text:
How to find out if an android device is using TEE?
I am new to Trusty TEE OS. Is there any way to find out if an Android Device uses such an OS without rooting the device ?
AFAIK there, DRM (Digital Rights Management) is the most widely used application of Trusty OS. Some examples for DRM frameworks are Widevine/PlayReady/ClearKey.
Does it mean that if any of these frameworks are present in the Android device, it is safe to assume that there is an underlying Trusty TEE OS in use ?
Thanks

Trusty is a kinda reference implementation of a TEE OS. But many OEMs have been using their own closed source implementations including QSEE, Kinibi, TEEGris, iTrustee etc. I don't think you'll find a clue about the underlying implementation on a non-rooted device. One possibility is that the name of the HAL(s) (binary blobs) process (usually an init service) interacting with TEE hardware may include some hint. On a rooted device, however, there are higher chances of getting a hint e.g. from the name or hexdump of some TEE-related partition. Even running strings on such partition may help.

If it is an android 8+ device, TEE is a mandatory requirement for OEMs to obtain Google Mobile Services (GMS) licensing for devices that have Google apps pre-installed.
In Settings > Security > Advanced > Encryption & credentials > (CREDENTIAL STORAGE) Storage type > Hardware-backed
If it says hardware backed then TEE is present.
Programmatically, you can use isInsideSecureHardware() which returns true if the key resides inside TEE or SE.
If you want to explicitly verify if it's SE, use setIsStrongBoxBacked on the keyGenParameterSpecBuilder, key generation will fail with a StrongBoxUnavailableException if StrongBox is not supported.
Qualcomm Snapdragon and Samsung Exynos SoCs contain integrated TEE and they throw StrongBox unavailable exception but returns true for isInsideSecureHardware. Google's Titan M chip and Samsung Knox chip are discrete TEEs (called strongbox) that contains SE inside.

Well explained but it answers "How to find out if an Android device is using TEE?" (or SE). The question is "How to find out if an Android device is using Trusty TEE OS?" TEE is not always Trusty, it's OEM's choice.

Right. I thought OP meant TEE only and might be calling Trusty TEE because of the title on android source. I made the same mistake few years back when I first read TEE support in android. Open to edits.

yes I actually meant only TEE. thanks for pointing it out. I have posted a new related question here https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/233749/how-to-determine-if-an-android-application-uses-trusted-execution-environment-t maybe you could suggest something here as well ?


text:
How to open collaborated iwork file in android
I hope that somebody knows a workaround to a situation.
Recently, I needed to share a numbers file with a large number of coworkers. I used the collaborate option and opened up the file for viewing.
Unfortunately, many of my coworkers have android phones and they could not open the file. The information is of a sensitive nature - the file is password protected. This error screen was shown :

(Click to enlarge)
So far I have had no luck finding a way to share this data well.
I have found an android browser that can display some of the data, but usage is very limited and buggy.
It would be a shame to move the data to a google doc/excel for sharing as the file is in a relatively complex format. Does anyone have any ideas or experience with this?

Use something available on both systems. One option might be encrypting the files with GPG. We're specialized on Android here, so we don't know the iOS end. You might try our sister site for Software Recommendations to ask for an app available for iOS and Android. Or check with my corresponding Android app list which usually mentions if some app is available on other platforms.

With all due respect, if the "information is of a sensitive nature", the last thing you want to do is attempt to work with said data in some random free app on Google Play without knowing that app's exact behavior and permission requirements.  It sounds like the information is important enough to take the time to convert into a common, shared format complete with protection and/or encryptions.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to create a backup image (*.ab) of Android Device that is not booting up?
I am just a usual android user, owning  9-10 android devices. My Mom's Android device automatically turned off yesterday and while booting up again, it was stuck in the company Logo
and was not turning on. The device is "10.or E" exactly this  model.
My Mom had some very important files in her phone storage that she cannot compromise with. So, she came to me and asked me if I could turn it on without losing her files. I tried turning the phone on using the combination of the three buttons together (Power Button + Volume Up + Volume Down Buttons). This didn't do any good but yeah, it was able to turn off the mobile. Then I tried to go to Recovery Mode (in this device it is done by the combination of Power Button and Volume Up button) and check if there is an option available for making full device backup like my another device. Unfortunately, there was no option to create a "Full system backup" on SD-Card. It had some other options. See these images:
  .
Now, as there was no option to create a full backup using only the concerned device, I opted for my PC to do the same. I have SDK(s) installed  of all the Android Versions form Lollipop to Android 10 (don't know it's name). I switched off the phone and connected it with my PC using USB-Cable (not sure if USB-Debugging was on or not). After connecting I tried to give the adb command for backup  but it could not establish the connection with the device. Whereas, in the list of my devices I see a device named as Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 (COM5)
which means that the device is detected by the computer. Although the device is detected by the computer, I am not able to create a backup using adb commands.
I don't know any PC Backup method other than the sdk-cmd-adb method.
So, as this is a very big problem because my Mom's Data is extremely important to her and she cannot afford to lose that data, I really need a working method to get her Android Device's Backup before flashing new firmware or Factory/Hard/Soft Reseting it. There are so many Android Enthusiasts over here that may also have faced this problem before or may face this problem in future so, if any of us could help me in this issue will not only be helpful to me but to all of the faithful Android Stack Exchange Members.
Please help me, I am left with no other option.
Thank You So Much in Advance ❤❤❤

The approach you are taking is not worth it for you simply because:

USB debugging needs to be enabled beforehand for using any adb command on a device. Since your mother probably would have never felt (and why would she anyway?) the need to enable it, assume it to be disabled.
Since debugging can only be enabled either manually by the user under Settings app, or by using a custom kernel, or by using a custom recovery to make changes in data partition, your chances of enabling it are zero.
Even if debugging is enabled the two most important processes are either not started or not fully functioning for enabling and approving backup via adb. One is the activity manager which is required to seek approval for backup via UI, and the other is the backend backup service which nobody can tell (without logs) whether it is started or not because of the boot issue.

In short, dump this approach because it is futile and a waste of time in your case. All I can suggest is to find out a way to either load a custom recovery somehow without deleting userdata. I've never tried that, so that's all I can offer.
You can try looking for Qualcomm chipset flashing type tools. They may be able to help you load a custom recovery/kernel so that userdata partition can be accessed.   Beware with such tools though. They sometimes don't list partitions for selective partition flashing and flash every partition in wholesale, including data partition which is of prime importance here. Good luck!

Thank You So Much for your answer.  Although it wasn't solution to my problem, but you gave so much effort to write this much long answer and cleared my misconception that I could make a back-up without USB-Debugging turned On. As you told me that there might be some other options too but they will be completely experimental so I did not opt for them and I have factory reseted my Mom's phone. Unfortunately  this proble and reset has made an irreversible loss.

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


text:
high contrast mode for icons had disappeared
That worked, except now the option in Settings has disappeared and I can't reveal it a anymore.
Android SM_696U0 (Samsung Galaxy S9)
Removed here:

I was snore able to fix this by opening a third-party app that had an "invert colors" toggle.
Flipping that on/off restored default colors across Android.
Vey strange.

Linking which app would help others with same problem

Since this answer mentions "invert colors" (I'm assuming "high contrast mode" is a bit different), then try checking the Accessibility settings. Some devices have "invert colors" on there.


text:
Why is Gmail taking so long to fetch new e-mails?
Mobile Gmail in my Moto Z2 / Android 7 needs ten times longer time to fetch / show new e-mails in my mailbox than it happens in web version on my PC.
Is there anything I can do about this?

For years using mobile Gmail (now with Motorola Moto Z2 Play / Android 7.x) it was clear to me that mobile Gmail needs much, much more time to fetch e-mails that its PC / web counterpart.
But now this went far beyond the level that I can accept. My Gmail needs literally 15-30 minutes or sometimes even more since e-mails is sent till it appears in my Inbox. While PC counterpart needs 2-3 minutes in the very same scenario.
Just an hour ago I wanted to sign-up to some service and I wasn't able to do this, because my mobile Gmail was fetching account verification e-mails after 30+ minutes since sending them. Which was too long, because service -- that I was trying to sign-up for -- allows only 30 minutes long account verification tokens and each time was showing an error that the token that I am trying to verify account with has already expired.
After three such unsuccessful attempts I opened up my laptop, used web Gmail and managed to complete the process within 3 minutes, because that was the time needed by Gmail to show up verification e-mail.
fast.com shows 30 Mbps for mobile phone and 60 Mbps for laptop, so network speed shouldn't be a problem here.
On contrary to other mail clients, Gmail doesn't have any frequency setting for checking e-mail and mails are checked with as often as Google thinks they should.
So, is there anything I can do about this?
Any thing to speed up my mobile version of Gmail?

I don't know what can be done but I've switched to this open source, privacy oriented E mail client that is fast and much more flexible. I've been using it for an year without any problems and happy that I switched

AFAIK GMail app uses Google push notification to be notified of new messages in a GMail account. Hence there is no frequency setting. For comparing PC and smartphone make sure to use the exact same network because even if the tested network speed shows no issues this might be different to the GMail servers. Have you tried to clear the app data and caches of Gmail app?

Check any battery optimization settings for the Gmail app. The app won't sync if the device is on battery saver. Also, check the network connection between the Google server and the mobile, or otherwise try other email clients to confirm whether the issue is on the Gmail app or not. I got notifications from Gmail on both Android and a Windows 10 laptop almost at the same time when an email arrives.

Thank you all for your valuable comments. I will try to address them all here though I am pretty sure that this is like looking for a needle in a haystack. So: I am using exactly the same (home) network with only difference that laptop is connected through cable so fast.com shows much, much higher network speeds than on wireless in mobile. I have just cleared cache and app data cleared and turned off battery optimisation and will observe for some time. If there is no difference, I'll switch to an alternative solution as suggested, thanks.

