text:
Does selecting "delete thumbnails" actually delete "save as" images from your phone?I
I just started using "save as" on Firefox for Android and I saved a lot of important images that meant a lot to me. Then unrelatedly my phone started acting weird, it became very slow and laggy. So I installed ccleaner and since it couldn't do much for my healthy and not crammed full system I simply selected Delete thumbnails and let the app do its work. Minutes later looking for my photos they only came up in Download history and when touched it says the file is gone. Did CCleaner "delete thumbnails" actually delete all my recently downloaded jpg??? If not, where are they? I've been in Gallery, searched files by name, everything. I don't use an external memory card and I'm using a Samsung J7.

Since you use Save as instead of Save target as, the image actually getting saved is the view created by firefox which is  of very low size that is less than 50kb.
So, some cleaner apps consider images with less than some size (say 60/100kb) as thumbnail and remove it.
Here, the same happened to you.
Next time, consider save link as or open image -> (and  when full image is loaded) Save image

Thanks for answering Sagar, your answer is helpful and informative. I have to add that this sucks. The only reason I'm using my phone internet for serious things is because my computer magically broke 4 days ago and I have no idea how to fix it. Hopefully the guys at Tom's Hardware will be as helpful as you are.

Try the solution I mentioned in answer


text:
I'm getting about 40Mbps transfer rater over WiFi (from phone to Linux). Is it that slow because of the SDCard on the phone?
I have a WiFi connection which, in the settings, says:

Transmit link speed
866Mbps
Receive link speed
780Mbps

I've installed PowerFTP on my phone and transferred a large video file (about 40 min.) from my Android (Pixel 5a) phone to my Linux computer. My network is a 1Gbps all around (switch, NICs, WiFi router) except for the WiFi transmission itself (obviously).
The transfer rate shown by PowerFTP is around 5Mb/s (or ~40Mbps).
Why is that transfer rate so low? Is there something else limiting the speed along the way?

Update:
My Network looks more or less like this:
+-------+        +-------------+        +--------+        +------+
|       |        |             |        |        |        |      |
| Phone |<::::::>| WiFi Router |<------>| Switch |<------>|  PC  |
|       |  WiFi  |             |  LAN   |        |  LAN   |      |
+-------+        +-------------+        +--------+        +------+
~700mbps         ~700Mbps  1Gbps          1Gbps            1Gbps

The LAN has a switch and that connection is local (as in 192.168.x.x).
There are other devices on the WiFi (3 phones, a laptop--which was off when I tested the above).
Of course, I can see some WiFi devices from my neighbors... so I understand there can be interference there.

The higher Wifi connection speed values you have included are these values measured e.g by an app or web site or is this just the connection speed shows in WiFi settings? If it is the latter the shown value is a theoretical value that can never be reached. Also keep in mind that the air is a shared media used by multiple WiFi and other systems like Bluetooth baby phones, ...

@Robert That's the values found in the WiFi settings of that specific connection. I understand that there could be collisions (and thus some slowdown), but what I'm getting is about 20× less!

Is your Linux PC connected via WiFi or Ethernet? If it is WiFi then the data have to be transmitted twice through the air phone > router > PC. Also check how many other WiFi s around use the three channels of your WiFi. If you use a WiFi with more bandwidth try to narrow it to reduce collisions with other Wifis - sometimes a slower WiFi connection speed can result in a higher practical speed.

Additionally you shoud perform a real network test like iperf3, there should be also apps available that can do so. Run the iperf3 server on your PC and test from the phone.

Okay, I have iperf3 installed in Termux, I'll check with that and report. Otherwise I added some info about my network. The WiFi is on the LAN as far as my PC is concerned.

can you try another app please? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.xnano.android.ftpserver,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=lysesoft.andftp

I can remember of similar issue with LAN drive app. at least they mention in app description

that's limitation from PowerFTP. before buying ask support if pro version will increase speed (not sure about this)

Do you have proof of that? I can't find anything other than your answer which would confirm your statement. It's not that I don't believe you, but I would think that they would mention it somewhere if that was the case?

just my common sense of how things work - that's why you should ask support for confirmation

Please do some test. downvote to indicate PowerFTP is not the cause. Only upvote/accept to confirm PowerFTP has some speed limitation (in whatever kind). That's my sense of how community can create references if no other sources exist

Okay, I had the opportunity to test with AndFTP which you proposed above and it worked as expected! Much faster. So I guess PowerFTP is rate limiting you (at least the free version) even though their info doesn't say anything about that...

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How do I force a new DHCP IP address on my Android?
I have a Linux system with the default DHCP server (ISC) and an Android phone Galaxy J7 which connects and gets its IP address from the DHCP server.
Right now, the Galaxy J7 was allocated an address automatically, but I'd like to force assign a different one. I've changed the settings in the DHCP server and I know those work since I had those used before and it was just fine. Now I changed the network IP address for my new WiFi router so the device was assigned a new IP automatically before I changed the setup to force the static IP.
How do I force the phone to pick the new IP address? I tried for forget the WiFi setup and re-enter it, but the exact same IP was re-assigned. So I think that the server memorize that IP. I looked in the leases:
less /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases

and I can't find the IP of my phone!?
I tried to restart the server too, but that usually doesn't help at all and guess what... It didn't do anything about the existing lease (and yet it's not in the list of leases!)
So I'm at a loss.
For Linux, I've seen that you can use dhcpclient -r and then dhcpclient to reassign a new IP. But for the Android, Termux says those commands do not exist. I probably need to properly reset on both side...
Someone has done that successfully before?

You should focus on server side. Android's DHCP client is in Java stack which isn't configurable or manually controllable. It's the server which remembers MAC vs. IP mapping and usually reassigns the same IP. DHCP client may also remember the IP address and may forward that in a new DHCP request but ultimately it's the server who decides which IP to assign.

@IrfanLatif Oh! I finally got it. The DHCP was not running correctly and thus did not properly distribute IP addresses. Once I fixed the server, the IPs were properly assigned again. Since I did not have any issues with my server in a long time, I did not think of checking that part. Thank you.

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


text:
Need to connect to old device that only support 2.4Ghz wifi
I have a router at home where I don't have access to settings as it is managed by the landlord. The router has the same SSID for 2.4Ghz and 5GHz.
I also have a wifi camera that I want to connect to that does not support 5Ghz Wifi. How can I disable 5GHz wifi completely on my phones? I can't seem to find any setting on either of my phones. The devices in question are Sony Xperia 5 II and Samsung S22.
I don't want to throw away a perfectly working camera just because it is not super modern.
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Added:
I need to connect to the camera directly from my phone - when I open the camera app it says "Camera does not support 5Ghz Wifi, please connect your phone to 2.4 GHz Wifi". I believe, it is needed to setup the camera's Wifi connection or something.

Looks like the app is using this "obscure morse system"  to transmit initial set-up data to the camera via Wifi even if the camera is not yet connected to the Wifi. Usually the packet length of the encrypted Wifi packets is used to transmit the WPA2 key to the camera so that it can join the Wifi system (Warning: transmitting a secure Wifi key just obfuscated = more or less in clear text over a Wifi network is insecure and may be intercepted by others, revealing your WPA2 key).
To make this work the camera is sniffing for all surrounding (2.4GHz) Wifi networks. Therefore the used smartphone also has to use 2.4Ghz otherwise the camera will not be able to sniff the relevant data.
To solve your problem you would have to temporarily disable the 5GHz Wifi of your router. If that is not possible you can try to force your phone to use 2.4 GHz.
Some Android versions have a WiFi Frequency Band setting (see Wifi -> three vertical dots -> advanced). If your version has no such setting you can try to use pure physics:
Tha maximum range of 5GHz networks is, because of the frequency, smaller than those of 2.4Ghz networks. Thus if you increase the distance to your Wifi router or use other ways to decrease the signal strength, the phone should switch to 2.4 GHz. Make sure that the camera is placed half way between you and the router so tat it can sniff the WPA2 key and then connect to the Wifi.

Thanks Robert. I am going to try today to configure it using an old phone without 5 GHz band. I have not found in my phones which are S22 and Xperia 5 II how to disable 5 GHz Wifi, and I was certain I was doing something wrong. Now it seems the setting is not present in either.

If both 2.4GHz and 5GHz WIFI are available, the camera will automatically connect to 2.4GHz.  It will not even attempt to connect to 5GHz as it does not have an antenna for it.  That is, it can't even see the signal.
You do not have to disable anything.

I need to connect to the camera directly - when I try the camera app it says "Camera does not support 5Ghz Wifi, please connect your phone to the 2.4 GHz Wifi". I believe, it is needed to setup the camera's Wifi connection or something. Sorry for the confusion. However, you gave me an idea - I can use an old phone with 2.4 Ghz wifi only and setup the camera and connect to it with any device afterwards. Thank you!


text:
What is the easiest way for me to recover all my Whatsapp messages?
I recently got a new phone and changed my whatsapp number. However, while I was added to all previous chat groups in my new phone, I couldn't see the chat history. Since I changed my whatsapp number on my old phone as well, I no longer have the chat history for my old number.
What is the easiest way for me to restore all my messages?
I followed this link: https://geeknizer.com/read-extract-whatsapp-messages-android-iphone-blackberry/ which i got from https://stackoverflow.com/a/15427040/16197225
I managed to find an encrypted file called msgstore.db on my old android. However, this solution doesn't work for me as I don't have a paid ActiveState subscription and thus can only create public projects, but due to privacy concerns, I would prefer to avoid this method.
Also, I just thought of another question: Is it possible to use one whatsapp account for two phones?

