory gets used for user data, at least in phones with sufficient amounts of it.  They don't shove multiple gigs of flash in there just for apps.  In such phones (e.g. my Galaxy S3.  The HTC Desire C and One V are the same, I believe, and the next units up the One line have no SD slot), you've got a partition on internal memory mounted to /sdcard and the actual SD card at /storage/extSdCard.

I have a HTC Desire and in my case non of the other answers worked. But I solved it in his way.
Do not go into the camera app settings. Go into the general phone settings. The path is then...
Settings/Storage
Here I was able to define the default writing media from internal to SDcard. This includes also the camera app. Now my pictures can be saved either on the internal or the SD by default. You should also notice that the amount of pictures or the rest space changes.
In the HTC WildFire I had before this was done in the camera apps under settings. The thing with the move the folder and to the SDcard did not work. The phone just created the same folder again.

I have an HTC 10 running Oreo and on that you can change the picture folder to the SD card using the options in the camera app itself.  Pull down the two bars at the top then scroll to the far left and you will find 'settings', scroll down (it isn't obvious that there are further settings below the four shown on screen), simply change the setting for 'Storage' to 'Removable Storage'.
Easy when you finally fathom it out!

That's a great answer, but probably not useful to the original questioner. The question is nearly 7 years old and about Android 2.1. I upvoted for keeping the answers relevant today.

Connect the phone to your PC and choose as connection "Disk Drive". Selecting this connection mode is mandatory, otherwise you will not be able to implement the steps below. Also remember that, by default, your pictures are located in the \DCIM\100Media folder on the internal storage.
To move your photos and define a new storage location (i.e. the SD card) proceed as follows:

Copy/Paste the 100Media folder on the internal storage into the DCIM folder on the SD card (if no DCIM folder exists you can just create it).
Delete the 100Media folder from the internal storage. Note that at this point there is no more 100Media folder on the internal storage, but there is one on the SD card.
Unplug the phone from your PC. Note that the camera does not work when the phone is connected to PC in USB storage mode.
Open the camera application and try to take a picture. The dialog box "Define storage location" pops up with the following question: "Do you want switch to the memory card?" Select Ok.
Then, the following message appears: "Press the screen to activate the camera".
Finally, the camera is on and you can take some pictures for a test.
After making some pictures, reconnect the phone to your PC and check that the test pictures are stored on the SD card.

Have fun!

Judging by your description, I believe your phone is the Desire C.  To set it to send pics to the actual SD card rather than the pseudo-SD card in internal memory, you'd open the camera app, hit the menu and there should be a "storage" option you can set to "phone" or "storage card".


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4G data monitor?
I have seen, and have used several data monitors to see my data usage. This is not strictly necessary, as I am on Sprint and have an unlimited data plan. But in my searching, I have not been able to find a data monitor that monitors Sprint's 4G (WIMAX) data, along with 3G and WiFi. Does one exist? And if it doesn't, does anyone know why it hasn't been done?
Note: so far i've used PhoneUsage, NetCounter, DroidStats, and My Data Manager Free
The funny thing is, at least DroidStats and PhoneUsage both say in the information that they only do 2G/3G data. I can't even find an app that lists 4G data in the description.

Do you want an app that monitors the total 4G data used, the total 3G data used, and the total Wi-Fi used? Or do you want an app that can just tell when 4G data is being used and count it towards the total overall data usage?

Either. i already have an app to monitor 3G and Wifi, and an app that kept track of all 3 would be good, but if it only does 4G, that'd be fine too.

As of now (unless someone can correct me) there is no APP that will monitor Sprint 4G WiMax data.
Although, it can be found by calling information *4 from a Sprint phone and pressing 4 to hear details of the individual phone use. The 4G data will be listed, and can be sent in a text message to the phone (if desired) by pressing 2.

One remark: ICS (Android 4.0) has a built-in data monitor.

keeping my fingers crossed for EVO ICS ports :)

First, let me say that network data counting in Android is not so easy, because there is no API which provides this information in a clean way. The App developers have to work with some Linux internals and other issues. This is why most traffic counting Apps don't work on every hardware/software combination. For exaple I had an app that worked with Eclair but stopped working with Gingerbread on my Galaxy S.
Android introduced Long Term Evolution (4G) support with API level 11 (Honeycomb). Most traffic counters read their volume information from the underlying linux network interface. AFAIK there are only two interfaces, one for Wifi and one 2G/3G/4G, which means:

It will be hard to monitor 4G data separated from 2G/3G
If a app says it monitors 2G/3G it's very likely that this also includes 4G
Androids 4G API is relatively new. Support, including separate traffic counting (if it's possible), will hit the apps in the near future.

Here is an example listing that shows the interfaces and their traffic on my Galaxy S. pdp0 is the mobile and eth0 is the wifi iterface:
Interface name: lo
Bytes in: 204335770
Bytes out: 204335770

Interface name: svnet0
Bytes in: 669002
Bytes out: 38238

Interface name: ifb0
Bytes in: 0
Bytes out: 0

Interface name: ifb1
Bytes in: 0
Bytes out: 0

Interface name: usb0
Bytes in: 0
Bytes out: 0

Interface name: sit0
Bytes in: 0
Bytes out: 0

Interface name: ip6tnl0
Bytes in: 0
Bytes out: 0

Interface name: eth0
Bytes in: 9981470
Bytes out: 3524023

Interface name: pdp0
Bytes in: 1421620
Bytes out: 361198

apps that say they monitor 2G/3G don't monitor 4G (to my knowledge) and i would assume it's because it's a different type of signal. And even if something just gave me the total count of 2G/3G/4G, i'd be okay with it, but nothing i've encountered does that.

I forgot to ask, by 4G do you mean WiMax or LTE? I can mean both and my answer goes for LTE.

good question! WiMax, i've got Sprint

I use NetCounter. It separates the Wi-Fi data usage from the 3G/4G data usage, and so far it has been very accurate (at least on the mobile data).

"NetCounter is a simple network traffic counter for EDGE/3G and Wi-Fi." no 4G tracking :/

Hmmm... Well somehow it works with my phone. I use it for 3G and 4G tracking. The count on NetCounter is actually 1 MB more than what my carrier says I have used, so it is accurate in that respect. However, I'm not using 4G, I'm using H+, which is AT&Ts version of '4G'

Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Sprint's 4G :/ i only had 4G on and used many internet apps sequentially and refreshed NetCounter after each one, and never got anything.

Ah well worth a try I guess. Sorry about that. If I come across anything I'll let you know!


text:
What is the time-limit for whatsapp message to be secure in their server while offline?
I know whenever I delete my Whatsapp app on my Android device, I get all the messages till I install again......
What is the time-limit for this?
What if I reinstall Whatsapp after a year? Will I get all messages for being-offline-time?
Thanks!

the messages will be downloaded instantly and  stored in your phone's internal memory and not in the whatsapp server so unless you dont factory reset or delete whatsapp data in your phone it will be available to you always..

According to my knowledge the message will be there for 30 days.Please refer the article attached in the link.


text:
Google Maps shows wrong location on Android 2.2
For the last two weeks, Google Maps (Latitude) reports that I'm still at my old house. I'm not - I moved 6 months ago, but my "location" says that I'm still there. I tried clearing the maps cache, manually setting my location to somewhere else, and then activating auto-detection.
Still nothing.
What could go wrong?