BTW: I have just noticed that in current form this question is not answerable as is too wide, too opinion based and in fact is a mentioned searching for a needle in a haystack. If we consider answering it, we should rather focus on answering, if there are any possible time-affecting problems, in scope and by design? Seems, not. I'd suggest anyone of you adding an answer focusing around of Andrew T.'s claim that there should be no difference and only suggesting all these solutions you formulated here (battery optimisation, cache etc.). But, that is just a suggestion which I am leaving to you.


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Wipe data from dead Android phone
I have Samsung Galaxy A10s. Now its dead. No power on. I tried lots of combinations. I don't want anybody to get the data, messages or media files which is in internal memory. But as its not charging and not showing drive after connect through USB to PC, I can't delete data directly.
How can I delete media files specially from internal phone memory from my dead phone?

Related: How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data and How to get data off a completely dead Android phone?

what @IrfanLatif wants to say is, your files are secure. it's nearly "impossible" to recover files from locked down/encrypted phone (except for bruteforcing/social engineering)

@IrfanLatif the thing is phone is not detected by computer

@alecxs 100% sure data is secured?,I heard it read by odin or other?

@DeanRox How to get data off a completely dead Android phone? exactly covers the case when phone is not detected by computer. If it's encrypted, the chances of data recovery are nearly zero. In other case it's very probable.

Further to what has already been suggested in the comments, if you're only interested in destroying the data and not recovering it, you could drill through eMMc to completely destroy it.
It is HIGHLY unadvised to do this without careful consideration as your phone contains a lithium ion battery and I shouldn't have to explain the dangers of damaging a battery.
You can follow this guide to remove the "motherboard" from the phone.
I'm not certain where the eMMc is located on the chip (the protective casing covers all the components and I've never done a teardown on the phone myself) but, at this point you can sort of just go crazy and destroy the whole thing.

i guess the purpose of wiping data is giving device to repair shop, not destroying it!

@x1ras I bought phone in one month ago.Has warranty period,if i tear down warranty will cancel.what can I do?

@DeanRox My apologies, you're question didn't clarify that you wanted to send the phone for repair or replacement so I answer strictly in terms of making the data unrecoverable.
Have you tried using a different cable to charge you're phone or connect it to your computer?
It may seem like an obvious thing but you be surprised by how many people wouldn't think of this.

@x1ras I tried,no response

you run latest (bootloader locked) android with all security features, there is no way to access data with any tools. Only way is try-and-error pin/pattern/password guessing. I don't think repair shop have time for this. there is Rate limiting one have to wait 30 secs after 10 unsuccessful tries. if attacker manage to repair your device, he could bruteforce a 4 digit pin in ~8 hours. security depends on weakness of your screen lock. a long alphanumeric password would take years. if screen lock is a pattern, data is wiped after 30x unsuccessful attempts.
you can remotely wipe your device/or change screen lock from Find My Device. as soon as it is connected to internet the changes will apply.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3954855


text:
Gboard stopped working on Motorola phone
Gboard stopped working on Motorola phone - I cannot type as no keyboard appears  data amd cache say 0.
I have tried various methods suggested, but still no keyboard appears when a cursor appears in a text box.

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/219482

Ok I have just fixed this on my Motorola phone.  I believe an update has been rolled out to solve the problem so the issue is, how to get your gboard updated if it hasn't happened automatically.
"Gboard stopped working" kept popping up on my screen while following through on the process below, so I had to keep selecting "ok" every time it popped up, giving me small windows in which to perform the necessary actions.
Go to the Play Store, search for Gboard (SEE BELOW) and identify the app (which had its icon next to the word in the search options that came up for me) and select it.  You should then have the option to update the app.  Select update.  After the installation finished everything was working again for me.
IMPORTANT To enter Gboard into the search bar you cannot use the keyboard.  So select the microphone at the right-hand end of the search bar and speak, "Gboard" - i.e. use voice to text.

Thanks for your help. To get to Gboard, I didn't have a microphone, but I was able to use the menu icon in the search bar which gave me the option of My apps & games. When I chose that, I was offered an opportunity to UPDATE Gboard, which I did. And, now it works.


text:
App whitelist in stock android
Is there a way to create a whitelist for apps in stock android?
Ie. I would like to limit what apps are possible to launch, for example by password protecting them.
Anything resembling kiosk modes or family locking is of interest.
If possible I would like to accomplish this without third party apps.

"Stock Android" is not really specific since each manufacturer can customize its Android and called it "stock ROM" and might add this feature to their stock ROM, unless you mean AOSP/vanilla Android. Android itself provides dedicated devices, though I'm not sure if the use case is suitable for you.

However, some possibly related questions that might be of interest: How to disable third-party apps?, Enable and disable system apps via ADB

Why don't you setup a Guest or secondary user account and configure it? Given your requirement I suppose you want to share your device with an another person.


text:
Auto-update security
I've found this comment: Any reason not to allow automatic updating for an app? - is that safety feature documented anywhere ? I'm about to turn on automatic updates but I don't feel comfortable doing that without a firm proof that it won't compromise security.

I always turn it off, because I don't want all newer versions of all softwares be installed. And I don't want my data and power get consumed just for some none-sense-for-me updates (updates which fix bugs for another phone models than mine). Also I prefer to review list of updates available and decide by myself which one to update.

Plus there were reports that auto-updates also happen when on mobile data -- which may harm your data plan. I also prefer to run updates when I decide -- and then I'm either connected by Wifi, or run a single (urgent) update manually. BTW: The "manual update" in the screenshot you refer to is a security feature: That app had added new permission requirements. In such a case, no automatic update will take place.

@Izzy You can tell the play store to do auto updates only when connected to WiFi.

@Flow I know -- but as I wrote: "there were reports..." that this seems to have not always been honored. Maybe just rumors ;)

@Izzy - I think some of the Google apps may update even if you're on data, but I haven't experienced that sort of thing with any other apps. That may be what you've been hearing.

OK, let's drop that argument -- enough others remain valid ;)

Wow, I've been downvoted right away! :)

It's not documented somewhere. But only updates that don't change the permissions are done automatically. If there is a change, the update will have to be done manually.
But of course there is no gurantee that this will always work this way, because of bugs or design changes. If you are paranoid, turn the feature off. (But then, how could you trust Android that the permissions that are shown to you are enforced?)

Yeah, if you're going to start mistrusting Android, where do you stop? To be completely secure, throw away your phone and wrap yourself in tinfoil ;)

Those are good points, I tried it and I can see that permission escalation requires manual approval and yeah, either I trust Android or I can throw it away :)

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


text:
How can I access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access?
Since aLogcat now no longer works with Jelly Bean, how can I access the system log files on my device without either root access or attaching it to a computer?
I have tried using adb logcat from my PC and that worked fine, so I know that plenty of messages are being logged.
Using logcat from Android Terminal Emulator on my Nexus 7 shows almost no output though and adb logcat from Android Terminal Emulator, starts the daemon but then just says - waiting for device - and nothing more appears.
So, is it possible to access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access?

possible duplicate of Problems accessing message logs on Jelly Bean with aLogcat

@Izzy - The point of this question is that all of the solutions in my other question (which I linked to in this question) require root access. While these solutions are useful to those who have rooted their devices, I wanted a more specific solution for those who haven't rooted their device.

You may find PhoneHome worth a look

No, for security reasons it is not possible to access android log files on the Nexus 7 (or any other device running Jelly Bean or higher) without root access. Google changed that with Jelly Bean.
I'd suggest you wait until logcat readers like aLogCat and such get fixed (i.e. they will require root access to show all logs then).
From AISEC-TR-2012-001-Android-OS-Security.pdf - 3.3 Android Permission Model:

The READ_LOGS permission can substitute the following on many devices,
  depending on the Android version and thus the standard apps’ versions
  installed:

READ_CONTACTS
GET_TASKS – every started Activity is listed in the system’s logs
READ_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS – opening new web pages is a browser Activity and thus logged
READ_SMS

All solutions below require root access:
You need to either run logcat as root in a shell or manually grant it via the shell pm command (root required) works also (see XDA, exchange org.jtb.alogcat.donate with the app's pkg name):
pm grant org.jtb.alogcat.donate android.permission.READ_LOGS
This is for the lazy ones and not suggested:
If you're desperate, careless and lazy, you can fix it by giving every app the READ_LOGS permission by applying this ugly and insecure hack (Chainfire via twitter):
chmod 04755 /system/bin/logcat
To quote CyanogenMod developer Koushik Dutta's G+ post:

Did the Android Log permissions/behavior change in JellyBean?
It seems that if an application runs "logcat" now, it can see only the log entries created by its UID. Log lines from other UIDs are not shown. Basically, it seems to be filtered now.
I have the same permissions as usual. Also confirmed the same thing is happening in other log collector apps.

There's no way without root of which I know of. For the sake of security. Starting with JellyBean, the read_logs permission doesn't have to be granted anymore (each app can only view it's own logs anyway).

Thanks for the edit and the link to xda, I integrated that.

Thanks for adding in the pm grant option. Note that as I now say in my other answer, you need to specify a slightly different package if you aren't using the donate version of aLogcat: pm grant org.jtb.alogcat android.permission.READ_LOGS

The referenced paper does to explain how READ_LOGS is equal to READ_CONTACTS on some platforms. I guess the mean that some apps put contact data in the logs, but that's not really the same as READ_CONTACTS. But then I'd say that the paper is written in a alarmist tone.

READ_LOGS leaks a lot more information than just contact data. There's the user's name, probably gmail address, locations, installed apps (app usage even) and so on. Plus: it has been used to read and extract addresses from stack dumps of system daemons in the pre ASLR days by root exploits. Now that they're switched off on a big part (4.1±) you may get swarm protection (compare it to not vaccinating your child in a disease free vaccinated population). Problems  loomed and Google did the right thing.

I'm confused by this though it would explain some things.
Running the same app on my nexus7 and my galaxy nexus, both on jellybean,  the phone sees log output from all apps, the tablet doesn't. This would say that it's not jellybean its the nexus7. Backing this up, I've just checked and they both have different kernels. The tablet, with a newer one.
Maybe its the updated kernel that, means logs don't appear.
Guess I'll have to root after all: (

That's interesting Russ, thanks for the extra information.

