text:
Why does my battery show more charge before restarting than after?
My battery shows that it's at 50% and after restarting my phone it shows 30%. Another time it was at 40% and after the restart it became 5%.
The device is a Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo, not rooted and with stock firmware.
Does anyone know the reason why it's doing this?

When you restart your Android phone, it uses more energy than when it's idle because it has to load up the JVM, the services, apps etc yet again.
I'm not sure why you saw an 80% battery decrease, but it might be due to the phone losing energy by heat when you're charging, and the phone somehow registering the real battery value on a clean restart.


text:
How do I sync calendars from my PC to my Samsung Galaxy Note 3?
I have synced my PC and all calendar entries I have done on my phone appear on the calender on my PC, but not the other way around. I need to be able to add events etc. to my PC and have them appear on my phone.
How do I accomplish this?

What calendar are you using? Can you please provide the specific name of the app/program, and include it in your question?

Use Google Calendar on your PC and your phone. This will also gives you access to your calendar from any device with internet connection simply by logging into your Google account.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How do I add a second Google Apps account to my Nexus 9?
I'm trying to add my school Gmail account to my new Nexus 9 tablet. The OS is 5.0.1. The account is a Google Apps account. I've entered another Google Apps account without a problem. After I enter the username in the "Add account" screen, I hit Next. The password screen goes white, with no button or fields.
Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

I ran into this issue after updating to Android 5.0 and reported the issue to Google. I was promptly told "it's a known issue, but no ETA on fix". I ultimately resolved the issue for me, using this process below. I hope it helps you!
I was trying to add an account (from my school) that used web-based authentication for Google apps. After running adb and trying to add the account, I captured the following error when the white screen was displayed:

I/GLSActivity( 5367): [AuthUrlChecker]Untrusted Auth URL: \http://my.pcc.edu/ProcessResponseServlet
  I/GLSActivity( 5367): [AuthUrlChecker]Untrusted Auth URL: \http://my.pcc.edu/ProcessResponseServlet
  I/GLSActivity( 5367): [AuthUrlChecker]Untrusted Auth URL: \https://my.pcc.edu/GoogleAltLogin-2.0.7/GoogleRedirect.jsp
  I/X509Util( 5367): Failed to validate the certificate chain, error: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Trust anchor for certification path not found.

I visted the url "https://my.pcc.edu/GoogleAltLogin-2.0.7/GoogleRedirect.jsp" in Chrome on my desktop, and noticed that there were no certificate issues (go figure!). I used Chrome to view the certificate trust chain for the website, and compared this to the certificates installed by default on my Android 5.0 device (go to Settings->Security->Installed Certificates->System to get list).
I noticed one certificate that was missing on the Android device, "VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G3". Google Chrome on the desktop thinks this is trusted, so I exported just this one certificate using Chrome, and saved it in the DER-encoded format with a .cer file extension. Then I copied this to the Android device and imported it into the certificate store (Settings->Security->Install from Storage). After doing this, I was finally able to add my Google apps account that uses web authentication!

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


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How to access the internal memory if the screen is blacked out?
I dropped my Samsung Note 2, and the screen is now completely black. The phone opens & touch the screen seems to be only partly responsive because I can see the white previous & menu icons appear on the lower half of the phone.  I want to access the internal storage of the phone and store it in a different Note 2. How can I do that?

See How to access internal storage or internal memory of Android while conecting to PC?

Turn on the phone, and connect it to your computer via USB cable. It will get recognized by the PC as an MTP device from wich you can copy files.

Some extra details please, so anybody else with minimal knowledge would be able to follow along. Thanks.

There aren't any details, you just have to turn on the phone, plug it in via usb cable, it will get recognized by the pc as an mtp device from wich you can copy files.

That was more info than your answer. A lot of people that search the questions and answers posted here are relatively new to Android. So properly answered questions are important. Go the extra mile, provide a link that reiterates your answer. Remember the SE community depends on accurate, qualified, and descriptive answers.  :)

If there is a lock-screen this will not work on new devices because USB access (MTP, ADB) is disabled unless the phone has been unlocked.

For this there is a trick: print a screenshot or a photo  of the lockscreen on paper at real life scale and use it as a guide to draw the locksreen pattern


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How do I run apps without Google Play Services?

"This app won't run unless you update Google Play services"

I know a lot of users managed to even uninstall Google services already, but I'm wondering how are they able to run the apps independently? I'm sure I'm missing something.
When I update Google Play services my phone becomes super slow and laggy.

They probably won't use that app, or use something like nogapps

actually most apps cant run unless i update G services i dont want to update it i might as well uninstall it

with a rooted device xprivacy or luckypatcher might work. beware the latter has some not-so-legal features though...


text:
How can I monitor Android device's battery status through LAN or the web?
I would like to know if there is a way to monitor the battery status of different Android devices across a LAN network. Ideally it would be a web browser interface that shows the battery level of each device on the network that has this app installed.
Is there a native approach or, if not, an app for this?

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts, mack! Just in case you wonder: I rephased your question slightly to avoid it from being closed as "off-topic" (Is there an app for X, see our [help/on-topic] for details). Now, good hunting!

Are the devices rooted? Is there a web server in the network that could be used with scripting? Would it be possible to have ADB installed on it?

Close Voters: There are solutions not involving a specific app, so this could be on-topic as asking for a "native approach" (or an app if there is none).


text:
HTC Desire cannot connect with HTC Sync
I recently received an HTC Desire as a gift with no SD card. It was updated to Froyo. I'd like to update it further to Gingerbread, however I cannot get any version of HTC Sync to recognize my phone.

I've tried several versions
I've disabled firewall and antivirus
I've run HTC Sync in compatibility mode and as administrator
I've rebooted both phone and PC
I'm sure I've tried other things that I forgot to list.

The standard answer to this seems to be 'install the HTC Sync version that is on your SD card', but I don't have the original card. I have been unable to find out which version of HTC Sync that was originally included.
Does anyone know which version of HTC Sync I need for my HTC Desire to connect?

Is this the original Desire (i.e. a8181), because I do have the original desire and can check.

It is the original desire. It seems to have come with 2.0.28 which I can't find anywhere. I did find 2.0.33 which also didn't work.


text:
How do I read Hike messenger back up files?
I am trying to restore the backup of Hike messenger but have been unsuccessful, but for some reason it is not recognizing the old backup. Is there any way to open it or read it on the PC?


text:
How much RAM does a Huawei H868c Glory have?
I want to run "Terraria" on my Huawei H868c Glory, which is running Android 4.0.4.
How much RAM does it have?

The amount of RAM for the Huawei Glory (H868C) is 512MB (390MB available to apps). According to Terraria via the Play Store:

Optimized for Android OS 3+ and requires 512MB RAM.

So, you should be able to run it. If you are able to install it from the Play Store, then you will most likely be able to run it. It doesn't hurt to try.


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Why won't my Android phone access any HTTPS websites through WiFi?
My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 can not access any secured website while connected via my home WiFi – even applications like Google Search and Facebook can't access the internet and give an error saying "error connecting". Everything works fine when connected via 3G.
Note that my PC and my laptop, using the same router, have no such issues – so it shouldn't be a firewall or the like causing this.
Does anyone have any ideas please on how to solve this problem?

Thanks for the feedback, which I've integrated with your question (so we can delete above comments now – note you can always [edit] your post ;). This rules out the two reasons I thought of first. A few more details: Could you get some logcat of such an event? If you don't know how to achieve this, please see How can I view and examine the Android log?

Thank you for the editing and the comment. I will check and let you know. Thanks a lot.

Even I had a similar problem with my One M8, switching to a new ISP helped.


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Why does my unplugged Nexus 5 keep shutting down after any app usage?
I bought a Nexus 5 a year ago and it has been running fine. After the Lollipop update, my phone has started crashing. Even though the phone has enough battery, if I run any app for like 5 minutes (it happens for any app, no particular app I could isolate), the phone just crashes to a black screen. When I start it again, the battery has suddenly gone to zero from its initial healthy number (e.g. 40%) and the phone shuts down again (sometimes even at the loading stage after the "Google" display on starting). But if I charge my phone even for a second after it crashes and then restart it, then the battery shows up as 40% (or whatever it was pre-crash) again. But then the phone crashes again after I use it. If I don't run any apps, then the phone does not crash.
Does anyone know the solution to this problem? Please help because now I can't use my phone even for 5 minutes without giving it a charger jumpstart!
Note: The phone never crashes when it is plugged to a charger no matter how many apps I use. It only crashes if it's unplugged.

You might want to try wiping the battery stats from Recovery while fully charged, and then do a full drain/charge cycle while it's powered on.


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Can I root a Superpad Flytouch 8?
I purchased a Superpad Flytouch 8 recently and now it hangs on the Android start-up page. I cannot access the menus for factory reset so I guess I need to get my head around "rooting".
The PC repair store says it can't be fixed but surely someone can help me prove them wrong.

You don't need Android running to do a factory reset. Try following the steps in this video to reset your tablet.

Ive tried this solution many times, I cannot get the menu to come up. The closest I get is the android figure lying down with a red triangle.This was by holding "home" button and " power " button, but no menu appears!


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Bluetooth keyboard won't re-pair to my Galaxy Note 10.1
I bought a Bluetooth keyboard and it worked beautifully for 2 days. I then unpaired it to use on my friend's tablet and it worked amazingly well on hers as well. When I went to re-pair the keyboard to my Note 10.1 it shows up in the Bluetooth devices list, but the box to type in the code will not come up and there is no settings cog next to the name like there should be. So the keyboard has become useless as I can not for the life of me find a way to re-pair and connect it to my tablet. I am running android 4.1.2. Please help as I need this to work for school. I purchased this to take notes in class.