Sign out from Google Latitude and Sign In again.

possible duplicate of Google Latitude History is telling me that Im living on the next block

Tried signing out & in, nothing changed...

Try Settings > Applications > Manage Applications.
All > Network Location > Clear data.

Tried that, worked for about a minute, location changed back to the fake one...


text:
Permissions denied but still the app can use it
As you can see in the attachment, i have denied access to microphone. But when I go to "All Permissions", it shows that the app can still use microphone. What does that mean? And how can I stop it from using my microphone?

I guess that is info about what permissions that app could have (once you grant it) not actually what permissions granted. Why don't you test the microphone in chrome yourself (voice-to-text)?

You can take permission denial to a next level using PMX. Deny manifest permission as well as the related AppOp. Disclosure: I'm the author of the app.

"All Permissions" just give an insight into what all permissions the app can have once allowed, i.e. it just shows that chrome has the ability to "record audio using the microphone at any time".


text:
Getting keypress sound file
How can I go about obtaining the default Android keyboard button press sound file? If it is not readily obtainable, how can I obtain a similar 'click' sound effect?
-Thanks

You can download them directly from the AOSP source repository:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/master/data/sounds/effects


text:
Galaxy A71 stops charging
My A71 will after sometime stop charging. Rebooting it fixes the issue for awhile. Anyone else experienced this and found a solution?

Could be a thermal problem if the battery is going too hot while charging. By rebooting you give the battery a minute or two to cool down below the critical temperature. Try a different charger with less power (e.g. only 1.0 or 1.5A at 5V) and place the phone vertically on a hard surface to optimize cooling of the phone.

@Robert I don't think it's a thermal problem. I usually notice it when I go to plug it in at night that it won't charge until I reboot it. Once rebooted it will charge to 100%.

When you say "stop charging" does that mean the icon changes like no power supply is connected or is just the battery percentage not increasing as it would be expected?

@Robert The icon changes like no power supply is connected. Reconnecting it and even different power supplies and cables don't help. A reboot is the only fix I've found.

It sounds like a software issue, I wouldn't know what else would change the state from rebooting. Did it always do that or randomly started after an update? It may be stopping as a safety measure but it could also be a defect temperature sensor or thermal fuse or some other protection mechanism that's overreacting.

@Foxyz It's been doing it for a couple of months.  Not sure if it started after an update. Its been a good phone otherwise.

I've seen this issue before. For him it was the battery. Use a Battery Health Checker app to see what the issue is. Replace the battery everything should be just fine
Oh and before buying a battery maybe try using a different adapter and try cleaning the charging port. Just for the safe side

I downloaded Accubattey. We'll see what it comes up with.

Battery health is down to 82%. New battery seems cheap enough and easy enough to replace.


text:
How can I turn off "Brighten with HDR" dialog when viewing photos in Google Photos?
I'd like to turn this off:

I haven't yet found from where. Would anyone know?

In short you cant. It's a proprietary app and there's nothing you could do except request for it.
But but but if you are willing to take the pain of decompiling and understanding and tweaking the code you could do so.
I knowwww how annoying those dialoges are


text:
What is scrcpy OTG mode and how does it work?
In scrcpy documentation an OTG mode is mentioned. How is that working without adb and what can we do with that?

Which version of scrcpy OTG mode supported
It appears that version 1.24 is when it became available, but the latest version of scrcpy is probably preferred.
From: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/issues/3654#issuecomment-1369369005
How does scrcpy OTG mode work
From: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/issues/3662#issuecomment-1374404072

Nope, HID events are generated on mouse events received by SDL from X11/Wayland/…

So a desktop environment is required for operation.
Additionally,
From: https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/issues/4341#issuecomment-1754765403

Scrcpy uses HID over Android Open Accessory, so there's no way it can work on iPhone.

Some more details are in the HID-OTG docs:
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/2d3059e1ab687a18123636784f1e98ac653d3469/doc/hid-otg.md
Beware that Windows may require certain USB driver configurations
As called out in:
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/issues/3654#issuecomment-1369295011
and
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/issues/3654#issuecomment-1369372860
The summarized version is that you may need to uninstall other ODM usb drivers and install Google's USB driver package.
What about mirroring the display without developer mode?
Display mirroring requires developer mode to be enabled as scrcpy:

The application executes a server on the device. The client and the server communicate via a socket over an adb tunnel.
The server streams an H.264 video of the device screen. The client decodes the video frames and displays them.

From the authors blog post: https://blog.rom1v.com/2018/03/introducing-scrcpy/
Without developer mode enabled, the PC can't copy the video server binary to the Android device.
More details on the scrcpy developer page
So what does this mean for devices with broken screens?
If you can get the Android device to connect over USB (i.e. driver issues with Windows) you may be able to use scrcpy --otg to enter pin / enable developer mode. While you will have a better chance if it is just the screen capacitive touch sensors that are damaged so you can see what is being enabled, if the screen is completely broken, it is the same problem with plugging in a keyboard/mouse as you are blind to what is going on.

You can use OTG mode to enable ADB on the device but it seems like the phone does not recognize the PC at that time as ADB client, so the ADB authorization dialog does not show up (at least not in my tests).

@Robert Thanks for the feedback. I'm wondering if you are able to enable Bluetooth keyboard/mouse and using those get through the ADB authorization dialog.

In theory yes, but in reality even on a phone with fully working screen and touch it is a challenge to open the settings menu, go to Connected devices and start the pairing sequence.


text:
Device rooting fails, but doesn't brick?
I've was trying to root my Vodafone 858 Smart (Froyo) using super one click but it stopped in the middle of the operation and the program was non-responsive so I closed and it was closed while installing super user and it couldn't install it due to low phone memory.
So I tried rooting it again after clearing some phone memory it roots but I don't have super user or busy box but I can access super user capabilities from adb so how can I root my phone properly?

You should be able to install super user from the market https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noshufou.android.su&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5ub3NodWZvdS5hbmRyb2lkLnN1Il0. Busy box... I know  you can download it via TitaniumBackup, I can't remember where else.

@Bryan  thank you it worked with the super user but i just wanna know what does busy box do?

I don't know exactly what all it contains, but it has tools, etc. for developers to use that are beneficial to them in their root apps

You can install Busybox from the market too: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busybox&hl=en
And to your other question

i just wanna know what does busy box do?

taken from market description:
BusyBox is a software application that provides many standard Unix tools, much like the larger (but more capable) GNU Core Utilities. BusyBox is designed to be a small executable for use with the Linux kernel, which makes it ideal for use with embedded devices. It has been self-dubbed "The Swiss Army Knife of Embedded Linux".
The official BusyBox website about page has some more info about what it is too.


text:
Can I remotely launch an app on my android phone?
I have an HTC One S but I don't know where it is. I remotely installed 'Find My Phone' on it via Google Play Store. Now I want to remotely launch it. How can I do that?

possible duplicate of How can I make my phone/tablet ring remotely without a SIM card?