Actually I've now been reliably informed that its because the app I am using to see the logs, was installed on my machine when I had ICS so it's retained the permissions to see the logs.

I have developed a Logcat app that uses alternative approach. It utilizes remote debugging feature. You need to enable it on the phone first, but it has to be done only once and then you can use the app to retrieve all logs.

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


text:
When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)?
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) was announced at Google I|O 2012 on June 27, 2012.
(You can review the high level changes in Android 4.1 at the official Android Developer's site.)
Of course, not all devices will get this update right away and others won't get it at all. Each manufacturer and carrier often choose to add their custom modifications which tend to delay the official release.
When will each device get Android 4.1, either officially or unofficially, if ever?
See also:

When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?
When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 5.0 update (Lollipop)?

JBQ has made the source to Android 4.1 available around 48hours ago and CM are "merging" manually the changes to the source base.

Here's an article from Android Central which talks a bit about why updates aren't just automatically added to devices that can probably handle it as well as some speculation about some popular and recent devices.

Related: Why aren't the manufacturers updating the phone to the latest Android version when it's available?

This community wiki will list all of the known and rumored dates for devices. If you have an update make sure to follow the format that's been established, and the following guidelines:

Keep phones in alphabetical order listing the manufacturer and model
Specify if the date is confirmed or rumored and link to the source
If there is an unofficial release, link to the site where it can be downloaded

Note that devices that do not meet Google's Compatibility Definition will not receive a Google-sanctioned update. In the case of the major manufacturers and many others, that means they won't release an update at all since Google's certification is important to their business.
Phones
Asus
Padfone

Official: 2013-03-25 (confirmed)

Google
Nexus S

Official: mid-July (confirmed)

HTC
Desire C

Official: Never (confirmed)

One S

Official: unknown date (confirmed)

One V

Official: Never (confirmed)

One VX

AT&T: 2013-08-02 (announced)

One X

Official: 2013-03-07 (confirmed)

One XL

Official: unknown date (confirmed)

LG
Optimux 4X HD (P880)

Official: 2013-04-07 MyLGPhones.Com

Optimus G

Sprint: 2013-March (confirmed)

Micromax
A110 Canvas 2

Official: 2013-March (confirmed)

Motorola
DROID 4

Released to Verizon customers March 19, 2013 (confirmed)

DROID BIONIC

Official: 2013-04-16 (confirmed)

DROID RAZR

Official: 2012-03-07 (confirmed)

DROID RAZR HD

Official: 2012-12 (confirmed)

DROID RAZR MAXX

Official: 2012-03-07 (confirmed)

RAZR MAXX HD

Official: 2012-12 (confirmed)

Pantech
Discover

Official: 2013-07-31 (confirmed)

Samsung
Epic 4G Touch

Official (via Samsung Kies): 2013-03-28 (confirmed)

Galaxy Ace 2

available: 2013-05-15 (SamMobile)

Galaxy Nexus

HSPA+

yakju, takju

Official: 10-July-2012 (officially confirmed)
Unofficial: 28-June-2012 RootzWiki, XDA

yakjuxw, yakjukr etc...

Official: Unknown
Unofficial: 30-June-2012 XDA

CDMA

Sprint:

Official: 2012-09-06 (confirmed)
Unofficial: 2012-06-28 ACSyndicate

Verizon Wireless:

Official: 2012-09-21 (confirmed)
Unofficial: 28-June-2012 RootzWiki (ROM 1, ROM 2)

Galaxy Note N7000

Official: Unknown date
Unofficial: 2012-08-10

Galaxy S II

Official (Sweden, Norway and Denmark): November 2012 (facebook post via GSMArena)

Galaxy S III

Official (Verizon Wireless) 15-Dec-2012 (confirmed)
"Confirmed" 29-August-2012 (international models specifically)
Official (Sweden, Norway and Denmark): October 2012 (facebook post via GSMArena)
Official (Bell, Rogers, Sasktel, Telus, and associated brands in Canada): December 3, 2012 (twitter post)
Official (Mobilicity, Vidéotron and Wind Mobile in Canada) - December 14, 2012 (twitter post)

Galaxy Stellar

Official: March 2, 2013 (source)

Sony
2011 line up (Xperia Arc S, Ray, Mini (pro), Neo (V), ...)

Declined by Sony UK for the top model Arc S (source)

Xperia T, TX, V

Official:Feb-March 2013 (confirmed)

Xperia P, J, Go)

Official: End of March 2013 (confirmed)

Xperia S, SL, ion, acro S

Official:After March 2013 (confirmed)

Xperia U, Miro, Tipo, Sola

Official: Declined (source)

Xperia TL

Official: 1-Mar-2013 (confirmed)

Tablets
Acer
Iconia Tab A500

Unofficial: 30-Jun-2012 (confirmed)

ASUS
Transformer TF101 + SL101

Official: unknown date (confirmed)

Transformer TF201 + TF300T + TF700T

Official, unknown date (source)  (source, English)

Transformer Pad TF300

Official: 18-August-2012 (confirmed)

Lenovo
Thinkpad Tablet

Official: Never (staff post)

Motorola
Xoom

Official (Wi-Fi variant): 23-July-2012 (confirmed)
Official (3G/LTE variant): Q4 2012 (Motorola blog post)

Why the rollback? There are separate entries for US operators, I thought it would be relevant to have separate entries for european users also.

I rolled it back because the edit summary said it was adding a separate Verizon entry and there already is one. Go ahead and restore the change. Note, though, that most "normal" users aren't going to know what build codes are or what they mean.

That's true, exactly why I wrote and answered this question. And if one goes searching for information on how to upgrade before OTA, one is bound to bump into the matter.


text:
How can I set my device to display time in UTC?
I want to try thinking in UTC instead of my local time. There is no UTC region and no UTC time zone under the United States region.
How can I set my device so it always displays the time in UTC instead of my local time zone?

Now Select time zone has a sideways ... that you can select Select by UTC offset; this is an alternate way you can select UTC GMT +00:00 without selecting a region. (Android 10, 2022-02 patch.)
I assume that this is the same time that one uses for SSL certificates, which I'd imagine is probably UTC instead of GMT. I use this as well, and it mostly works. The only trouble I've had is getting re-certified with Microsoft's OAuth mail server.

Additional note: according to Google/AOSP developer, this feature has been added since Android 9.0 Pie.

Set your device to the Iceland region. Iceland has a single time zone with a UTC offset of +0, and they do not use DST. Other time zones that may work are listed here.

On Android 13, I managed to do this as follows:

Download a location spoofer/fake GPS location app, enable developer options, enable Mock Locations, and set your app as the location source.

Set your location in the fake GPS app to Reykjavik, Iceland. You might have to click on a map, in which case anywhere in Iceland will do.

Turn on "set time zone automatically" in your Android time/date settings.

As soon as your device sets itself to Reykjavik time (UTC all year round) turn "set time zone automatically" OFF and LEAVE IT PERMANENTLY OFF.

Uninstall the fake locations app.


text:
How to pull only newer files with “adb pull”? (Android SDK utility)
With the command adb pull /sdcard/ I can copy all the contents of the internal memory of my Android phone into my current local directory.
And adb pull /mnt/extSdCard/ does the same with the external SD card. But that command always copies everything, even files I already have stored locally.
Is there any way to copy only new and modified files? (files with a newer date)

Because google's official adb pull was slow to support --sync, I found a big guy to modify the aosp adb source code. Add --sync option to adb pull, pulling only newer files. Compiled for windows.
Self-testing logic on win10 is no problem. Only pull updated files on the android phone, and do not delete win files that are not on the android phone.
https://github.com/freemedom/adb-pull-sync/raw/main/adb.zip

For a large number of small files (for example 20000 files), google/adb-sync will take very very long time. It takes about 10 times longer than my solution. Almost unusable.

This is the best solution. Thanks!

As described by ss-3-1415926535897932384626433 there is no flag, but you have to get a list of files first and then check if your local files match. I wrote a little script for it:
#!/bin/sh

rfolder=/sdcard/DCIM/Camera
lfolder=Camera

adb shell ls "$rfolder" > android.files

ls -1 "$lfolder" > local.files

rm -f update.files
touch update.files

while IFS=  read -r q; do
  # Remove non-printable characters (are not visible on console)
  l=$(echo ${q} | sed 's/[^[:print:]]//')
  # Populate files to update
  if ! grep -q "$l" local.files; then
    echo "$l" >> update.files
  fi
done < android.files

script_dir=$(pwd)
cd $lfolder

while IFS=  read -r q; do
  # Remove non-printable characters (are not visible on console)
  l=$(echo ${q} | sed 's/[^[:print:]]//')
  echo "Get file: $l"
  adb pull "$rfolder/$l"
done < "${script_dir}"/update.files

Adjust the remote folder rfolder and the local folder lfolder to locations of your own choice.

This looks pretty good. Does it also work recursively or just in a single directory and no subdirectories?

This is non-recursive indeed, but feel free to improve. :-)

Also note that I don't compare dates here yet, so if you have altered files they won't get updated.

adb-sync - small, yet powerfull python script that can do all your asked and more...
https://github.com/google/adb-sync

Thanks for the mention. I had to make several changes to the source code to get it working for my use-case (invalid paths for Windows causing crash, Python version mismatch apparently, etc -- for details, see issues I commented in), but it ended up being the only way I was able to retrieve my files from a corrupted data partition. (the adb pull of the whole directory would crash on various files, and I didn't want to manually have to delete each one then restart the whole transfer -- with adb-sync [+my modifications] it would just fail that one file then continue)

Also note that project has been deprecated and one should rather use its successor: better-adb-sync

adb pull doesn't seem to provide a flag to pull selected files.
As a workaround, you can do this: Use adb shell [Unix shell command] to copy selected files to a temporary location and then pull all files from that location.
Update:
You can use cp -u [source] [destination] unix shell command to copy only modified files on subsequent run. You can also use -r flag to use it on subdirectories recursive, if its required.