Login back on your old device and it will detect a local backup
restore the backup then make a google drive chat backup with your email address in whatsapp settings and now go to the new device and make sure to delete whatsapp and all of its data and download it again then login and restore the data from drive :)


text:
Work profile - Turn off auto rotate / access settings
I am using a work profile (set up via Insular) in order to clone some apps. I have an issue I can't seem to find any info about on the internet and I'm hoping someone can help me here. I am using ColorOS on Android 13 if that has any importance.
I have auto-rotate off on my phone. That means I can use an app while laying on the side and keep portrait mode. If I switch to an app from work profile however, auto-rotate is on and the app will flip. The quick tiles still show it's off so I can't change it from there.
Issue: How can I access the settings app for work profile? I cannot clone the settings app. Apparently it's already cloned? But then how do I access it so I can turn auto-rotate off from there? I can see it in the app list but not open it. There is no shortcut anywhere too.
I would be fine with just a way to disable auto-rotate for work profile though.


text:
Apps suddenly unable to access SD card for seemingly no reason
SOLVED (see accepted answer)
So this one is weird.
Everything was working fine untill I rebooted my phone earlier today.
For some reason, since this reboot, apps are unable to access my SD card storage. As far as I know, no update was applied with this reboot. I do not recall tinkering or changing anything related to this recently.
Symptoms

SD card is still visible in the storage tab of the settings (there is no available option to unmount or eject it) or in select cases when choosing a folder from an app, however the content does not show up past the root.
My music player (Oto music) sends an error message "Cannot play this file" while trying to play a song from the SD card
File explorer will not show the SD card directory at all
Resillio Sync has a synced folder on the SD card. It now says "Can't open the destination folder". If I try adding a new synced folder on the SD card and select the root of the SD card, I get the message "Android OS restricts access to this folder"
Google file is stuck in a loop trying to get permissions to access the card
SD card works just fine on another phone.
Other SD cards have the same problem with my phone, not just this one
SD card does not show up when using file transfer with a Windows PC
Rebooting the phone did nothing
Removing the card and putting it back in again did nothing
Formatting the card did nothing
I factory reset the phone. It worked, but the problem came back at the first reboot.

Current state of investigations
I have reset the phone a second time and reboot it every time I install an app, uninstall or disable a system app or change some settings. So far the SD card is still accessible so I know what it's not:

it's not the fault of disabling system apps
it's not related to using a work profile (Insular)
still haven't found an app that causes it

I have no idea what could cause this, all I know is it's related to my phone in particular and it appeared out of nowhere.
I am using Android 13 on ColorOS.
Thanks to anyone who can help.

If you wouldn't have checked multiple SD-cards my guess would have been a defect SD-card, but not this isn't an option. Thus the only other alternative I see is a problem with the SD-card reader. Have you tried to completely power down your phone (not reboot, really put it off). Some times independent controllers go mad and some of them are not reset by a reboot, only by a power off.

@Robert I have powered down the phone entirely but maybe didn't do it for long enough. Anyway, I have also tried to factory reset the phone. It worked, but at the first restart the problem was there again. I am suspecting an issue with the firmware.

SOLVED
Found the thing!
This bug is caused by activating the option Disable permission monitoring in the Developper Options.
This is an option that is specific to a handful of phone manufacturers (Oppo in my case).
Enabling this option is needed for using some tweak apps such as Shizuku. However, if it is enabled on phone boot, SD card will be unaccessible.
FIX
Disabling this option and rebooting the phone fixed it.
If you still need to use this option, you can enable it while the phone is on and disable it before rebooting. It will work fine despite this minor inconvenience.


text:
Android Studio: Can't add sdcard to AVD using external file
I've just recently moved to a new laptop (Migrated from Windows 7 to 10) and I'm now setting up my development environment for android. As such, I've created a new AVD using Android Studio. However I can't add an SD card using external file, as the option is greyed out. I'm using the same AVD Setup as in my old environment (except that it's newly created).
I've read that for some people the option remains disabled until they've run the mksdcard tool, I've done this and restarted however I still can't add the SDCard of my old device.

Also tried creating an AVD with different settings, no changes. Any ideas?
Excuse me if this post is more in-scope for stackoverflow or superuser!


text:
What was my phone doing and why?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S7. Yesterday and today it behaved very strangely. In the order I noticed things:

it thought it was Thursday on Wednesday. I got reminders about appointments that had "already started", that sort of thing. I restarted and it now agreed it was Wednesday
mail stopped coming in. (I use Outlook.) I didn't notice for some time, but looking at what mails I actually got that day, this was the next thing to happen
mail stopped going out. I forwarded some emails to someone else who didn't get them
when I typed a text, I could see the words I was typing, but they disappeared when I pressed Send and were not visible in the conversation. The recipient got the texts.
when I received a text, I got the expected noise and could see the text contents in the notification at the top of the screen, but if I tapped it, the conversation did not update
A hard power down fixed nothing

Throughout this, it worked fine as a phone (voice calls) and both Skype and WhatsApp worked perfectly. There is no doubt that I had data all the time. A game I play while waiting which insists on being connected worked fine, except for the first time when I came home and got on the wifi, where it would neither connect nor object that it couldn't connect. That's when I did the hard power down, left it 10 minutes, and powered it up again.
In the morning I sent a text and to my great surprise, what I typed stayed on the screen and I saw the reply too. However sending me pictures still did not work. Several hours later, emails started coming in and an hour or two after that the person I forwarded the emails to got them. And four or so hours after that, pictures in texts (multimedia messages) are happy to download and display.
Is there a single thing that can be wrong with a phone (and remember, it's not "you don't have data") that could cause this constellation of strange behaviours and magical self fixing?
There is plenty of storage space:

you should reboot your device more often

since reboots, both hard and soft, did not fix this, and the problems resolved without a reboot, what makes you suggest this, and how often do you think I reboot it now, @alecxs?

the issue is lack of memory, too much apps running in background. on my old samsung sometimes the keyboard didn't even print what i type. reboot once a day seems to be the best solution


text:
Emulator startup issue
I am trying to run a standard AVD (ARM, empty layout, other settings as proposed by Android Studio) on the emulator. Enabled -verbose, -debug all and -show-kernel modes.
The emulator boots, but ends up in complaining that it cannot connect to a certain socket (127.0.0.1:1970). I tried to open a TCP socket at this port, and got a message from SDKCtl multi-touch - it is trying to establish an handshake.
Does anybody know a workaround, or may at least explain what SDKCtl exactly is, and what it is trying to connect to?
I am on a Mac with El Capitan.
UPDATE
I found a workaround. Just use, when starting the emulator, the option:
-screen no-touch

At this point Android boots (very slowly), the device screen is not empty anymore, but a "process system isn't responding" message appears, and the system stays there.
SECOND UPDATE
In the log from the emulator, I noticed this error:
goldfish_fb 9010000.goldfish_fb: coherent DMA mask 0xffffffff is smaller than system GFP_DMA mask 0xffffffffffffffff

THIRD UPDATE
If one does not issue the -screen no-touch option, and waits a lot, in the end the virtual device boots, with the "process system isn't responding" message. At this point one may click on "wait" on the device message. And then the device seems to work. But the errors in the log are still there.

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


text:
Visual and sound notification calendar application for Android
I need a calendar application to give me an alarm at a certain date and time but I need visual and sound notification in the same time, like an alarm with text. Can Google Calendar notifications use sounds?
I have Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, Android 11.


text:
Phone contacts list displayed without contacts from a different google acount which I added on my phone
I use my friend's google account on my Android phone (Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro) to help him sell on ebay. All his phone numbers from his contacts list now appear in my contacts list. I don't want the numbers from his list to show up, what can I do?  I also want to continue using his account, to help him.

Why do you need a google account to access ebay?

It' s something similar with Ebay, called Wallapop.

Settings -> Accounts & Users (dont enter Google) -> select your friend's Google account -> turn off sync
You will then have to manually delete all his contacts from your Contacts App.
Next time remember to turn off syncs when logging in to Google accounts :)


text:
VPN over proxy (global)
How to run VPN over (global) proxy on Android (with root and without)?
The situation: VPN service app doesn't provide proxy functionality, but proxy is necessary.

Possible additional context posted on Security.SE: ISP-restricted VPN on Android

I didn't figure out. I can set up some proxy implementation using certain apps from play market, but it doesn't work globally, like VPN mode. Yes, certain apps provide VPN functionality, but i don't want to use proxy as VPN. Instead, i wan to use VPN over proxy.

Couldn't figure out your exact use case but yes that can be done, and I am using that setup sometimes for specific needs:
One would need an app that supports Proxy and I recommend ProxyDroid because of a plethora of features it offers (though you can search for other suitable apps in Playstore):

** FEATURES **

Support HTTP / HTTPS / SOCKS4 / SOCKS5 proxy
Support basic / NTLM / NTLMv2 authentication methods
Individual proxy for only one or several apps
Multiple profiles support
Bind configuration to WIFI's SSID / Mobile Network (2G / 3G)
Widgets for quickly switching on/off proxy
Low battery and memory consumption (written in C and compiled as native binary)
Bypass custom IP address

Setup isn't complicated at all but it needs root, simply input socks IP and port, configure app list and other tweaks if needed and you are good to go. You can then go ahead to connect to regular VPN.
(Dislaimer: I am no affiliated with ProxyDroid)


text:
Fumbled my phone and somehow accidentally disabled a feature I depend on: Voice Recorder stays on-screen when screen is locked
I fumbled my phone just now and somehow accidentally disabled a feature I depend on, which has worked fine for years: Voice Recorder stays on-screen when screen is locked.
Now the app is unusable while the screen is locked (i.e.: it behaves just like every other app).
I'm trying to figure out what I checked or unchecked in my haphazard attempt to snatch my phone before it hit the ground.
I've looked thru the settings, but the closest thing I've found is "display over other apps", which doesn't seem to do what I want.
Android 10 running on a Motorola One Action.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Could you [edit] and add some more details, like what is the device model, Android version, and which voice recorder app?

