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Is there way to stop ads?
Every time I unlock my phone (yu yunicorn | marshmallow), ad pops up, covering the whole screen, ads also pop ups when I am using any app and it also uses chrome to direct to ads, its poping up when I am writing this, is there a way to stop these ads ?( disabling the internet is one way, I think, but I want to be connected all times)

Use Lucky Patcher.

@iBug Lucky Patcher is quite tricky to use, if the goal is removing ads. Won't something such as AdAway be equally effective or better?

@DeathMaskSalesman It can easily remove most common ads by adding 60k+ lines in the hosts file. Not so tricky this way.

@iBug It has quite evolved since I last used it, heh. By the way, certain custom ROMs block it.

I scanned with Dr.Web.... There is a threat named as ' not a virus adware (adware)' and when I am going for options, it is giving only option as 'ignore' not to 'delete' or 'quarantine' as other threats. Message appears that it is a file from system and only option to ignore. It says 'the standard neutralizing actions are not applicable for system applications'

Probably it needs root access. Never install stuffs outside playstore unless you trust the developer who created the app.

Which app it is? If it is a system app you can, without root, block it from running. Let us know the precise results.

@firelord Named as 'rockclient.apk' but I can't find in apps

Do you have an app named "Gmobi" or "System update"? If yes, use AppXplore to give us the package name. Try to post the screenshot please.

I used 'addons Detector' suggested by @acejavelin, it showed the all the names of files that comes with any app. It has a search option in which I used to search 'leadbolt' ( as I noticed in one of the corners of a ad), and it was 'u torrent pro' that I downloaded from web and installed

I also scanned with Dr.Web as suggested by @Rajedran Nadar before and after using 'addons Detector' ,which showed me 'u torrent pro' as threat. Thanks to Everyone for helping.

@iBug next time I'll try lucky patcher. ( I hope I won't need to ) thanks

Always remeber check permission before you install any app..

These type of ads usually come from an app you have installed, typically uninstalling the offending app will correct this.
Use Addons Detector to determine the app that is causing the ads and uninstall it.

Install Dr. Web (You can use any antivirus but this worked for me) application from play store.
Let the application scan your mobile phone. It will detect and remove all the adware from you phone. I tried and this worked for me.


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After deleting photos from my phone via computer, there are still empty placeholders in my gallery
yesterday I deleted some of my photos from my HTC 10 with the help of my computer.
Later, as I browsed through my gallery, there were spots, where previously been the now deleted pictures. These spots are simply black and if I click on them, there is a loading animation, but nothing happens, and I can't delete or do any other thing with it.
edit:
I did clear the cache and reboot my phone...
and i browse the web, but didn't find anything for my problem

Browse a little bit about your problem on the internet and specify your efforts in the post. It let's other user to understand question in detail to which they can answer accordingly. Here's a quick startup for you, try clearing the cache memory and reboot the device.

You can try rebuild the media library. Go to Apps in Settings, make it show system apps and locate the app Media Storage, force stop it and clear its data (not cache), then reboot and wait for 15~20 minutes for a full rescan/rebuild.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to remove unused folders created by apps?
When I started with a fresh SD card, there were only very few folders in it. As time passed by when I tried many apps, I could see the folder list in my SD card seems to grow.
It is understandable that while an app is being uninstalled, it leaves behind its folder where it would have kept few files, which may be the settings file or game scores etc.
Is there any way I can remove all those orphaned folders in a batch or short operations? I have seen the question "How do one know which folder is created by which android apps" and can manually do it, but I am interested in kind of automatic solution.
My phone info: LG Optimus One (P500) running stock 2.3.3 V20D (rooted).

Currently there are too many apps out there and every developer has their own naming for the folder that their apps create. It would be practically impossible to automate removal of such folders.. I've always been doing it manually. DCIM is one folder I never remove unless I don't need my images.

Agreed. User created folders are to be differentiated as well. I wonder why the uninstaller does not provide a way for an user to remove an app completely (which will also remove folders created by the app).

Agree to all above -- I doubt there's any complete solution. But as you are rooted, you might want to take a look at SD Maid - System cleaning tool, which at least finds a lot of the orphans.

Can somehow Tasker be used to trigger removal of folder (with confirmation) when an app is uninstalled? Just a thought...

Unfortunately, as the comments state, there is currently no way to automate this - and I for one wish there was, as I find myself deleting loads of folders as well.
You should do it manually - but methodically, and it starts to seem to take a lot less time, as you start to think about it.
One thing to look out for is folders for game apps that you installed, as they may contain the downloaded game data - which can be quite large, which you may wish to keep incase you want to install and play the game again.
Like Izzy mentioned, SD Maid finds some of the orphan files for you - but not all.

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Android Automatically Adds Shortcuts To Home Screen

Possible Duplicate:
How can I remove unwanted app icons from the screen?

I have a Samsung GS3, and every few days new shortcuts show up on my home screen. How can I stop them from being added? I un-checked Play > Settings > Auto-Add Widgets and they still keep showing up. What is causing this?

Can you post a screenshot of the shortcuts?

See also my answer here on a similar question.

Probably you have installed some non-reliable app, which is adding those annoying shortcuts in your home screen. I recommend you to install and make a scan with the free app TrustGo Ad Detector, and uninstall the app(s) under the behavior Create shortcut on home screen.

Also check out under the other behaviors for more suspicious apps and proceed as recommended. Note that some apps use legitimate mobile ad services, like Google's AdMob to monetize via ads, but they are listed under behaviors Leak identity info and Collect location , so just make sure you only uninstall (and avoid to install in the future) applications like online casino games, adult apps/games, and other which you distrust.
Keep making scans periodically (weekly or monthly) on your device to get rid of new potentially risky apps.

Thanks, it found a calculator widget that it said was adding them, I will have to give it a few days before I know if removing it worked or not.

After reading comments on that app others had the same issue, so I am going to mark this as solved thanks! Here was the culprit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=foralt.calculator.widget

Thanks for the info: don't forget to report that calculator widget in Google Play Store because of this kind of spam.

I have been trying to find a link or something to report this app, but I can not fine one. Any help on this?

From your smartphone open the Play Store link you shared above and go to bottom, as this image shows (as reason, select "Other objection", and tell them the way that app spammed you): https://i.sstatic.net/zSKnX.png


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How to confirm if motherboard is broken
This is in reference to my other question.
My phone was not working so I showed it to service center guy and he said the motherboard is broken and needs to be replaced.
I can flash custom ROMs to the phone but they are not also booting up.
So I just want to confirm does that really mean my motherboard is broken and needs to be replaced?

If it starts to boot (goes to the boot logo/animation) or Recovery/Download mode at least tries to load, then the motherboard is NOT damaged.
Your device is soft-bricked, and just needs to have a compatible ROM flashed, and your userdata erased for your device to be fully functional again.
The person is the service centre doesn't know what hey is talking about (I wouldn't trust those people - they just want your money).

To the downvoter: Comment please?


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How to back up applications in Android?

Possible Duplicate:
How to backup an Android device?

If I have installed N number of applications including big games, and I would like to back up them, so I could restore the games as soon as I factory reset my mobile, how can it be done ?
Any free apps ?

You can use Titanium Backup, but your phone needs to have root. It has a FREE and a PAID version.

Can you please explain the difference in between FREE and PAID ?

I installed Titanium FREE but I could not find it on my app list, seems it needs rooting or bootloader installed ?
Is it rooting requires bootloader installed on device ? and is it updating OS requires rooting ?