Have you tried disabling your bluetooth radar and then trying to reconnect? Reboot your device if that doesn't work.

Thank you so much. I feel so so stupid I tried everything from bluetooth apps, turning bluetoooth on and off, holding the name of the keyboard to see if I could get a box to pop up even scanned it for virus. In doing all that I never thought to restart the tablet lol. I can build and program computers, but can't think of restart tablet lol. Anyway thank you again.

@John Well done! Now please add that as an answer, so other users can see the problem is solved.

This behavior is typical of some sort of internal error, you could try restating your bluetooth service. If this doesn't work a quick reboot is likely to solve your problem.

The Samsung Rep at my local Best Buy figured this out.
1- goto Settings/Applications/Applications Manager
2- select BLE Scanner, then click on CLEAR DATA
3- select Bluetooth Pair, then click on CLEAR DATA
4- restart the tablet


text:
How do I reactivate Swype on a Motorola Atrix HD?
I disabled Swype on my Motorola Atrix HD. How can I get it to reactivate after turning it back on?
I went into 'Language & Input' and deselected it, but when I took the same path to turn it back on, it didn't work.

Did you set the Default keyboard?


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Manual Update: Exclude a certain apps from notifications
I have an application with a manual update available. I do not want to update it (I prefer the older one).
In the previous Google Market app (it changed, sorry I do not remember older version number) it was possible to exclude the app from further notifications.
With the current Google Market app I'm not able to do it anymore, and I always have the "You have 1 SW update available" notification on top screen (I have auto-update feature set).
How can I configure the Google Market app not to bother about that app anymore?
(or at least until further updates, in the future).
Thanks in advance !

Possibly related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14421/how-to-hide-updates-from-market

There's no real solution -- but depending on how much this annoys you, a work-around is available:

install AppBrain App Market. You can think of this app as an "alternate frontend" to the Google Playstore (and yes, it is no stand-alone market, as all updates/installs are re-routed to the Playstore-App).
log-in to the Appbrain Website with your browser and your Google-Account to initialize your account with Appbrain
now login with the Appbrain App you installed, and synchronize your installed apps.
Appbrain now shows you available updates to your apps. You can run them in a batch, or one by one, or can decide one by one whether you want to skip just this update, or skip this (and all future) updates to this app -- so it will not annoy you with updates you are not interested in.
start the Playstore App again, go to your apps list, open the settings, disable all update checks, updates, etc., and close it again.

Now the original Playstore won't ever notify you about any update whatsoever. Instead, you use the Appbrain App for updates. When looking for some new app, you can chose to use either of them. You might also decide to install the AppBrain Ad Detector along, and then probably will use the Appbrain App only -- as it helps you avoiding apps with excessive ads.


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How can I make my Samsung Galaxy Nexus volume go louder than what stock allows?
I find the media volume to not be very loud on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus and would like to somehow "boost" it beyond what stock Android allows. My phone is rooted and is running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0).
Is there a way that I can "boost" my phone's volume / make it louder that works on Android 4.0?
In particular, I am wanting to do this for media playback than notification sounds, but information on either is beneficial.

Unlocked and rooted, or pure stock?  I remember for my Nexus One such a mod required kernel tweaks.

@Chahk Unlocked and rooted

See also: How can I boost the volume on my Droid's speaker?

I was searching for a way to increase the volume on my phone, before I realized the quietness was because my ear buds needed cleaning.  I used an old toothbrush and rubbing alcohol to clean mine.  Made everything much louder.

I would like to suggest that you should use a custom kernel like Franco. Here is an XDA link for the Franco kernel. This will help because it has a volume gain option that will help in boosting the voice in both the phone and the headset.

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


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Home Screen Takes a Long Time to Display After Removing Phone From Dock
When I remove my Motorola Droid from my docking station, my home screen is blank for a long time. It sometimes takes over 10 seconds for my app icons to display, and even longer for widgets to display. Is there any way to eliminate this pause? Am I doing something wrong?
NOTE: I am using the LauncherPro app as a launcher/home screen app, but I get the same behavior with the default Android launcher app.

I get the same thing with my Droid X. Even after the home screen comes up and I can use other apps, it takes a few minutes (sometimes up to ten) for the system clock to update.

I also see this behavior.  It sometimes happens on screen unlock as well.

As far as I've read, the reason this happens is because of the Android memory management, which I read was made "worse" because of a better internal task killer in 2.2 Froyo. The app is being marked as not needed in memory anymore and is being killed.
There are a couple things you could do to mitigate the frequency of this happening. There's an app on the market called MinFreeManager which modifies some system config files to change how the memory manager divides up memory to active apps. Get the app and load the preset Aggressive. Hit both Apply and Apply at boot. Also, you need to be ROOTED to do this.
Another thing I've seen suggested is in the LauncherPro settings, go to General Settings and check the box for Keep in memory.
Since doing both of these things, I have seen a reduction in homescreen redraws.

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


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Voice Control for Android 2.1
I have a Bluetooth speakerphone for my car (BlueAnt). It uses a phone's built in voice control. When I try to use it, it says that voice control is not supported by my phone (AT&T Samsung Captivate, Android 2.1). Is there a way I can get voice control (over Bluetooth) on my phone?

I believe that feature was added with Android 2.2 as my Moto Droid recently got the ability to do that.  Unfortunately, I believe you are out of luck until AT&T pushes an update to your phone, unless you are willing to install a non-standard ROM.

I don't think there is a Froyo ROM available. I was hoping for a work-a-round. Oh well, thanks!

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


text:
Phone LED only flashes for a few minutes after receiving a notification
My HTC Desire is set up to flash its LED lamp whenever I receive an email, SMS etc.
Only problem is that (without touching the phone) the LED stops flashing after 5 minutes or so. So if a message comes in while I'm not near my phone and I don't come back for more than 5 minutes, I have to turn on the screen to discover the message.
I've searched through everything, but there seems to be no setting for this.
Am I missing something, or is this by design? Is there an app for this problem?

Must be by design. Flashing the LED infinitely would drain the battery (even if only slightly). I don't see anything in Settings regarding lengthening the amount of time the LED will flash; you can only specify what things cause LED notification.
After some searching it looks like the "Missed Reminder" app allows for a lot of notification customization - LED interval, color, etc. Not sure how to link an app so just search for it in the market. Sounds promising. Hope it helps.

I've noticed the my Moto Droid started doing this with the latest Android 2.2.  The notification icon stays in the notification area, but the LED stops flashing.  Personally, I like this behavior, but I don't know of any way to prevent it from "silencing" the blinking LED.  Seems to be by design, and seems to be for the latest versions of Android.


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How to backup an Android device?
Can anyone recommend a good way to backup Android devices?
Ideally I would like to do this wirelessly and, not only backup my data, but also my user settings. Is it possible to backup an image of an Android device - so that one doesn't even need to reinstall apps?
It would be particularly useful to hear from users that have restored backups, as to how easy, and complete, their processes were.
Thanks

Please specify rooted/unrooted. Rooted is easy to backup, unrooted is where the real question comes in.

If you have a rooted phone and are interested in the special case of restoring to the same device, see my answer to my question How to back up rooted phone to PC? (for restore to same device).

The requirement being that you must be ROOTED, you could get Titanium Backup and back up your phone using that.
The reason for using Titanium Backup is so that you can selectively restore parts of your data if you were to install a different version and/or build of Android. NANDROID backup is good for having a safe image to fall back on but it isn't good for restoring data on top of a new OS installation (there are side effects sometimes).

Where do backups (when using Titanium Backup) go? Do they go on PC? Do I need a SD card to back up?

They go to /sdcard/TitaniumBackup. Note that /sdcard doesn't necessarily mean it's on an SD card. The Moto X, for example, doesn't support physical SD cards but Android creates that partition for storage.

Note that: 1) you can choose where TB stores backups. 2) It doesn't backup user files like photos.

A good way to back up app data if you're not rooted is to used adb from the Android SDK.  For example, to back up the data for Locale, you'd do something like the following:
adb pull /data/data/com.twofortyfouram.locale/ C:\backup\locale\
And to restore, just use adb push with the same arguments in reverse order, i.e.:
adb push C:\backup\locale\ /data/data/com.twofortyfouram.locale/
You should be able to back up apps from /data/app/ the same way.

Is there a way to browse /data? Are there any other directories besides /data/data that need to be backed up?

@Shoan Yes.  Start adb shell then cd /data/data/ then ls.  Back up /data/app/ if you want to save the applications to avoid re-downloading them.  There's no other fixed data locations AFAIK :)

Is there a way to backup the preferences/settings of the applications as well as the OS?

@Shoan You could try backing up /data/system/ but I don't know if it will work.

If you want to do what is essentially a 1-to-1 backup of your device, you can use a custom recovery to create a "nandroid" backup. Doing so effectively creates disk images of your NAND partitions (hence "nandroid") that you can restore from at a later point. This is going to vary a bit by device and recovery system, but in general if you want to perform a full backup of your phone's internal memory you would need to:

Root your device and install a custom recovery. The most popular recovery is probably ClockworkMod. How you install it will vary widely by device, but ROM Manager can do it for you on most popular devices. You simply launch ROM Manager and select "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" from the main menu.
If using ClockworkMod, open ROM Manager and select "Backup current ROM". This should do all of the work for you.
If not using ROM Manager or if you use a recovery other than ClockworkMod:

Reboot your device into recovery mode. This again varies by device, but ROM Manager has a "Reboot into recovery" option that works regardless of what recovery you have installed. Another option is to issue adb reboot recovery from a connected PC with ADB configured and set up. There may be other requirements for getting into recovery depending on your device (e.g. the Kindle Fire is very different from others).
Navigate to the "Backup/Restore" or "Nandroid" menu (or similar).
Select "Backup" and (if needed) select which partitions you would like to back up. Some recoveries will also give you the option to compress the backup.
Select "Perform backup" (or similar) and wait for the process to finish.