@AndrewT. Thanks, forgot to add that info. It's in there now.


text:
Locked out - Changing PIN via TWRP recovery when disk is already decrypted
I have a rather unusual scenario for which I need your help. I am running an OP9 Pro with Nameless ROM A13 and Microsoft Intune forced me to set a 8-digit PIN. After the last update however, Nameless started to automatically decrypt (FBE) after entering 4 digits after booting even though I need to enter 8 digits, which is probably a bug. When going into TWRP recovery, the decryption with the 8 digit code works just fine, so I backed up my data in case a reset is needed.
However I am wondering if there is any other way via ADB to change the PIN back from 8 to 4 digits. When in adb shell, it says
OnePlus9Pro:/ # locksettings clear -- old XXXXXXXX XXXX
/system/bin/sh: locksettings: inaccessible or not found
Maybe I'm missing something here. Would appreciate your help. Thanks
Edit: Would it be sensible to try to dirty flash another ROM without said "bug" over this?
Edit 2: This circumstance actually prevents me from using my phone, as it automatically tries to unlock after entering 4 digits (even though 8 are needed) and therefore fails to unlock. By decryption in TRWP I knew that the 8 digit PIN is still correct and in place.

it seems credentials aren't used, otherwise one of both would fail to decrypt

Sorry I may have not been clear enough, the regular PIN screen right after booting is preventing me to unlock/enter my phone because of said scenario. It automatically tries to unlock after entering 4 digits (but 8 are needed) and therefore displays "Wrong PIN". By decrypting via TRWP I just got reassured that the 8-digit PIN is still valid.


text:
Advice Setting Up an Android Phone for an Elderly User
My grandmother wants to use a smart phone but I'm struggling to set it up in a way that is intuitive for her.  Although she's used older mobile phones for decades, she doesn't have any experience with desktop computers or user interfaces and at 84 it's very difficult to pick up those metaphors.  She asked for a touch screen phone in the first place and I think feels some obligation to use it, so we'll pretend going back to a feature phone with physical buttons isn't an option, even though I think that would be the best choice.
All she really needs to be able to do is take calls, easily check missed calls and contacts, and access the dialer. Even text messaging isn't really important.
However far as I can tell Android isn't at all designed for someone like this.  The best I've been able to do so far is make contacts the only app on the home screen so there's always a clear way to get back to it (press the home button) and use the AOSP contacts app since it has a tab that displays favourites in large tiles with photos. The latter is really the only saving grace right now and what I'd like to aim for across the whole workflow since it's extremely visual and intuitive, all she has to do is tap on a picture of someone she knows to call them.  Even still, it's extremely easy to get lost in the rest of the UI; there are too many extraneous buttons, apps don't reset their state, and the few other apps that display large photos insist on opening menus instead of a one-tap dial.  the dialer is also an issue, I'm yet to find a way to put the keypad front and center instead of hidden behind a small bubble.
I've checked a number of alternative apps and launchers that advertise being easy to use for seniors but most replicate the same UI paradigm but with large, high-contrast buttons.  While I'm sure that's helpful for a lot of people the fundamental issue here isn't vision but struggling with the idea of buttons and menus in the first place.
I'm wondering if anyone else has faced this kind of problem and what kind of solutions you found.  I'd appreciate any advice or app recommendations.  I'm actually quite surprised there's no existing ultra-streamlined UI for the sake of accessibility.

There are Android phones designed for elderly people. The usually have their own UI and make it difficult to leave this area so the elderly users don't accidentally get to the underlaying Android system. Alternatively you can try to simplify Android by using a special launcher app that only provides a limited set of features and has large fonts and buttons.

Realme UI has simple mode, which is somewhat related https://c.realme.com/in/post-details/1490981450181246976


text:
Rampant Google Play Services and Location problems since Nougat 7.0 Update on LG Stylo 2
I have an LG Stylo 2 running android on Virgin Mobile.
Since the Nougat OTA has been rolled out a week or two ago, I have had numerous and far-reaching problems with the device, and troubleshooting each of these problems individually has been unsuccessful.
The worst/most annoying are:

Constant "google play services has stopped" or even "google play services keeps stopping" messages.
Frequent messages "authentication is required" messages in the play store asking me to log into my google account, though I am logged in (this also happens in other apps, and it won't take me to a login screen)
Huge issues with location and GPS. Location is on, and when I try to toggle the mode to "high accuracy", it automatically toggles back to "GPS only".
Same with the Qualcomme IZat performance improvement service:

When I turn it on, it just turns back off. GPS occasionally works with google maps if I boot up the GPS status app, but will not work at all with location-based apps like "Pokemon Go".

I am also unable to use the LG backup service.

Things I have tried:

Rebooting phone/taking out the battery multiple times (this actually makes the "google play has stopped" messages more frequent after reboot for a while).
Clearing data and cache for google play services and google play store, as well as all cache on the phone, multiple times.
Uninstalling and reinstalling all of the apps with issues, including google play services and google play store.
Disconnecting and reconnecting my google account (this gave me numerous errors trying to reconnect the account

It took me many tries. and I was worried I would never be able to reconnect the account initially.

"Force Stop" Google Play Services and Google Play Store
Toggling Airplane mode and location on and off.
Checking for updates to Firmware/Phone etc. Daily!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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


text:
Internet doesn't work when screen loses focus
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Running on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 Stock with no Custom roms / or root ( and never done , yet ;)
I have a problem with some apps like skype, dropbox and solid explorer ( and probably afew more but im too lazy to write all of them) those apps works fine as long as the mobile screen is on and they are opened in front end so at the moment i decide to press home to put them on background or the moment i close the screen ( by pressing the power button once ) whatever operation running fails ex. Call on skype , download from dropbox / on solid explorer.
The only error i was able to capture (from solid explorer)  is (same happened now while uploading screenshot to stackoverflow -android app- i must keep screen open for it to work) :

The source is a file on the dropbox folder

I figured out that the problem is with the power saving mode , once i turned it off apps worked correctly again ( pretty surprising how aggressive it is )
I hope this helps someone!


text:
get cellinfo with adb shell
I have just installed adb and I am trying to retrieve information on the cellular tower which my phone is connected to. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Trend Lite running Jelly Bean OS (4.1.2). I have rooted the phone and I am using the adb shell as super user.
I tried to use dumpsys telephony.registry from the shell, which gave me a cellInfo parameter, but it's equal to null.
I would like to retrieve a string with info like MCC, MNC, LAC, and CID possibly. Is this feasible? Is this the right way or is there a better one?
UPDATE 1
As suggested by @xavier_fakerat I opened a terminal in ubuntu and I typed adb logcat | grep -E 'MCC|MNC'. However I received the following message which does not seem useful to me (maybe I'm wrong...)
I/SA ( 2688): [OR] onReceive log=[SA = 1.6.0125 V = 16 HWD = 800X480 1.5 dpi = 240 SIZE = 2 LOCALE = it_IT CSC = ITV MCC = 0 MNC 0 T = user DEVICE = kylevess P = kylevessxx I = JZO54K M = GT-S7390 OKLEFT false DIS JZO54K.S7390XXUAOI1 PSS = 3.979127307850313 ]

UPDATE 2
I also tried the suggestion of @Ali Said and I was able to get the cid, although the output sometimes is equal to 0, sometimes is 68. I did the second option he proposed
adb logcat -b radio | grep "cid"

and received many rows like
D/RIL     ( 1391): RIL:[AP][RPC EN] msgid=0x413a str=MSG_MS_GET_ELEMENT_REQ tid 472 cid 68

or
D/RIL     ( 1391): RIL:[AP][RPC DE] msgid=0x204 str=MSG_RSSI_IND tid 0 cid 0

So now I think I am left with finding the LAC code only. Nevertheless, none of the solutions so far allowed me to retrieve all the info i was looking for at the same time. Also, option 1 of @Ali Said (adb logcat -b radio | grep ": +CREG:") seems what I REALLY need, but it doesn't output anything. Maybe it's a matter of the +CREG command (if it is an AT command as far as I can understand), which is not supported by my phone. Just a guess, I went very far for my possibilities, but I am pretty sure I am approaching the solution...
Finally, the output from adb logcat -b radio | grep "MCC" is
D/RIL     ( 1391): GetSamsungPLMNname:: GetSamsungPLMNname ::  deci MCC=222, MNC=88
while here is a link to the logcat from the cid info. Hope this could be of interest if someone wants to help me out.

Both of these worked for me:
Option1: grep AT command for cell info
$> adb logcat -b radio | grep ": +CREG:"
D/AT      (  873): +CREG: 2,1,"2444","0FA2A694",6
D/AT      (  873): +CREG: 2,1,"2444","0FA2A694",6
D/AT      (  873): +CREG: 2,1,"2444","0FA2A694",6

[1] phone is registered with the network
[2444] hex : Location Area Code (LAC)
[0FA2A694] hex : Cell Id (cid).
Option 2 : you can grep "cid" from logact -b radio you should get it this. note it is decimal this time.
$> adb logcat -b radio | grep "cid"
D/use-Rlog/RLOG-RIL( 9193): cid: 262317716
D/use-Rlog/RLOG-RIL( 9193): cid: 262317716
D/use-Rlog/RLOG-RIL( 9193): cid: 262317716

Option1 is my personal preference. hope that helps.

So, I tried both options. Option 1 didn't print anything. Option 2 instead is a bit different than your output. It shows many different lines and sometimes cellid is 0 some others is 68. So I suppose now I can get both the MNN, MNC and CELLID but I would still need LAC to get my phone's location with (e.g.) Google geolocation API. I'll update my question to this last update and possibly include a part of the output I am receiving from logcat.

Forget to mention that those logcat are for KitKat ... if you are after newer version use this
adb logcat -b radio | grep -e "< VOICE_REGISTRATION_STATE" -e "< DATA_REGISTRATION_STATE"
03-31 16:25:06.619  2727  2966 D RILJ    : [2823]< DATA_REGISTRATION_STATE {1, fffe, 0032d102, 14, null, 4, 0x29e1, null, 0x0032d102, null, null, 0} [SUB0]
fffe : is LAC in hex
0032d102 : cell Id in hex

Hey sorry for the late reply. I tried that and it worked (although I am using an OLDER version which is jelly bean). So, if you feel to update your answer with your last comment, I'll be happy to accept it! thanks again!

You may need to use  adb logcat and filter using grep. Try this
adb logcat | grep -E 'MCC|MNC'

Credits

Getting cell id through adb

Thanks. I tried that. opening a terminal in ubuntu I typed adb logcat | grep -E 'MCC|MNC' but I received I/SA      ( 2688): [OR] onReceive log=[SA = 1.6.0125 V = 16 HWD = 800X480 1.5 dpi = 240  SIZE = 2 LOCALE = it_IT CSC = ITV MCC = 0 MNC 0 T = user DEVICE = kylevess P = kylevessxx I = JZO54K M = GT-S7390 OKLEFT false DIS JZO54K.S7390XXUAOI1 PSS = 3.979127307850313  ]. I updated my question to include this.