@KusH Yes, you need root to use Titanium Backup.

Does rooting require boot loader ?

@KusH You need to unlock the bootloader so you can have root. Check the the guides / instructions online on how to root your phone (e.g. using Odin to root your phone).

You can use ES File Explorer or File Expert to backup your apk's, it will only  backup your apps not the data. And they will do it with free versions.
From this answer
To backup your app data you should have to rooted to use any application that can backup the data. But if you have not rooted then you can try the following command which will work without root, but using adb. Turn on USB debugging, connect up to your computer, and run

adb pull /data/data/package name C:\where\you\want\the\files.

Depending on your Android version, and whether you are rooted or not, there are multiple possibilities. On all rooted devices, you can use Titanium Backup ★ root (pro version recommended -- there's nothing like it). For non-rooted devices, there's no app that can really backup everything (which is an intended permission issue for security reasons: no app can directly access another app's data). But provided you're running at least ICS (Android 4.0.*) or higher, take a look at the question Full Backup of non-rooted devices.

There is also AppMonster. It is available as both a free and a paid app (€2.96) on the Play Store. ES File Explorer is nice too (it gives more significant names to the backed up APKs) but AppMonster is better. I use both of them and AppMonster can back up apps that ES File Explorer does even not find (Seesmic Pro for example). I almost asked a question about "un-backup-able" apps on the site because of that.


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Are there any custom ROMs which let the user somehow filter Share menu lists?
Based on " How can I customize the list of services that pops up when I choose to "share" something in an app? " answer, any app supporting ACTION_SEND intent will be listed in "Share" menu pop-up.
Are there any custom ROMs which let the user somehow filter those Share menu lists to exclude installed apps?

As developer, I thinks its quite difficult. Because you have to disable the broadcast receiver, which is not easy possible without editing the application which provide it.

@Leandros - I'm sorry, I'm not sure why? All it seems to need (from my NON android developer POV) is a patch to whichever code inside Android itself which generates the list, to be able to read some config file which blacklists or whitelists apps for inclusion. What am I missing?

Sounds easy. But isn't that easy.

@Leandros as with other broadcast receivers: as soon as a second registers, the user should be able to chose which becomes the default (see homescreens). My answer shows how this princip can be utilized.

@Izzy If I can find the time I'll implement it into AOKP.

Then send them the patch and let's pray they include it -- I'd like that as well!

That's another XY problem question: you ask how to establish your suggested solution, instead to ask how to solve your real problem, which is your actual concern. For this task, you don't even need any Custom ROM.
Take a look at Andmade Share -- this app lets you customize your share menu on any ROM, not even root is needed:

As you can easily see, this app lets you...

Select (filter) the apps appearing in the list (as your question required)
Change the order in which they appear in the list (e.g. put your most frequently used apps on top)

Actually, I found Andmade Share recently (well after posting this question). While it's a nice idea and I love the app, on my fairly old DroidX, the app usually takes ~2-5 seconds to launch for whatever reason. Built-in share menu usually takes at most a second. There are benefits to not relying on an external app, evidently :)

Sure there might be, if there were any. So this app gives you an existing solution instead of a hypotetical one :)


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Why do I have so little unused RAM?

Possible Duplicate:
Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have - specifically Samsung Galaxy S?
0 ram free on ICS

My device (ASUS TF201, unrooted, stock Firmware) is running on Android 4.1 and has 1GB of RAM installed. However I noticed that only 200-300 MB's are left and marked "unused". Also I know that does not necessarily mean that all "used" RAM is really in use. For example cached Apps may be held in RAM for faster start-up and this RAM may be freed by Android if more memory is needed. So I tried the following steps to get more unused RAM as I am experiencing Force-Closes from another App which (may) result from insufficient memory available.

I checked running apps and force-closed some of them but this gave me not enough RAM. Although this list contains Apps which may be responsible for almost 100 MBs of RAM but not for 600 MB. So I checked which Apps are cached, and closed all of them giving me also only a few MB's.
I rebooted my device but after start-up 600 MB's are already used.
I performed cold-boot still 600 MB's are already in use.
I pushed the reset button which immediately shut down my device, but after reboot 600 MB's are still in use.
I performed a factory reset and did not installed any other app (nor did I perform a backup-restore, as I hadn't specified any Google account so far). But still 600 MB's are used.
I applied all of those memory task killers which all performed badly and killed only those apps I could kill myself. Except one profiler gave me a hint: It sayed that 300 MB's are used by the kernel and 300 MB's are used by apps. It also provided me a button for killing all running apps. Directly after this still 200 MB's are in use (it says "kernel memory") but after 15min again 600 MB's in use (with again 300 MB's per kernel- and app-memory). Is that normal that so much memory is used?, I mean this is factory reset no additional apps were installed by myself!
I also tried to to force-close and disable almost all apps which are currently running and which I don't need but still around 600 MB's are in use.

As I fear to lose warranty if I open the back of the pad I cannot put off power. (But of course I could wait until no battery is left) But I won't think that this will help, as this should have worked with a hardware reset or cold-boot as well.
So what can I do?

Unused RAM is wasted RAM. You should be happy that the OS uses as much RAM as possible for performance reasons. The FC's are mostly not related to Out-Of-Memory situations. You can see the reason for the FC if you hit the preview button and scroll down to the exception/stacktrace part.

I think this should be closed as "not a real question". You make assumptions that FC's are related to the RAM usage, which need to be proven. Also the answer to the question "Why do I have so little used RAM?" is simply "by design".

Please check out the following questions: Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have - specifically Samsung Galaxy S?, 0 ram free on ICS, Android ROM, RAM, Internal storage, External storage and Battery utilization to learn how RAM is used on Android.

The FC of the app just have led me to the question why is there so less RAM available. It does not matter if this is the reason for the FC, I want to know why Android seems to use 600 MB's directly just after reboot.

A friend of mine told me, each app is running inside its own Dalvik instance (Sandbox) also apps may use additional libraries, but this memory is not shown in the list of running or cached apps. Hence the size given their must be interpreted carefully. He also said, that in case more memory is needed, Android should close some of these apps to free some memory.


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LENOVO Z2 PLUS VOLTE ISSUE with jio
In my lenovo Z2 Plus handset with jio ,  currently jio volte stopped working  .
I was not able to make calls , but internet is working sometimes and sometimes not .
I restarted the device many times but no luck ?
Is there any solution to this .

First check, if the SIM card on which VoLTE service to be used is placed in SIM 1 slot.
Only SIM 1 slot is enabled for HD(VoLTE) voice capability as per my observation.

I got the solution  ,
In some regions and cities Reliance puts limits on the speed so if it doesn't work for you that means in your area Jio speed is limited by Reliance itself does not matter what you do so keep that in mind. So folks here is the settings. Go to Settings -> Cellular Networks -> Advanced Options -> Access Points Names -> Internet In APN you have to change the following, rest all remains the same:- 1) APN Protocol: ipv4/v6 2) APN Roaming: ipv4/v6 3) Bearer: LTE Save, restart and enjoy..