Although there is not a general solution for remotely launching apps, here is a solution that applies to your situation:
First, install AndroidLost from the online Google Play Store.

this is the app you can use to control/wipe/access info about your lost device, yadayada

Give it a little time to install to your device, then install AndroidLost Jumpstart from the online Google Play Store as well

This app will wake up the registration process on the androidlost app
  when ever a phone call is made, an SMS received, battery is low, a
  package is added, removed or changed.

So you have to install an arbitrary app from the Play Store as well to activate the service, but you can then go to androidlost.com to access functions to control your lost device! Including ringing an alarm ;)
EDIT 2015-01-29: Jumpstart won't help on a device with Android newer than 2.x, as in the description you can read: "Please note that google has changed the android API so this app only works on android version < 3."
So not possible with a phone with 4.x to register AndroidLost later, without the physical possess of the phone.

If GPS accuracy is enough for you, Plan B is just what you need. You can remotely install it via the Play Store web interface and it activates automatically, sending the phone's coordinates to your primary Google account.
However, it can't play sounds on your device to help you narrow the location further.

after installation the app doesn't launch automatically so texting my phone with 'locate' didn't work :(

Assuming that you haven't changed the default triggers for the app, you can simply text your phone from another device with:

findme to get your phone to send you GPS information about it's location
ringaloud to get your phone to send you GPS information about it's location and to ring out loud at full volume.

Sourced from their instructions page.

after installation the app doesn't launch automatically so texting my phone with 'findme' didn't work


text:
How to disable company starting screen when the phone is switch on
I am using a Samsang Galaxy Ace. When I switch my phone on, it takes too much time. The Samsung screen comes for approximately 30 seconds or more before the phone is on and usable.
Can I change this setting so that the home screen will appear directly when the phone is switched on?

The reason it takes so long is because the system has to boot, the same way a computer does. Even if you did remove the logo, it wouldn't improve the boot speed.

You can't change this. Simple solution:
Don't shut down your phone any more (except when it runs out of battery).
If you switch off your screen only, your phone will go to sleep and won't consume much power. If it still eats too much battery, consider disabling wifi, background data, sync or even switching to airplane mode.
As noted in the comments the logo is only shown to beautify the startup of your phone and to not show you ugly boot messages as some linux systems earlier did and still do. Showing a complex animation does require some computing power but won't delay the startup very much.

I'd rather look at the ugly boot messages, though, but maybe that's just me. :)

As others have said, the boot animation (Samsung logo) you see during boot is only the pretty face to the bootstrapping going on in the background. That being said, you can in fact change that animation if you don't mind rooting.

@Mr.Bust.. thanx ...
and this is interesting that change your mobile boot screen so not get bore .....


text:
Restoring Nexus S to factory everything
I'm running a Nexus S i9020A on CM9 ICS 4.0.3, with a Matrix 1.46. I've found this website which seems to contain a fastboot image. I was wondering if I use the fast boot image on my Nexus S. Would this keep or get rid of my Matrix Kernal (I would like to get rid of it), and it would unroot my phone right?
Basically, if I use this fastboot image on my Nexus S will my phone be exactly like it was, just on 4.0.4?

As long as you reflash both the boot partition and the system partition it will take you back to a stock version of Android. The kernel is packed in the boot image, so that will overwrite a custom one, but a system image alone will not.
You could also choose to flash back to a stock recovery, but that has no real bearing on the Android system itself and custom recoveries are much more robust, so I would personally not recommend reflashing recovery.

So If I use flash-all.sh it will flash the boot partition and the system partition and give me fresh? Sorry, I'm just a bit new to this and I don't want to brick my phone (trying to sell it)

@Clement: I'm not sure what flash-all.sh file you're referring to specifically. Do you have a link to it?


text:
Persistent "Google sign-in" error, even with correct password
I believe this started after I installed the Google+ app, but there is a constant notification that looks like a warning sign, and it displays this:

Entering the correct password does not dispell it (it's the same password every other Google app uses, and only one is complaining). Also, every Google app still works, each one acts as if I'm still signed in. So where is this coming from, and how can I get rid of it?
Update: I have tried both clearing the data for the Google+ app (which helped for about a half hour) and actually resetting my password and using the new one. Neither worked.

Do you have multiple users on your device? I once ran into something similar in which an app was looking for the second user name on my device, rather than the usual one.

I have two accounts, how did you fix the problem then? I tried typing the password for the other account and nothing happened...

I saw this issue on the lock-screen. After attempting the pattern too many times I had to enter email/password. However it was my wife's info that unlocked the phone. It was probably due to having her signed in last (either on Gmail or the Market). Also, I assume the username field is filled in for you? It was not in my case.

Same thing happened to me yesterday..

(1) What version of Android are you running?  (2) If you're on an ICS build do you have Chrome installed?

Cyanogenmod 7.1 (2.3.7) hence, no. no chrome :/

Update to lastest version of Google+ or uninstall it at all.

it happened after updating to the latest version.

I couldn't login with firefox on android, but it worked after clearing my browser history.  Maybe not relevante to  OPs case, but sharing since google led me here.

I had the same problem. My solution was to uninstall and reinstall Google+ and everything worked fine after that.

After trying all of these other methods, I think this is what finally did it. The sign-in error hasn't come back yet, so presently, the correct answer is yours!

Here is the solution: Login into Gmail, locate Account under the sign-out Name. This takes you to My Account where you click on security. Here you find a section for Application-Specific passwords at the end of the webpage. The issue is explained that:  Some applications that work outside a browser aren't yet compatible with 2-step verification and cannot ask for verification codes, for example:
Email programs including Outlook, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird
Older Android smartphones

The root-cause of this problem is that you probably turned on the 2-steps verification without noticing this. So all you have to do is to generate your application specific password and that is it!

This just happened to me as well.  I had to change my account password via the website, and then my device accepted the new password.
It only happened with the account I use for Google+, so I think your guess is correct.

I cleared the data for my G+ app and that seems to have worked for now too, I'll let you know if it holds though.

it came back :/ so I reset my password online, and used that one, and it still refuses to go away :(

@jlehenbauer Hmm. My exact process was: (1) See notification (2) Click it and type in password a bunch of times (3) Open Gmail, get password popup (4) Try password again (5) Leaving popup open, reset password on website via PC (6) enter new password in popup.  At that point I still had the system notification in my tray, but (7) I cleared it and rebooted.  No issues since, I just opened G+ and Gmail with no error and turning sync on and off for the account didn't trigger a notification either.

I think this worked for me: (1) See notification (2) Click it and type in password a bunch of times (3) Change password on Google via PC (4) Try it again in Google+, to no avail (5) Go to Play Store, popup comes up again (6) enter password and it works!

@jlehenbauer Weird, I suppose maybe the Market was caching something in your case?  Let's hope it stays fixed.

it didn't :( I'm gonna try un/re-installing g+ next I guess?

I resolved this by signing out of Google+ and then signing back in. This worked on a stock droid x with Gingerbread.

The problem is due to 2 factor authentication.
Go to your Google account on a PC and generate a new Application Specific Password (ASP) (hold off on clicking the  button).
Enter that into your phone when it asks for a password for Google Sign-in.
If it doesn't work the first time, reboot everything and do it again (remember to hold off on the  button until you have entered the 16 character ASP into your phone).

What do you mean by "hold off"? Do you mean "keep pressing"?