Once the backup has been performed you should be able to use it to recover from many "soft" bricks. However, the two situations you would not be able to recover from with a backup alone would be:

Your bootloader is invalid/corrupted/etc
Your recovery partition is invalid/corrupted/etc

In both of thse scenarios, you would first need to fix the offending partition (bootloader or recovery) before being able to restore the backup. Basically, anything that prevents you from accessing your recovery partition will also prevent you from using your recovery to restore your backup. Such situations are, I would say, fairly rare. You can use a backup to recover a bad /boot or /system partition, so flashing a kernel or ROM should have an extremely small likelihood of permanently bricking your device (unless it modifies your recovery or bootloader, as noted above).
You may be able to flash an uncompressed backup from fastboot but this would depend on what recovery you are using and how it performs its backups. As I recall, ClockworkMod simply uses dd to create the image and they actually will flash correctly on some devices. However, I would strongly advise researching this before trying as a bad fastboot write could soft brick you as well. Of course, as long as you don't try to overwite your bootloader you won't lose access to fastboot, so in some ways this could be a "nothing ventured, nothing gained" situation.
To actually restore a backup you can:

In ROM Manager select "Manage and Restore Backups", then select the backup you wish to restore from.
If not using ROM Manager or not using ClockworkMod:

Reboot into recovery
Select "Backup/Restore" or "Nandroid" (or similar)
Select "Restore"
Pick the backup you would like to restore from (if more than one)
Select the partitions you would like to restore (if givent the option)
Select "Restore" and wait for the process to finish

Nandroid backups are, by default, stored on your external storage device in pretty much every situation. Some exceptions may be devices with no separate external storage (e.g. devices like the Galaxy Nexus) where the /sdcard directory is actually on the physical internal storage. In any case, though, it will save to your /sdcard directory, which is readable from a PC as USB mass storage or adb. You can copy a nandroid backup off of your phone and onto a computer for safe-keeping, then copy it back over later if you need to restore.
To do this you can simply plug in your device and look for a path like /sdcard/nandroid (or /sdcard/TWRP for TeamWin recovery, possibly elsewhere for others). Then you can copy the contents of the folder over to your computer. Alternatively, you can pull it with adb by plugging in the device and issuing something akin to:
adb pull /path/to/backups

...from a PC shell.

There are a number of apps you can use but many will already have the ES File Manager
Note: Turn off as many apps as you can. Some apps will not backup while running.

Launch ES File Manager
(When you open it you are normally in the file manager mode)
Tap the second icon from the right to switch to Application mode
Long press on any icon. Select "Select All" from the context menu
Press Menu. Select "Backup"

While the backup is running, you can watch its progress by opening the notification bar
The applications will be copied into backup/apps

Is this just backing up the apps?  Can similar process also backup data files, such as photos and voice-recorder files?

@Neal yes app & data can be backed up as well, but requires root permission. Directions are in Settings >> Help >> FAQ. It takes some back and forth and careful reading between help and app to get it all sorted out but then it's all good. Also with root system apps and data can be backed up.

Depending on your phone is the complexity of this task.
HTC Evo (and supported phones) you can use unrEVOked root tool to get root access. Install Titanium Backup and back everything (system included) up onto the memory card (and can copy it to your computer for extra backup).
Otherwise you need to either get something similar to unrEVOked to root and use Titanium.
If not possible, you need to root your phone and do a NANDROID backup. This backs up everything on the phone's memory as an image and can be restored at any point to fully replace anything on the phone with what it was, even if you installed another version of android.
Otherwise... HTC PC Sync? By that is kinda crappy compared to the other tools.

If you don't have root, you can use MyBackup. It can save applications & media (photos, music, videos), and it can save data (contacts, SMS, MMS, alarms, ...).
Unfortunately it requires internet connection (for MyBackup / Rerware account) even for local save and restore (e.g. on SD card), and free version is single phone only (you cannot copy backup to other phone).
Note that non-root version is less powerful than e.g. Titanium Backup or MyBackup Root.

There is also Helium (formerly Carbon), which also doesn't require root.


text:
How to delete/edit one in series of reoccuring events
Is there a way to delete or edit just one event in a series of reoccuring events?
Htc Desire
Kernel Version 2.6.32.15-gf5a501c
Software Number Version 2.29.405.2

please point out phone model and android version

phone software specifics added

Yes, when you choose the particular event you want to edit or delete you are given 3 options (at least on my Droid 1 I am):

Change only this event
Change all events in the series
Change this and all future events

Choose #1 to change just that one event in the series.

this option is not available in "later" versions of android.


text:
What is this icon on the top right of some YouTube videos?
It isn't on all videos but it appears on some. No clue what it is.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vq-xHqUo8

It's the logo of the video's uploader. Uploaders can choose to display their logo near the beginning or end of the video, to make it easier for you to subscribe to their channel.

Thanks! In the Android YouTube app it remains on the top right for the entire duration of the video. Annoying. And clicking it doesn't do anything other than display the controls you normally get by clicking on video.


text:
Stock e-mail client (Nexus 4) not synchronizing to IMAP SSL account since 4.2.2 update
I have my school's e-mail account being checked via IMAP SSL/TLS on port 993. It is an Exchange mailbox but I did not want to to use MAPI and have my device "managed" by the school.
Anyhow, this worked fine prior to 4.2.2 update. Ever since then, e-mail is not being synchronized automatically and requires me to manually press the synchronize button.
My testing:

Send test e-mail to self from another account
Set checking frequency to 5 minutes
Wait 10 minutes (just to pad a bit)

Still nothing. If I go to the client and manually hit refresh though, I do get the message pulled. Also, if I restart the phone, all the new messages get pulled as well.
Things I've checked:

Factory reset: Reluctantly did one yesterday but, unfortunately, did not fix the issue.
System Settings -> Accounts -> Email: The synchronize button icon is green, when I click on the account, "Email" setting is checked. Says "Last synced" with a time that's over 5 minutes ago.
System Settings -> Data Usage -> Menu -> Auto-Sync Data: Saw that this was the issue with many people. That, however, is checked for me.
Wifi vs. Mobile Data: I've tested on both and no difference in results.

Does anyone have any suggestions on things I should check or test to figure this out.

Which email app are you using? You've tagged your question with both stock-email-app and k9-mail. If it's the stock email app, what device are you on? Some manufacturers replace the email app with their own.

The N4 stock client. I was misinformed that k9 was the stock client. My apologies.

Any other information needed? This is really bugging me.

Try logging out => Restart the device => login again.

This issue is documented here, no, resolution yet: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=56219

This isn't an answer to making IMAP work, but there's an alternative solution if you don't mind spending some money: The Touchdown HD app works as an Exchange client but does not require Device Administrator - if the school activates Remote Wipe then it just wipes the email and not your whole phone. It's quite expensive for an Android app though.

My wife has a Nexus 4 too. I suggested to delete the account and recreate it. Then the sistems ask for authorizations of xxx stuff i cant remember and after agree it works again.

The Android stock email client has always been horrible. I've struggled with it numerous times and my simple solution has become switching to K-9. I've gotten it to (easily) work with about a half-a-dozen corporate email systems that have not wanted to play with an Android stock email client (in a number of different device manufacturer's a number of different Android version's devices). I've heard and read a number of people having had similar experiences. It's also not a surprise to me that an update has broken the stock clients' syncing. I've experienced that too.
So. Just switch to K-9 and you'll likely be fine again. And likely for good.


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"Gmail has stopped" dialog
On my Samsung Galaxy S4 with Android 4.4.2, I get constantly a dialog saying "Gmail has stopped" (In french, actually : "Gmail s'est arrêté"). When I click OK, the message re-opens within less than a second.
I tried to restart my device, to no avail. I still get the message.
Anyone knows a solution?
Edit: just an update on how things started: I wanted to kill a bunch of tasks and ran Advanced Task Killer. I probably left Gmail selected and so killed it with the tasks I wanted to get rid of. And all hell broke lose...

I almost sure I killed Gmail with Advanced Task Killer before, and I never had such a problem. It seems Gmail is more fragile now than it was for some time. So be careful when you kill tasks...

Hmmm... An update for Gmail was waiting on Play. I installed it and everything works fine, now. Did I need the update to make it work properly (after an update on Google's servers, or after the last update of my system, for example), or was the update a convenient way to restart Gmail properly? I don't know.

It's possible that killing Gmail in the first place corrupted one of its data files, which prevented it starting subsequently. The update could have triggered it to check or update its data (e.g. to a newer format), resolving the problem. This is just speculation, though: only someone familiar with the internals of the app would be able to say for sure.

That's another (and more credible) possibility...


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How can I use the camera button to pause/resume mp3?
How can I change camera button functionally and use it (or any other physical button) to pause/resume mp3 in a media player app? It is very important for my, because I want be able to pause/resume mp3 without looking to screen of the phone.
Actually my phone (Xperia Mini Pro) has a hardware keyboard with 42 keys, but a few apps use this button as a keyboard shortcut (X-plore is one of few programs that uses hardware keyboard properly).

See also the answers on How can I customize the actions associated with my Moto Droid's hardware buttons?