Something wrong with the SIM card, doesn't return any MNC and MCC values, the other values are extracted from logcat info, and might not seem useful, but if are are after cell info, then MCC and MNC should be the focus, however to my surprise it's still returning null values. Is the network locked?

Thanks again. What do you mean by "Is the network locked"? My SIM is from Wind, I am from Italy. If you can suggest how I can check if the network is indeed locked and possibly if there's a way to unlock it (if this would likely fix the problem) I'll be very thankful. Anyway, really appreciate your help!

@umbe1987 I am suspecting something else now. Please check /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/telephony.db. Do you see any information on mobile country codes or networks? I suspecting this file might be missing telephony info , causing MCC and MNC to return null values.However I am not entirely sure so a discussion is welcome

So, I did adb shell logcat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/telephony.db >> /home/umberto/Desktop/out.txt. I then looked into "out.txt" and searched for the term "mcc" and I actually found an interesting thing: I can see the same string I posted in my answer, with MCC and MNC = 0, but also two others where I read D/MccTable( 1910): updateMccMncConfiguration: mcc=222, mnc=88, and D/MccTable( 1910): locale set to it_it. From http://cellidfinder.com/mcc-mnc I read that it refers to "Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA" which is my company in Italy.

Pretty much. I believe the telephony registry is updated. Now try again using the code dumpsys telephony.registry in your device or adb shell  dumpsys telephony.registry in ADB. You should get similar MNC/MCC and wifi data codes

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
Quick way to go to downloads from Chrome?
Often after downloading a file, I try to open this from the notifications page, only for the wrong app to open it. Since I've clicked on it the link has disappeared. Now I have to go through tonnes of menus to find the file! Is there a quicker way?

From the home screen, click the "all apps" button, then there's an app called Downloads. By default, downloads are sorted most-recent-first, so the one you've just downloaded will be at the top.
If even that method is one step too many, you can long-tap on the Downloads icon in the apps menu, then drop it on the home screen to create a shortcut to that app. Now you can open it from the home screen directly.
Additionally, if the wrong app opens a certain kind of file, you can stop that and go back to having a chooser to pick which app to open files with. Open the Settings app, then go to Apps (on some phones it's called Applications manager). Choose the offending app from the list: if it's a built-in app, you'll need to swipe to to the All page. Scroll down and click Clear defaults. Next time you open a file that would open with that app, you'll get the chooser instead (assuming you have another app installed that can open that kind of file).


text:
What does "Add to Queue" mean in "Play Music"?
What does "Add to Queue" mean in "Play Music"?  I've seen an answer elsewhere which said "it adds to the current play list."  That answer makes no sense.  What "current play list?"  There is no such concept in the application.
For example, I'll start the application and no music is playing yet.  I'll go to my playlists and pick one.  Again, no music is playing yet.  Then I can pick "add to queue."  Nothing happens.  I have no idea what that just did.
I then select a song to start playing, and I'm on my way.  I still have no idea what the "add to queue" accomplished.
I'm using the Samsung S4.

This is the expected behavior. Queue is the "Currently Playing Playlist"
You have Playlist A with Song 1,2,3 and 4.
If you start listening to Playlist A, The Currently Playing Playlist will consist of Song 1,2,3,4.
If you see Song 1337 , then "add to queue" while listening to Song 2, the Currently Playing Playlist will consist of Song 2,1337,3,4.
If the next day, you start Playlist A from the beginning, it will still only hold Song 1,2,3,4.

They might have changed the behavior and the queued Song might now play after all objects in the current playlist ( 2,3,4,1337) or if you add song 1338 it might put it after the previously queued song (2,1337,1338,3,4). I cant tell for sure, but the principle is still the same.

Adding to queue means there should be something playing first before the queue is created. Try playing one song then add another music to the queue. Don't pick another song, just wait for the current song to finish. The next song will be the song you placed in the queue.

You add songs one after the other.
So the last song you have added will play at the end.

The accepted answer indicates that the added song will play next, rather than at the end.  Do you see it behaving differently?

If a song is playing and u added a song to the queue and u want to add another it will play after both songs and not after the first one.


text:
Why are android devices equipped with only (relatively) little RAM?
Currently, I can only find devices (phone, tablets or sticks) that are equipped with a maximum of 2GB RAM.  While this might be sufficient for current applications, I do wonder why there are no devices offering more RAM.
I think that having more RAM would not have a significant impact on prices, while being beneficial to multitasking several apps.
So why are there no devices with more RAM?  Limitations by chipsets?  Just the cost competition?  Making people buy new devices with 4GB next year and with 6 in the year after?
My intiuition behind this question: From CPU-power and storage speeds the android devices are more powerful than my ULV-notebook which suffices for all my work and stuff.  I do see potential in replacing my "home server" with a cheap android device.  But I do not understand why they have so little RAM, which could be useful in this context.
PS: I am aware that it is possible to create swap space on the disk and increase swappiness, but the access times are far worse than RAM speed.

This doesn't really seem like something we can answer aside from speculating; you'd probably have to ask the manufacturers.

Not much nspace in a phone for lots of ram chips...

@Martin, as of this comment, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has 3G of RAM, and I see it as one which pushes the industry limits. Only ~2.4G is available to applications, however, with the rest probably allocated to the kernel and/or the GPU. From personal experience, given the apps available today, I could probably benefit from a device with >= 6G to give numerous processes all that they want, while not violating any addressing limitations.

There are several factors, which I'll address (pun intended) in no particular order.
RAM is expensive
Sure, memory chips may be cheap, but that's not the only (or even the main) cost. Alongside the RAM itself you need extra buses, power lines, bigger memory controllers, heatsinks, &c. The RAM also takes physical space on-chip. For oomph-per-dollar, at the moment, you're better off increasing cache sizes rather than memory sizes.
Also, don't forget how power-hungry RAM is. Doubling the RAM capacity means doubling its power budget, which means either your battery life gets even worse, or you need bigger batteries. Now, you could say that the extra RAM could be powered down until it's needed, but (a) don't forget that Android currently tries to keep all the RAM full to save CPU cycles, so the software changes to support that would be very expensive, and (b) that's just giving app developers another way to screw up and run your battery down.
So, it's not as cheap as all that, and you don't want to add more RAM until you can really use it, which you can't, because of
32-bit processors
Remember how desktops and servers only started having lots of RAM when 64-bit processors became popular? That's because 32-bit processors can only have 4 GB of address space. That has to include all the RAM you want to access, plus any memory-mapped buffers for accessing other hardware and storage. By the time you count everything, it effectively limits you to accessing about 3GB of RAM.
With LPAE (the ARM equivalent of Intel's PAE) you can make that a per-process limit rather than a whole-system limit. That is, you could have 8 GB of RAM in your device, and each process could use up to 3GB of it. But that's not as useful for a phone as it is for a server, because of
Single-tasking
Unlike iOS, Android lets apps run background services, but realistically, they're not going to be doing memory-intensive operations. You don't need 2 GB of RAM to sync your email and contacts, and for more intensive background operations, the trend has been to put them in "the cloud", letting big servers handle the heavy lifting and just send the results to your screen. If you think of a smartphone and tablet as just a thin client connected to Internet services, there's no way you'd even need 1 GB of RAM. RAM demands have only grown past that because of increasing screen resolutions and the need to supply large textures to games.
You mentioned potential for multitasking, but it's a tiny minority of users would would ever be swapping between two memory-hungry apps on a tablet or phone. Maybe a paint program and a 3D modelling app? This may be something that changes if manufacturers start bringing Android to desktops or more powerful portables, but right now RAM is not the only thing stopping people using their devices that way. Even if you are multitasking, you have
Fast non-volatile memory
Android devices have an extra advantage that means they don't need as much RAM as desktops or servers: fast non-volatile storage. You mentioned swapping to disk in your question, so don't forget that Windows has been doing this with ReadyBoost, which uses a flash drive as virtual memory (the Windows equivalent of swap space). Using flash memory as swap is actually pretty fast, especially when it's internal memory (so the system integrator can tune everything for its latency and bandwidth) rather than an arbitrary SD card.
Android already lets apps pack up their GUI state into special storage before they go away. This lets background processes take up less memory, and provides a path for Android to move that state to non-volatile memory. I'd expect to see this mechanism used a lot more cleverly in software to make the most of the RAM you already have, before manufacturers start pushing the 32-bit limit.
To summarise: there's no reason Android devices can't have more memory, but adding more isn't just a question of going to PC World and buying a stick of DDR. At the same time, most users won't see any benefit from the extra memory; the way Android devices are used and the way Android apps are written would have to change before they would.
If you want to replace your home server with a cheap, power-efficient ARM computer, there's no need to look to Android for that. You can get small ARM servers that run GNU/Linux, and even some mainstream NASes are easy to install a GNU/Linux distro on. You might even be able to repurpose an Android device for this (for example, Ubuntu 13.04 is supposed to run on a Nexus 7).

Thank you very much for your extensive answer.  There were a couple of aspects I have not thought about before and that help me understand the logic of the android hardware development.  But what I did not even imagine that multi-core CPUs would still be caught in the 32bit address space.

64-bit makes processors a lot more power-hungry, and much bigger. There is a 64-bit ARM architecture now, but it'll be years before we see such CPUs in phones.


text:
Where do APN come from?
When running a fresh ROM, the APN settings are defined by the SIM card inserted, downloaded from the network via some handshake protocol or are they predefined in the rom for each network ?

They are included in Android. The correct settings are determined by your SIM MCC and MNC (Mobile Country Code and Mobile Network Code). If you want, you can view the list of preset APNs by looking at the source code, for example at android-source-browsing.
The file name in this case is /etc/apns-full-conf.xml, but apparently it varies.

On my latest "upgrade" (a new device), I've got 3 "Service SMS" from my provider immediately when the device was turned on. Do those have any effect, or is it really restricted to what's in the sources?