Wow, after trying everything -- I mean everything including re-installing stuff, this worked. Golly. Could they make it any more difficult. Why wasn't 2 factor with the code generator working Google, eh? Anyways, thanks, fixed now :)

I had a similar problem trying to sign in play store was not authenticating my credentials even though they are correct. I turned off the 2-step verification using the web and worked later on .

Same thing happened since yesterday. It started just after updating the new G+ apps. I thought it was due to my fiddling with 2-step authentication setup, but nope, that wasn't it. Tried reset/reinstall everything. Also tried changing new password. Same thing happened again after installing with the new G+.
I just turned off background sync for G+ (and leave other google apps as-is), and it seems did the trick to stop the error popping up. This is not exactly an answer, but simply a temporary workaround until google comes up with update to fix.

Have you tried re-enabling background sync for G+ now? I shut it off, waited a while, then turned it back on, and it seems to have done the trick...

no luck with this either. I'd like it to sync, but turning it off permanently is starting to look like the only solution...

I do not have Google+ installed and I reverified my password via the web and I still could not get logged in to my phone.
I ended up disabling two step verification and I was able to login to my phone after that.
I just remembered when I first enabled two step verification I started getting sign on errors when I used voice search.

Instead, I opened up the security option of my Gmail account in web. I created a new system-specific password and entered the same. It worked, and I didn't even have to reboot.

Note: This was probably set up with 2-factor authentication. Hence the ability to set up a specific password.

I had exactly the same thing happen for the 'Play Store' on an Android phone - it would just not accept the correct password! The method that worked for us was to use a computer, access that Google account and disable 2-step verification altogether.
After logging into Google, navigate to https://www.google.com/settings/ -> Security -> 2-step verification -> Edit -> change that to Off.

Richard, I had setup the Play Store on a HTC phone without using any app specific password. Subsequently, I reset that phone for my wife, who happened to forget her password. Multiple tries let to a situation where entering the CORRECT password did not work. The only solution that did work was what I described.


text:
Make google pixel look like samsung?
I have a google pixel 6a, I was wondering if I can make it look like a samsung android phone (like a samsung galaxy user interface)?
Like instead of scrolling down make it have multiple "pages of apps" or give it a "back" button
Thanks!

Horizontal app drawer can be obtained using a custom launcher e.g. give Microsoft Launcher a try
Navigation Buttons instead of Navigation Gestures can be obtained using these steps

Head into the Settings app and select Settings > Gestures to find a bevy of gesture-related options.
Once in the Gestures menu, tap on System Navigation to choose between gestures and a three-button navigation system.
Select 3-Button Navigation to activate the Go back, Home, and switch apps buttons.

Hope this helps!


text:
Multi-window display keeps disabling itself
I have Samsung Galaxy Tab Active2 with Android 9 Pie. When running two apps simultaneously in the multi-window mode, it frequently happens that the multi-window display gets suddenly disabled with the following notification: "Multi-window closed. Your tablet is too hot. Let it cool before using Multi window again". The options to display an app in a multi-window or pop-up views then disappear from the task manager menu, and the Multi-window option also gets greyed-out in the Settings. This is really annoying as I need to have two apps running side by side for my work. I searched the web but was unable to find any posts mentioning this behavior at all (so I suspect this may not be a general feature of Android but some specific set-up of Samsung...). Would anyone know how to disable/override this feature, please? I know that overheating can be dangerous to the hardware, but this way of handling it is very problematic for me.
Thanks in advance for your help.

I'd say to try running it on power saving mode while multitasking. Or just limit the cpu in some way if that's possible without compromising your work.

I field-tested limiting the CPU speed by turning on the power saver, and it seems to work — the multi window does not shut down even in hot environment. Limited CPU usage might undermine the correct functionality of some apps, but that is another problem...


text:
Auto voice reply to phone calls?
I'm looking for a way to automatically answer any incoming phone calls with a voice message, i.e. an autoresponder.
So actually much like voicemail, except I don't want people to leave me messages. I just want to play a welcome message or "I'm currently not available by phone" and refer them to my email address or Whatsapp.
Upon looking around I find tons of solutions which can auto respond by SMS, i.e. sending an auto reply text message. But that's not what I'm looking for, I prefer to play back a voice message.
Is there a way to do this, either natively from within Android or with an app?

That is possible, you can record a greeting in the Google Voice app. Take a further look here. Hope that helps.

I've looked at Google Voice before, but unfortunately it says "Google Voice isn't supported in your country"

My answer is correct but the law is making it impossible for you. Not fair enough. Hope you find a solution and my answer can help others too. Cheers!

Yes, I'll mark your answer as correct, hoping that it helps someone else. Very frustrating that stupid regulations make this solution unavailable for me :(


text:
How can I configure Microsoft Teams so that it doesn't disconnect the audio when I receive a phone call during a Teams meeting?
How can I configure Microsoft Teams so that it doesn't disconnect the audio when I receive a phone call during a Teams meeting? I use Android 10 with Samsung Galaxy S9.

Sounds like this is impossible to  configure Microsoft Teams so that it doesn't disconnect the audio when I receive a phone call during a Teams meeting. From  barneyman on Reddit:

I don't think you can - Goog's hangouts and meet suffer the same problem


text:
How to list suspended apps?
You can "suspend" user apps via cmd package suspend <packageName> (which acts kind of like pm disable; the differences are explained in this answer by @Firelord), and later unsuspend them using cmd package unsuspend <packageName> – which also works for user-installed apps. However: suspended packages seem no longer to be listed via cmd package list packages – not even if -u (uninstalled) or -d (disabled) is specified; not even dumpsys package seems to know them anymore.
So is there any way to obtain a list of suspended packages? The syntax output doesn't mention such. But as such apps are still shown in the launcher (though "grayed out"), there must be a way to detect them.

I'm not particularly good with  bash scripts so I'm posting a bit of an ugly one-liner which prints the packages which are currently suspended. Tested on Android 11 and 12 (both Android Emulator).
Works without root access:

adb shell
pm list packages -a | sed -e 's/^package://'| while read package; do status="$(dumpsys package $package | grep -o "suspended=true")"; if [[ "$status" == "suspended=true" ]] then echo "$package"; fi; done

What we are doing in simpler terms is get package names of all the installed apps; then for each package dump its content using dumpsys package, and within each dump check for the string which et al mentions this substring suspended=true. If found, we print the package name, otherwise, we skip to the next package name and repeat the process.
If you have root access (won't work on Android 12):

adb shell
su
grep 'suspended="true"' /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml | cut -d '"' -f2

This is very fast compared to non-root solution. Also prints names of packages which are currently suspended.

Thanks – but the first command again does not show the suspended packages (also not if replaced by the corresponding newer cmd command – both yield "unknown option -a"). The second one did the trick after a slight modification: I had to ommit the ="true" for some reason I don't get. But adb shell su -c grep 'suspended' /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml | cut -d '"' -f2 indeed did the trick, thanks!