You have multiple choices on how to accomplish this:
Using a headset
If you've got a 1-button-headset connected, you can facilitate that button. There are multiple apps on the playstore providing enhanced possibilities to this -- just search for "headset-control. Having a Philips headset, I use Philips Headset, which works pretty well; you might have to try several of the available choices to find the one suiting you best.
Most of these apps offer things like:

configure a media player app to be started as soon as the headset gets connected
play/pause (or accept an incoming call) with a single press
skip forward (or reject an incoming call) pressing twice
increase volume by holding the button, decrease it by one click followed by holding it
skip backward (triple click)

Actions are usually configurable.
Without a headset
Re-defining a hardware button can be achieved e.g. using Tasker, which is an automation app for Android (to be more precise: it's the most complete automation app available; costs ~ 5 Euro, a 7-day-trial is available at the homepage, but it's worth every cent). The Tasker manual states:

Simulate Media Button: when selected, any media player which listens for Media Button events can be controlled. Without it, the only the Android system media player will respond.
Note: the Toggle Pause function may not work unless playback has already been started manually.

And yes: You can bind that action to...

Button: Camera
Button: Long Search

amongst others. You could even bind it to a "shake pattern" (e.g. shake left-right to skip a title).
Example:

Condition: Event → Hardware → Button: Camera
Task: Media → Media Control → Cmd: Toggle Pause

Thanks, Is there also any player with shortcut customization feature like X-plore ?

I don't know that -- never checked whether a player had shortcuts. All I saw was widgets... But app recommendations are off-topic here (see [FAQ]).

I installed tasker and I use TTpod as mp3 player, can you please say how can I configure it to pause/resume mp3?

I never tried especiall that. But in theory: Condition: Event->Hardware->Button: Camera; Task: Media->Media Control->Cmd: Toggle Pause


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Viber contacts out of date - not all contacts displayed in "All" tab
My address book is not Google Contacts, but Local Sync. All of my contacts belong to it. Viber sees many of my contacts as Viber-enabled from LocalSync. However, I'm sure that it's missing some of them.
By simply going to Viber's "All" contacts tab I see missing entries. These entries appear in stock Contacts app. Viber is up to date to the latest version. These people told me that they have Viber and I can get calls from them (however they are detected as Unknown)
How can I let Viber actually see all contacts in my address book?

This is an official representative of Viber Media.
The source of this issue could greatly vary. Please read this short page in our HelpDesk, quoted below outlining some possible workarounds that will help reboot synchronization of the contact list:

Android: Contact list is not showing your friends as Viber users?
Make sure you are using the latest version of Viber. You can download the latest version from http://www.viber.com/
Make sure that you are looking at the Viber contact list, not your device's contact list.
In order for your contacts to see you as a Viber user and be able to call you through Viber, your phone number, which is saved on their address book, must be the exact same number that you used to register to Viber and vice- versa.
Try tapping on the 'More' tab at the bottom of the Viber app, then select "Settings" and the add a check mark [√]  to "Show all Contacts"
Once you installed Viber, if you do not see someone in your contact list whom you know to have Viber, it might be that the list is not updated (this may be due to an unstable connection during setup, or just a slight delay). To update your contact list, re-sync it by re-initiating Viber or by manually updating your contacts list.
You don't need to uninstall and reinstall Viber. Shut Viber down (so that it no longer runs in the background) or turn the phone off, and then re-open it.
If this does not work, try the following steps:

Send the user an invite and if the number is a registered Viber user, it will automatically update the Viber contact list.

Enter into your Viber contact list, then select the device's menu button, and tap on "update contacts". Then just click your device 'home' button. Viber will run in the background. In about 30 min. to an hour, check again by clicking on the Viber icon.

Confirm that you have an active internet connection.

Dial a number manually, using the Viber keypad

Delete the contact with the missing Viber badge from your contact list. Add it again and make sure to include the country code.

The phone number format should include the plus sign, country code, cell code and phone number. The standard format is: +(country code)-(cell code)-(phone number)
For example: +1-555-555-5555

For more questions or technical support, please visit our official HelpDesk.
From the FAQ:
Try tapping on the "More" tab at the bottom of the Viber app, then select "Settings" and the add a check mark [√]  to "Show all Contacts".

Thanks for providing an official response. Note, please, that answers at Stack Exchange should be self-contained. Should you change your KB system and render this link inoperative this answer will have no value. Stack Exchange is built on the idea of helping many people in the future and not just the one person who asked the question.

I edited the answer with "the answer" I found on the FAQs. I confirm it worked. Please peer accept my edit :)

I had a simliar problem, where a certain person did not appear on viber (in the All tab), however I'm using the stock application all around.
It was solved by changing the group assigned to the contact (originally it had no group assigned, and I assigned it to my contacts).

for solve this problem which worked for me:

Go To Viber Setting
Press Restore Viber Defaults
Do This 3 Or 4 Times
Restart Your Device
Do It Again

Should be fine now

I noticed that a contact is recognized when I remove it from all contact groups. When I add the contact back to a group, it disappears again in Viber.
So this is a rather unpleasant workaround, but technically it would work (at least for me).


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3G Connection Not Working on Samsung Galaxy S2
I have a Galaxy S2 that for some reason does not work when it's connected to a 3G network(or at least I think it's connected, there's a '3G' symbol next to my signal meter). When I say it doesn't work, I mean that I don't have any data connection what-so-ever. No internet, nothing.
When my phone is connected with the 'H+' symbol next to the signal meter then everything works perfectly. But the problem is that my phone is constantly trying to use 3G, which of course is useless.
My phone details are:
Model Number:       GT-I9100
Android Version:    2.3.3
Baseband version:   I9100XXKE7
Kernal Version:     2.6.35.7-I9100XWKF3-CL276555root@DELL101 #2
Build number:       GINGERBREAD.XWKF3
If anyone has an idea why this would happen, please give me a shout. It's so frustrating having no data connection for the most of my day. Also if there's a way to just stop the phone completely from trying to connect/use a 3G connection. That would be great.
PS - I'm in South Africa and my carrier is 'Cell C'.
Thank in advance!

Well, you could try going into Settings - Wireless and Networks - Mobile Networks - Tick use only 2G networks.
That will disable 3G connectivity.
If you wish to disable mobile data, then un-tick the mobile data option.

Airplane mode would kill the 3G connection.... but it would also kill the Wifi connection.
APNDroid can kill just the 3G connection.
As for the actual 3G problem... have you talked to your carrier?  Does your phone have to know some sort of preferred roaming list that it is missing?


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Galaxy S II GT-I9100G USB connectivity problem
I bought a Galaxy S II GT-I9100G two weeks back from Malaysia and it was running on Android ver. 2.3.5. But three days back I saw a 2.3.6 update available and updated my phone using the update option available in the phone. But now when I connect phone to PC via USB it shows unknown device and Windows cant find the driver suitable for it. And so I can't transfer files to or from my PC. Could anyone please help me out here?
My PC is running on Win7 x64.

Worked for me:

Unplug the USB cable
On the cell phone, dial the following number: *#7284# Once the last # is hit, the PhoneUtil application is launched. Choose USB -> Modem and then USB -> PDA mode. The good mode should be PDA. Even if the mode is PDA, switch to Modem and then back to PDA.
Plug the USB cable.

Note:

Repair USB connection for any Samsung Android phone

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV2h5O_qDPE

Try installing Kies (check the "Software" subtab under "Downloads").  It should install the drivers automatically but if not it has a menu option to install them.

Do a Factory Reset through Privacy menu of Settings. It will solve your problems

On your phone got one software call "Kies" try to using wifi to connect to the computer and the phone where in the computer you key in the IP address shown on your S2 and after that the driver will automatic installed its work fine for me after i use KIES to connect to the computer and again the computer USB can recognized my phone =)

"Just make sure you use a USB port on the back of your computer. Front ones can be less than perfect as there is cables, noise etc." This fixed my USB connectivity and transfer problems.

the OP's problem started with updating to 2.3.6 only. This is obviously not hardware (USB) related.


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Are Android OS updates region specific?
Well, I have a Galaxy Ace with 2.3.3, build XWKPY and Samsung Kies doesn't show an update to 2.3.4 yet.
I'm thinking of manually updating it through Odin and I need to know if I can just download any Gingerbread 2.3.4 update file or is there anything else that I need to be worried about?

Android OS updates can be region specific. It depends on the OEM builds. In case of Samsung, yes.
You can update through Odin, but other region binary may not have the required operator information or other settings related to your region.
I suggest you wait for an update in Kies. Should be available soon.

I'm sorry, but what are OEM builds? Here's the thing. When I got my phone, it has 2.3.3 GINGERBREAD.XWKPY, which is for these countries: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK. I'm from the Philippines and I thought I should get an offical 2.3.4 Asian ROM.
Now that I've updated to 2.3.4 DXKPD, Samsung Kies said "your device does not support software upgrading via kies", which didn't happen before. So my question is, is it possible that the PHONE ITSELF is locked to its initial region?

by OEM builds, i meant OEMs such as Samsung can choose to have different binaries for different regions. A Phone can be locked to a Operator, but not the initial region. I am not sure why Kies gives that message. Did you use Kies to update from 2.3.3 to 2.3.4? or using Odin? Meanwhile i will update you if i find on what basis Kies gives that message.

I see. Well I read some more, about CSCs and I was able to fix it. See, when I checked, it's set to SMO -- which is for Serbia. I backed up everything, changed it to XTC (for Philippines), and voila! My phone now receives 3g signals and I just checked Kies and it's OK now, showing that I have the latest firmware. :) So basically, I got the right region, but wrong country code in CSC. Though I think it resulted in another problem. I can't download anything from the Market. Any ideas? Thanks for your help.