Some carriers send the configuration settings when they detect a new IMEI or ICCID+IMEI combination, but usually these are the same settings that come with the device. If the carrier is uncommon, then the settings that come from your carrier may be more up to date. I suggest trial and error.

settings that come from your carrier may be more up to date Yepp, that's clear. My question was rather if they have any "effect" (i.e. are applied to Android settings), as one hears different things toward that. Support often says they don't do -- but others report they do. I was not able to check back then, as the content was not displayed, and I had not looked up the "previous settings".

IIRC, on vanilla Android they work. But on carrier/user/manufacturer modded ROMs mostly not. I had to install them once on a CM7 device, but otherwise I've had no use for them.

Thank you, onik! Maybe you want to edit that into your question directly, as I find this an important point. If you can find a source for that, all the better. Meanwhile +1 from me :)

PS: Just googled a little. T-Mobile in Germany has a configurator. I selected an SGS3 as device, and was offered to put in my number to receive APN configuration per SMS. Simyo writes that's not possible for Android and iOS, and you need to enter the settings manually. Base (same provider as Simyo) again offers the service SMS. Very confusing...

Next to the pre-configured settings from /etc/apns-full-conf.xml as described in onik's answer, some providers offer to send you so-called "service SMS" for an automated configuration. Opinions on those are quite confusing: Some say those do not work on Android or iOS devices, and you'd have to enter APN data manually (e.g. Simyo in Germany), while others even let you select your device in advance to send you a tailored service SMS (e.g. T-Mobile Gernamy, where I selected an SGS3 and then was asked to enter my phone number to receive the SMS; or Base Germany, which is the same provider/network as Simyo; one might say that's due to the fact that Simyo is a discounter brand).
I'm with mentioned provider named Base (belonging to the E-Plus group). When I got my new Optimus 4X, inserted the SIM, and started it, I immediately got 3 Service-SMS, which were "executed" on my device. I unfortunately did not check the configuration before, so I cannot say what effect they had (if any) -- but at least I've got no error messages, and everything was working fine.
Edit: Comments from onik (on his answer) and Compro01 (here, see below) indicate: whether those "service SMS" do work or not, might well depend on the (device and) ROM used.

On all Android devices I've tried it on, on my provider (Sasktel), I get an SMS shortly after inserting the card that my device cannot be automatically configured with a url to go to to get the proper APN settings.

Thanks for the hint, Compro. I included a note with my answer. I never got the SMS you mentioned; instead I've got those "service SMS" two times on a new device (LG Optimus 4X and Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, both stock-ROM), where they were processed without any error message.


text:
Cloning an application with its full data store between devices
Given a generic application I would like to transfer it, full with its own data, to another device or to the emulator.
After restoring the application and its /data/data/com.app directory it should be supposed to work as normal, provided that its business logic doesn't take into account that the device ID has changed or other facilities (like accounts) are missing.
Copying /data/data/com.app brutally may result in data corruption when app is active.
How do I do that, with or without root?

Solution one: TitaniumBackup
Both devices must be rooted and use TitaniumBackup application. I have found that Titanium doesn't start on Emulator 2.1
Solution two: use adb backup options
Use adb backup and adb restore properly. This would mean to restrict the backup to the single app to be cloned, including its data, but nothing else. This is important as adb restore <file.ab> is an all-or-nothing, no selective restore possible. Full syntax for adb backup is:
adb backup [-f <file>] [-apk|-noapk] [-shared|-noshared] [-all] [-system|nosystem] [<packages...>]

So to only have our "Foobar" app included, we need to connect the device and:
adb backup -f MyBackup.ab -apk com.foobar.app

This done, and adb connected to the emulator, the generated backup file MyBackup.ab then can be restored using
adb restore MyBackup.ab

It gives a 1KB file! With the content of: ANDROID BACKUP
1
1
none
xÚc£ŒT


text:
How to Set 'Play' Button Behavior on Bluetooth Remote
I have a RocketFish Bluetooth headset paired with my MotoDROID v1 (Froyo).  The BT headphones have multimedia controls (volume up/down, next track, previous track, play/pause) and a button to trigger voice dialing.  I have it paired both on the handsfree headset profile and the advanced audio profile.
When I click the play button on my headphones, the behavior is unpredictable.  I might have the Music app up, but clicking play will cause Listen to launch and begin playing a podcast.  I might have Listen in the foreground, but clicking play will cause the Music player to start playing from a playlist.  Other times, the play button will behave as expected and cause the app in the foreground to play.
Is there any way (outside of rooting my device) that I can indicate which app should be acting on these button presses?

I've played with a couple of other apps.  I notice that DoubleTwist has a setting to set the app as the default recipient for headset controls, but it doesn't seem to work.  Same for Cubed (3).  Is this just a busted feature, or is there some hidden setting I haven't found?

I had a similar experience with a Sony MW600 headset on my Droid; I think this may have been an issue with how FroYo handles the bluetooth buttons.   It seems much better (although occasionally no app responds to play) on my Droid Bionic running Gingerbread.

Normaly the developer can set which button do which action. So it is different from app to app.  The only way is, sorry, rooting and remap your headset buttons.

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


text:
Does android auto restore function when I install my app over the usb port in development mode?
Does android auto restore  when I  install my app over the usb port in development mode?

Do you mean installation via android debug bridge (adb)?  you can switches while installing apks to effect different results use

When  I "Run" or "Debug" from my SDK  with  my phone connected by USB,  my application is installed on my phone. I'm trying to get my application data transferred from my old phone to my new phone. I can  see from my google account that I have a backup in the cloud, but I can't get it to restore. When I  use adb shell bmgr com.example.mynewmap example I get  a generic message  "unable to restore data. I'm trying to restore a preferences file and a database file that were backed yup with basckupManaggerHelper.

I meant to type  "adb shell bmgr restore  com.example.mynewmapexample " which is my PACKAGE name.

I have no idea where I will find a token value for my previously stored backup file. I  didn't think it was required when using backupManagerHelper

Didn't find my PACKAGE in token list. Since my backup  is a key/value backup I don't think there is a token value for it.

Ok lets try this bmgr list sets ( the 64-bit hex number on the left is the token we want)

Any luckwith the last option?

No luck. The list command  gave me a backup set for both of the phones but restore would not restore across phones but only to the phone it originated from.


text:
What's the difference between the LG G6 model numbers h870, h870s, h870k and h870v?
I am considering to buy a LG G6.
I am living in Germany and when I did some research, I found that the model number of the G6 version sold in Europe is 'h870'.
But I also found that there are the model numbers 'h870s', 'h870k' and 'h870v' out there.
As I wasn't able to find any difference between those four on the web, I wanted to ask if anyone could please help me with this and point out the differences (if there are any).
EDIT
Apparently there was a typo in one of my sources and there isn't a V model but a L model.
https://www.techwalls.com/lg-g6-model-numbers-differences/

Suffix variants are meant for different regions and carriers around the world, mostly for support of different regional LTE bands.
From PDAdb: H870 supports 14 bands; H870S supports 8; H870K only supports 5. I don't see a "V" variant listed (it's against the naming norm of LG, actually).
AFAIK, Europe uses LTE Band 20 primarily, so both H870 and H870S should do the job locally just fine, but considering international roaming capabilities, H870 is the one you want to get if you do have the money to shell out (EU variants are almost always the most expensive).
One more thing: if you want to tinker with the phone at all (even just rooting, even not immediately), buy the EU variant without hesitation. Only EU (H870) and US Open (US997) variants will ever get official bootloader unlock from LG - not even the Australian variant (which also bears H870 with no suffix).

The EU models aren't only expensive, they also don't have wireless charging, 64 GBs internal storage, Quad-DAC, etc. .

What about the DS (dual SIM) model?

Sure, this year LG has a really strange release strategy (you know they pushed out a "G6+" recently that adds those perks but doesn't change that Snapdragon 821).

The DS variant seems to have the same band support as the non-suffixed version. Needless to say it can't be BL unlocked either (or I would've bought myself one already).

@AndyYan There is an H870V version (at least in Brazil). It is called LG G6 Dual thanks to being able to have two Nano-SIM cards. Still with a Snapdragon 821 but with 64GB of internal storage. I have a photo of a demo displayed in a store selling those very H870V. And, despite not being able to use photos, I think this will serve as proof: https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-h870v-firmwares/

@José Thanks for letting know - I didn't find valid mentions of the V model at the time I wrote the answer.


text:
CPU-Z shows all cores stopped
Is there anybody could help me explain this situation?
By the way, something malicious I don't know (not cpu-z) cause battery drain whereas anti-virus software tells nothing.

Well apps are not perfect, so always try another alternative just to be sure. I recommend OS Monitor. Go to its Misc tab to see the status of cores. BTW, we prefer to sort different issues through different questions. All of them at the same table makes a mess for us. So, please raise that battery issue in a different question with the research/search you undertook and [edit] out the irrelevant stuff in this question. Thanks

Since this is custom ROM here it's probably it's fault for this battery drain and showing all cores offline. This is not malware, if it was malware than someone is very bored or something. Ask rom developer and other users are they occurred similar issues. And ffs stop using mobile anti virus software it's pointless and waste of resources.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Change combined inbox account colors
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
I have 3 email accounts set up in the email client and I would like to change the colors assigned to each of the accounts.
Is it possible? I haven't been able to find any setting to do it. In this question they say it's not possible in Android 2.2, but how about 4.1?

I've tried on my Galaxy S3 and I couldn't find a way to do this.
Searching on the web returns nothing more (aside of trying to delete/recreate an account until it's given the color you want, which I didn't try).
You can use another mail client than the one pre-installed on the GS3.
I've tried the following ones:

MailDroid: great one, possible to choose the color for each account from a palette, free version is ad-based
AquaMail: good one too, you can choose the color for each account from 8 predefined colors, free version has no ads
K-9 Mail: possible to choose the color for each account from a palette, no ads, but looks a bit old

Enhanced email from the market will allow to choose account and notification colors for each account. However it lacks the subject in the notification, which is why I stick with stock.