PS: moving the grep back to the PC also works: adb shell su -c cat /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml |grep 'suspended="true"'| cut -d '"' -f2


text:
Why is Copy+Paste of text a once only operation - I have to keep Copying for the next paste
As per the title, I used to have an Android (v5) where I would copy some text once, and keep pasting to wherever;
On my new phone (Android v10 - Samsung Galaxy A51), clipboard text disappears after a paste; Is there a setting to allow retaining last copied text ?
[cannot create samsung-galaxy-a51 so using samsung-galaxy-a5 instead]

Although Android itself shouldn't be rule out, you should first check the issue is not related to your keyboard. If possible, try to install another keyboard app for example GBoard. Set it as the default keyboard app, enable its clipboard, then try to copy and paste. Verify if the problem persists or not.


text:
Are push notifications normally slow?
I have a persistent problem with notifications to all apps on my OnePlus6+ where they typically are delayed 30-60s, often I will get several notifications showing at once or when I unlock my phone suddenly I get notifications.
I can test with gmail, Slack, Messenger, WhatsApp and any other app where I have a version open on my PC at the same time
I've only ever owned Android smartphones, and only from OnePlus so I do not know if this is just how Android works or is a 'feature' of OxygenOS/OnePlus hardware. But it's happened across multiple versions of Android and hardware for several years.
It suggest PUSH notifications are not really being PUSHed but polled, like the phone is only checking periodically.
I see it whether on WiFi or cellular networks and it's quite irritating. Can anyone give me any information or advice about it?

Check from battery settings if these apps are battery optimised , if they are , remove from battery optimiztion. This seems to be a likely reason. This would help you understand how push notifications work

You may also refer to Don't kill my app for some tips per device brand.

Early tests show I can turn off optimisation and fingers crossed it is much better. I have one app I really need notifications to be delivered prompty.#

That push messages are not delivered in real-time is because of the battery optimization Android applies (this optimization may additionally also be applied by the Google servers providing the push messages).
The main idea behind the function to concentrate/group multiple notifications is that if you have multiple apps running waiting for incoming push messages it may end up that your device has to wake-up every few seconds and check for incoming push messages. A device that wakes up that often has a negative effect on on the battery so Google decided to group the messages and only check in every few minutes especially when the phone is not used for a certain time.
If I remember correctly this feature was introduced first in Android 7 and more and more extended with every new Android version.


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How can I convert an apk file into an ultra-zip apk without affecting the executability of the android app?
I found out that when I zip the apk with ultra level zip compressor, the file size was effectively reduced. Why didnot developer let that compressed version out like js.minify? How to convert those apk file to ultra zip apk file?

See: Reducing APK size by re-zipping its content

@MorrisonChang As all modern apps have a APK signature v2 recompressing is a bad idea as it destroys the v2 signature which invalidates the whole signature. So all devices capable checking a v2 signature (Android 6+?) will reject such an APK.

@Robert Thanks for correction, forgot about the v2 changes and didn't realize that Android is now up to v4 signatures: https://source.android.com/security/apksigning/v4

APK files are usually only compressed using the compression setting "fast" (fastest (de)compression, only small space gained by compression). As far as I know this is for historical reasons.
The first Android device were pretty slow and app installation time was already talking a lot of time. Therefore I assume Google decided to build all the Android developer tools in a way that the compression is focused of maximum speed and not on APK minimum size. As Google does not really have to care about size of cloud storage or bandwidth of network traffic this was the best solution.
For that reason most Android build tools still only use the fast compression.
Modern APK files e.g. generated by Google use a higher compression so the gain should be not that high anymore. But this depends on the app and who you got the APK file.
Furthermore there are certain APK options which enforce that all the native libraries (.so files) have to stay unencrypted, if the app declares  android:extractNativeLibs="false. Effectively this will save space in the end as the native libraries are not extracted from the APK file, instead they are directly used within the APK file, which means you only need to save it once on your device instead of two times (one time compressed in the APK, one time extracted).
There are articles that describe how to recompress an APK file. Please be aware that these articles are very old and do no longer work with recent APK fiels and devices. This is because of the APK signature v2 and v3 that do not only sign the decompressed content of the APK file (as v1 did) but instead they sign the APK file as a whole. So any modification to the APK file even if it does not affect the content (like adding a ZIP comment) will destroy the contained APK v2/v3 signature. As the v1 signature contains the info that there is a v2 signature all devices capable of checking a v2 signature will also reject such a modified APK file.
Conclusion: On some APK file you could save some additional space by recompressing them but in nearly all cases it will today destroy the APK signature so it is not really an option.


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What does an orange street symbolize in Waze?
I wonder what an orange street symbolizes in Waze. Example in Washington state, USA:

Traffic jam? No traffic jam, but slow street? Something else? I believe the traffic jams I've seen on Waze were red, not orange.

So found this: https://support.google.com/waze/partners/answer/7246755?hl=en#zippy=%2Cwaze-o-meter Open the Waze-o-Meter tab for color definitions.

@MorrisonChang Thanks! Great find. You are welcome to post it as an answer! "Light red" no wonder why I couldn't find it when searching for orange on Google.

What I find weird are those darker gradient things on the line that are sort of arrow-shaped, which to me would indicate that it's a one-way road, and you're going the wrong way.  I'm sure that's not what it is, but it could be read that way.  Seems a slightly problematic choice in terms of UI design.

So I found: https://support.google.com/waze/partners/answer/7246755?hl=en#zippy=%2Cwaze-o-meter
And as you noted in the comment the description of colors may not match expectations. As that page is for Waze Partners, I'm unclear as to its support in various regions, YMMV.
From the webpage on Use Traffic View:

Waze-o-Meter
The color coding of the Waze-o-Meter mirrors what's displayed on the Waze app.

Green: Free Flow - Great conditions, cars are able to move at speed limit.

Yellow: Light Traffic - Slight congestion, but drivers can still travel at relative speeds.

Light red: Moderate Traffic - Congestion starting to build up noticeably.

Red: Heavy Traffic - Speeds have slowed down, expect significant delays.

Dark red: Bumper to Bumper - Traffic is near standstill.

I still don't understand what orange or purple are supposed to represent, because neither of those is listed in the color coding key...

Orange isn't orange, Waze calls it "Light Red" and purple is just the default route, from: https://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1500144#:~:text=The%20default%20route%20is%20in,being%20tracked%20by%20someone%20else.

Ah, thanks.... silly me I saw #ff9752 in the above screenshot and it didn't occur to me that it was what #f26a54 was referring to on the linked page.


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Some of the Applications are getting downloaded more than once from Android Market
I observed one funny thing. I have the habit of installing the applications directly from Android market on PC.
How to install the Apps directly from PC ?
Ans: I have a Google Account. I open the https://market.android.com/ site on PC and login with my Google Account. I have set this Google Account as  Primary Google Account in my Android Phone.
Now if I Click on Install of any application on my PC, I can see the same application downloading on my phone's notification bar.
I saw the application 100% downloaded. And I wait for the application to be installed. Of course after downloading the application my phone will automatically installs the application. We need to watch thats it.
But most of the apps are getting downloaded more than once. I don't know why it is happening ? I saw the application downloaded 100%. But again starts a fresh download without doing anything.
I remember while updating the Google Maps and Facebook had the same issue.

I don't really understand your question, are you downloading from the Market or getting on a PC and side-loading? Which apps are coming twice and which route did they come from originally? How do you know they're downloading more than once, do you have lots of duplicate icons in your app list, or is the notification bar's download notifications, or something else?

@GAThrawn : Is it clear ? Pl check the updated post.