Oh, BTW, I even updated to Market 3.4.4 and cleared the cache, I still couldn't download anything. I remember it gives a -101 error.

Typically yes, but I don't know that you could definitively say "always" since there is of course potential that some devices I'm unaware of don't follow that pattern. Usually, though, there are different firmwares due to regional differences in carrier bands/settings, wifi channels, and other considerations (localization, possibly).
As an example, though, take a look at the stock firmware listings for the Motorola Xoom. There are a whole bunch of different images available, divided up by both model number and region.
There's also a thread here where people discuss how you could try to go about flashing a firmware from a different region via Odin without affecting your connectivity. I don't know much about the process myself, though, as I've never done this.

Hey, thanks. Please read my reply to @S Karthikeyan. I believe you're right with region-specific localization settings. My other problem is that my carrier can't send me GPRS settings now that I have an official ROM for Asia, but I had no problem when my phone its initial European ROM. Is it possible it's locked to it?


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Rooted SGS3 and Kies doesn't work with my ROM, Looking for contact list files
Recently rooted my SGS3 and installed a custom ROM, so I had to import my contacts number back into my phone and I had them saved as a vcard... When I imported all the names, I thought it had buggered up so I imported them again, now there are two of every name and it's a very lengthy process to manually remove every 2nd name (I have 800+ contacts). I'm trying to find a way to remove my contacts completely, but seeing as Kies and Kies Air don't work properly with this ROM, I'm trying to locate the path in my phone that has the contact files so I can remove them that way. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Are you talking about Google contacts? In that case you could try Google's web frontend for cleanup. The result should then automatically be done by sync.

Nah, was talking about contacts stored on my phone, I ended up downloading one of those "Delete all contact" apps off the playstore then deleted all my contacts out of google and loaded my vcard list back into google then syncing it to google.

Umpf... Very close to my suggestion :) Would you mind to make this an answer (maybe with a few more details on the process), and accept it lateron? So people with a similar problem can easier identify it as "question with a solution".


text:
What kind of power saving smarts does Android already have?
I just d/l tasker and it's been really interesting (although not as interesting as I would've liked since I feel a lot of the good features require a root).
I would like to optimize my Galaxy s3 so that it uses less battery power in a way that has minimal effect on my usage.
I have a few suggestions but they seem fairly obvious things so I'm not sure if they are already implemented in the OS and I don't need to create a tasker profile for it.

Turn off 3G when I've got WIFI on. I only need the mobile networks for phone calls when I've got wifi so I would prefer not to have 3G on.
Turn off 3G if i'm in a low signal area - I hear if you're on the edge of 3G connectivity, it'll use lots of power constantly connecting to 3G. Does android have a way to stop that from running the battery down or should I create a tasker profile for it?
Power saving mode on when the screen isn't on. There isn't much the phone needs to do when I'm not using it so are there already processes built into android to turn the CPU down etc. or do I need to create a Tasker profile for it? It can chew up to 25% of my battery life overnight sometimes.

Anyway, do any of those profiles seem worthwhile to do or are they already built in features of android?

Relevant: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/476/what-can-i-do-to-increase-battery-life-on-my-android-device

Relevant: What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery?, especially for your "low signal area" part (and besides, it even holds a Tasker-Profile :). #1 and #3 should be handled by Android automatically already (device should go to "deep sleep" when you turn the display off -- unless some "bad app" keeps it awake using wake-locks).

Turn off 3G when I've got WIFI on. I only need the mobile networks for phone calls when I've got wifi so I would prefer not to have 3G on.

3G and mobile data are two separate things. When wifi is enabled, mobile data no longer goes through the cellular connection, but it does remain connected to the 3G network (otherwise it couldn't receive calls or SMS/MMS). I know older versions of CyanogenMod included a highly customizable Power Control widget that had options that when wifi is enabled (not necessarily connected), it switches to 2G/EDGE. But there are some downsides with this. Switching from 2G to 3G (and vice versa) require completely losing phone signal as it shuts down the connection and then searches for the other network. In doing this, you are probably looking at at least 30 seconds of being without a signal when this occurs. One very bad thing I can see with this is if you are on a phone call when you enter or leave a wireless network, it will most likely get disconnected and you won't be able to call them back until you are reconnected. In my experience, switching to 2G-only really isn't as big of a battery saver as it was a few years ago. 3G modems have gotten a lot better with power consumption.

Turn off 3G if i'm in a low signal area - I hear if you're on the edge of 3G connectivity, it'll use lots of power constantly connecting to 3G. Does android have a way to stop that from running the battery down or should I create a tasker profile for it?

You can adjust the preferred networks under the Phone Information section, which can be accessed by typing the following into your dialer *#*#4636#*#* and then going down to the Set Preferred Network Type section. Most likely your phone is on WCMDA Preferred. This seeks out a 3G/HSPA signal and tries to keep it active and only falls back when the signal is really poor. If I remember right, you can set it to GSM/CDMA Auto (PRL) and it will pick the one with the best signal. But I read this a while back and haven't been able to find the reference again.

Power saving mode on when the screen isn't on. There isn't much the phone needs to do when I'm not using it so are there already processes built into android to turn the CPU down etc. or do I need to create a Tasker profile for it? It can chew up to 25% of my battery life overnight sometimes.

Samsung is the only device that I know of that includes a Power Saving Mode. Android is actually pretty good about being easy on the battery, but apps that we install are typically the culprits of our poor battery life. A device should be in Deep Sleep mode well over half the time it is off the charger (I tend to notice mine around 65%-75% Deep Sleep). This can be checked using CPU Stats. Unfortunately, to get more information about what is causing your problems, you most likely need root. The app I typically recommend to people on the CyanogenMod forum is BetterBatteryStats (which is free on xda for memebers). This will actually tell you exactly what in an app is keeping the device from entering deep sleep. This app may still have some functionality without root, but I've never tested it (I always put a custom ROM on my phone, so I am never using it long without root).
Finding out what apps are keeping your phone from entering Android's low power "Deep Sleep" when the screen is off will save you more on battery than Samsung's Power Saving Mode probably could.
As I mentioned above, Android already does a great job with trying to minimize power consumption. All phones support CPU stepping, which basically will lower the speed of your processor in various steps until it enters the deep sleep mode. The range of the processor speeds vary from device and kernel (3rd-party custom kernels can modify quite a bit). When the screen is turned off, Android automatically tries to enter deep sleep mode. The only way this doesn't happen is if something is holding a wakelock. A wakelock is designed to allow an app to finish something before entering the low power state. This could be anything from sending a text message, to being on a phone call, to syncing email. Ideally, these should only hold wakelocks for as long as needed, but occasionally they get buggy. This is where the above app I mention comes into play. It can determine what apps are holding those wakelocks, and if they are excessive, you can check the settings of the app to try and minimize it or try uninstalling/reinstalling the app to see if it is a glitch or corrupted somehow.
The other option comes with rooting and custom kernels. I give this only as general information. With custom kernels, they can significantly change how the processor operates. Everything from lowering the max speed of the processor, to actually sending less voltage to the processor, to severely limiting how high of speed the processor can get while the screen is off. This is part of the reason why a lot of people run custom kernels. The battery savings from undervolting the processor can be quite substantial. Also, when running a custom ROM, you can remove a lot of the bloat that carriers and/or manufacturers add to the ROM, all of which can increase battery consumption.
That being said, if you are noticing certain apps are using a large amount of battery or hold large wakelocks, but they are system apps, with newer versions of Android, you can still disable those apps (even if you can't remove them). You can do this under Settings -> Apps -> All -> App name -> Disable. If you want to reenable it, it can be found at the bottom of the list alphabetized with all other disabled apps (if any).

Turn off 3G when I've got WIFI on. I only need the mobile networks for phone calls when I've got wifi so I would prefer not to have 3G on.

Already done by default, unless you use certain apps that try to force 3G when WiFi is on. (Certain older versions of Skype come to mind.) Though you might want to check the advanced options in Wifi to see if WiFi sleep policy is set to "Never", since it'll revert to 3G when the phone is asleep elsewise.

Turn off 3G if i'm in a low signal area - I hear if you're on the edge of 3G connectivity, it'll use lots of power constantly connecting to 3G. Does android have a way to stop that from running the battery down or should I create a tasker profile for it?

Knock yourself out on that one. But you might want to consider how you'll know when to turn 3G back on.

Power saving mode on when the screen isn't on. There isn't much the phone needs to do when I'm not using it so are there already processes built into android to turn the CPU down etc. or do I need to create a Tasker profile for it? It can chew up to 25% of my battery life overnight sometimes.

First: why do you not plug your phone in at night? Second, this varies on a phone-by-phone basis.

I wouldn't bother with any of those optimisations, mostly for the reasons that others have already stated.
Optimisations I do use (with Llama, but I'm sure they're just as easy to do in Tasker):

Turn off WiFi when not at home. Otherwise it will use power looking for WiFi hotspots you won't use.
Turn off sync when at low power, and turn it on again when charging.

With turning Wifi when ur not at home, how do you manage to use less battery life checking ur location then you do looking for a wifi connection?

Llama just checks which cell tower you're connected to. Using coarse network-based location When WiFi is turned off does the same thing I think. Not very power-consuming to check once every minute or so. Also, if the phone is asleep Llama won't wake it up, instead just waiting until the screen is turned on to check.

yeah i tried using cell towers with Tasker  but maybe it's where I live, it just wasn't very accurate. I would be miles away from my work or home and it would still detect the same cell towers. I was going to try coarse network location but I wasn't sure whether it takes more power to check WiFi then if it is to check location.


text:
Is imessageonandroid.com really an iMessages app for Android or is it Scam?
I saw on a website that they have an iMessages app that lets you text iPhone user for free just like it is for an iPhone user texting another iPhone user.
Do you use our own number, or do you have to have an apple id and use your email like the ipod touch?. Also please explain me how it works and what you have to do?