Thanks for your answer. Copying all files to another location to then maybe update just one changed file is pretty slow. Too bad that adb doesn't provice in way to copy only newer files.

@OMA You can use the shell to get a list of new files, and then use adb pull on that list.

@MatthewRead Any hints on how to do that? Thanks!

@OMA I am unable to understand your problem with this. Use both commands in one line or create alias (also add a command to purge temp location after operation). If there was a flag of adb pull for that, it'd work the same way.

Though not fully documented, starting with 27.0.1 aka platform tools r27 (not before) the following can be used:
adb push --sync local/ device/
# adb pull --sync -a device/. local/

(note the trailing dot on adb pull; without that you'd end up with local/device/*, see here; also the -a is needed only here to keep the timestamps of the files intact)
Not directly related to adb push: file permissions are not kept, which is probably due to the file system used. Files pushed to the internal SD card will always be set to 0660 and on the external card to 0771, which I could not even change using adb shell chmod on the device itself (though I received no error either on trying).
If you need more options as you might know them from rsync (e.g. --delete or --exclude), you can also take a look at the Python script better-adb-sync.
Update: running a few tests it seems --sync is simply ignored with adb pull even if no error is thrown: newer files on target have been overwritten! Not sure if implementation is planned, but with r27 being released in 2018 I'd not place a bet on that. With push it works as advertized, though.


text:
WhatsApp using prepaid minutes
I have noticed that WhatsApp is using my prepaid minutes.
I have a phone with prepaid minutes and am not on any data-plan. For internet I use WiFi connectivity.
WhatsApp claims that there is no charge for sending messages, yet I notice that my prepaid minutes are just disappearing fast.
I have asked a person at TMobile about this and he suggested to turn on airplane mode or turn off the SIM card. Airplane mode turns off the WiFi, so that does not work at all.  I will have to turn off the SIM card. I cannot yet verify that this will solve the problem, but it is annoying to constantly have to switch my SIM card status.
Has anybody encountered this? Is WhatsApp using false advertising?

Whatsapp doesn't make use of cellular phone system, only data - cellular of WiFi whatever is active. Not sure what you mean by "prepaid minutes" normally you charge money not minutes to a prepaid SIM. If you want to use Whatsapp without costs make sure you always have WiFi connection or disable mobile data connection.

I did have "International Data Roaming" on, but I am basically mostly at home with a WiFi connection.
You are right. I have "pre-paid" ... I go to TMobile and buy "time" to be able to use the network. TMobile charges fees on the money I paid.
But that is why I am so confused. The major thing is what I do different than my wife, who does the same "prepaid" plan is using WhatsApp. I do chat international with family.

"Airplane mode turns off the WiFi, so that does not work at all." You can turn on the WiFi again after enabling the Airplane mode, but Airplane mode will disable the telephony functionality (phone call & SMS). That said, if you want to be sure, you might want to turn off the Mobile Data setting so that you won't accidentally use it if you get disconnected from the WiFi.

As above. Not having a "data plan" doesn't mean you don't have mobile data, it means you pay for any mobile data usage according to the specific rates for your phone service as defined by T-Mobile (you may want to check online or customer service for the exact prices). When outside WiFi's range you'll be using mobile data unless you disable it as commented before AND informed by your own customer service. It goes without saying that, when you have no internet access (i.e. both WiFi disabled or inaccessible and mobile data disabled), NO internet service will work and that include Whatsapp.

As mentioned in comments, Whatsapp does not use mobile network directly.  It just uses data from the phone.
If the Wifi signal is weak, or if Wifi is not connected and your mobile data is on, then the Phone will use the mobile network for data.  This applies to,  many other apps that need data.
When you are home, turn off mobile data.  This can be automated by a number of apps for Profile management.  This way, you can still receive phone calls.

Thanks. It is important to be able to receive phone calls for medical purposes. I will try some things. Time will tell.


text:
Does Android store information about previous SIM cards?
Does Android store any info about previous SIM cards that have been inserted into the phone?
Can the current mobile operator access this info?
Can the current mobile operator get my GPS location when I'm abroad or after I return?
Is it information stored anywhere?

As far as I know the Android device itself doe snot store old locations, however if you have enabled localization via Wifi the device communicates with Google and checks the reachable Wifi networks and their location. Additionally your network operator knows your position most likely in case the phone was not in Airplane mode (because of the cell towers you were connected while abroad).

@Robert what about sim cards?
So if I turn that off and pull sim cards out my current carrier can't track anything?


text:
Access Google Now launcher
Google closed their Google now launcher and all devices shows incompatible on Google play store. But I can find its apk on internet. After installing app it won't show up in my settings for default launcher. Is there any way I can enjoy Google now launcher?

If you have a rooted device this might help Setting Default applications through ADB
If you still have issues....  You can ask


text:
What do options on this error mean?
I have Acer E39 phone (Android 4.4.2) that has 3 SIM. Today, when turned on, it didn't start normally but instead, I got the following options.

What does each of the options mean?
How do I debug further what the issue is?

Its the bootloader recovery menu in Chinese language, possibly device sold in China

What you see is the "Factory diagnosis menu". It is not designed to be used by end-users therefore it is mostly in Chinese.
If you have second phone you can use Google Translator app to translate the Chinese entries to your language (use translation via photo/picture).
I am not exactly sure how to enter it (my mother managed to enter it one time accidentally on a tablet). I assume that there is a certain combination of hardware keys that have to be pressed at boot time to enter it.
Usually the last Chinese menu entry means "reboot" or "shutdown". This allows you to exit this diagnose system. You should be able to select the entry using the volume up/down keys and the press the power key to select.
Once the device has rebooted the regular Android operating system should boot. If not your device may be affected by a hardware defect.


text:
Permanent ADB RSA-key authorization
My phone screen is broken but I managed to finally tap the allow button for ADB authorization so I can access the device via ADB.
My question:
Is there a way to do this once and never be asked again or backup the RSA which I can then push to the device via ADB if it happens to need re-authorization again (since I have a broken screen I just can't tap allow again).
I have enabled do not ask again on this device, but that does not seem to work from past experience and it keeps asking me to authorize if I reboot the phone.

Does this answer your question? "Allow USB debugging" keeps on popping evene when "Always allow from this computer" is checked in automation testing

Does this answer your question? Android ADB Key Not Working

@alecxs But scrcpy depends on adb for uploading the file that is executed. Hence it can't be used to control the phone before adb authorization has been set. But afterwards  it would be also by preferred way to control a phone with a broken screen.

@alecxs Hey thanks for the links, the second one kinda helped but not really, I managed to backup the keys and use scrcpy but then it just disconnected in a second and now we are back to adb authorization prompt even though I had authorised it an hour ago. :(

Though I had managed to get apowermirror/tea,viewer working but none of those let me unlock the device, it just shows a black screen sadly.

scrcpy comes with it's own adb binary, that might have caused it. restore the backup and try again. i can hardly imagine that coincidence the keys expired just now

@alecxs Thanks for all the help, I finally managed to get it to work. The restore method worked. As long as it holds for a couple weeks then I'll receive the new screen to replace the broken one.


text:
How to stop Samsung S7 from wanting to update Android version?
I'm using my old Samsung S7 to test apps (that I develop) on Android 8.0.0 (Oreo).
But every time I come back to my phone the below screen (Program Update) appears and the phone wants to do an system update of Android to a newer version.
How can I remove the downloaded system update from my Samsung S7?
And how can I stop my Samsung S7 from wanting to update Android in the future?
Program Update:

System Info:

System Update Settings:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/how-prevent-from-auto-upgrading-to-oreo.3751839/

It's not possible unless you root your Samsung S7.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. While this is a valid answer, could you [edit] and expand the answer for those who have their devices rooted?

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.


text:
How can I lock my Gallery Vault on an external SD-card?
My Gallery Vault was saved on an external memory card. Now my phone is lost.
Can someone access my Gallery Vault which was on the external memory card?

Yes the files are in a hidden folder but a brilliant person can always get them by unhiding and renaming the photos to jpg. The app doesn't encrypt them. It just hides and renames... So there's nothing you can do to stop this other than hoping he formats the sd


text:
Google Play Store Hangs at Every Step
This week, the Google Play Store is behaving very strangely. It can download or update a single app but not both without being killed!
There was an update for Chrome this morning, so I went to Google Play Store and clicked on the Update button. It then downloads the app, reaching 100% pretty quickly and hangs there forever, OK well I let it do that for an hour or so (but tried overnight with previous updates). Then, if I Force Stop the Google Play Services and restart it, it automatically does the install in a few seconds. If I try again to update another app, it downloads to 100% and hangs.
This very strange. Up to last week everything was working fine and no new apps were installed but there was about 9 or 10 updated. Since then, I must download and update one at a time, killing the Google Play Store between each!
Versions involved:

Android 7.0 Kernel 3.18.31 Build NPP25.137-76
Phone is rooted, has been for over a month.
Google Play Store 8.1.30.S-all
Google Play Services 11.5.17 [UPDATED]
Google Play Services for Instant Apps 1.20-release-166886311 (WTH is this?, don't remember seeing it before)

How can I fix this and have Google Play Store working normally again?
Used to be able to install and update many apps without killing the Google Play Services.

I had that issue too. But I dont use any google stuff and didnt found back then a solution. Maybe deleting Cache or all data helps. If not working try deactivate>rebootactivate or uninstall all updates and do solution #2

Unfortunately, clearing all data did not change the behavior, it still hangs at each step which is very annoying. Deleting just the cache did not work either.


text:
How does the Android Studio transfer a folder to device?
When I use
adb shell "run-as com.example.myapplication push C:\\Users\\x00879271\\Desktop\\ttest /data/data/com.example.myapplication"
I get

run-as: exec failed for push: Permission denied.