Ah ok that's completely different from what I thought your question was about to start with. I often use the Market website to push apps to my phone, and I don't think I've ever seen them try to download themselves twice.

@GAThrawn : Oh is it ? For me its happening very regularly. I don't know how its happening ? I installed Link2SD which moves the installed applications to the SD Card. I am not sure whether this is causing the issue or not.

I myself got to know why its happening.
First I selected any application from the Android Market and say Install and then Ok. Its going to start Downloading.
I observed this in two scenarios. Both of the cases are pretty much same.
Case I.
If I Minimize/Kill the Android Market application while Downloading using the Back Button then it completes the Download and Starts the new Download again.
Case II.
I Minimize/Kill the Android application while Downloading using the Back Button and again open the Android Market application, then we can see the same application is getting Downloaded twice from the Market. If we do the same thing again then we can see the application is getting download more than thrice.
The solution is Simple. If any application is getting downloading from the Android Market just press the Home key to minimize the Android Market.


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"media: inaccessible or not found" error when attempting to control device volume via ADB
I'm trying to change volume on my device via ADB.
When for instance running
adb shell media volume --stream 15 --set 0

...this error is returned (regarding the volume streams):
/system/bin/sh: media: inaccessible or not found

Oneplus 5T, LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11)
Android documentation

To send adb command to Android 11 or 12 devices, the syntax of controlling volume has changed:
adb shell cmd media_session volume --set 10

This is used to set the volume at 10 — just replace 10 with your desired value.

The index range appears to be between 0 and 25: Error: invalid volume index 60 for stream 3 (should be in [0..25])

output for $ cmd media_session volume --set 10: [V] will set volume to index=10 \ [V] Connecting to AudioService

In Android 11 and Android 12, media utility no longer exists. That's why you got the error since your shell could not find the utility in locations  mentioned in its PATH. That utility's commands have been moved to a service name MediaSessionService. To access those commands invoke this service using cmd command.
adb shell cmd media_session

Example:

$ cmd media_session
usage: media_session [subcommand] [options]
       media_session dispatch KEY
       media_session dispatch KEY
       media_session list-sessions
       media_session monitor
       media_session volume [options]

media_session dispatch: dispatch a media key to the system.
                KEY may be: play, pause, play-pause, mute, headsethook,
                stop, next, previous, rewind, record, fast-forword.
media_session list-sessions: print a list of the current sessions.
media_session monitor: monitor updates to the specified session.
                       Use the tag from list-sessions.
media_session volume:  the options are as follows:
                --stream STREAM selects the stream to control, see AudioManager.STREAM_*
                                controls AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC if no stream is specified
                --set INDEX     sets the volume index value
                --adj DIRECTION adjusts the volume, use raise|same|lower for the direction
                --get           outputs the current volume
                --show          shows the UI during the volume change
        examples:
                adb shell media volume --show --stream 3 --set 11
                adb shell media volume --stream 0 --adj lower
                adb shell media volume --stream 3 --get

The examples section above has not been updated in the source code to reflect new changes, that's why it still recommends using media or adb shell media.

I still get the error when running media_session list-sessions: /system/bin/sh: media_session: inaccessible or not found. cmd media_session outputs the same info as in your answer body. Hopefully I didn't make any obvious mistake, I'll look more into this tomorrow

You have to use cmd before media_session. cmd utility is used to call shell commands offered by system services.


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How can I configure Google voice access so that I only have to say "hey Google" once?
After I say "hey Google", Google voice access is letting me say a few voice commands. However, after a few ones, I have to say "hey Google" again to be allowed to give further voice commands.
How can I configure  Google voice access so that I only have to say "hey Google" once?
I did disable "time out after the speech":

I've just updated the voice access application to the version 5.0.35 and the issue is fixed: there's no more timeout, i.e. voice access stays activated until one closes it.


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Nintendo Switch Controller delayed response on Android TV 9
I'm owning a Xiaomi Mi TV 4A that runs Android TV 9. I would like to play games on it with the SNES -aka Super Famicom- Nintendo Switch Bluetooth controller.
Connecting the controller works but there is a big delay after pressing a button and there are random other issues like multiple steps instead of one after pressing the D-Pad in a direction.
Is this an issue with the controller or are there settings I'm missing?
I updated the OS, tried reconnecting the Gamepad and rebooting the TV without success.

Sadly this is an issue with Nintendo Switch Controllers
While Nintendo Switch Controllers use Bluetooth HID, they aren't completely conforming to the specification which means that you'll need a modified driver (and that is hard on Android).
Bluetooth HID (Human Interface Device) is the spec that allows for bluetooth keyboards, mice, and gamepads to communicate with supporting devices.
So I found this project trying to document the interface to the Nintendo Switch. As can be seen at the end of Issue #7 HID protocol for Bluetooth/USB there has been some success on Linux, but Issue #92 for Android has remained unanswered.
Changing the bluetooth driver is a Custom ROM level change. A compatible Android bluetooth driver would have to be made and support your bluetooth chipset and your platform hardware. As you are running TV hardware, I have doubts that any Custom ROMs exist, and then writing a driver supporting the Bluetooth chipset would be a further obstacle.
Based on:
Nintendo Switch Reverse Engineering HID Notes
Issue #7 - HID Protocol for Bluetooth / USB
Issue #92 - How to communicate with joycon in Android platform?


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How do I generate a PKCS12 CA certificate for use with Packet Capture?
I was trying to use Packet Capture app to find out some URLs used by an app. Packet Capture allows you to capture SSL packets by installing a VPN Gateway with its own root CA certificate and then channeling app requests through that gateway. However, when I try to generate the certificate from within the app (on my Galaxy Note 8), I just get the error "Cannot create certificate". I don't know why this is as the app doesn't give any further explanation, but this means I can't use SSL capture in the app.
The app does have another way to just import an existing CA certificate, known as "Import PKCS#12 file". However I need to generate the PKCS#12 file myself to use this, and not sure how to do this.
What I did so far: I installed the app "Dory". Then I tried creating a public/private keypair, CSR and root CA certificate, all the time setting the passphrase and alias to "abc". But when I tried to import the p12 file to Packet Capture, it just said "java.lang.RuntimeException: Cannot load key. Password might be wrong." I must have done something wrong; what should I be doing next?

I didn't find any solution to this directly (didn't find any way to generate a certificate for use with Packet Capture), but in case others have the same question, I switched from Packet Capture to an app called HttpCanary, which doesn't have the same problem with generating certificates directly inside the app. It provides similar features to Packet Capture and works well for me.

I had some issues with this after the Android 11 update. Android 11 no longer allows you to add certificates from any app other than the settings app, so you will have to generate and set the certificate yourself.