Your suggestion to use another email client is a good one. It would be more useful if you also include a link to the app you're suggesting.


text:
Upgraded my phone from 1.6 to 2.2 Android version, if I restore "Factory Settings", which version it will be?

Possible Duplicate:
Will factory resetting my device remove the Android upgrade?

I upgraded my Galaxy 551 from 1.6 to 2.2 Android version some time ago with Samsung Kies, now I want to make a factory reset due to reset all of my settings and give the phone to my mother.
I'm wondering about wich version the factory reset will bring to me. It is the factory version (1.6) or the upgraded version (2.1)?

Factory Reset doesn't take your device back to factory condition. It just clears all data, settings, etc.
So your phone will not go back to older Android version. It will be on the upgraded Android version (or any ROM that you have installed) with all data cleared!
Watch this video for more help. At 5:30 the guy answers exactly what you are asking.

On the funny side, I just happened hover over the "factory-reset" tag from the question, it says: "A factory reset results in a full reset of an Android device to the original settings of the currently-installed ROM." That pretty much answers the question I guess! :D


text:
Where to download and install Google Apps on Android 4.0.4 device?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, …) on my Android device?

I have an international android smartphone which doesn't have anything related to Google Play Store installed. So I have to install  GoogleLoginService.apk, GoogleServicesFramework.apk, Vending.apk, ... by myself. I was able to find information about how to do it online but I cannot find where to get those apks for my version of Android, which is version 4.0.4.
If I download them, how can I know/verify they are the right version for the android 4.0.4?

You have to flash GAPPS (Google Apps) ZIP. Click here to download GAPPS for ICS. For alternate links or other gapps versions see this link.


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Android rear wide angle camera realtime streaming
I plan to strap on my Pixel 6a on an RC car to do some low cost FPV driving. It works OK (except for moderate lag). However it would be much better if I was able to stream from backward facing wide angle camera. I am looking for an android app (native or browser - I don't care) but I wasn't able to find any that supports switching between multiple rear cameras. I tried Whatsapp, google meet, snapchat and some obscure ones. I even tried some browser apps, but they do not detect my wide angle camera. When I run https://browserleaks.com/webrtc the android system only "forwards" single front camera and single (main) rear camera.
I was worried that the wide angle camera was accessible only by native camera app, but no, Snapchat can use it too, but not during video conference. I found some internet guides that cycling between front and rear camera also cycles between wide and normal camera, but it doesn't work for my phone (pixel 6a).
Would anybody know how to solve this in a cleaner way than to glue wide angle camera lens on the main camera?

Have you tried OpenCamera or similar open source apps? If an open source app allows using the wide angle camera for videos then there is source code available that shows how to do it.


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Android 10 sometimes not receiving calls
Since getting a new Hisense A7CC (colour Eink, android 10 and GiffGaff carrier in the UK) I noticed how sometimes while internet browsing there would be an error (the site cannot be reached, took too long to respond, ERR_TIMED_out) but didn't think of it too much as the page would load normally if I refreshed or even waited a few seconds for it to do it automatically.
Unfortunately I found a few weeks later that at random times the phone would not receive calls, with the other person calling getting sent straight to voicemail or just not reachable if I disabled the voicemail. If the person on the opposite end was to repeatedly try after about 3/4 times the call will get through, and from then on it will go through without issue.
Same issue with SMS: will not receive straight away, if I waited long enough the phone will start "syncing" and receive all the sent messages and future ones in real time with no delay. When that happens I think the mobile data also "awakens" and whatsapp starts syncing messages etc.
I know for sure that if I was to restart the connection to the cell by turning airplane mode on/off then the phone will be responsive for some time after that. For a while was thinking it had to do with it going into an extreme deep sleep and stopping "vital" functions, that doesn't seem to be the case as I would have the issue with the screen unlocked and using an app.
Is there an app or setting I can use to check the phone behaviour? or perhaps some other things to try just to get more details on what it could be? I have a separate work phone I could use for testing calls etc.
I really like the phone but this issue made me miss a few important calls.

Sounds to me like a problem with VoLTE/5G implementation on the phone (if it is supported by the MONO). What cellular connection types are provided by your GiffGaff plan? 2G/3G/4G/5G? Without VoLTE/5G the phone will fall back to the fastest mode below 4G for making or receiving calls. If this fallback fails you will be not available for calls.

I normally have 5G switched off to save battery. Giffgaff uses the O2 network and provides 3G to 5G, and I would normally have 4GLTE or 4G and 3G if I'm in a remote area. My settings at the moment are:
5G off,
5G NSA/SA mode off (only NSA, since today to try)
Preferred network (4G/3G/2G auto)
VoLTE disabled
What is MONO?
I normally use Network Cell Info lite to see stats regarding the connection

Disabling VoLTE is not a good idea, it is the only way to make calls on 4G/5G. According to what I have read O2 has shut down it's 3G network in UK in 2021. Therefore when you make or receive calls the phone would have to switch to 2G/EDGE connection without VoLTE.

ok I just tried reactivating it. Though I wouldn't see how that would affect sms or data?

SMS should work as normal via VoLTE and the for the data the cellular should open a separate data connection so that this is not charged on your data plan. Only in certain roaming scenarios VoLTE may create some minor data traffic (very few KB a day).


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Stop expansion of player (e.g. spotify, website, etc)
We all know that google has no idea about ux or ui, but I am hoping someone on their end is smart enough to give us an option, that I am just incapable of finding in their settings mess.
android 11, oxygen os 11.0.3.1.hd65aa
Here's the quick low down. In the notification bar, spotify sits above notifications, where the quick actions are. I'm ok with this, even though the player is imo larger than it needs to be. The real issue is when I expand my quick actions. Now spotify becomes fucking huge. There's no need for this to happen. I would like to keep it small. I am talking specifically about this:

It leaves very little room for notifications, and collapsing it all again is a nuisance too.

That is the designed behavior from Android 11 //You can raise a ticket with Google if you want this to be changed //nothing can be offered by the community here

@beeshyams thanks for that information. This is sad news indeed. Google doesn't care about its users, as is obvious by the net negative user experience changes in android, chrome, gmail, etc, but I appreciate the full response.


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Anyone recognise this icon?
[![We have this image supplied to us by a concerned client. Normally we're pretty good at ID'ing these off the bat but this ones proving difficult to ID.][1]][1]
[1]: https://i.sstatic.net/Ix70gSFW.png strong text

It's unclear if this is an app icon of notification icon. If it's a notification icon, then please follow the duplicate question. However, we don't accept random app/notification icon identification anymore because there are million of Android apps and it's unlikely to help anyone else. Sorry.

Might be a custom Bromite icon.


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Wiping all data, without hard resetting my phone
I have to delete all the data on my Android device, without being able to hard reset or factory reset my phone. To explain this precarious situation, my phone has a Power button, that no longer works, my screen is barely functional, with lines across it, and the Micro USB female port, is barely functional as well, only connecting at specific angles and positions. I tried the hard reset approach, and my phone is currently stuck in a bootloop, attempting to enter Recovery Mode, only to fail and try again. I am not even sure, if it will exit this loop once the power runs out, and boot normally, but presuming it does, I will need to delete all it's data before exchanging it.
Assuming I managed to mess up the stock Recovery Mode image, recovery.img, I have devised a few approaches, that I will now mention.
Deleting and entering random data
This method involves deleting all files, and then writing random data to it. Here are the steps I have devised,

Write a shell script, to use ADB to uninstall all apps that can be uninstalled.

Delete all data from emulated storage, using ADB.

Install Termux, and fill the file system with random data, using something along the lines of,

$ dd if=/dev/random of=file bs=64k

I will be the first to admit, this is a dumb and terrible method, but it is the only one that seems mostly plausible to me. My biggest concern, after the fact that it might damage my hardware, from writing such huge files, is the fact that it might not delete the data stored in the root file system at /data. A lot of apps, especially system apps, tend to write there, like Whatsapp, and Whatsapp stores it's entire database, as well as some images there, which I am not confident will be deleted. My biggest goal, is to get all my family images and local text messages deleted.
Flashing stock recovery.img
I have considered this method, however it is unlikely to work in my case. For reasons, I was never able to unlock the bootloader of this device, and boot into fastboot mode. There is apparently a way to replace it with the stock image without booting into fastboot mode, but it requires use of the Power button.
Other options
Other options and solutions I can think of include, somehow formatting without entering Recovery Mode, or unlocking the bootloader, which should format the system. If nothing works, is having a lockscreen password enough, or can it be bypassed by the manufacturer, somehow? I know given the state of my device, it will likely be scrapped for parts, but I can never be too safe, and it feels like my duty, to do what I can.
Which, if any of these are likely to work, in my very specific and precarious situation?

My device is Realme 1 CPH1859.

adb over wifi + scrcpy might help you getting back full control of touch screen. then goto Settings - About phone - Factory reset. no other options left - you can't confirm factory reset from recovery mode without power button

I assume after deleting/overwriting your user data you want to recycle the phone? If yes then may be opening the phone and overriding the power button so you can perform a factory reset.


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Prevent Screen Wake / Activity from Android Timer
I've got an android timer running through the base clock in android 11 (oneplus 7t).
EDIT: It appears I'm wrong. This is the oneplus clock, not the base android clock. Why they would bother replacing that is an entirely different question of stupidity.
Every few minutes it lights up the screen to let me know the progress of the timer. This is the most useless and dumb features I've seen in a long time. I cannot find any way to turn it off.
To reproduce, go into clock > timer > set one for say thirty minutes. Lock screen. Watch screen illuminate and wake in a process of infinite stupid.
Please help, this is annoying as all hell. I need to have my screen visible in case I receive an important message etc, but I don't want this thing stealing my attention every few minutes.

No repro on Pixel 3a running Android 11 with the default Clock app. The behavior may depend on the Clock app, and OnePlus might customize their own Clock app. Try different 3rd-party Clock/Timer app instead.

Well damn, you are right, it appears to be a oneplus app disaster!