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Moving pre-installed apps to SD-card (ROOTED)
i'm running a Moto E with android version 5.1 Lollipop, and since updating to this version of android I have had constantly so little space on the internal memory that I can't even update the pre-installed apps even though I have as good as as no other apps installed on the phone as well as zero images, videos, music or any other media files.
Therefore I've spent a few days trying to figure out how I could move the pre-installed apps to my SD-card.
So, I've rooted the phone, installed the program called Link2SD and I tried using that program to move the apps. Yet it gave me a warning:
"Failure
pkg: /data/app/com.google.android.apps.maps-1/base.apk Failure
[INSTALL_FAILED_INVALID_INSTALL_LOCATION]"
Then I found that it seems I also need to create a so-called "second partition" on my SD-card, but I've not yet managed to find a tutorial on the internet that worked for me.
Since then I've tried 6 or 7 other similar programs with no luck, in the process reading somewhere that it actually couldn't even be done on android versions 4.0 or later. Is this true? Could someone be a kind gentleman (or -woman) and guide me through this? That would make me very happy indeed.
EDIT:
In short, my two essential questions seem to be:
1. Is it possible to move pre-installed apps (Google apps mostly) to an SD-card on Moto E with 5.1 Lollipop.
2. And if so, how do I create a second partition on my SD-card for this purpose on Moto E with 5.1 Lollipop.
Thanks in advance
Simon

Well since you didn't deleted apps it means that they are on system partition. You can move it to SD card but longer way around. First you need root. Then (I don't know if other app can do this) install titanium backup (note you'll need pro version), than find that app in titanium backup on backup/restore list and in special features find option "convert to user app". After that you'll be able to uninstall app without any other software or move it to your sd card with link2sd or any other app you use for that.
About creating partition on your sd card, I didn't exactly done that but I'll post link here on how to..

I found a free program called "/system/app mover" instead that should be able to convert system apps to user apps too, according to this website.

When trying to convert a system app, it says: "Moving system apps is NOT recommended and will most definitely damage something on your system when doing so. On Android 5.0+, this feature is highly experimental and most system apps won't ever work again once moved!" Again something implies that moving system apps to SD-card is actually not do-able on my version of android.
I might try to convert an app that I'm never gonna use anyway and see what happens.

@wormple12 did you get that in titanium backup or that app you find? Try any of apps that isn't essential for Android you can try moving Google maps, drive, gmail, YouTube but don't move play store or play services. Also don't move apps which purpose you don't know.

Hi again.
Now, it seems, I have successfully used /System/App Mover to convert a lot of apps to user apps and then moved those apps to the SD-card with Link2SD.
Several issues appeared.
First a problem appeared where the phone started optimizing all apps on every single reboot, a process that takes 10-15 minutes to complete. I found a way to fix this with an app called Optimizing App Fixer.

Secondly there’s an even worse issue causing a lot of apps (it might be every single app that has been moved to the SD-card) to simply vanish in thin air! It is possible to go to Google Play and download the missing apps again. I can reboot and reboot and clear cache and reboot all I like and the issue perseveres. Then suddenly, on a reboot later the same day, all the missing apps return like they were never gone. Rebooting the phone again after this, once again makes the apps disappear without a trace.

So, it seems that the apps still exists on the SD-card, yet the phone has problems noticing those apps? Any ideas?

@wormple12 hmm, maybe the apps aren't designed to be moved to SD card this is just a guess. I had one app that was vanishing from adopted sd card I didn't know why but just that app was troublesome. Sorry I don't know how to help with that.

Okay, thanks anyway. I will look into the matter and if I wind up finding nothing useful on the subject, then I'll start a new topic, because this isn't exactly the same issue/question anymore.

If files of app are gone (but that is not the case as you said that they exist but phone didn't see them) then maybe sd card is dying, and have bad sectors.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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Can not connect to PC from Android via ES Explorer
I was using ES Explorer to connect to a PC okay but recently I changed the modem then my Android phone can't connect to the computer anymore. I thought it would be caused by a setting on my modem, but searching on Google cannot help me find out. Please tell me how to get my android connected to the PC so I can access files again.
Details:
I have ES Explorer 3 on Android.
My Android is connected to the internet through the same modem as my PC.
The D partition has been shared as "Everyone to view.
When I add a new server from ES File Explorer, it says "Error, Can not find the server"
Update: I have turned off Windows Firewall.

I have just found out the answer after visiting here. Instead of inputting 192.168.1.104, we must input smb://192.168.1.104/

However, I tested a SMB connection without this prefix in version 4.1.6 and it worked so this appears to be no longer needed.

I had the same problem after updating Windows 10. This is what I did to fix it:

Select the LAN connection of the Win10 PC (under Network tab in ES Explorer. If you deleted it, scan again to get the connection).
Select "Edit Server" option.
Enter your Computer name in the "Domain" textbox. Don't change any other thing.
OK, and enjoy the SMB re-connection!!

Thx, this did the trick for me on win 10 with outlook account, though I don't really understand why.

Windows 10 by default disables SMBv1. So, go to "Turn Windows features on or off" > enable SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support. Now Restart your PC.

I had the same problem. It was with the router. The router was DLink Dsl 2750 u. In wireless basic settings > enable multiAP isolation. That was enabled, I disabled it and I was able to access my pc. Check it if multiAP/multicast isolation is enabled on your router. If it is disable it.

This worked like a charm for me since I have DLink router. Nothing was working until now and I had spent weeks. I just disabled multiAP isolation which, I figured out, prevents mobile devices connected to AP from communicating directly with each other. Problem solved.

I tried the solutions mentioned above and in the linked thread. None of them worked.
What did work was disabling password protected sharing. This works on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

Go to network and sharing center
Change advanced sharing settings
All networks (at the bottom)
Turn off password protected sharing

At that point I was able to use the ES file explorer scan option to detect the machine. It should show up as grey. Now edit it and enter your Windows 10 account information and you are good to go.

Here's a summary of some important LAN (SMB) connection options to check and edit
(using the ES File Explorer "Edit Server" option of a selected connection in the Network tab):

The "Domain" option - try putting the computer/server name in this textbox.
On Windows, I think this is the first part of the full user account name (separated by "/").
On Unix/Linux (Samba file servers), this is the setting called "workgroup/NT-domain name".
(from the answer at https://android.stackexchange.com/a/150598/239104)
The "Server" option - before the IP address, try adding smb:// (the URI protocol scheme).
However, I tested a connection without this prefix in version 4.1.6 and it worked so this appears to be no longer needed.
(from the answer at https://android.stackexchange.com/a/83428/239104, information originally from https://superuser.com/questions/605452/connect-from-android-es-file-explorer-to-windows-7-share)
Old/new Windows password, username (check with the whoami command), sharing permissions/configuration file on the Windows computer/Linux Samba share (e.g. password protected sharing), network router options, network connections.

If they don't work, try switching the WiFi/wireless off on the Android device then reconnecting, checking the server/computer is connected to the network/internet (hostname -I on Unix/Linux) or restarting the Android device.
Alternatively, if you're trying to connect to a server that has a SSH (Secure Shell) service (port 22), you can use SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) to access files with a user account on the server.
This connection type is available in ES File Explorer - just use the "Network" tab "New" button.

Type whoami in command prompt, it will retrieve the full username of your computer.
Copy the part after backslash and keep it somewhere ready. Type ipconfig in command prompt again and find out what is the IP address of your windows machine.

Usually it shows as this "Ethernet adapter Ethernet: IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.102.
Copy it and keep it somewhere. Now take your windows machine's password as well and keep it somewhere.
Go to Windows explorer, and type the following address in the address bar, and press enter "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings"
In Private Network section, select these "turn on network discovery and its subordinate checkbox", "turn on file and printer sharing", then again use this address in windows explorer "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center" and make sure your ethernet adapter is a private network.
Now go to android, open your local network app (in this case es explorer, but this works for other apps as well), use the copied ip address in the host name/ip address textbox, use the copied username and password, and press connect.
It will instantly connect to your windows PC where you will see all the shared folders.