I would be careful with this app. It's free, but not open source. It could be a scam/adware.

TrendMicro says it's a fraudulent website

I'm removing the internal link in the question so no one goes to the website.

The website is fraudulent. If you try to download the app, it gets you to "answer product surveys" (that is, it's a cost-per-action scam), and then installs software on your PC. If there even is an Android app at the end of it, it's almost certainly malware.
Think about it. Why would Apple give access to their closed chat system to some no-marks app that's not even on Google Play, when they don't give access to reputable software vendors? Why isn't there any corporate information (the name of the company, their address, or even the country they operate from) on the download page?


text:
Can an application wipe or corrupt a SD card?
Is it possible for apps to eliminate or corrupt SD Card specifically the apps that are installed from Play Store? Lately my micro SD card got wiped out on its own and I couldn't recover any of my data since I formatted it as the default disk to write earlier on my phone. I also wonder if it is possible for Beta version of apps to distort an SD Card

This isn't impossible but rarely happens. Apps with android.permission.MOUNT_FORMAT_FILESYSTEMS are able to format external sd cards or those with android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE can erase files from external storage. Also apps with root access can do almost everything they want. But it hardly makes sense to erase data unless one has clearly destructive intentions. Usually the data loss is associated with some malware activities or hardware failures.

Yes, it is possible for an application to maliciously wipe or potentially corrupt data on a SD card. However, that is very unlikely to happen.
More likely is that the SD card had some sort of hardware failure.

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


text:
Sd card encryption forgotten password
I've forgotten my password so I can't deactivate my encrypted SD card in my Samsung S9. Is there anything I can do please?

Is it used as portable storage or adoptable-storage?

You haven't clearly mentioned what type of encryption it is...
Anyway, I'll tell you a general solution. I'm not 100% sure if this will work. Also, this may not work if the SD card was used as adoptable storage at the time of mounting it on the S9. I'm also not sure if this will work if you have used Samsung Knox to encrypt it..

WARNING : This method will completely erase any data you have on the SD card. I'm not responsible for any data loss. This will only give you your SD card back in a usable form.
• Insert the SD card into a Windows machine (preferably Windows 10) using an SD card reader.
• The system will automatically allot a drive letter to the SD card. It's in this step where the problem lies. Depending on the type of encryption, the system may or may not detect the SD card.
• If it detects the card, note the drive letter. Else if it doesn't detect the card, just simply follow these steps.
• Right click on the Start icon
• Select Disk Management
• If the card was detected earlier, it will display the SD card as online along with the drive letter. It will also list one (or more) partitions. There may be some listed as Healthy Primary Partitions and some other Unallocated spaces. If it hadn't detected the card, there is a possibility that it may display the the drive as just unallocated space.
• Even if there are no unallocated spaces, just right click on the Healthy partitions and click delete volume. Repeat this for all partitions in the SD card. If there are only unallocated spaces, right click on that space and then select New Simple Volume
• Then, all the partitions will combine together to form a single Unallocated Space
• Now, right click on the unallocated space and click on the New Simple Volume option.
• A new Simple Volume Wizard will pop up. Follow the prompts the wizard gives to create a new Simple Volume.
• Exit the Disk Management utility and eject the SD card .
That's it. If you're lucky, you'll be able to get the SD card back to life. Please don't blame me if this doesn't work. I'm just guessing it will. Sorry if this doesn't work...


text:
How to remove/hide "Likee Videos" from imo main menu?
As shown in the picture below, Likee Videos appears between stories and recent chats? How can we get rid of Likee videos, so that it doesn't not appear there?

Go to settings
Then you can see " Function"
Click it turn off likee vedio

I went to setting and i have not seen "Function"


text:
How do I get to Alarms?
I know I can get to alarm setup through the Clock app, but I swear this used to be a separate app. How do you get directly to the Alarms app?

Quick look around shows that the Alarm function is most definitely part of the Clock app.

I know that with LauncherPro you can set up "actions" as shortcuts, rather than directly to apps.  You might be able to create a shortcut directly to the Alarm app.
There are probably other apps out there that do this.  I would be interested in the answer, as I have a similar gripe about all of the "sub apps" included with the Clock app.

You can indeed do this on LauncherPro. Long-press the homescreen and go to Shortcuts. From there go to Activities and it'll be under Clock -> com.android.deskclock.AlarmClock

I set my alarms by tapping the Current Time on Beautiful Widgets. The "Beautiful Smaller Home Weather" widget takes up 4 slots on the home-screen but allows short-cuts to 3 actions: Set Alarms, Calendar, and Weather Forecast. The widget also lets you see the Current Time, Today's Date, and Current Weather with a glance at your home-screen.
Beautiful Widgets has a 4.5 star rating from 22k+ ratings. It costs ~$2 but I am not alone in saying that it is worth the price.

On my Droid X, there was an app preinstalled called "Alarm & Timer". That's what I've been using for alarms. Not sure if this is the same thing you are talking about though.
Which verison of the OS are you running? My Droid X is still on 2.1.

I'm running 2.2 unrooted on Droid v1. The "Alarm & Timer" app sounds familiar ... maybe it was removed in 2.2?

That's what I was thinking. I'll check my wifes Droid 2 when I get home and see if she has the Clock app instead of the Alarm & Timer.

Just checked my wife's Droid 2 running 2.2 - she has the "Alarm & Timer" app.


text:
custom arrangement of favorites in default (HTC) browser?
can I arrange my favorites in default HTC Desire (2.1) web browser the way I want? Not only by newest, mostly used, alphabetical?

Yes, one solution is the Bookmark Sort & Backup app. Visit here from phone or search for "bookmark sort" on android market. (Pro version comes without ads.) Hope it helps.
EDIT: Bookmark Sort & Backup Free and Bookmark Manager Free on appbrain.com.

Bookmark Manager Free is another alternative.

I used Bookmark Manager Free and it does great job. Thank you

Do these work for the standard Android 2.2 browser too?

Actually I just downloaded it and it works like a charm!


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Adobe flash for Samsung Galaxy 551 with Android 2.2
There is any way to view flash animations on web with a Samsung with Android 2.2???
I already tryed to install the Adobe flash apk from market but it is disabled for my phone.

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4315/how-can-i-run-flash-on-a-pandigital-novel-hacked-to-run-android-2-1-eclair/4317#4317

You don't say what model your phone is? Is it on the Adobe's list of supported devices at: http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/certified_devices/ ?
If you look at the Adobe's published minimum requirements for mobile Flash, they list Android 2.2, a Cortex A8 (ARMv7) processor, and a Hardware Vector FPU (floating point maths processor).
I'd have thought the two processor requirements are probably going to be more of a problem than the processor speed requirement, as they mean that Flash is going to be trying to use hardware instructions in the CPU that won't be available in older/lesser specced CPUs, this would definitely stop Flash working. Do you know what processor your phone has?
EDIT: According to this Wikipedia CPU page the Galaxy 551 has a Qualcomm MSM7227 chip which is ARMv6 compatible. As Adobe state you need an ARMv7 compatible processor, it looks like you won't be able to run Flash on your phone.

I have a Samsung Galaxy 551. (I bought it on Brazil, where i live)

@stick According to this Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSM7000#MSM7227_and_MSM7230 the Galaxy 551 has a Qualcomm MSM7227 chip which is ARMv6 compatible. As Adobe state you need an ARMv7 compatible processor, it looks like you won't be able to run Flash on your phone.

Note that in some older phone which aren't supported by Adobe Flash, it may be possible to install Flash Lite.  It isn't close to full Flash, but can only play simple movie.

The CPU usually cant support it.. there isnt a hack around it except that if you really want to view flash, you can download rockplayer for your CPU type, and play the downloaded flv files.. (flv files work in software decoding mode).


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What are the advantages of a custom ROM over rooted stock?
What can a custom ROM provide beyond rooting that I can't get by downloading an application?

This is related: I've rooted my phone. Now what? What do I gain from rooting?

Advantages
A custom ROM can be as little as a pre-rooted stock ROM, and with root you can do virtually anything. Thus the main advantage over just rooting is that the work has been done for you already if you grab a custom ROM with features you're interested in. For example, a custom kernel with better support for overclocking may be included in a custom ROM.
As the name implies, a ROM cooker has a lot of freedom to customize.  But, in general, the "well known" custom ROMs have:

Custom themes, or at least wallpapers or widgets. This might include modified system colors and icons, startup screens, etc.
Root, of course (see the advantages of rooting).
Less bloatware (e.g., removal of T-Mobile's "My Account").
Useful utilities for the kind of person who flashes custom ROMs (e.g., ROM Manager).
A mishmash of modems and kernels, selected for best battery life or performance.  Modems are usually stock but kernels may be stock or custom.
Additional options in menus (e.g., CyanogenMod allows a user to reboot to recovery or fastboot mode instead of just rebooting the device normally).
Additional user interface tweaks (e.g., CyanogenMod allows users to place on/off controls in the status bar instead of using widgets).