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Unable to open Wikipedia app on Android TV
I have Mi TV 4a pro and I want to open Wikipedia app on it. I had installed Wikipedia app on TV via pendrive but when I open the app it crashes. Is there is any way?
Further I had installed chrome browser on TV and when I search on it then it works fine and show results. But how can I open the links? Like when I search "mathematics", it shows Wikipedia link in results but how do I open that link? (As I have TV remote not a mouse to click on link)  Please help.

You should check the Play Store for the Wikipedia app from the TV box directly to see if the app is compatible for your Android TV. Not all apps are compatible with Android TV. As for the second question, usually there are navigation buttons on the TV remote as a replacement to point-and-click.

@AndrewT. Sir, wiki app isn't available on play store (given in TV ). Only limited apps are available. Though I had downloaded a browser named puffin, from which I can open different sites including wiki too. But that browser doesn't support save pages options for offline viewing. Is there any browser available in Android TV play store which can save pages for offline viewing? ( Wikipedia app can save articles! But not working on TV :-( )

Explicit app recommendation questions is off-topic here, but there is an SE site for that: Software Recommendations. However, please follow their strict question guideline to ensure that you get the app you want.


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Encrypted and factory reset - Do I need to decrypt device?
We can remove data permanently from android flash memory, which is encrypted, after a factory reset.
After doing this, do we need to decrypt the device for using it again or factory reset the device?

When the device is encrypted, the decryption key is only known by the current OS.
If you know the pin (for that screen you get before the animation starts), the device can be decrypted and get booted up successfully.
If you don't remember that, then you will need to reset the device. This resetting is similar to a factory reset.
Factory reset will not retain your personal data and apps in the internal storage.
Your external (micro) SD card, if present, can be removed before doing the reset only if it is configured as a portable storage in Android.

It is in the default factory reset state ( like a new device ). You can't decrypt the device even if you wish to as the encryption password (generated from a combination of user lock screen PIN and encryption algorithm ) is lost
From Android's Factory Reset Does Not Wipe Your Data: Here's The Solution

Encrypting does not completely delete the files, but the factory reset process gets rid of the encryption key. As a result, the device has no way it can decrypt the files and, therefore, makes data recovery extremely difficult.

No i don't want to use as encryption device i want to clean data permanently from device.So i have read the solution that if i make encryption in my device and after encryption do the factory reset my device will go to its default setting is it true?After doing this can i sale my device with privacy trust?

Yes. You are right. 1. The device will be in factory reset state like when you bought the device and took it out of the box 2. No one can access your files since encryption key is not available 3. Your privacy is secure. If the answer, meets your expectations please tick the green arrow next to answer ( since you don't have reputation to upvote) . There is no obligation - ticking it means that the answer is accepted

I'm login into my mobile using PIN and my phone is decrypted successfully after that i started factory reset now my all data erased as well as encryption key. My question is when i start factory reset my data will be encrypted or not ?  Because after login into my phone my data is already in decrypted form so factory reset meaning wiping data in form of decrypted format not in encrypted . @beeshyams

@MuhammadFaizanFareed Data stays encrypted, after factory reset, the key is lost, that's why the device treats it as unencrypted and prompts you to encrypt again

Alright. My data will stay encrypted if I'm login into my account before factory reset am i right ?

@MuhammadFaizanFareed yes, if it was encrypted before. If this is not clear, I suggest you make a fresh question, quoting this and explain the complete situation clearly with your doubt


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Disable all notifications from Exchange calendar
I'm using a Nexus 5X, running Android 7.1.2 and using Google Calendar 5.7.20.
I want to view my work calendar on my phone, so I can see it when planning personal things, but don't want notifications, as I have a separate phone (and laptop) for work which go "ding" at the appropriate moment.
In Google Calendar settings, under that account I have set the "Default notifications" to be "No notification", but I still get notifications.
I think it might be due to notifications set within each event (These are useful on my laptop, I don't want to turn them off).
Is there a way to disable the notifications for that calendar, but keep it visible along with the others?


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Any 4 or 5 inch android phone that's easy to bypass activation?
I'm looking for a large phone (4-5 inches) to be used like a small wifi tablet.
The problem is, that one's I've tried previous are pretty insistent on activation.  They'll ask multiple times everytime I reboot, which makes them very difficult to use as a mini-tablet.  Is there a way to tell which phones can have this easily turned off before I buy it?  Or is there a generally easy way to avoid that screen on all Android devices?

Recommendations are off-topic. As for activation, what activation are you talking about?

I'm referring to phone service activation.  Like Virgin Mobile, or ATT.  Not the Google account.

I have revised my question, to remove the word "recommend".

I voted to reopen, but I have only used retail unlocked devices for years... and I usually only get the prompt to "activate" the SIM once when you go through the initial setup wizard... My retail unlocked Moto and unlocked Nexus devices have never asked me to activate the service again. I think this is something built into a lot of carrier branded devices. I use a Nexus 5 and Moto G for light "developing" and hobbyist play toys, and they never ask me to activate them repeatedly.

Thanks.  My last few VirginM devices usually asked me about 5 times, and after failing, it lets me through to the desktop.  So from what it sounds like, I've just been unlucky, and most other devices won't be so much of a hassle?  I'm just asking because I don't know how to tell before I buy.  I suppose my question is more along the line of "How can I tell before I buy?"  Or is there a terminology for this that I can Google?

+1 on what @acejavelin said. "(carrier) Unlocked" devices shouldn't nag you for activation stuff, just optional Google account log-in on first setup.


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My phone (Google) thinks I live in a town that doesn't exist
I live in a town called "Rock Rapids, Iowa." It happens to be partially in Rock Township and partially in Riverside Township of Lyon County, Iowa.
But when I ask for my weather, it says I'm in "Rock ee-uh," and displays my location as "Rock, IA" I'm sure the voice is trying to pronounce the state abbreviation, which is stupid, but is another issue.
The weather is always right, and if I ask it for the weather in Rock Rapids, it's always identical to this mythical "Rock, IA" place, so it's more of an annoyance than anything. But why does it come up like that, and is there any way that I (or Google) can fix this?
I have a Galaxy 6, SM-G920V, running Android 7.0 if it makes any difference.

I noticed recently that both my husband's M9 and my M10 started displaying Brooking Township instead of Raytown. I'm close the Kansas City city limits and I share a zip code with that city so I'm accustomed to having the wrong city display on occasion. However, I did some research and residents of a small area of Raytown named their area Brookings Township. When the city was finally recognized as a city, the official name was set to Raytown. I live on the opposite side of the city with respect to the area that was once known as Brookings Township. I found a US website with all the information about US towns lists and the township was archived as soon as it was recorded for historical purposes. I did a quick poll via the NextDoor app and everyone that has responded verified the same issue began within the last month, for various device models and service carriers. It feels like a purposeful change to jack with us or something. Or it is just an interesting weirdly targeted defect in some part of the software.


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How can we get a list of URLS recently visited by an android device? And the amount of time spent on a URL?
I am trying to figure out how much data collection for time tracking can be automatically done on android devices.
So basically I want to collect the amount of time that a user spends on youtube, facebook etc. It is possible to log the currently running activities, which can be used to figure out roughly for how much time a particular app, e.g. FBMessenger/WhatsApp, was opened. But, I want to also track the browsing pattern of a user in an app-agnostic way.
There are a few parental control apps that promise to do this such as:
https://www.qustodio.com/en/family/how-it-works/

And I want to figure out how they might be doing so, which api/permissions allows for this level of access?
UPDATE: For example the Net-Nanny android FAQ says that
Once those settings are done Net Nanny will Initialize and invite you to
browse the Web! – This will be done thru the Net Nanny Browser.
All other browsers will be blocked.

This is a bad solution since this presumes that a user has to change his/her behavior in order for me to monitor them. I don't want to block anything for the user, only create usage stats.
I also don't want to install a VPN server if it can be avoided because it gives a persistent warning message to the user.

As a side question: did you actually think that your users may not like you to spy on them?

@DeathMaskSalesman There are legit use cases of such "spying" such as parental controls, or research into HCI. In any case I am currently trying to figure out capability not morality.

+1 to your comment, but I have no idea as to how implement it.


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LG E980 mostly unresponsive, only intermittently displays a default background image
After the launcher seemingly bugged out on my old faithful LG E980 (5.1.1 Lollipop) yesterday my phone has been unresponsive and acting very strange. To begin with I hadn't dropped my phone or had anything out of the ordinary happen to it. But when I unlocked it for the first time in the day after unplugging it, the display went straight to multitasking rather than the home screen. When I tried to escape it a dialog popped up asking which launcher I would like to use (with the "Just once" or "Always" options).
After selecting Nova Launcher the home screen appeared with only some of the apps and widgets visible, completely unresponsive. So I rebooted it, and since then the phone will only display (apart from completely normal boot animations) the power menu, if I press the power button in the right way. Or, if I fiddle with the buttons, position it in a certain way, cover the camera or the microphone, I'm not quite sure what triggers it, the screen will display what appears to be an aerial image of a coastline for a moment before going black again.

Here's a video demonstrating the behaviour: https://youtu.be/-YNbFiLNYTo
(In the video all I'm doing is repeatedly pressing the power button. Sometimes the image will fade on and off repeatedly, but usually it will only display once, and only ever for at most a few seconds. The notification light is flashing red, telling me I have an email, which suggests that internally the phone is still working normally.)
I know it looks like a graphical glitch in these low quality images, but to me it looks too close to an actual image, I can see the ripples in the water and everything. I've never used this as a background image on my phone, I haven't seen it anywhere before. Nothing turns up when I try to reverse image search it on Google.
I'm wondering if I'm going to have to restore my phone to factory settings (as recovery mode is still accessable through the power menu) or if someone might know what the problem is and a less destructive way to fix it. It appears most likely to be a problem caused by the launcher acting up.
Thanks for any help.
Edit: New development. I pulled out the phones battery while it was still on, put it back, started it up again, and now instead of the coastline (which I'm guessing was one of default background images on my phone) the phone displays a default screensaver or animated background of some sort. Purple/blue, with bubbles slowly moving around.
The screen will stay on now, but still featureless and unresponsive with the exception of the power menu.
Edit 2: Repeated the same thing with the battery. Now the screen won't display anything at all after start up. Very weird.
Edit 3: I rebooted it and it's back to the purple bubble screen... I'll stop posting these updates now.