I have a laptop with non updated Windows 10 - sharing is no problem with passwords
My computer updated to latest Windows 10 version is showing in ES File Explorer.
But received error: "Error, Can not find the server" with password protection on Windows 10.
Tried the tricks mentioned here but no luck.
Only thing that works is to;

Turned off password-protected sharing
Tick the Anonymous box in ES File Explorer

This temporarily allowed access to public folders but not access other folders that are displayed!!
And this access to public folders was only temporary (once off) now only displays the shared folders but cannot open any of them!!!

I have solved my problem by 'changing PC name'
recently I have changde my PC name and write it in small letters, so write in Capital letters
after much struggle I found solution by changing PC name,
If you change your PC name then try this solution
under
my computer →
properties →
advance system setting →
in computer name tab find change in bottom
write with capital letters

In my case, there was a bug with the password. I recently changed the password of my Microsoft Account (which I used to log in to my PC) so I was trying to use my new password in ES Explorer. However, the password that worked was my old password. I guess this is a bug where Windows doesn't update the password used for remote connections and file sharing.

I have got this from time to time, e.g. after the computer has reloaded with a different IP or if I have changed the computer name. When it occurs I usually delete the server from the app, unload ES File Explorer completely, and restart my phone and/or tablet, then when it comes up I re-scan and it seems to be OK again. I have never had to add 'smb://' to the IP, or change from Anonymous, to fix the problem.

On Windows Vista:
In Network and Sharing Center there's a button for Media Sharing. I clicked on the drop down arrow and got an option of Change.  On the next screen were permissions. Share My Media To Other users of the PC was not ticked, so I ticked it.
This solved the problem in my case

Instead of using the full e-mail address of your Microsoft account, just use the first five characters. I'm not sure if that's how it generates the username, but you can check what it exactly is by typing 'whoami' in command prompt, and your username will appear after the slash for the domain.

Those who didn't set a user password for your PC:
You will have errors connecting to server (to your PC) if you leave the password blank. Set up your account password in your PC then use that to connect.

Just saying, I didn't set up a password on my Windows PC, but I could see the shared folder from ES Explorer.

So, the only way I got this working was to turn off password protected sharing. Then on es file explorer press and hold on my laptops icon in the network search then click the pencil at the top right then in domain entered the name of my laptop then entered my username and password and then that was it. I was able to see all my files but I cant get into the c drive only my files in my user folder are accessible and obviously public folders. So even turning off the password sharing it still seems secure.
Hope that helps.

In my case ES File Explorer was not listing my PC under LAN Connections. I solved it by disabling Enable Wireless Isolation under Basic Wireless Settings of my Router's Settings Page.
Follow this if your PC is not listed under LAN Connections in ES File Explorer.

Open your Router's Settings page in browser. To do that enter your router's IPv4 Address in Address bar. To Find Router's IP Address run "ipconfig" on your Command prompt. Find IP Address adjacent to Default Gateway (IP format would be 192.xxx.x.x).
Login to your Router's settings. If it is public Wifi and you don't know the password, ask the authorities.
Go Wireless Settings -> Basic Wireless Settings (Options might differ for different routers, mine was Digisol Router). If your Options are different go to Settings similar to Basic Wireless Settings.
Once you are in Basic Wireless Settings Find Enable Wireless Isolation or enable multiAP isolation and disable it.
After disabling check in your ES File Explorer whether your PC is listed under LAN connections. It must be listed.

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


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Hide call logs across user profiles
I've created two user profiles on my android phone. One Main and the other one(let's call it Child) is a separate user(NOT the default Guest). But whenever I switch between users, the call logs can be seen which were made from the other profile, ie. calls made from the Main profile can be seen in the Child profile and vice-versa. I don't want to share my call logs across profiles. I searched for some viable switch or option to disable this in settings, but couldn't find any. Googling with the post's title along with android tag results in some log hiding apps which is not what I'm looking for! How can this be disabled natively from android options/settings itself? Or can it be done via some root 'tweak' if the rom is rooted as in my case.
Android OS - Nougat v7.1.2
Root Status - Rooted

Then the whole point of multi-user seems void to me. For eg, in windows users documents/pictures/videos/music are not shared across profiles. Unless a person fiddles around in Users folder and have necessary permissions to do so. So in my mind, I'm looking at multi-user as same as in windows. Apart from 3rd party apps, the default apps(messages/phone/gallery) should have separate space, IMHO

That seems to be the design- see source quoted in my answer

Access user profile and tap on More Settings (the second one in orange is child profile with Bom as name)

You will see yourself and child profile as below

Tap the cog icon on right and disable
Turn on phone calls and SMS
That's it.
If you enable, it gives you a warning that your calls and SMS would be shared as shown

Tested on stock 7.1.2
But the drawback is that child user can't use the phone or SMS
This is the designed behaviour

By default, only the primary user has full access to phone calls and texts. The secondary user may receive inbound calls but cannot send or receive texts. The primary user must enable these functions for others.
Note: To enable or disable the phone and SMS functions for a secondary user, go to Settings > Users, select the user, and switch the Allow phone calls and SMS setting to off

While it is not explicitly mentioned that secondary user will see call logs of primary user and vice versa, once the primary user enables then everything is accessible to secondary user (remember default is not to allow , if you do, there is a price to be paid )


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Change existing contacts from 'phone' to 'gmail'
When the contact items (or several) are set to 'phone', how can they be changed to 'gmail' in order to sync?
In the post Contacts Sync problems: phone contacts not syncing to Google,
it says that contacts set to 'phone' will not sync. So, how can they be changed?

You need to export your phone contacts in to vcf format and then again import it into Google contacts.
Steps in Android 4.2:

contacts -> settings > Import/Export -> Export to storage.
contacts -> settings > Import/Export -> Import from storage. - This will ask you to select your Google account to save.

Edit/Delete or remove duplicates in http://contacts.google.com. Thats easy.


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Samsung Note 2 does not assign received IP
I am trying to connect a Samsung Note II ( OS: Android 4.0, Ice cream Sandwich) through Wi-Fi to a DHCP Server. The DHCP server(192.168.3.29) is running on a Virtual Machine with OS as Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit. A D-link Wi-Fi access point is connected to this DHCP server. The DHCP server sends the IP(192.168.3.100) to the Samsung Note II but the device fails to assign the IP address. The samsung device never had any problem connecting with other DHCP servers. Please let me know if you need any other details.
I've checked it with Wireshark, which shows that the DHCP server accepts the request from the device:

Wireshark screenshot -- click it to see it in full resolution
Question was closed as off-topic on SO, and I was redirected here -- see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15962600/samsung-note-2-does-not-assign-received-ip

Not a solution, but a work-around until there is one: Long-tap the AP in your WiFi settings, check "Advanced". Then you can manually assign the device an IP address etc. (e.g. the same the DHCP server assigned either). This even allows you to specify your own name server, which can be quite useful (I have no idea why Android does not take that from the DHCP offer, but always uses its pre-configured servers).

I have solved this problem. It was because of huge network traffic on the DHCP server, due to which the ACK was not able to reach through Wi-Fi to the Samsung Galaxy Android.