And I can drag the 'ttest' folder to /data/data/com.example.myapplication using Android Studio.
So the question is:

How does the Android Studio transfer a folder to the device?
Or how should I transfer a folder to /data/data/com.example.myapplication without using root?

Let's take a close look onto the command you have executed:
adb shell "run-as com.example.myapplication push C:\\Users\\x00879271\\Desktop\\ttest /data/data/com.example.myapplication"
The main problem is the adb shell part at the beginning. With this command you open up a shell on the Android device. Everything after adb shell is executed on your Android device. Therefore specifying a path like C:\\Users\\x00879271\\Desktop\\ttest which refers to a file on your PC won't work because it is executed on Android which doesn't have access to files on your PC.
If you want to push a file and use run-as you can not do this in one command. Split it into multiple commands:

Push the file to a common directory: adb push C:\\Users\\x00879271\\Desktop\\ttest /sdcard/

Copy the file to into the app directory
adb shell run-as com.example.app sh -c 'cp /sdcard/ttest  /data/data/com.example.myapplication/'

The above command requires the cp command to be present on your device. On older devices it is missing which requires you to use a workaround using cat: 'cat /sdcard/ttest > /data/data/com.example.myapplication/ttest' for the last part of the command.
If you are interested what commands Android Studio performs when uploading an file e.g. in Device Explorer please see my answer here.


text:
Samsung Note shutting off
I just purchased a Samsung Galaxy Note last night so I do not know much about the phone.
When handling and not charging it shuts off on me. It has charged and there is battery life of 70 lets say. When I try to turn it on my battery has completely ran out. Wont even turn on unless it is on the charger. I ordered a new battery but now I am not so sure that is my problem.
As you can imagine I am not a happy customer at this point and will more than likely not be buying from other people any longer.  Any help would be just peachy.  Thank you!

Are you saying you bought a used phone from another person (not a store) like from ebay or craigslist?
If so, it could very likely be a worn out battery. If the phone was advertised as problem free and fully working, and especially if it was advertised as brand new when clearly not,  you can pursue a return through whatever site you bought it from.

Unfortuently I was in need of a phone asap and wasn't as cautious as I should have been. I have a feeling it is the battery. I am going to order one so we shall see. I appreciate your comment!!


text:
How do I delete a draft message (SMS)?
I have created a draft message using the standard HTC Desire message application. However I now want to delete the draft.
When I select the thread I see my previous message, and my draft text below. I select "Menu", "...More", and then "Delete" and am warned I am about to delete entire thread. Which is stupid. I want to delete my draft.
How do I delete a draft?

Just figured this one out having had the same problem myself (HTC Desire HD, Android 2.2)....
From the "All Messages" view, press the Menu button.  A "Drafts" icon appears (a floppy disk icon) - press that, and it takes you to a view of all your drafts.
Press & hold a draft message to View/Delete or press the Menu button again & select Delete Drafts to go to a view where you can bulk mark the drafts you want to delete.
Hope that helps!

Brilliant! Well done, after several weeks of scratching my head you have provided the answer. I hope others upvote you too!

just clear the text of the draft message, and it will automatically disappear

Actually, no. When I delete the text of the draft, and press "back", then next time I select the thread the draft text is back. -1 for untested answer.

actually I've been doing it and it always worked.

What version of Android and manufacturer, Louis Rhys? I am using Android 2.2 on a HTC Sense phone.. that could be the problem..

Doesn't work for me. 2.2 Desire Z

I have T-Mobile G2 (USA), which is supposed to be the same hardware as a Desire Z. My SMS app is called "Messaging" (green, square cartoon talking bubble), version 2.3.4 (Gingerbread version). In this version and in Froyo, when I clear the text, "draft" goes away" in the thread display. I have no "drafts" button in my button bar after pressing "menu".

Have you tried pressing and holding on the text of the draft message and then using the context menu to delete that single draft message?

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


text:
How to zoom in a web browser on an Android TV?
I have a TV that runs Android 2.2. It can take a USB mouse and keyboard, and I'm running the Dolphin web browser on an auto-refreshed page for digital signage.
Only thing is, I can't get it to zoom in or out - there is no touch (so multitouch doesn't work) and there are no +/- buttons as there are on some stock browsers.
The stock browser doesn't work on the site in questions, and Firefox won't load onto the device (it has a MIPS processor, so any app using the native SDK won't work). Any ideas?

Purchase a mouse which supports multitouch gestures (using which you zoom in or out). e.g. PadKite
If you don't want to purchase anything, just go to Dolphin's Settings, tap Lab and turn ON pinch-Zoom Button. Then, you'll find +/- clickable buttons to zoom in or out.


text:
Second Google Account for Phone
I have a second Google email address for business.    I would also like to be able to upload business photos / media to the HOA account with photos: can this be done and how?
I have added the 2nd Google account to the phone successfully, but attempts to share photos (via Google-Photo app) presented only the one (the original) Google account.

You have to add the second Gmail account to the Google Photos app separately. You can upload photos to this account by switching to it from within the app.
To add the account just open the hamburger menu from the left of the Google Photos app, click on the downward facing arrow next to your user name and then select the Add account option.


text:
Add filter in the list of apps
ALCATEL 8088Q 3T10 tablet.
In the SETTINGS of this tablet in SPECIAL APP ACCESS there is a BATTERY OPTIMISATION list. In this list one can either see all apps or apps which are not optimised.
In other words, there are only 2 filters in this list viz 1. NOT OPTIMISED 2. ALL APPS.
Now what I need is a 3rd filter viz 3. OPTIMIZED so that I can view the list of only those apps which are optimised.
Is there any way (eg through the developer mode in settings) to add this 3rd filter ?

No.
Those options are built into the system and there exists no way to add an "Optimise" filter. But yes, I do understand your requirement.


text:
What happens when I connect a 2 amp charger instead of the 0.7 amp charger provided?

Possible Duplicate:
Is my phone liable to explode if I charge it with a charger that came with a different phone?
What's the safe limit on charger output for a Galaxy Nexus

I have a phone with 0.7 amp charger. I also have a Galaxy Nexus with a 2 amp charger.  If I connect the 2 amp charger into my phone, will my phone blow up?

Usually I say "try it and see", but in this case...

Related: Is my phone liable to explode if I charge it with a charger that came with a different phone?

Electric current is measured in Amperes, shortened to Amps or simply the letter A.
One well spread example is to think of electricity in terms of water, pressure being equivalent to voltage, and flow rate equivalent to amps. As long as you have the correct pressure, the flow rate isn't a problem, provided the necessary minimum is present.
Typically electronics will only draw the current they need, so extra amps is OK.
The important thing is having the correct voltage with sufficient amperage available. Extra amperage will be ignored by your device.


text:
I've deleted Google Play Store. How can I reinstall it?
I've been having an issue with my apps where an error "Package file is invalid" keeps appearing. I read a tutorial somewhere which told me to "uninstall updates" for the Google Play Store application. I was told doing this would uninstall the application, and then the device would automatically reinstall Google Play Store.
I did this, restarted my phone, but the application never reappeared.
I think tried downloading an .apk file to install this manually, but on install the application wouldn't load.
Has anyone done this before? How can I reinstall this application? I believe I need it for all future downloads and updates to my applications.
For the record, my phone is not rooted.

Do you still have the old Android Market installed? If you just uninstalled the updates, then there probably is an older version of the store at your phone which is also probably why you can't reinstall the Play Store.

@ShedoSurashu No I don't have the old market installed I don't think. I can't find "Market" or "Google Play Store" in my applications.

Alas, if only you were rooted, you can simply go to /system/apps/ and see if "Vending.apk" is there. :/

I nearly did everything offered in all google searches. nothing works successfully for google play to work in HCL ME U1.
Installing Android SDK and running ADB shell etc. also sometime does not allow files to be copied to the /system/app folder and it's very tedious thing if you are not familiar with java and linux commands.
There seems to be some restriction by HCL in startup for disabling google play.
Following is the option which worked for me and very easy and using which so far I have installed about 100 applications from google play and using my HCL ME U1 without any problem.

Install JDK in PC. You may also require HCL ME connect for drivers of HCL U1.
Install Android commander (PC program. download and install from net)
Using android commander Copy android apk file in /system/app folder. Also copy the same apk to SD card folder.
Now when you restart the tab it read as 'android upgrading', but soon you will get message "Unfortunately google play stopped working". Then try open Google Play it will show an error "unfortunately google stopped working" again.
Now go to you SD card where you have the Google Play .apk
Double tap on that and install Google Play. It will give a message that you are replacing main application etc. Say ok.
Now Google Play will work/download/install any application from marketplace. Now Google Play will work like anything.
The moment you shutdown or reboot your tab you will start getting "Unfortunately google play stopped working" message again.
So whenever you want to use google play double tap and install Google Play from sd card. For that time being it will work until you reboot or shutdown and start.

So use that way it hardly takes 5-6 seconds to install Google Play .apk from sdcard whenever you start the tab.
PLEASE NOTE it is very important that to have the android .apk in root of /system/app folder. Without that it will not work.
--- What I feel is that HCL has made some restriction by disabling something in startup. Anyway it takes only 5 seconds to install Google Play .apk from sdcard. And for that time it works just pefect. I tried all other way but this is the only way it works.

You cannot uninstall the PlayStore/GoogleMarket app without having your device rooted -- so as Shedo guessed, you probably just uninstalled the latest update. Which means, the original app included with your firmware takes over -- and probably is called "Market" (the original name of the Playstore, before some market specialists started toying with the name).
So look out for an icon with a green bag, labeled "Market", that's it. Go ahead and start it, browse a bit, leave it. The Play Store App should be forced back on your device automatically -- maybe not immediately, but it usually doesn't take long.

Hi, thanks for your response. I can't find "Market" under my applications :S Any other ideas?

Check all the apps in your drawer: is there really none with a "green bag" icon? Maybe it's called "Google Market" or something like that (it may be localized and depending on your locale/language settings). Is your device rooted? How did you remove the app?