Generate the certificate in linux. You can also do this on the device if you get an openssl app or terminal. I followed this tutorial, except I added the name "alias" to the p12 key:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout myKey.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes
Hit enter for all the prompts
openssl pkcs12 -export -out keyStore.p12 -inkey myKey.pem -in cert.pem -name "alias"
Enter the password "test"

Transfer keyStore.p12 and cert.pem to the android device

In android settings, go to Biometrics and Security (note I have a Samsung device, it might be different for you) > Other Security Settings > Credential Storage > Install from device storage > CA Certificate > Accept the scary red warning and tap "Install anyway" > enter your pincode > find "cert.pem" and click "Done"

Going back to "Install from device storage," > VPN and app user certificate > find keyStore.p12 > Enter password "test" and name it "alias"

Go the the app info screen for Packet Capture > Permissions > Files And Media > Enable "Allow management of all files"

Open packet capture > Setting > Tap "No CA certificate" > Import PKCS#12 file > find keyStore.p12. Enter password "test" and the "alias". Restart packet capture. If everything worked, the "Status" subtitle should say "Installed to trusted credentials"

Restart device

SSL should work for most apps now but it can be hit and miss

I was on Android 9 not 11, but I'll accept your answer as it gives a procedure for generating the cert. I was keen to do this entirely within Android and without needing to use a PC, but maybe that was overly ambitious. Anyway I am no longer using Packet Capture as I switched to HttpCanary.

Looks like you can do this within Android. I got the above commands to run in Termux

At step 3, cert.pem is grayed out for me...

"If everything worked, the Status subtitle should say Installed to trusted credentials" Mine says "Not installed. Tap to install to trusted credentials".

Ah, I think it's because when I try to install "cert.pem" as a CA certificate it says "Private key required to install a certificate". When I click on myKey.pem there's no pop up showing up and the certificate doesn't seem to be installed.

I needed to use the -legacy flag in the openssl pkcs12 command for it to work. When I do not provide the flag Android states the password is wrong. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71872900/installing-pcks12-certificate-in-android-wrong-password-bug/73512646#73512646

I got it working on Android API 34 with the -legacy option as @JanWytze mentioned. Here's a simple script that will create the pair and push it to the device (password: test):
#!/bin/bash

# Step 1: Generate the certificate

# Generate a self-signed certificate and private key
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout myKey.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes -subj "/C=US/ST=Some-State/O=Company Name"

# Export the private key and the certificate into a PKCS12 keystore using the -legacy flag
openssl pkcs12 -export -out keyStore.p12 -inkey myKey.pem -in cert.pem -name "alias" -passout pass:test -legacy

echo "Successfully generated keyStore.p12 and cert.pem"

# Step 2: Transfer files to Android device using adb

# Check if device is connected
if adb devices | grep -q device$; then
    adb push keyStore.p12 /sdcard/
    adb push cert.pem /sdcard/
    echo "Files transferred successfully to the device!"
else
    echo "No device found. Make sure your device is connected and USB debugging is enabled."
fi


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Error with `adb sideload`when trying to install Android 12 in recovery mode
According to Google's "Get Android 12" guide,

The easiest way to get Android 12 Beta on a Google Pixel device is to enroll your device in the Android Beta for Pixel program.

but also

Alternatively, you can flash or manually install the latest Android 12 Beta build on your Pixel device. These approaches can be useful when you need more control over testing, such as for automated testing or regression testing.

I had previously joined the beta program to test Android 11 developer preview so for Android 12, I thought I'd try the flashy way.
I followed this guide to flash the update to my Pixel 3XL. However, when I finally typed the adb sideload command and pressed "Enter", it gave
adb sideload ~/Downloads/crosshatch-spb4.210715.011-factory-cbdbee68.zip
adb: sideload connection failed: no devices/emulators found
adb: trying pre-KitKat sideload method...
adb: pre-KitKat sideload connection failed: no devices/emulators found

and adb devices doesn't find any devices connected, although my Pixel 3XL is indeed connected through the cable, and is in recovery mode, up to step 6 of the guide. How do I get pass the error?

It turned out that I had not completed the final part of step 6 of the guide, namely, after selecting "Apply update from ADB" in Recovery Mode, I had not pressed the power button one more time.
Once I noticed that and pressed the power button, I suppose that that got my device ready for flashing from my Mac, and adb devices started showing the device, and adb sideload was ok.


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Termux API does not ask for permissions and hangs
I try to use termux-api to perform some actions, specifically I want to use termux-usb to run some libuvc code.
However none of termux api programs even ask for permissions to run.
For example if I run
termux-camera-photo test.jpeg

It just hangs, same for termux-usb -l
It is Samsung Galaxy A31, Android 10.

According to the Wiki for termux-usb, it needs -r to show permission dialog when needed. As for termux-camera-photo, perhaps there's no camera ID 0?

Same behavoir with -r

I needed to install Termux-API via f-droid rather that pkg install - and thus it gets the permissions and pops the question.
if you install termux-api via command line tool pkg install termux-api - it fails.
If you install it as an app from f-droid - you can give permissions for example to use camera as to regular app, and termux-usb actually pops-up the question to use the device and thus giving permissions.

In my case, I uninstalled the termux playstore app, reinstalled two packages from F-Droid, and then did a package install. Steps:

Install termux from F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.termux/
Install termux:API addon from F-Droid
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.termux.api/
Open termux and run pkg install termux-api


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Magisk: Failed to patch: Unsupported image format
I'm trying to root a Pixel 5a using Magisk (24.3).  I've downloaded the barbet-rd2a.211001.002-factory-dbed3a6f factory image, pushed it to the phone, and tried to patch it with Magisk.
However, the output shows an error:
- Device platform: arm64-v8a
- Installing: 24.3 (24300)
- Copying image to cache
- Unpacking boot image
! Unsupported/Unknown image format
! Installation failed

I gather that I've downloaded the wrong image.  How do I know which image is compatible?

The factory images are provided by Google in ZIP format.  You have to unzip it, select the boot image, and then apply the Magisk patch.


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How to increase the download speed of Torrent on Android Mobile?
I own Xperia Mini Pro. Recently I came to know that there are some Torrents Clients available on Android Market. So I installed aDownloader to download some movies from Torrent server. I want to know if there are any tricks to speed up the Download on Android mobile. And I am using 2.75G(Edge) data connection to download. I found the average download speed on this connection is 25kB/sec.
Pl let me know the same on WiFi connection. The average download speed using WiFi connection is around 50kB/sec.

Might not be what you want, but you could use remote torrent to control the downloads onto your home PC, Windows Home Server, etc. Then you can stream (using Windows Media Centre, Windows Home Server, etc.)

An Edge connection by itself is so slow compared to the normal torrent download speeds that it makes no sense to optimize the downloads. The ping times on the connection are so high that constant peer switching will slow the download if you attempt to download from several peers simultaneously. Your best bet would be to try to find a couple of good peers to fill your bandwidth and stick with them, or stop+restart the torrent to get new peers.

As onik notes, your connection is simply too slow.  But I also had terrible speeds when I tried aDownloader on an HSPA+ network.  I believe this is due to traffic shaping.  tTorrent supports encryption and the Pro version has no download limit, so that might help; it's worked very well for me.

Keep in mind that traffic shaping is not done on all networks, so it depends on your carrier. Over here I got 2mbps speeds over HSDPA with default settings on a Galaxy Tab.

Yeah we can control Torrent speed.
Go to settings then maximize download speed and minimize upload speed of your torrent client. By this a difference will be created.


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OTA updates to CM nightly
I know that premium version of ROM manager allows OTA updates to the nightly builds and there is also the old(deprecated) cyanogen updater on google-code.
Is there any way to do an OTA without using ROM manager? How does an OTA work? Does it actually just replace the existing firmware.

Of course you can do OTA updates manually, without ROM Manager Premium.