I had this same problem after an upgrade. After a LOT of digging I found the problem. Before starting, note that your device must be rooted to fix it.
Believe or not, the problem is with the "ls" command in /system/bin. It looks like a lot of the commands are symbolic links to a file called "toolbox", which is also located in the "/system/bin" directory. The "ls" command however links to what I think was the previous location "/data/local/toolbox".
Fix is: Using a suitable file manager (I used Root Explorer), copy toolbox from /system/bin to /data/local.
I guess you could also try update the ls symbolic link to point to /system/bin/toolbox, but I'm not sure how to do this AND there may be other link with the same problem.
Device : Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-P7510
New Android Version : ICS 4.0.4
Old Android Version : HC 3.2


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how to close an application in android

Possible Duplicate:
What is the right way to close apps in Android?

Is there any proper way as suggested by google or android official documentation to close an application in android with out using any task killer tools ....
I ask this question as a android use not as developer.....

Android keeps closed applications on memory as long as possible so that when you return to the application it will still be on memory and will load faster than loading from the internal memory or SD card; but if another applications needs memory, unused applications and background applications will be automatically force killed to give way to the foreground activity.
In short, Android is not Windows, don't treat them the same.
You should only force close misbehaving applications, not for freeing memory; without a dedicated task killer, you can do this from Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > *name of application* > Force Stop

Does this consume more battery power ......

@prassee: No, applications that simply sleeps in the background does not consume more battery or use any CPU; however some applications that runs ongoing services (IM, Mails, etc) do need to wake up from time to time.

in your application home/first/main page, press your back key/soft-key/icon.
this is the only common way for closing applications not suspending it.

But that is not closing the application, it's still running in the background.

Yes, I agree with Jonas .... But I have used some application in which the application closes when we double-press back key/soft-key/icon...

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


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Is using chargers of phone not meant for it harmful to the battery?

Possible Duplicate:
Is my phone liable to explode if I charge it with a charger that came with a different phone?
Are Android chargers universal in terms of power (Voltage, amperage)?

As in, I know that all Droids have the micro USB charging connector. But what if I used a charger of HTC make, or for that matter of fact a charger of RIM (BlackBerry) make, to charge my Android phone (which is not of aforementioned brands) to charge my phone? Will this cause (short/long term) harm to my battery? If so, why and how?

I can't tell you if it harms, but using another will probably charge slower. Some Manufactures only release the full charging power on their own chargers. (Source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1384253)

No, it should be fine as long as the charger is meant for a cell phone.
Most of the major cell phone manufacturers adhere to the the International Electrotechnical Commission's mobile phone charging specs which specifies the use of the micro USB charging standard.  USB 1.0 and 2.0 is capable of delivering 0.5A at 5V and USB 3.0 is capable of 0.9A at 5V.  Not all chargers adhere to those specs, but most phone chargers deliver a charge somewhere in that range.  I have had several HTC, Samsung, Motorola and some off-brand phone chargers and they all are 5V and put out between 750mA and 1A.
Also, your cell phone has a charging control circuit and voltage protection circuit that protects the device from power outside its acceptable spec.  I believe it also monitors temperature and will terminate charging if it falls outside of an acceptable spec, but I'm not sure about that.
Some tablets like the Nexus 7 come with chargers that put out 2.1A at 5V.  Using this charger will charge your phone faster but it will also cause the battery to heat up more.  Excess heat can degrade the life of a battery so I wouldn't make a habit of using a tablet charger on your phone.


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HTC Desire Z stuck in boot-loop
I'm a total n00b with Android, and the existing questions tagged boot-loop didn't help me.
Apologies if I missed something "obvious"!
I've borrowed a used HTC Desire Z from my brother so I can decide whether to switch to Android. The phone was provided with CyanogenMod 7 and worked like a charm for a few days. I rebooted it today to see whether a reboot would clear up this other question and since then it keeps rebooting itself.
By "rebooting" I mean this sequence:
The device shows the HTC logo and then the cyanogen(mod)7 logo with the robot on a skateboard. After that, it shows the SIM PIN entry screen while the status bar says that it's loading the SD card. Without me touching the device, the screen goes black and boots again from the HTC logo onwards.
It's got the ClocworkMod Recovery v5.0.2.7 and I'm guessing that this is part of the CM7 package. It's (supposed to be) a helpful way to reset and recover the device.
Here's what I've tried so far (with reboots in between), without success:

I made a backup and then cleared the /cache.
I restored the backup.
I then reset the phone with the wipe data/factory reset function.
I removed the SIM and the SD card, then did another factory reset.
I wiped the Dalvik cache, whatever that is.
With help, I downloaded a fresh CM7.1 zip file and installed that via the Recovery and SD card. Also wiped all caches again, just to be sure.
I downloaded a CM9 rom that was made for this device and installed that. It starts fine and seems to work, but the exact same problem still occurs.

The phone now boots to the welcome screen that says "touch the Android to start" and then, as before, goes black and reboots without me touching it. By the way, the battery is about 70% charged so it's not due to an empty battery, and the problem is the same while plugged into the charger or not.
How can I get this device to run again? I don't care (much) for the settings I had; I can begin all over if need be. But I need a working device first...
Update: I added the steps 6&7 above. Didn't solve the problem but it seems to prove that it's not a ROM issue. Is the device physically defective?

It seems that the HTC Desire models are known to have hardware that easily gets defective... :-/
I've searched far and wide, and the general consensus seems to be that if a restore and/or factory reset doesn't resolve the problem, then it's not a software issue but a hardware defect.
The device could probably be repaired, but if the warranty gone then it's probably wiser buying a new device instead.


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Installed TWRP recovery on a Verizon-locked device but didn't unlock bootloader: options?
On a Verizon Galaxy S3, I installed the TWRP recovery not realizing Verizon's bootloader is locked. Now it boots to "System software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found on your phone. Please turn off your phone and go to the nearest Verizon Wireless store for help."
Short of actually going to the Verizon store and begging them to recover this phone, what are my options for recovering from this mess? I imagine if I could just rewrite the original recovery then I could use an easy unlocker app inside the OS. I did back that up before installing TWRP so there's that.
Worth noting: through some combination of buttons I did once get this to boot into Odin(?). It said it was downloading something but never seemed to finish. Not sure if that's helpful.


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What are the technical reasons of updating SuperSU?
After rooting a device , and installing SuperSU ( Chainfire or Coding Code Mobile Technology ) and everything is fine , let's say an update to SuperSU is  available say after a few months
Do I need to update ? What are the downsides , if any , if I don't ?
My understanding is that I don't need to but wanted to be sure with technical reasons / explanation . Googling didn't help.
Edit: This is not related to the problems with Ver 2.80 or 2.81 , this is a generic question
Edit 2: From Generic to specific - after reading changelogs, I don't understand whether I should Ver 2.79 to a later version on Moto X Play , 6.0. Can this be clarified ?

Chainfire does still post up-to-date changelogs on the (now obsolete) XDA thread - I'd say one should look at these changelogs for crucial global/device-specific bugfixes before deciding to update.

@AndyYan : That's what I normally do before updating any app - in this case at times , the reasons given in logs aren't exactly clear if they apply to my device. Updates in general address bug fixes , yes, but I am not sure if that should be the only reason to update

What other reasons do you expect? Just asking. There certainly will be few if any "feature" updates for SuperSU; security is a much bigger concern here.

@AndyYan : you are right in a sense. I am on 2.79, Moto X Play should I upgrade to later version is another way of asking. Change log didn't help in figuring out. If you can answer that I can edit accordingly.