The only "green bag" icon I can see is "HTC Hub" (I'm using a HTC Sensation). I removed it by going to something like "Settings > Applications > All > Google Play Store > Uninstall updates". And nope its not rooted, and I'm running Android 4

OK -- in that case, as said above (and as the button suggested), you did NOT uninstall the app itself, but "Uninstall(ed) updates" only. The original ROM-App must still be there: Simply the availability of the "Uninstall updates" button indicates it is a system app you cannot remove. Sure you checked the app drawer? What launcher are you using? Maybe you a) checked the wrong tab (some drawers devide apps in "All", "Recent", and "Running" -- so if you checked in "Recent", the uninstall may have removed it there), or b) the drawer might be hiding it?

I'm looking under "All Apps" and there is neither "Market" or "Google Play Store". I've searched through them all and I cannot find anything which would be related to the market app. I appreciate what you're saying, but I cannot find the app anywhere :/ I'm worried I'm going to need to do a full system restore :(

Yes, as a last ressort, a factory reset should solve it -- but that would mean to lose all data and settings (as long as you are not rooted and can restore them via Titanium Backup). But I really wonder where the app should have gone to. I'd try a wipe of the Dalvik-Cache (as it then has to be rebuilt, which might turn up the market/playstore up again) -- but I'm not sure whether the unrooted stock-recovery offers such except via the factory reset...

Not sure which phone you have, but you might want to check this: clear dalvik cache without root on nexus. Might work on other phones as well -- and it's probably worth a try, as you cannot break anything doing so.

I've got a HTC Sensation. Will this link still work for my phone? I'm not sure its as relevant now?

I cannot tell if it works on any phone, as I do not know them all (see my profile for which I own). But it's still worth a try. If there's any place on a non-rooted phone to do a wipe of the Dalvik Cache, it probably is the recovery menu. If that offers you any cache wipe, do it (wiping cache doesn't break anything, as "cache" implicates temporary data). Next boot might take a bit longer (as cache is restored) -- but then everything should be back to normal. -- But to not sound too hopeful: I guess only few phones provide this option...

One more idea: Did you check in the same place where you "uninstalled updates", i.e. in settings -> applications? If you find it there, you can at least wipe all its cache (not that I think that helps much, but it would be worth a try). Next try: on a free place on a homescreen, long-press to add a widget. This should also offer you an app list -- hopefully including either market or playstore.

I could never find a way of recovering my Google Play Store, and had to do a full restore.
After the full restore my Google Play Store returned.

Go to Settings, look for Google Play Store, and uninstall updates.

Very unlikely. Please read the question again: OP said to have deleted the app -- so what "updates" shall be there to uninstall?

I have an update for you that fixed my problem with Google Play Store not opening.
I did something (god knows what?!?!?!) and the Google Play Store wouldn't work.  Every time I clicked on it, it opened then within a second it shut again.
I didn't want to reset the device (Google Nexus 7) and found an option called "Reset app preferences".  If you go into Settings > Apps then in the top right hand corner click the 3 dots that sit under the current time.  The option is listed here.
I'm not sure what else it does but the Google Play Store then opened first time and I also now have listed "Google Play Services" which wasn't listing before.
Hope this helps some people as it was doing my head in trying to work it out!

Go to this site and you can download "unofficial" version of Google apps. Make sure you choose a right one, which is based on your phone's display spec and version.

Ha, just realized that you may have to have a rooted phone to install such downloaded gapps.

Not may -- must. As I just learned: An app which wants to install other apps must either be signed with the same certificate as the ROM -- or must be moved to the /system partition. As the former is quite unlikely, the latter must be achieved; which is impossible without root. To sum up: You neither can successfully install nor uninstall Google Market without having your device rooted.

I had the same problem. I uninstalled the updates, as I was receiving multiple errors (insufficient storage available, package file invalid, etc.) when I was trying to download a particular app. I was about to restore my phone, so I removed my SD card (I'm not really sure if that's necessary), and when I checked my phone, Play Store icon was still there. I just clicked it and there was a message that Android Market just needs to be updated. Just hit "Continue" and you'll be able to open it again. I also tried to download the app I was having trouble with from Play Store without the SD card, it worked!
Good thing that it worked, as I was even thinking of rooting my device but I'm not sure how.

I uninstall google play store on my samsung galaxy ace 2X and I figured it out how to recover the google play store...step1)go to settings 2)application manager 3)press "ALL" then scroll down and find the apps for "Google Play Store"....then click on "ENABLE"

If you can still find it in apps, you did not uninstall it but simply disabled it. That's something completely different than having the .apk deleted.


text:
How to force Motorola's Ready For to show up on the phone screen?
TL;DR
Is there any way to force a Motorola phone to launch the desktop mode on the phone itself instead of relying on the Windows app?
What Ready For is
Ready For is Motorola's desktop mode (Like Samsung's Dex). It's not a separate launcher and there are three ways of connecting to it normally:

Directly connecting to a monitor through HDMI
Connecting to a Windows PC through an App from Microsoft's app store
Connecting through WiFi to a compatible monitor or TV.

Why I need this

My specific phone model (Edge 40) can't connect through HDMI (and I'm still mad about it).
My personal computer is Linux and they don't offer a Linux app.
My job computer is Windows, but Microsoft's app store is blocked in it.

What I want to do instead
If I could somehow force desktop mode on the phone itself, I could then use scrcpy to share the screen both on Windows and Linux to work with it.
Thanks
Edit
I was able to install Ready For on my job computer through winget. Unfortunately, it seems Motorola's screen casting solution is not well ironed out yet and it's extremely slow.
Good news though is that I was able to capture Ready For's desktop on scrcpy as it is detected as a hidden second display.
This sort of resolves my ultimate objective (on Windows at least), but does not answer my question, so I'll keep it here instead of in a dedicate answer.

You could try to manually download the .appx/ .AppxBundle file and install it manually on the Windows computer. Usually companies only block the store, not the appx installation.

Thanks, @Robert. I'll try that out later on. How do I download the .appx? If I try the store on a browser, it redirects to the desktop store (the "install" button uses ms-windows-store protocol that directly opens the store and not an HTTP URL)

There are third party programs available which can download appx programs from MS store. See e.g. here: https://woshub.com/how-to-download-appx-installation-file-for-any-windows-store-app/

Alright, thanks! I'll check it out

That worked. It will work great for Windows, thanks! It's slower than scrcpy, but it's an almost complete desktop environment feeling. Now, for Linux I guess only way to do it would be a proper answer to the question...


text:
Manually create A/B partitions
I have a Xiaomi Mi 6X which is the Chinese version of A2. There is a way to convert it into A2, but OTA updates won't work because 6X has only A partition. I'm not sure, but I've read, it is possible to create/delete partitions on an Android device.
So I want to create A/B partitions manually, but I have no idea how it looks like.

Android uses GUID Partition Table (GPT) as its partitioning system which is possible to modify using tools like parted and gdisk. But there are a few constraints I can think of, other than the OTA problem you have already mentioned:

Android devices with A/B partition scheme have many partitions in (_a/_b) pairs including system, vendor, aboot, sbl and modem. New partitions require space which obviously isn't available on flash memory (eMMC) and needs to be freed from your userdata partition. So you will get short on your /sdcard space.
Since all the partitions to be created aren't adjacent to userdata partition (which is usually the last one), you may need to delete and create dozens of partitions. Exact details depend on the order of partitions in your partition table. So there are bright chances of bricking your device. :)
Application bootloader (aboot) on A/B devices is different than on non-A/B devices. On A/B devices, there are two boot partitions and no recovery partition. So the process of making choice from where to boot the device is different than on non-A/B devices.
Also the other functionality of aboot that depends on partition names such as fastboot update will also break. And since bootloaders are closed source, you can't modify it to be compatible with your new partition table (unless you are lucky as well as an expert at hexediting binaries).

So it seems practically impossible to convert a non-A/B device to A/B device.

I recently analyzed some abl images and it's has a/b slot support even on a-only phone. But of course, it's very dangerous and needs to understand what you are doing.
Qualcomm abl sources:
https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la/abl/tianocore/edk2/tree/?h=LA.UM.8.2.r1-04300-sdm660.0

@Axifive interesting. Did you reverse engineer abl? If yes, were you able to find hard-coded addresses particularly for boot_[a|b]?

Xiaomi A2 has the same hardware as Mi 6X and actually, Mi 6X is the Chinese version of A2. Why not fully flashing Mi 6X with A2 ROM, including GPT structures from the firmware? The problem will be fastboot itself, as you can't write on GPT there or change the name of the partitions as it brokes the existing fastboot in the current ABL (Android BootLoader), but it should work if ABL itself is changed to the one in A2.
You will need to use EDL mode to fully write A2 ROM on Mi 6X with A2's partition table, or at least write both GPT structure and ABL.elf with other bootloader partitions like XBL.elf and then use fastboot (which will be flashed from A2 so it must recognize and respond to the name of the partitions from A2) to flash the remaining partitions.
This should be possible only if both devices are typically the same in hardware and SoC firmware and there isn't Secure Boot eFuse provided by Qualcomm in the Mi 6X SoC, as this will prevent a modified or different ABL (Android BootLoader) from being loaded in the first place (even if the bootloader is unlocked) which will bring you again to EDL mode with boot error. So first, check if you have secure boot enabled or not by something like fastboot oem SecureBoot GetFuseStatus if your device supports this command, or by directly flashing different A2 ROM with its GPT structures and see what will happen.
You should also know that what you do is risky and you have a pretty high chance of bricking your phone, so do it at your own risk.

The a/b partitioning scheme doesn't eat into internal storage—on a Google pixel 1, the a/b scheme takes only 320MiB more than the a-only scheme. Source:Android Developers https://source.android.com/devices/tech/ota/ab/ab_faqs

How does this answer the question? // How would you halve the size of the system partition without recompiling your ROM with changed source code? You need to be a ROM developer for that so that to create a customized OS to save space on /system_a by putting .odex files on /system_b and then move them to /data on first boot. But anyway, space is not the only problem. Other problems need more serious consideration.

can you also suggest any tools for creating AB partition on a smartphone?