Finally, custom ROMs don't have to be stock-based to begin with either. This might enable extra system-level features (built-in tethering, for example) or allow you to upgrade to a version of Android that hasn't been or won't be released for your device.  It can also free you from hard-to-remove bits of stock ROMs, such as their custom UIs / launchers that often cannot be removed.
Disadvantages

Custom ROMs, especially those not based on stock, are often a bit experimental.  They may not be as stable as stock, especially with custom kernels or when not stock-based (drivers are hard to get right).
A custom ROM can include virtually any apps the creator wanted to include, and you may consider them bloatware.
Custom themes may not be what you want; many ROM cookers aren't designers.
Something unsavory or malicious could be included in the ROM.
Bricking your device is always a possibility.  Make sure you know what you're doing when you flash a custom ROM, and never use a ROM designed for a different device.
Like rooting, flashing a custom ROM will almost certainly void the warranty of a non-"developer" (e.g., Nexus) device.

Does rooting/installing custom ROM increase the usable RAM of any mobile phone?

Depends. Many carrier/vendor build include custom services and launchers that take up more memory than the standard google builds most custom ROMs are based on. HTC Sense, Motorola Blur, and Samsung TouchWiz all take more memory than the base platfom. Note that rooting by itself has no effect on memory usage.


text:
How to prevent my Google account from acting like it's from the US?
I'm from the Czech Republic and via some proxy I made my Google account look like a US-based one to try Google music etc. Now Google music with all access arrived in my country and it's cheaper than in the US! But Google remembers my account as being US-based so I still see the US price of $9.99.
Do you know how to change it back?

Is the proxy still on?

Try accessing via Czech Republic - proxy and then try again. Good luck.
edit: Login with your credentials via proxy from Czech Republic and hope that the price will be different from the US price.

Your answer is rather short, I'm not really sure what you recommend to do. Could you edit your answer and be a little more verbose?

Login into Play Music with your credentials via proxy from Czech Republic and hope that the price will be different from the US price.


text:
How do I get more space and get my memory card to start working?
I have a Galaxy S2 and it keeps saying "low on space" (phone storage is getting low) in my notifications. I bought a memory card and it still says low disk space so I can't download any apps. Also my Play Store app won't open. Can anyone help me out?

The "low on space" message always refers to the device's internal memory. I've just added the insufficient-memory tag to your question; please see its tag-wiki for first-aid and helpful links. Don't forget to come back and either [edit] your question to specify where you got stuck, or answer it when you were able to solve your issue. Good luck!

I have the same problem with Samsung Galaxy Ace 2. To make your default storage the sd card you need to modify vold.fstab. But to modify this file you need to root your phone.
I think there is no other way to do this.
Hope I have helped =).


text:
Can I install gapps after I have finished installing the new ROM?
I have recently installed a new ROM on my Galaxy S3 and I did not flash gapps with the ROM itself. Can I go to reboot mode and flash gapps even after I installed the ROM?

Yep, go back to recovery and flash the correct Gapps, wipe cache partition and you are good to go!

You should be able to do that. First make sure you download the correct version (the version of the GApps archive must match the Android version installed on your device). Put the gapps*.zip file on your SDCard, and boot to recovery-mode. Select "Install update.zip", and navigate to your GApps archive. Select it, have it installed, reboot, enjoy :)
As you've tagged your question cyanogenmod, you might also wish to take a look at their GApps page. This will make it easier for you to find the correct GApps archive.

Flash it using recovery, but you will need to wipe your cache's after flashing or gapps will crash, therefore making your phone unusable and forcing you to wipe.


text:
How can I add two new tablets to my Google Play Store account?
I have my mobile added already, but I bought my kids a tablet each and I can't find a way to add them to the Google Play Store account so I can download games onto the tablets. Thanks.

If I understand correctly, you want all devices under one account. All tablets and devices must be under one Google account. So whatever e-mail you use personally on your mobile, use that same e-mail/Google account for your kids' device.
Example: If your e-mail, let's say, for example is dad123@gmail.com, all devices must be connected to that Google e-mail account. So use the e-mail you use Google with, for your kids too.

Further to the answer, create a restricted profile in your tablets (standard feature from android 4.2) for the kids with your account as admin. This will help you to prevent in-app purchases being made by your kids accidentally.


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Can't find Angry Birds
Same websites are reporting that angry birds is available in the android market. However I can't find it on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S in New Zealand). I have tried the bar code, the download links and searching the android market from my phone the app just isn't there.
Whats going on?
Is my phone not supported?
Is my country not supported?
Is my OS version (2.1) not supported?

The game is so horribly addicting and fun, why would you even want it? ;)

Sorry. What I meant to say was I would contact Rovio.

GetJar is where they first posted it and it got hammered. They got it on the Android Market pretty quickly, but Rovio's complaint (and why they went with an alternate market in the first place) is that a lot of people complained they couldn't find the beta in the Android Market.
A few people who were able to get it set up mirrors, including a Torrent. A quick web search should find an alternative download location for you, if you haven't already got it.

enjoy: http://www.mediafire.com/?j81foozdu2q5ph3

Your OS is supported. Your phone should be as well. Don't know about your country. I hate to speculate without know exactly what is going on, but honestly I've never seen anyone have all the trouble that Rovio is having getting their app visible to anyone in the market. Since the beta its been randomly blocked from rather unusual groups (Like Samsung Vibrant owners in the US) -- and all Rovio does is blame geographic restrictions in the market.
Anyway, all that explanation aside -- here's an alternative download for an ad-supported version:
http://www.getjar.com/adp/angry-birds
Mobile version: http://m.getjar.com/adp/angry-birds

Even that link was way more painful then it needed to be!  Try: http://m.getjar.com/adp/angry-birds instead.

I will not be using getjar on principle. The place to get apps is the android market, anyone trying to bypass it will not be getting either my money or my ad impressions. I also will not support any service which requires me to give out my phone number.

On a UK Galaxy S, I know that I couldn't find the beta version in the Market for ages, then Samsung released "2.1 update 1" and straight after I upgraded I could see angry birds in the Market, now the full versions there I can see that too.
Have your network released 2.1-update1 (aka build JM x ) for you yet, try checking with the Samsung Kies software.

Its available but I have not upgraded yet I was waiting for 2.2 which should be out by the end of the month.

This is what I have: http://www.appbrain.com/app/angry-birds/com.rovio.angrybirds

Using the barcode from that site gives "Not found The requested item could not be found." in the android market.

Back when I was having issues getting Angry Birds beta installed, AppBrain's FastWeb Installer managed to install it on my phone even when searching the market produced no results. May be worth a try.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S firmware codes
When Samsung Kies offers an update it doesn't tell you what version of android the update is.
All you get is seemingly meaningless codes like
PDA:JPI / Phone:JPP / CSC:JP4

or similar
What do these codes mean?
How can you convert these codes to android versions.
If they are arbitrary can this question serve as a list mapping codes to android versions.

Well for the Vibrant, the codes are as follows; for example, KA7:
The first letter is the year: K is the eleventh letter of the alphabet, so 2011.
The second is the month: January (A = 1).
7 is the revision or build, so KA6 is older than KA7, etc.
It's obviously different for the i9000 but you should be able to find that info on XDA.  They'll also tell you which release is which version of Android, which is not in the code AFAIK.


text:
Nexus One overheats/restarts when connected to car dock or car charger
Whenever I connect my Nexus One to the official car dock, my phone heats up rapidly, and eventually restarts.  Obviously, the phone is restarting to prevent it from damaging itself.  So the question becomes why is it over-heating (the phone can draw too much current for its own good?) and how can I prevent it from happening.  As a side note, I have never observed this happen while I had the phone charging in the official desk dock, although most of that time I was asleep, and it has happened infrequently while I was charging it and still using it.
Thanks in advance.

Shutting off the screen while using navigation seems to be the best solution, as I'll still get verbal prompts.

Place it on the air conditioning vent and velcro it on. Now you have a speed charger with no overheating. I had the same issue and this solved it.


text:
How can I use the Android Paid Market from a region where it's not available yet?
I live in scandinavia and the Market for paid applications is not available here yet. Is there any way I can enable it? Or a workaround?

Similar question is available at :http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/144/how-to-buy-apps-from-unsupported-countries-using-un-rooted-phone

You don't need to root if you get a prepaid sim card from a country where paid market is visible. Of course it's bit annoying to have to change the sim from time to time...

You need to install an application called Market Enabler, note this only works on rooted phones . You can download it from here

Both rooting and using a prepaid SIM seem a bit extreme.  I'd suggest looking at other App Markets to see if that will help before turning to such drastic measures.  I have started a question here about different App Markets and suggested two in the question.  Hopefully, there will be some replies soon and you may have your pick.


text:
Update to version 2.2 on my HTC Hero Android 1.5 phone
Currently I am using HTC Hero with Android 1.5 and as we know right now Android 2.2 (Froyo) has been released, so i am planning to upgrade from 1.5 to 2.2.
Regarding updating, I have the following questions:

How do I update it?
Is there any selection options provided to update? For example I want to update my 1.5 to 2.1 instead of 2.2, 2.0 or anything else.
Are there any issues that have already occurred with Android 2.2?
What if I want to down-grade to lower version, is it possible? (i.e. rollback to older version)

@Webs i am talking about updation of my Android phone's OS (i.e. SDK) from 1.5 to 2.2

@webs i dont know anything about "root" the phone , what is the meaning of "root" and what are the probable advantages of "Root" phone ?


text:
How do I stop from getting notified twice when I get a text to my Google Voice number?
When I receive a text message to my Google voice number, I get a notification from my text application, as well as the Google Voice application. It would seem that the message is being forwarded to my cell number, but I've turned off text forwarding in the Voicemail & Text settings.  Is there another setting that I am missing?