The way I see it, just do a nandroid backup and try it out. The only thing preventing me from upgrading softwares on my devices is they probably won't work (or not as well as before); having something immediate to fall back to is enough to let me try. Since you're already on a CCMT-developed version, I don't see any trust issues either.

It is not necessary to update. But, it is always a good habit to keep your device up to date.
If you do not want to download so frequently, then see the change log of the updates, and decide whether you want to update or not.

You may be right but I am looking for technical reasons - edited question to make it clear


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"Priority only" notifications not turning off
My OnePlus One with Cyanogen OS 13.1.2 has for some reason refused to shut off its "priority only" notification status, pressing on the notification icon in the dashboard doesn't do anything, nor does restarting the phone.
However, the phone doesn't seem to act like it's only priority only mode, but it's preventing me from switching to do not disturb mode or the actual priority only mode.
Does anyone have any idea how to deal with this?

Create an automatic rule (Settings > Notifications > Do not disturb > Automatic rules), regardless of the name or type. "Priority only" mode should stop and you should be able to regain control over the "Do not disturb" tile in the notification bar.

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


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Unable to copy files to /sdcard
Due to a configuration error I made combined with an OTA update (Android 4.1.2), I had to re-unlock my bootloader to regain root on my GSM Galaxy Nexus. This process wipes the entire phone, including /sdcard. When I restored from backup, I discovered that only some of my files had been included in my most recent backup and subsequently restored.
I have a slightly-older complete backup consisting of the individual files copied onto my computer. However, I can't restore them.
I first tried adb push (note that I'm using Linux and do not have access to a Windows box at this time):
$ adb push . /system/sdcard0
push: ./.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal -> /system/sdcard0/.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal
failed to copy './.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal' to '/system/sdcard0/.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal': No such file or directory

If I delete the file mentioned, I get the same error for the next file. Note that this is a nonsensical error, as the only possible way for the file to even be attempted is for it to exist. It's annoying when error messages are themselves incorrect.
Next, I fired up DropBear SSH on my phone, started up the server and connected via SSH. So far, so good. But when I tried to use scp to copy the files across...
$ scp -r sdcard0/ root@192.168.2.11:/storage/sdcard0
Welcome to DropBear SSH Server!
root@192.168.2.11's password:
sh: scp: No such file or directory
lost connection

Grr.
I tried to use a GUI method and use a file manager to copy the files. If I use the USB computer connection settings, I have two options: MTP or PTP. When I use MTP my file manager (Nautilus) can't even list a directory on my phone. The backend just times out. When I use PTP, I can only see camera-related folders. I can copy individual files, but when I try to copy everything, I get an error stating that there's not enough space and that 5 GB more is required. Obviously there's enough space, because what came off the "sdcard" must be able to fit back on.
What gives? Why is it so difficult to move files from my computer to my phone?
Update
After reading some related questions, I was reminded of FTP. I installed an FTP server on my phone and the files are curently being transferred. Of coures, I never thought of FTP earlier since it's obsolete technology and I haven't had a use for it until now for years.
So, my question changes to this: Why did the other methods, which are superior to FTP, fail?

Isn't the target named /sdcard or /storage/sdcard and not /system/sdcard?

@ott--: D'oh! Of course you're right, and /system is presumably read-only. I'd guess that'd solve it, though I don't want to interrupt the current FTP transfer to find out.

Originally posted by @ott-- in the comments, this answer did the trick. I'm posting it as an answer since ott-- hasn't.

Isn't the target named /sdcard or /storage/sdcard and not /system/sdcard?


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KingoRoot is stuck at 90%
I'm currently rooting a Samsung J1 Ace in Android 5.1.1 using KingoRoot in order to give Link2SD root access and move the apps, music, and other data files from its internal storage to a SD card. The internal hard drive has 8 GB and is almost full to the point where it can't update apps.
I've downloaded KingoRoot through the mobile browser as an APK file and enabled USB debugging. Unfortunately, 1 to 2 hours after starting the rooting process, the completion percentage is stuck at 90. When completion is at 90 percent, the rooting process is executed, however it seems frozen. The average duration of the rooting process is usually between 5 to 10 minutes.
I've searched through the Internet and found that switching it off via the power button maybe lead to an unstable root.
Is there any solution to this issue?
EDIT: The problem is gone after I have rebooted the phone and  but I get error code 0x15F6D5 which I have asked a separate question on.

Why do you insist on using a tag for that word apk?

Because Kingo Root can be installed in two ways, either via Window or via Android. I want to emphasise that I chose the latter and therefore specified that I installed it using an APK file. I also have to note that the Windows version of Kingo Root is said to be more stable.

'The problem is gone after I have rebooted the phone and but I get error code 0x15F6D5 which I have asked a separate question on' I posted an answer which I think may be helpful @PradanaAumars

All I did was reboot the phone and the rooting process abruptly, yet safely, halted. Assuming that this issue is related to my other question, it probably means that the device being rooted is not supported.


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Reinstalling TWRP via Odin on Android 4.1, failed after "SetupConnection"
I recently installed TWRP recovery into a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 GT-N8013 tablet running Android 4.1.1 via Odin. I wanted to install a custom ROM, in this case LineageOS. Unfortunately, I installed TWRP with the check box "Auto Reboot" ticked, this meant I could not boot the tablet into TWRP recovery mode; instead it booted with the default Android System Recovery.
I then read this question which provided the solution to this issue.
What I had to do was reinstall the same TWRP TAR file in the same method but with the aforementioned check box unticked. I employed the same methods but what it returned was:
<ID:0/003> Added!!
<ID:0/003> Odin engine v(ID:3.1203)..
<ID:0/003> File analysis..
<ID:0/003> SetupConnection..

5 to 10 minutes later...
<ID:0/003> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

I tried using a different TWRP TAR file but I gave me the same result.
How else should I reinstall TWRP and how should I install it correctly?

Odin does not understand .zip files. You need to feed it the TWRP .img

I was mistaken with the file extensions. I'll edit the question now. Also, I am not familiar with flashing in IMG format. How would I do this?

Using the correct version of TWRP solved the issue. In this case, it was twrp-2.8.6.0-gt-n8013.tar.
In my previous attempts, I had used the incorrect versions of TWRP for my specific device: twrp-2.8.6.0-p4notewifi.tar and twrp-3.0.2-0-lt03wifiue.img.tar.


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Unbricking a FRP-locked phone while leaving it rooted
I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy J1 Ace SM-J111F running the stock ROM in Android 5.1.1. I used this XDA-Developers guide to root it. The reason it's rooted is so I could format the attached SD card as internal storage. I've had no problems for the last 2 to 3 weeks until I switched the phone off in one country and switched it on in another. When the Samsung logo appears, it shows that the custom binary is locked by FRP.
I decided to re-root my phone again using the same method however, the terminal returns:
Waiting for phone to be connected...

Even though the phone is in download mode and all the appropriate settings have been set.
The guide also provides the firmware for the phone, I haven't tried it yet because I fear that the SD card will be have to be reformatted and all my data may be lost. I'm trying to find a way to fix my bricked phone and while keeping it rooted. Unfortunately, there is only one rooted binary available for this phone.
So I ask:

Is there any way to unbrick phone and keep it rooted?
If I do restore the firmware, will I have to reformat the SD card and will my data be deleted?
What caused this issue?

EDIT: I have continued this problem on a different question since it corresponds to a different issue, where factory resetting the phone still leaves it bricked via FRP.