@IrfanLatif there is already a ROM with A/B partition from Xiaomi A2. I'm wondering if I can create an A/B partition on a Mi 6X (which has the same hardware).

@ArayKarjauv you can use parted or gdisk for partitioning. // You won't lose much space if system on Mi 6X equals in size to system_a+system_b on A2. But as I said, the core problem is not space, but that the bootloader on Mi 6X must support A/B partitions. You can also try using A2's BL on Mi 6X but (among other requirements) bootloader must be signed by Xiaomi with the same key (which is highly unlikely). ABL won't boot if signature verification fails. Also the pre-ABL BLs (SBL, XBL etc.) and SoC firmware might also be different on both phones, so may not work with different ABL.


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Is there ANY way to use Google services on a Huawei phone that has them blocked?
I just bought a Huawei phone and then realized that google play services had been blocked. So, I tried a workaround by installing the latest version of google play services apk, which doesn't work. The notification showed that google play services needs to be updated.
Did I do something wrong? If this workaround won't work at all, can I do something else? For example, if I format the phone and install another OS, would that help?

You can try to register your ANDROID_ID at Google: https://www.google.com/android/uncertified/ This should white-list your device and allow therefore Play Services.

Sorry for a delayed reply. I don't quite know how to use this method. So I turned to an easier way, using an app called "Device ID", but under "google service framework (GSF)" is written "not found".


text:
How do I configure calendar " leave in X minutes" notifications to use non-driving travel times?
I think the Calendar reminders that let you know when you have to leave in order to arrive in time for an event have the potential to really make my life easier, but the travel times are all calculated as if I were driving. That's actually a relatively rare case for me; I'm far more likely to be using public transit or walking. I'd there an way to configure Calendar to use transit, walking, or biking times instead of driving times? Even better would be a way to override this setting for an individual event.

Well, I think you are talking about the Google Now notification, right?
If so, you have to change the option on the Google Now app, not on the Calendar app.
To do so, you go to Google Now(tap the search bar on the top of your home page) then you'll see the card that estimates your arrival time to your destination, you can see like three vertical dots, tap there and hit Settings, now you set Transportation Mode to Public Transit.
From now on, the card will notify automatically the time you need to arrive by public transportation.


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What do the names means in settings > application manager > current app?
In settings>application manager><your app> we got some infos about her.
What do they means? I am quite confused.
I really need to know it but somehow its quite hard to guess. Where can I get that full descibed information about this stats?
The most important things to know (first):

Total
Application
Data

Thanks in advance.

Total = Application + Data
Application = Size of APK file of the app
Data = Space consumed by /data/data/<Package_Name_of_App> (it contains data stored by the app)

Other stats details:

If Force Stop button is active, it means the app is running in background. You can use this button to stop the app from running.
Cache section shows how much data the app has stored in /cache partition.
If Clear Defaults button is active, it means the app is set as default to complete an action like sending email, open URL etc. You can tap this button to clear default(s).
On the same page, you can get list & small description about Permissions the app has. If you need explanation of Permissions, check this article out.


text:
saving route while still connected to wifi
In Google Maps is there a way to save a route while you're still connected to wifi so that it saves your data plan? Does scrolling through the map while still connected to wifi help because then the points get cached?

You could just cache the route portion of the map using the Make available offline feature. Then, all need afterwards is the GPS, which doesn't use your data plan.

How do I use Make available offline feature?

@Celeritas It's in Google Maps. Open the context menu (In my S2, it's the left softkey button). You should see Clear Map,  Make Available offline, Settings, Help. When you click that Make Available offline, it will ask you to select an area you want to cache.

@geff_change what difference does it make when you zoom in or out on a selected area? For example is it only stored on the exact zoom level so if you were zoomed in farther it would use your data plan?

@Celeritas The area inside the box will be cached. The more Zoomed Out you are, the more area is cached. So, that will take a bit longer to cache, as more data will be downloaded. There is a minimum Zoom Out level. If you're past that level, you can't cache the area. You need to Zoom In a bit.


text:
Why the battery need to be loaded before to root?
I read in some tutoriel that for the root to be working, battery needed to be loaded around 70 at at least.
Why is it so?
Does it endanger the phone, or it just prevent the root to be working for some reason?

Simple - if the battery is low, as rooting can be slow depending on handset, and the battery runs out, rooting will fail, but generally, battery must be at least 75% full for flashing, not rooting :)

@t0mm13b is right. Technically there should be no reason that you even need a battery inserted to flash (it's just power, which is already provided by USB here). Some phones however switch off if you remove the battery even if USB power is connected. It would be fatal for those phones if the battery dies before the flash procedure is done. That's why someone imposed the 75% charged battery precaution.

It's a safety factor.  Depending on the exact method, the rooting process can take a hour or more and if you run out of juice in the middle of the process, your phone can wind up bricked.

not exactly bricked - more likely soft bricked...


text:
Is it possible to connect a Android phone display to a TV or PC Monitor?
Is it possible to make the display on a Android phone to a TV or a PC Monitor?
What are the methods that I can connect the Android phone to a TV (e.g. plasma TV) or a PC Monitor and then modify some configuration in the phone so that the display will be shown in the TV or the PC Monitor screen?

Yes, you can connect an android phone to a TV or a computer monitor. At least if you have a new enough TV or monitor, and not a ten year old TV like I do. :-)
My android phone came with a HDMI cable to use when connecting phone to TV. I have connected it many times to my computer however, using a mini USB cable. But I would be able to use the HDMI as well, depending on what I want to do.
I am for sure no expert, but I have a Sony Ericsson experia arc S and I have used it for over a year. I hope that this answer is good enough to offer some help.
For newer phone, you may wish to use the following:
Micro USB to HDMI® MHL Adapter

Reference link: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10833&cs_id=1083314&p_id=8675&seq=1&format=2
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P5tJl_a_wcc
In the reference link, it include information such as Compatible Mobile Devices (which you can retrieve from this link - http://www.mhlconsortium.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=5055)

May I have a illustration of the mini USB cable that you are referring to? Also, I notice that most Computer Monitor have a VGA port, a HDMI port and a DVI port. So, I am a bit puzzle how you can use a mini USB cable to connect to a computer monitor. And also, does the user do not need to modify any settings on the phone and the display on the phone will be projected / shown on the TV or a computer monitor with just a simple step by connecting the cable itself? (I am just surprise that the answer is so simple. Too shock to be true.)

On many recent phones/tablets, the "micro USB" port is actually a hybrid USB-MHL port.  An appropriate adapter (like this monoprice unit) will connect this port to a standard HDMI port.

@Compro01 That a good link. I updated the answer to include that useful information.

@Compro01 By the way, I notice that the adapter that you refer does not cover all the recent phones (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S III Mini), so are there other ways for such phones that is not compatible?

It is worth noting that not all devices support MHL. I remember that Samsung Galaxy Nexus supports, but the Nexus 7 tablet doesn't.

@jack - For unknown reasons, Samsung opted not to include MHL support in the GS3 mini.  About the only way I can think of to move video to screen on non-MHL devices would be DLNA (which would require appropriate hardware on the TV side) or similar.

@user26287 What things would I need to connect my VGA-cabled CRT TV ?

As @DenilsonSáMaia said, MHL support is mandatory for this to work. No MHL? No party! Don't buy any cable/adapter if you don't have MHL support on either your USB port or dedicated mini-HDMI port.

This is what developers use to show applications to an audience:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/software-engineer/project-your-android-phones-screen-onto-a-larger-display/

A hardware phone screen projector like Paraben's Project-A-Phone ICD-5200. Expensive.
Eclipse and the Android SDK, and then run your application in the Android emulator. Slow.
A free application called Droid@Screen.

Please at least summarize the contents of the link you posted in case it gets moved or deleted. If the link dies the answer has no value whatsoever.

Although I think micro-usb/HDMI adapter connection is a better option if your phone supports it and you have the required hardware, another option for viewing your screen on the computer is is to use USB debugging mode capabilities, which does not require special hardware beyond your USB cable.
Essentially, you enable USB debugging mode on the phone. You install the Android SDK on your computer. You probably will also have to install USB drivers for your phone model as well that are not the default drivers that do USB folder storage only. And then you download an application called Android Screencast to your PC and run it. It's slightly laggy, so it isn't ideal for, say, watching a video off your phone, but if your screen dies or something, it can be a lifesaver. A detailed tutorial on how to get Android screencast up and running is here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/42491/how-to-remote-view-and-control-your-android-phone/

Yes, as far as I know you can only connect it to your smart tv or blueray player to play media storage; like videos, music, photos, etc.
I don't think they have live playback for android, but they do for PSP Go.

Is this a guess, or have you tried it? HDMI has a "mirror" mode, where the device's screen is "mirrored" to the display connected via HDMI -- i.e. on the TV you then see exactly the same content as on your screen (only problem: not all Android phones have a HDMI (or MHL) port available for this). Furthermore, using some uPnP server app on Android (e.g. BubbleUPnP) you can control playback remotely -- but that wasn't even asked by the OP :)

The way I do it is I connect my phone to my tv by using a micro usb to yellow video input and use my Curtis 5.1 dolby surround sound with a female red and white to male audio (headset connecter).

Could you mention what kind of phone this works on, and what kind of video adaptor you're using? I wouldn't expect most phones to support this.


text:
Will playing a game in a Android phone while charging damage or cause harm to the battery or the phone?
Will the following situation damage or cause any harm to the battery or/and the phone:

The phone is being charging (regardless it is using the electrical outlet or via USB) and ..
You are playing a game while the phone is being charging and ..
You will be playing the game for 5 hours or more.

In another word, if you will be playing a android game in a android phone for 5 hours or more while the android phone is being charging, will it cause any damage or harm to the android phone and/or the battery inside the android phone?