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How does the typical Android boot process work?

Possible Duplicate:
Can somebody explain the boot process of an Android device?

Windows follow some specific way to boot:
Start System > BIOS > Load Boot loader > Load WIN Kernel > Load WIN Shell > User > Application.
How does the typical Android boot process work? When comes the "Dalvik VM" into play?

Boot process of embedded system is similar to PC from overview level, but slightly different from microscopic level.
Here's the boot process of an Android device:

PC-BIOS/BootMonitor, MBR and GRUB/LILO etc are all combined in one Boot Strap Firmware called Bootloader. Its init.S initializes stacks, zeros the BSS segment and calls _main() in main.c. The main.c initializes hardware (clocks, board, keypad, console) and creates Linux tags which in turns loads Linux Kernel image in memory.
Linux Kernel sets up the system, loads drivers and starts running the first process init.
The init process involves setup of File System (mount points of /sys etc are created at this point) and execution of init.rc.
Execution of init.rc: It is boot-up script which uses Android-Specific syntax. Zygot process in init.rc brings up Dalvik VM and starts the system server.

All these are happened before Boot Animation is displayed.
For more details of processes, check out this article: http://www.androidenea.com/2009/06/android-boot-process-from-power-on.html


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How can I save photos that I take with my Android's camera in a lossless format?
How can I save the images captured with my Android's camera in RAW or TIFF format?  Are there any apps, ROM/kernel Modifications or other methods that will allow me to accomplish this?
Technically I need to be able to save the RAW data or at least save them as TIFFs however I am also open saving them as PNGs if RAW and TIFF are out of the question.  Converting the natively saved jpegs to TIFF or PNG is not a suitable option for me.
I have seen this question that states that RAW is not possible, however it is over a year old and I'm hoping something may have changed.  I'm also broadening the scope to include other "lossless" options.
I'm currently using a vzw version of the GS3 that is rooted and running a custom ROM.  I regularly use the built in camera, Camera Zoom FX and Camera 360 and none of these seem to be capable of saving lossless images.
UPDATE:  I just found out that PNG does not save EXIF information so it is no longer a suitable option.

I think, that converting JPGs to TIFFs is not an option for anyone! :> Anyway, there is a small (very small and unconfirmed) chance that any real camera with Android (like Samsung Galaxy Camera will have "something around RAW or lossless photos". But, since it is still based on Android, ZnewmaN's answers will probably be valid. Chances, that you're going to get it on GS3 or any other phone with camera on board are even smaller (for below mentioned resons).

Possible duplicate of Taking raw photos using Android devices (the answer on that question is more updated)

The camera api within android is not written to be able to capture RAW. The camera firmware is at the kernel level and would require a custom kernel that is written with RAW in mind. Some of the post processing is being handled on the phone at the camera firmware level making it nearly impossible to find a way to actually capture RAW images.


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SD Card Suddenly Stopped Working -- Cannot Remove Read-Only Attributes
My SD card suddenly stopped working in my Motorola Moto E2, running Android 6.0. When I insert it, it just says "checking..." for ages, then says that it's not inserted. I then removed the card and told Android to forget the SD card. When I insert it now, it tells me that it's in an unsupported format. I try to format it, and I get an error as shown in the picture below (apologies for the size!)
I previously had it formatted as internal storage, and had various apps installed on it. I've tried for format it in my computer, but it is read-protected. I've gone through all the methods online to remove read-protection (specifically using regedit and diskpart), but neither have been successful. I've got AOMEI Partition Assist, but that doesn't even see the SD card. When I plug the SD card in, my computer can see the drive (and data on it), but is in read-only so won't format.
I've also tried MiniTool Partition Wizard, but, while it sees the SD card, since it is read-only the wizard can't do anything with it.
Any assistance would be most appreciated! (and if anyone knows how to make the screenshot below smaller, feel free to edit this question to do so!).

Be careful if your SD card suddenly refuses to write. Is is often an indicator that the contained flash memory is about to fail. Backup your data and replace the SD card.

It's not so much that it's refusing to write, just that it's in write-protect mode. Were it the case that it weren't in write-protect mode, just failing to write, then I'd agree, but this is a genuine Samsung Evo card, that I haven't had for all that long.

Of course it is possible that it is about to fail. However, I have only done a few tests, and so it's a rather negative outlook to troubleshooting to try a couple of basic things then throw in the towel =P -- I was hoping for assistance from people with more knowledge than myself by coming here

If Windows is just unable to "reset" the sd-card there is still the option to overwrite the first few megabytes using a disk wipe software. Just overwrite it with zeros and abort the process after a few seconds. Then disconnect and reconnect the sd-card. Windows should then ask to format it.

Thanks for your suggestion, @Robert. I tried HDShredder 5, but it didn't work: it ran through all the sectors, and said that it had a write-error for each sector. I wasn't sure how to overwrite something manually, or what program to use for that; can you expand your comment to give an example of a (free) program, and a rough idea of how to do it? Thanks very much :)

I also used a program called Disk Wipe. I also got a write-protection error with this -- it was trying to write all the sectors with just 0s.

Full-sized SD cards have a physical write-protect tab. The adapter for your microSD might have one. Make sure it's in the correct position.

Thanks for answering, but if you see the OP then it says that I have tried the standard online solutions. Would I maybe be better asking this on Superuser, do you think? More the crowd, since it's really about the SD card, just that I formatted it with an Android system


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Samsung GT-N8013 tablet listed as a GT-I9100 phone in lsusb on Linux
I have a Samsung GT-N8013 tablet in Download mode, using the stock recovery since TWRP coulnd't work (go here for more information), connected to a Linux machine. adb cannot classify my tablet as a device on Linux, so I had to follow this answer. When I found its ID, I found that it had a different name entirely:
Bus 001 Device 013: ID 04e8:685d Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9100 Phone [Galaxy S II] (Download mode)

How is this possible?

Update 23-02-2018:
I plugged in the tablet again and booted it normally. It ran into the "encryption unsuccessful" error, however I ran lsusb and it yielded
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04e8:685c Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9250 Phone [Galaxy Nexus] (Mass storage mode)

What's going on to the tablet?

I do also want to point out that it has LineageOS installed before I flashed the stock ROM and recovery, but it has not been working ever since.

what is listed when you type adb devices?

Nothing, adb can't detect it.

Did you enabled USB Debugging before you tried with adb devices?

I'm not certain I did. The problem is, the tablet is bricked, so I can't really access it at all. I've tried to flash it with the stock ROM and recovery but nothing has changed.


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Bricked Note GT-8013, unable to boot from TWRP recovery (flashes logo for 1-2 secs), nor on normal mode, installed TWRP via both IMG and TAR
I'm running a Samsung Note GT-N8013. One day, my tablet fails to boot, saying that encryption had been unsuccessful; according to this answer, /data has failed to format. I can't reset the device, pressing the reset button on the screen does nothing. I also can't boot into TWRP recovery mode, it just flashes the logo screen for 1-2 seconds and switches back to the Samsung Note logo screen. I've tried to reinstall TWRP into the recovery partition using both twrp-2.8.7.0-gt-n8013.img and twrp-2.8.6.0-gt-n8013.tar with Heimdall.

Try flashing a full factory firmware. This does smell like a fried NAND chip so I doubt that would be any success.

@AndyYan I have the firmware downloaded as a ZIP archive. Where should I flash it to?

You see a .tar or .tar.md5 (or multiple) inside it? Use Odin/Heimdall to flash. Plenty of instructions around the web.

Yes, I've extracted the archive. The contents of the firmware are a bit different than those shown in guides, I have: boot.img*    PM_sharkl_arm7.bin*  sboot.bin*   SPRDGDSP.img*    system.img* cache.img*   recovery.img*        spl.img*     SPRDLTEDSP.img* hidden.img*  sboot2.bin*          SPRDCP.img*  SPRDWDSP.img*. Apparently, I'm missing critical files like zImage and a PIT file.

Sounds looks like the file is actually a .tar or .tar.md5 but renamed to .zip. Rename it back and flash. zImage is part of the kernel (boot.img); PIT is not always needed.

How do you mean? I can't flash a TAR archive, right? Every tutorial I've found requires the individual files to be flashed to their corresponding partition.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

I've flashed the correct firmware into the system, now it just gets stuck on the Android logo during boot.

Curiously though, when it returns the "Encryption unsuccessful" window, I still have control over the sound and I can take a screenshot. It also has the "back" button in the bottom bar.


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How can I change the user agent string sent by Chrome on my Nexus 7?
Reading the reviews of the BBC Media Player on Google Play, one user said that since Chrome supports HTML5, he had managed to persuade the BBC iPlayer website to play him streams meant for iPad/iPhone devices by spoofing an IOS user agent string on his Nexus 7.
How might I go about getting the same thing to work myself?
I have looked at How can I change the user agent for the stock browser? and Method to change browser User Agent based on site but both seem to concentrate on the Dolphin browser. Also, please mention if a solution will require me to root my Nexus-7.
Incidentally, I also tried using Phoney with Firefox, but although Firefox supports HTML5 and the iPlayer website shows pages without either install flash or use external app messages, it still won't play the streams (it just sits swirling its progress wheel), hence looking for a solution for Chrome.

I didn't find any way to do this except by connecting your phone to your computer and using remote web debugging feature to change user agent string.

Use this documentation to enable and start using Remote Debugging: https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging
Open any web page in your Chrome for Android
Navigate to localhost:9222 in Chrome browser on your computer and choose tab from your list of tabs opened in your Chrome for Android. You will see developer tools screen.
Go to developer tools settings on your computer by clicking on settings icon in bottom left corner of developer tools and change user agent string there
Reload web-page in your Android phone

Of course, user agent will fall back to default after you disconect your phone from computer.

I know it's not exactly a solution, but, have you tried using Firefox?, you can change the agent string on that browser.

I tried using Phoney with Firefox, but although the iPlayer website shows pages without either install flash or use external app messages, it still won't play the streams, hence looking for a solution for Chrome.