Unfortunately, there is no way to unbrick a device and leave it rooted (1). You must flash the stock firmware into the device, thereby making it unrooted. Usually this a bricked device occurs when the device has been modified with so much alterations to the point where FRP detects it bricks the phone (3). The best way to counter this is to install a custom recovery image (like TWRP) to safely fix your device.


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Samsung phone still bricked via FRP after factory reset
This is a continuation of this question, but here are the facts: I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy J1 Ace SM-J111F running the stock ROM in Android 5.1.1. I used this XDA-Developers guide to root it. It suddenly got bricked via FRP lock so I tried to unroot it using the stock boot binary.
Here is an Imgur album containing screenshots and images of the phone during the unrooting process.
Description of images:

The phone is set on Download/Odin mode.
Odin is ran as administrator and is loaded with boot-stock.tar provided by this XDA-Developers guide.
The settings of Odin.
This shows that the flash has failed.
The custom binary is blocked by FRP and I have to restart the phone to flash again.

I tried downloading from www.samsung-firmware.com and www.sammobile.com but all downloads have failed. It stops midway and asks for a HTTPS certificate and the archive becomes corrupted between 20 to 70 percent.
I therefore decided to wipe the data using the stock Android system recovery. However, after rebooting it, the binary is still blocked via FRP lock. I've wiped the cache as well.
What caused this issue and how do I solve this?

What caused it? You likely modified something in system that tripped the modification check (it only occurs at boot), no way of knowing what for sure with the information you provided, the root method itself does not do this, but if you change the right thing it will cause this. The solution is to use ODIN or Heimdall to flash the factory image back to the device and return it to stock.

I'm pretty sure I haven't changed any critical system setting from the day the phone was rooted. I tried to flash it back to the stock binary using Odin, but FRP blocks it from happening which is why I was forced to factory reset the device as a last measure.

You need to place it in Download mode first... otherwise can you update the question with a legible picture of the phone with the error message displayed.

I did set it in Download mode. Also, good idea, I'll add a photo of the phone with the error messages soon.

FRP doesn't block flashing, may be you are  trying to downgrade it.

@acejavelin I've added images.

Be sure that the stock firmware is correct. It should be 1 or a few gigabyte(s) in size.
I've finally unrooted my phone. I used Updato's firmwares (which is the only one that has SM-J111F stock firmwares), specifically SM-J111F with product code XME and its PDA as J111FXXU0AQD2 (J111FXXU0AQD2_J111FOLB0APL2_J111FXXU0AQC2_HOME.tar.md5).


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Does Android USB Shared connection runs a DHCP Server?
I'm aware of USB Shared connection of android and I've been using it to give connection to my computer.
Also I've an old domestic router which has RJ45 and wireless interfaces. I've been thinking about connecting my phone directly to the router using an USB-RJ45 converter, in order to give internet to the computer based on the RJ45 switched interface of the router, plus some other wireless devices using WiFi.
So my question is: does Android USB Shared connection runs a DHCP Server?
Because in case it does, everything will run fine, but if it doesn't, I'm afraid it would only support one device to give it an IP.
I've found that in cyanogenmod does, but dunno in Android.

Yes. Definitely.
What a DHCP server basically does is not only dynamically allocating IP addresses, but auto-configuring some IP settings as well, for example DNS servicing.
Judging from a client's (let's say, your computer) behavior, it surely runs a DHCP server. If not, you'll have to configure IP settings (static IP) and enter DNS server addresses and Gateway address manually. But you don't have to do these by yourself, so you can confidently infer that a DHCP server is working.

Makes sense. Was expecting any official doc saying it, but your reasoning is completely valid.

Your computer most probably runs a dhcp client service, which requests an ip address from a dhcp server. In most home networks this is commonly the router, who in turn runs a dhcp request against the dhcp server from your isp.
With that request, also information about the name servers is obtained, which is than often passed on, using the dhcp mechanism to the local network, so clients can contact the external services directly.
In case of tethering, your phone will provide the same functions as your router would, getting ip information from the mobile network through it's dhcp service and provide dhcp services to your Wi-Fi connection.
I've noticed in earlier days, that my computer would sometimes not get an ip address.
In that case, using a fixed ip of 192.168.43.10 (or any other last digit between (2-254) and a netmask of 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.43.1 would work


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Is it possible to retrieve app's local data after uninstalling it?
Background
I was playing a multiplayer version of a game, in which character progress is "automatically saved on the cloud" (as the app states).
However, I never had a Play Games profile, so when the game prompted me to use my Play Games account the first time I tried to enter the Multiplayer, I clicked "Cancel". However the game proceeded normally to the multiplayer. And so I played for weeks without any problems, despite not using any Play Games profile.
Last week though, I uninstalled and re-installed the app, using the same Google account (in Google Play) as I always used for this app. Then when I opened the game, it started all over again.
It's as if the "linkage" to my online progress was saved on a local file in my device, that was deleted when I uninstalled the app. However, I think that the progress is indeed uploaded to some servers somewhere, since I tried to use the same username when I started a new multiplayer testing character and I got a message saying that the username is already being used.
I contacted the support but they told me that there is no way to get my progress back for some unknown reason. I'm still waiting for an answer though.
Questions

Question #1: What's the usual practice for games that back the players' progress online? Don't they store the data to some private servers that they have complete access to (meaning having read/write access to the database)?
Question #2: Assuming the progress is already in servers that the company has access to, what could be a technical reason that getting my progress back is not possible? I suggested that they could replicate the data to a new character I make, or even changing a foreign key somewhere in a table that relates the saved progress with a Play Games account. Doesn't that sound reasonable? After all, the data is still there, they are not lost.
(Answered) Question #3: I thought that an app's data stayed on the device even after the app is uninstalled. Judging from the above experience, this isn't true. Or is it? If it is, is there any way I can get the lost files back? Could they be somehow.

Generally, what do you people think about the support's response to my issue? Doesn't what I'm asking sound feasible?
Thanks in advance.

Related. TLDR: The data is most likely deleted and not recoverable.

Answer 1
The usual practice for games backing up users' progress online is storing almost everything on the company's own private server, while storing a small "identity" file on device (much like Cookies in a browser), or use device's identifier / your Play Games identity directly. The company's employees (not all of them, but at least the development and support teams) have access to their storage.
Answer 2
Continuing Answer 1, there's no way for you to prove that you're the owner of the deleted profile, and the company don't want to get into trouble if you claim another player's profile. This is a bad practice because (probably) the game does not use device identifier.
Answer 3
As GiantTree has already pointed out in comments, you should check out this post.


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How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks?
I guess most of you at least have heard about WakeLocks. Many of you will have experienced them already -- wether knowingly or not. Some may know how to deal with them in general -- but only few know how to deal with the "more complicated candidates".
For those who don't know, though above link leads to an explanation, a short summary: Apps may request a WAKE_LOCK to keep a device component from "sleeping", so they can perform a task even when the display is turned off. This is very useful in most cases (e.g. keeping the screen on while navigating, keeping WiFi active to stream music) -- but used in the wrong way, it causes your battery to be drained within short term (up to 25% per hour).
Most times it is easy to identify the source (usually a bad behaving app) -- I will show this in an answer below, as it might prove helpful to many users. But what to do if the app which requested the WakeLock exits without releasing it? The Android system will not take care of it. Sure, a reboot would solve the issue -- but it is not always an (desired) option.
So, from a users perspective (I'm not asking about development solutions, but how a user can handle things):
What can be done *by the user* to solve the issue and avoid further battery drain?
I prefer answers not involving root (so all users can benefit from it). However, "rooted solutions" are fully valid and welcome as well.