Playing while charging does not damage the battery or phone directly.
The only problem is that:
battery gets warmer when is charging, and phone also gets hot when playing. So, when you play while charging, phone gets too hot and we know that battery life would be affected when it works in very hot conditions.
Sources to read more:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_heat_and_harsh_loading_reduces_battery_life
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Do we know that? Adding some sources would be nice.

It also make me wonder if we do it in an air-con room of 20 degree Celsius or below will prevent the heat generate by the battery to affect the battery or the phone.

The battery inside of your phone will still heat up. Ok, this will be slowed down if you do it in a 20 degree room, but eventually the effect will be the same, but it will take a little longer before the battery heats up.

The https://android.stackexchange.com/a/54200/42449 conditions don't apply globally. It depend on hardware to hardware but it is true that using the phone for hours while charging can do damage in a way or other.
like Micromax tablets get easily heated up while charging if under use while same dont happens after a long with my sony phone.
To keep a long battery like follow the way as per above post.

"Above" and "Below" are not good references here, as they depend on how the answers are sorted (time posted, votes received, last active). So it would be best to [edit] your answer and make clear which one you're refering to (you can use the "share" link to get its URL).

When your phone gets to 100% battery, unplug it and play games until it reaches 5% battery life remaining. Then stop playing and wait for the battery to cool. Then charge your phone again until it reaches 100%.

5% is quite low. LiIo batteries don't like it to be "low discharged". While 5% might still be acceptable, when possible, you should connect the charger earlier (the earliest possibility after it falls below 20%, and best before it falls below 10%).

This answer is harmful, I strongly disagree with this suggestion! This wears down the battery. If the battery is fully charged, the phone will draw all needed power from the charger and leave the battery full. Charge-uncharge cycling the battery wears it down after some number of cycles (around 1000 mostly).


text:
How can you remove notification of new Messages chat features
A few updates ago on my Samsung Galaxy S10 added new "chat features from Google" and a notification of this new feature was flagged with the standard "N" icon:

Clicking the N icon brings up the Messages Settings

and clicking on "Chat settings" comes up with

I click on use without chat features and annoyingly the new feature notification N icon stays there.
I now know about the potential new features I don't want so the N icon should be gone.
How do I get that removed without accepting the new chat features?

You can downgrade the application
Download any earlier version of the app from here. Don't download any beta version.. use stable ones.

Wouldn't downloading and installing earlier versions introduce potential security flaws onto the phone?

You can check the changelog of the app if there is any security update but to be honest the earlier version of the app is safe too after all it's made by google. But if you're not happy with it then you can use any other messaging app (which i don't recommend) Tell if you're not satisfied by the answer, I'll delete it.


text:
How to change Bing Search to my default search engine in Firefox?
After installing Microsoft's Outlook app I noticed that when going to search for something on the Internet by selecting text and searching, I am forced to use Bing instead of my default search engine (Google).

(Screenshot from Firefox)
I have just found out that this is a known issue mentioned by Android Police in 2020.
I use Firefox 90.1.3 (Build #2015824995) on a Samsung Galaxy S10 and Google is always set as my default. I even removed Bing from the options, yet it is still there when trying the selection search.

I noticed that when using Samsung's Internet Browser, there is the extra option of 'Web search' as well as 'Bing Search' and using 'Web search' goes to my default search engine. That is not on Firefox.
Is there a known way to stop this intrusion into my right to choose which search engine I use when using Firefox?
@Robert indirectly made a good point on settings within Outlook within comments so I had a look.
I am forced not to use my default browser as I cannot set it in Outlook (see below)

Tapping on the slider does nothing

Is the first screenshot from Outlook app or from Firefox?

@Robert from Firefox - see edit for Outlook settings

I have never seen such a menu in Firefox as shown in you 2nd screenshot, may be Outlook has installed a system wide add-on to capture long presses and show this Bing menu? Then I would check options of Outlook if you can disable it there.

@Robert that screen is found by tapping menu (three dots) - settings - search https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manage-my-default-search-engines-firefox-android

Sorry, wrong screen-shot, I was referring to the menu shown in the 1st screen shot.

I think this menu isn't created by Firefox, but either a system-wide function created by the Outlook app. There are many apps that createsuch links in so to say right-click menus on Android.
I don't however know how to remove this, sorry.
But I can suggest a different mail app to you, which is more privacy-friendly in comparison to Outlook or Gmail. It's named FairEmail an available at email.faircode.eu. I know this isn't the solution you are searching for, but I just wanted to spread this great app.

I checked fairemail and it does not look spammy. It seems to be really an opensource mail app.

The fact that the toggle to enable "Use default browser" is unresponsive is apparently some kind of bug. Depending on your version/email setup, you're meant to either have the "Use default browser" option or not. It shouldn't be greyed out like that -- though it's that way on mine as well, and I've seen MS forum posts from others to that effect so this may be some weird, hopefully temporary, regression.
In many third-party apps, selecting text will trigger an android webview rather than a full-fledged browser. Contextual Text Selection was released in Android 6.0, allowing developers to capture text you select in their app and send it to another process. The developer can decide what options to include on that little pop-up menu, so adding "Bing search" is Microsoft taking advantage of a captive audience. It's strange that you don't have "Web search" in your pop-up menu as well, though -- it shows in mine. That context menu is somewhat dependent on other apps installed, so this might sound obvious or odd, but do you have the Google app installed (the lightweight search that comes pre-installed on a lot of androids)?
It looks like this:

I think this may be the source of the "web search" option. Until they fix the default browser toggle, adding the web search possibility will at least give you something of a workaround.


text:
Has the setting to disable icon frames been removed on the Galaxy S10 lineup?
On previous versions of Samsung Galaxy phones I've owned, I had the option to enable/disable icon frames around the apps on my home screen. This setting could be found by navigating to Settings > Display > Home Screen > Icon Badges.
After digging around the settings of my Galaxy S10+, I have not been able to find such a feature.  Has this setting been removed with the launch of The S10 and One UI?
Below is a screenshot of the setting I'm referring to from my Galaxy Note 8:

This seems to be a setting that started in Oreo related to Adaptive Icons.  You now need specific themes to remove the border.
Per the following link:

If you don't want borders, go to settings>wallpaper and
  themes>icons>download and find an icon pack with no borders.

https://androidforums.com/threads/why-is-there-no-option-to-remove-icon-frame-borders-on-the-new-android-pie-update.1295501/

I read from many posts that the option shown above has been removed. Only solution I found is to download an icons set that was made without frames feature.  I am using one called Zero made by MINU after seeing its link in another post about the same issue on this website.


text:
Inserting incompatible SD card?
I have an Android phone which supports 32GB SD card. So, if I insert a 64GB SD card, I know that the device will not recognize it. But, if I create two partitions in the 64GB SD card (32GB each), will the device recognize it?
Note: I have Android 7.0 installed in my device.

No. The limitation of size is at hardware level, independent of what's inside.

Note that a lot of devices say they only handle "32GB" but that is not always the case... Many handle larger cards just find, although you may have to manually format them to fat32 file system as it is not the default for more cards over 32GB. What device are you referring to?

I have Micromax Bharat 3 Q437 mobile device, with Android 7.0.

The support is based on device performance rather than the actual hardware or software limitations.
For example, if your device has a slow processor then reading the SD Card to do a Media Scan will take for ever... So long that it will impact the user experience constantly waiting for the SD Card to read.
So, as to improve the user's experience they decided to implement a recommended maximum SD card limit.
It is only a recommendation.
You can usually not format a device in Fat32 larger than 32GB .. However if you use other software or even the inbuilt Format option, it will use a modified Fat32 called ExFat ... ExFat can handle larger than 32 bit and is basically a workaround for the 32 GB limit of Fat32.
So, just format it and wait a little longer for the card to load... A few seconds or minutes waiting is well worth the extra storage in my opinion, however some people prefer Speed over Size.


text:
Samsung galaxy s9+: how to order screen unlock options
In my screen unlock options, I have iris scanner, face recognition, fingerprint scanner, pattern and password/security pin. I have all of the options set up. However, 95% of the time when I try to unlock it either ask for security pin or pattern. Maybe only 5% of the time it asks for iris scanner/face recognition. However it never asks for fingerprint scanner to unlock the phone.
I want to order these options so that whenever I try to unlock the phone it first ask for

Fingerprint scanner,
If no 1 fails, it ask for iris/face recognition scanner
If above fails it ask for pattern
Lastly if above all fails, it ask for password/security pin

Is there any way to order these options to unlock samsung s9+ phone?


text:
Why can't I update my device?
I have a Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300), my current Android version is 4.0.4.
I am trying to define software updates for it, via the Software Updates screen. (Settings > About).
However, I get "Unable to connect to network" every time. What network is it trying to connect? Can I define it? If so, what should I define it too?
Also, will software updates allow me to update to 4.1.2? If not, how can I?
Can anyone please point to a resource which explains it? (Or even better, answer it here).
If I'm lacking any technical details, please leave a comment and I'll edit my question right away.

May be I am too easy with you.
But just for the fact of helping, were you able to access internet through your mobile?
If the answer is 'Yes' then there must be a bug with your OS. (There are possibilities for that in one or two devices)
My suggestion is to use 'Kies' from a PC.
Last week only I got to know even GT-I9300 devices are network locked in some countries. A friend of mine's GT-I9100 started asking for Network Unlock code all of a sudden. After a master reset, we noticed some new apps from Vodafone and the default language turned into Spanish or something.
So I think your GS3 might be trying to access its original operator.
Or may be some other reason.
Just try my suggestions if you didn't do already.

I can access a mobile network. So what do you think I should do? Care to elaborate a bit more about this 'Kies'?

Samsung Kies is the software for all Samsung's android devices to sync with PC. You can backup your mobile data to PC using Kies. Also you can update your firmware through it, if Samsung made it available for your device. Since, SGS3 has already got the JB update I hope you can give it a try. Download Kies from, http://www.samsung.com/us/kies/

Could it be that it refuses the update on mobile network because the download size is pretty big? Try updating while on a wireless network...

I'm updating it while connected to WiFi. It doesn't work.