From Google Voice settings (on the web, not the phone app), under phones, select your mobile number, and Edit.  Uncheck "Receive SMS on this phone"

This is a bad idea. It will solve your problem but it will also make it so that if the Google Voice app ever crashes or you are in an area without data coverage, you will not get your text messages. It is much better to leave this unchecked and then uncheck the "Notifications via text message" box in the Google Voice app on your phone. This ensures that you don't get double-notifications, but still get text messages if the Google Voice app can't connect.

Didn't realize that. Voting your answer up, mine down.

Moto DROID v1 with latest GV.  Notifications via text message is unchecked, phone is set as Receive Text Messages in GV web settings.  This causes double-notification (triple if also getting e-mail notifications of new text messages).

@JadeMason: In the Google Voice app settings, there's an area where you can select the phone number of the current phone. Is that set correctly?

@Rohan: Yes, the number under 'This phone's number' appears correctly.

@Rohan: I think you have the option between the app's notifications or SMS, but it's a trade off.  With the former, as you said, you have to be where you have data and the app must be running.  But with the latter, you are using SMS counting towards your cell plan's limit.  Conceivably, you can use a cell plan with data but no SMS by using GVoice for texts.

Make sure you have updated to the latest version of the Google Voice application in the Market. Then open the app on your phone.
Go to: Settings > Sync and notifications. Uncheck the "Notifications via text message" box. Back all the way out, and just for good measure, reboot your phone.

After seeing JadeMason's comment on Paul Roub's answer I'm kind of unsure about this now. I know it works for me, but can't be sure it's the best way to do things.


text:
How do I disable the 'click' sound on the camera app?
When I take a picture it makes a 'click' sound. As this is default behavior, I would like to turn it off. Is there a setting to do so; or if I find+delete the sound file, will there be repercussions?
**Please note I am looking for a basically permanent solution rather than one that I would need to set/unset with each use of the app. I like the idea of a root solution, or an app solution; but for the sake of non-root memory-hog slow-camera-app-starting people who can't afford to run another background service, let's make a...

Clarification: let's clarify that this is to do with the Motorola Droid (per the tag, sorry). I'm glad it works for other phone models, however to the best of my knowledge it is not a stock option (if I am wrong please point the way) from 2.0.1, 2.1, or 2.2 on the Motorola Droid. That is to say, unless you are referring to the overall volume controls, there is no volume control/mute for the camera application. (Settings options for camera are: zoom|flash|white balance|store location|focus/exposure settings).

I'd like to really tie this question's answer off with a bow: aside from the root option and app option, is there an option to turn off sound in the camera/system settings? [Temporarily muting the phone is a poor option.]

The 'click' sound is required by law in some areas to alert those nearby that a photo is being taken.  It is intended as a measure to prevent privacy violation.

Yeah, I thought I had heard something like that, but for telephone voice recorder apps.

@bryan & @wmitsuda : so what would be more effective on mem/speed (the droid is terrible at opening the camera app) - an app or deleting a sound or replacing the sound?

You'll need root to delete the sound file, but this should be it:
Delete /system/media/audio/ui/camera_click.ogg

Repercussions?  It won't play the sound anymore? :)
Alternatively, you could download another camera app that does not produce a camera sound.

As some history for why you just can't turn it off, digital cameras (and camera phones in particular) were starting to be used by peeping toms precisely because they didn't make any sound when taking pictures.

I am rooted, so thanks for the path. There's no internal setting to mute or change it? Maybe i will have to replace camera_click.ogg with light sabers or something

Works perfectly for me! You might also delete the VideoRecord.ogg file to disable the annoying sound when you start/stop recording a video.

Rename /system/media/audio/ui/camera_click.ogg  to /system/media/audio/ui/camera_click_1.ogg or something,when you feel like getting the sound back,revert to the orignal name.

you could also chmod 000 this file instead of deleting it

If you have "Tasker" installed, then

Create an application context for the camera app
Create a task to set system volume down to zero.

When you exit the camera app, the system volume is restored to its original state.

Oh boy. This made me discover tasker. Quite a nice app.

When you're in the camera, just use the normal volume to turn sound all the way down.  This worked for me on stock Nexus One running Froyo.

so you turn the sound all the way down just prior to taking a picture? Don't you find that if youre trying to take a picture that this method is less than ideal as it adds [time to zero volume] seconds to the moment you try to capture? Paint me impatient but I personally can barely handle the lag in bringing up the camera app.

No, I run CyanogenMod on my phone which removes the sound completely.

If you have a rooted phone you can edit the default.prop file to bring the "No Sound" back to the Shutter Sound menu.
Login to the shell using adb (part of the Android SDK), then switch to super user mode
$ adb shell
# su

Note - depending on how your phone is rooted you may need to confirm that "Unknown Application" can become super user - make sure your phone is unlocked and the screen visible before typing SU  then accept this when prompted or it will just echo the commands out.
Mount the System Drive in read write mode, and copy default.prop to your SD Card
# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/mtdblock2 /system
# cp /system/default.prop /sdcard/

Copy the file to your desktop (I used SWIFTP), then change the line (I used Notepad++ so the line endings weren't mangled) which reads
ro.camera.sound.forced=1

to
ro.camera.sound.forced=0

Copy the file back to your SD card then
# cp /sdcard/default.prop /system/

Exit the ADB Prompt
$ CTRL + C

Reboot your phone.
When you next go into the camera app choose the settings menu and the "No Sound" option should be available.
Alternatively after mounding the /system partition overwrite the shutter.ogg by issuing the following commands
# cd /system/media/audio/camera
# cp sound0/no_sound.ogg sound3/shutter.ogg

Kill the camera app if it's already running, start the camera app, choose "sound3" and then you'll have a silent shutter.
Works on my T-Mobile-UK customised Sony Ericsson Xperia X10i, but should work on most (all?) rooted Android phones.
If you actually enable the "No Sound" option, not only does it disable the really loud camera shutter racket but it means when listening to music it no longer goes silent to allow the shutter sound to be played, and it seems to take photos much faster.  Changing the .ogg files doesn't gain you these advantages.
Thanks to zephyrix's hint at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=713295 and for j4mm3r's note on how to make /system writeable.

Just for information, this trick does not work on Motorola Milestone. There is no setting "ro.camera.sound.forced", and there is no /system/media/audio/camera directory.

On the Motorola RAZR-i the setting is not in the default.prop but in the build.prop. Thanks to Kev and the xda-developers

I use an app called Silent Camera.

I suppose this must be new for Froyo but in the camera settings there is an option to turn off the shutter sound.

Good to know, now im going to have to reupgrade to the non beta nexus build and use the appropriate moto-droid build; too bad i just bought SetCPU and the build VZW is passing out is the FR33 one that one-click root doesn't work for yet

The option to turn the shutter sound off is not new in Froyo.  I am using 2.1 Eclair on a Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) and under Settings:[Wrench Icon] scroll to the second page there is the "Shutter sound" option where you can select one of three different sounds or "Off."

I did not have that option for either OS with my motorola droid; perhaps it is a setting for your particular model?

Are you using some kind of ROM? I have stock Nexus One 2.2.1, and I don't have it.

@kkap what is the build # of 2.2.1? Im running 2.2 FRG22D. Also, I am curious to know if all of these answers about an option are unique to the Nexus, or if the lack of an option is unique to the droid.

@mfg it's FRG83. I just suspect that that option is part of some ROM. Does anyone with a stock version of android have it?

Must be a regional thing, pretty sure I always had that setting on my old HTC Magic from Cupcake onwards, and I still have it on my Galaxy S (International) from Eclair to Gingerbread 2.3.3, stock ROMs on all, I'm in the UK.

Without ROOT you can use this application it works on a range of phone's although not all of them:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.blundell
Stock Camera / No Shutter Noise
The original silent camera app! :-)

Placing the volume level at silent (below vibrate) will eventually turn off all the sounds including the one for camera.
Note: I use SonyEricsson X10 series.

If you are using a Lenovo mobile, please process should work:
Turn on your camera --> Go to Settings --> Click on the 3 dots to pull up more options --> Set Snap Sound to OFF

He specifically asked for 'Motorola Droid' and my dear friend, this is 6 years old question.


text:
Can I edit auto-complete dictionary?
Currently my LG G2 Swype-style input with the LG keyboard gives me boneheaded suggestions like tho for to (and actually prefers them). I see elsewhere that user dictionary editing is not available, but some of these entries are five years old already. Any progress on this front?

You can change the words in the user dictionary by going to Settings > Language and Keyboard > User dictionary. From here you can edit as you wish. There is another way mentioned here that may be easier for you: How to remove misspelled words from your Android Dictionary
"Maybe this is more obvious to everyone else, but the dictionary is accessible from the speech-to-text button. The gear icon actually means something! Long-press the microphone to get to the Touch Input settings menu. From there, click User Dictionary and edit out all your "well, crap, I did it again!!!" entries. You can also add entries (at the top), you can long-press an entry to edit, or click the red X to delete."
This is a good article that I have read before. Hope it helps!

have you seen word-prediction exist outside of mobile in any word processors or email clients?

I'm afraid that is not possible for the stock LG keyboard on the LG G2. You can only edit words that you have added yourself using Jimmy's method above (or below?), that is, words in the personal dictionary; but you cannot delete words that came with the standard dictionary. Sadly tho came with Lucky Goldstar's stock dictionary. At any rate, I commend you on your choice of phone, Sir.
(My suggestion would be to switch to Swype, which is free and better anyway. In Swype, you can long-press a suggestion to delete it from the built-in dictionary. I do believe that Swype's dictionary cannot be easily exported to other keyboards in case you want to switch later, but I haven't looked into it.)