On the handset open up a browser of your choice and navigate to http://download.cyanogenmod.com/
On the left column, under the "By Device" section tap on the codename for your device (e.g. "passion" for Nexus One)
Optionally, you can filter the download list by type (Stable Vs. Nightly) by tapping on the type right above the list of downloads.
Tap on the filename to begin download.  Obviously a WiFi connection is recommended because the ROMs are fairly large, at around 100 MB.
Once the download completes, reboot into Recovery (Clockworkmod, Amon-RA, etc.)
Perform a NANDroid backup, so that you can do a restore in case something goes wrong in subsequent steps.
Wipe Cache and Dalvik-cache partitions (you'll need to find the relevant menu entries in whatever recovery image you are using.) This step is not mandatory, but can help resolve stability issues, so always I perform it.
[Edit] 7.a. Note that if you are upgrading to the same ROM (i.e. flashing a newer nightly of CyanogenMod) you don't have to wipe data. This way all of your current apps and settings are retained. Only if you change to a different ROM altogether (i.e. going from CM to a Sense port) would you need to start over by wiping the /data partition.
Select to flash a Zip from SD Card from the "download" folder (could be a different directory, depending on the browser you are using.)  This can take a while, and the progress bar might appear to be stuck, but don't cut power to the phone or you'll risk corruption.  Once the "success" message appears you can move forward.
Optionally flash an alternate kernel image (for overclocks, etc.)
Reboot your phone.  This step will take longer than usual, since the caches are being rebuilt.

ROM Manager Premium automates most of these steps so that you don't have to muck around the recovery too much, but you can always to this yourself.  It's still Over-The-Air, since you're not hooking your phone up to a PC to transfer the files.
[Edit]
Furthermore, you can even automate the notifications of new builds being posted for CyanogenMod via RSS feeds.  The trick is that the CM download page doesn't provide its own RSS feed, so you have to create your own via one of the free services:

Get your device's link (e.g. http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?type=nightly&device=passion for Nexus One Nightly builds.)
Go to one of the free RSS-from-website creation services and create an RSS feed for the link above.  You might need to tinker with advanced settings to get the listing.  For example, I created this RSS feed for Nexus One nightly builds.
Subscribe to the newly generated feed in your favorite RSS reader (e.g. Google Reader
Use an Android RSS reader app that has notifications feature (e.g. NewsRob) and set up a notification for this feed.

I know how to do it manually. But I guess the method you mentioned requires reinstalling all the apps and syncing back all the settings (which is a huge pain) . Though Titanium Backup Pro might help speed it up , but a "true" OTA update would be completely seamless.

With the method I posted there would be no need to re-install anything. All of the apps, data and settings are retained.  In step 7 you are only wiping the caches that get rebuilt on first boot-up. Only if you wipe data (or do a full factory reset) would you need to re-install and restore settings. If you are just installing a new Nightly build, there is no need to wipe data. You only need to wipe data if you switch to a completely different ROM (e.g. CM to Sense, for example.)

Oh that was a new piece of info ...if I am upgrading to same ROM , i dont need to wipe data!!! Thats awesome man, thanks for the info.

I'll edit my answer to add this note.

If you want to update CyanogenMod nightly builds Over The Air you'll need the premium version of ROM manager, this is the way to obtain donations to the project.
An OTA update is basically a download of a full ROM or a patch of some files that is saved to the storage of your phone and once it’s downloaded it installs automatically the full ROM or the patch to the phone. This system is used in many Android phones to deliver updates without the need to connect the phone to a computer to update the system.

So I guess whether its a full ROM or patch , I can write a script using ASE or even a full app similar to ROM Manager Premium which will take care of OTA? Since the phone is already rooted , updating the ROM over the fly wont be a big trouble perhaps? Or are there some checks to prevent me from doing an OTA update?

As I understand the process, all you have to do is download the new file (a ZIP file) and save it to the SD Card, once you have the file you reboot the phone into recovery mode an flash the new ROM or patch. So, yes, it'll be possible to do this by your own means.


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Replacing the flash chip on a Galaxy Nexus
A little background

I have two Galaxy Nexus phones: one reported lost(was lost) 32GB and a current 16GB version.
Current Issue

I'm trying to put the 32GB flash chip into the current phone. Which means moving the SIM tray/flash card from the old phone to the new one. Shouldn't be too hard, just replace the circuit board and use the correct SIM card.
When I turn the phone on however, it says there is 0-1 bars of unusable signal(no data). I use the old tray and it works perfectly. Is there some chip in this board I don't know about?

I'm not sure I understand how this relates to the internal storage of the device. It sounds like you're just trying to swap the SIM. Moving the storage from one phone to the other would require opening them both up, desoldering the storage chips, and then resoldering one into the other (which it doesn't sound like you're doing). Also, if it works with the old tray, why not use that? Why do you need to swap the SIM trays and the SIM cards?

The SIM tray and internal flash chip are both on a removable circuit board. So to swap them I simply take it out of one and put it in the other(no soldering), keeping the working SIM card.

I'm still not clear on what parts you're referring to here. Maybe pictures would help or something. Are you trying to move the entire motherboard from one to the other? I'm not sure I even see the point in that, but then, I'm also not sure if that's what you're actually attempting to do.

I am with eldareathis. The flash memory is soldered to the main board. Short of desoldering/soldering there wouldn't be a way to simply swap something from one device to the other. And if you swap the whole board, the bad IMEI that was reported lost comes with it. Just use the 16gb one as a phone and the 32gb as a media player or something.

The memory is soldered to the main board of a non-Verizon phone. On Verizon phones, the memory is soldered to an add-on board that isn't even held in by screws...


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How use call a local server by name rather than IP?
I've started MAMP on my computer and I'd like to make a GET call from Android app. I'd like to access the computer by it's name(e.g. computer.local:8888) rather than the computer's ip.
On the computer if I open Chrome and type computer.local:8888 it works as expected. On the phone this fails, but typing it's local ip (192.168.1.141) works.
So, is it possible to access a local http server by a name rather than ip ?
If so, how ?

Programming questions should be asked in StackOverflow.com

@geffchang I don't think this is really a programming question. It could just as easily be about accessing a local web server in the browser, or using a local network video stream in a video player.

@geffchang just rephrased, same thing, different way of  accessing

Looks completely on-topic to me (same explanation as Dan above). Forget about the development-related section: that's not the issue George has, but only serves to give some background for better understanding. He would have the very same trouble with all other examples Dan described -- and no development would be involved.

Go to Settings→Network, tap WiFi, and watch out for your WiFi AP here. Tap it, select to edit it. Toggle the "advanced settings" to be shown.
By default, WiFi is configured via DHCP -- but for some reason unknown to me (and escaping my understanding), Android doesn't pick the name servers via DHCP, and instead sticks to Google's hardcoded ones (e.g. 8.8.8.8). So in this place, you need to switch to a static IP, set the default gateway correspondingly, and put your own name server's address (most likely again your router's IP) into the field for DNS1.
Save the changes, and you should be able to use your local hostnames. You could even try switching back to DHCP, and see whether it keeps your DNS1 settings.
To calm down upcoming worries: This only affects the WiFi AP you edited, no system-wide changes for all WiFi APs. In the worst case, you always can delete the AP and re-create it.