I was under the impression that this was only true if you created the wakelock the "wrong" way, by using /sys/power/wake_lock, but that if you did it the "right" way using PowerManager and PowerManager.WakeLock, the service would both hold the real wakelock and release it even if your process was killed...

According to the information I linked, that's obviously not the case. Somebody reports there having checked the kernel sources, and did not find any hint to that. Hint for developers: seems like "partial wakelocks" can be requested timed, so they'd expire automatically when the timer's up and the wakelock aquire was not refreshed. That must be the "safe way" you refer to.

How can I tell I'm affected?
This is probably the first question to those not familiar with this topic. With Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and above, you've got a service aboard helping you to figure out: battery statistics. Though manufacturers tend to place it at different points, it's mostly found in Settings → About the phone → Battery or similar, and shows a list of the apps having used most of your battery. On top of that is a small graph. Tap that, and it brings you to a screen similar to this one:

Screenshot of battery statistics on Android 2.3
I chose a screenshot from one of my devices which illustrates the issue. Looking at the lower two blue bars ("Aktiv" = Device was kept awake (active), "Bildschirm an" = "Screen on"), the right-most blue bar on "Aktiv" indicates a WakeLock: Device was kept busy despite the fact the screen was turned off. So by this we can be pretty sure we've got a WakeLock -- but we cannot tell who caused it.
If your device does not offer this screen (or the bars at the bottom: I just discovered e.g. the LG Optimus 4X running Android 4.0.3 has cut these bars off), you can find them e.g. using GSam Battery Monitor:

Similar information from GSam Battery Monitor -- here the mentioned "blue bars" are yellow/orange
What caused the WakeLock?
Unfortunately, this question cannot be answered using pre-installed apps (except for, maybe, some Custom ROMs). But there are tools available that can. The best known candidate for this is BetterBatteryStats, and shows us the cause in its partial wakelocks section:

Screenshots from BetterBatteryStats
In the first example2 (taken from the app's playstore page), the event causing most of the WakeLocks was a desired one: We don't want the playback stopped while listening to music. So the second example3 (taken from a real case on one of my devices) might prove better: the topmost 3 events are caused by the very same app, which needed the WakeLock to keep the IMAP push service active.
For an alternative to BetterBatteryStats, check out the Wakelock Detector app mentioned in UzumApps' answer -- which seems easier to handle especially for non-techies:

Wakelock Detector -- Click image to enlarge. (Source: Google Play)
What can be done?
If the case is as clear as in the second example in the previous section, the action is quite obvious -- at least in my case: I don't need to be informed immediately when a mail arrives; a delay of 30min is absolutely acceptable. So I went into the mail app, disabled IMAP Push (see also: Push Email), and instead switched to a 30min poll interval. WakeLocks did not entirely disappear, but dropped markably -- battery life improved noticably.
Then there's the case mentioned in the question itself: A bad behaving app not releasing its WakeLock. Confront the dev with your findings and ask for a fix. If he delivers: problem solved. If not: There's almost always an alternative app available.
What if it is the Android System itself?
Yeah, sometimes it looks like just that: 98% or more consumed by some Android service. Oh, if it's 98%, in most cases the candidate is named LocationManagerService. Bad guy spying at us? Not necessarily. In this special case, the listed "bad guy" is not even guilty -- at least not directly. Here it is another app requesting the current location too frequently. There's an excellent article on Setera.org about this: Pinpointing Android LocationManagerService battery drain. To give an abstract: It uses Android's dumpsys feature (requires root!) to dump a system state, and lets you investigate the listeners established for the LocationManagerService. A closer look at their configuration shows which are constantly "hammering" it for location info (some do so permanently, i.e. without a break). As the app's ID is listed along, and at another place in the dump even together with the apps technical name, you can still identify it and take appropriate actions.
And what about UFOs?
Unfortunately, there are such: Apps which registered a WakeLock -- and then exited without releasing it. What's left are *Unused F***ing Obsoletes* -- WakeLocks held for no use. So no way to simply bring the app to foreground and re-configure, or making it release its WakeLocks.
Here the only solution known to me is a reboot -- and I would like to have a better solution. Of course, if you know the guilty app, the steps concerning it are the same as above: inform the dev, get a fix -- or replace the app. But about getting rid of the current WakeLock? Maybe somebody else can provide a better alternative to the reboot?
Are there some recommended further readings?
Sure. One for now, I may add more later:

[GUIDE] Wakelocks Definition and how to prevent them (XDA Developers, March 2013)

Better education to developers to say... "Release wakelocks when you are done with them and clean up after yourself"?

Sure -- but see my question: I'm explicitly NOT asking about the developer side, but from a users perspective. Maybe I need to make that more obvious ;)

If I have time this weekend, I will poke around under the hood to see if there's a mechanism to get the kernel to boot out orphaned wakelocks.... ;)

Please do! And report your findings! I just had that described issue with the "orphaned" WakeLocks. Poking around for an hour, I didn't get further than seeing it was the LocationManagerService. Registered for updates all 0sec (sic!) was the Android Settings (=:-0). I exited it, stopped it, killed it at the command line... no way to get rid of the locks. WTF did Settings do there? A reboot solved it, of course -- but is this a WindowsPhone we have to reboot twice a day?

In short, this is a very good question but am afraid, it warrants more than just making the end-user aware!
Redesign the kernel to eliminate wake-locks and use a more thorough efficient way of managing the principle better thereby prolonging battery life.
Unfortunately, it has been accepted as a de-facto solution to enable "power management" despite it is not exactly efficient either! There was an extensive discussion about wakelocks (with Gregh Kroah Hartman - the Linux guru for drivers development - am googling for the exact linky), other sites such as LWN.net and another article explained on the same site here. This was the article Gregh Kroah Hartman referred to this blog, in which he appears to agree with the alternative solution proposed by Rafael J. Wysocki have documented a lot about the potential alternative. Am not sure if that is actually in place in the more modern kernel v3.x.x.
Badly designed apps can and often request wakelocks such as keeping the screen on, but in fact, in this scenario for keeping the screen on, there is in fact a more efficient way to do this:
getWindow().addFlags(LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);

Whilst, striving to keep this clear of jargon etc for the end user, really the core of the issue boils down to the kernel code in how the wakelocks are managed.
Here is a brief summary on XDA on what is wakelocks for the uninitiated. By using BetterBatteryStats, one could see exactly which process is draining the battery, the wiki is hosted on github, and is available on the market here.

Funny you point to the same XDA thread I mentioned. I agree with you that the system should take better care (e.g. by releasing WakeLocks requested by apps which are no longer running). And that developers should take better care in coding (by explicitly releasing them at the appropriate states of the LifeCycle). But that doesn't help us users know. I hope my answer gives some insight in what a user can do -- and that one of you "techies" can fill the gap left!

Check out Wakelock Detector: XDA-Developers / Google Play:
Wakelock detector groups the wakelocks of app into one expandable view for better look. And it shows which apps are running. And there are kill uninstall info buttons in expanded view of app.

Click image to enlarge. (Source: Google Play)
Disclosure: I am one of responsible developer for this app. Four more friends are with me working on this project as a hobby.

Thank you! That's a valuable information indeed. Would you mind to add some more details to your answer, e.g. what makes it so special? I would add some screenshots then. Until that's done: Here's the Playstore link to the app...

Thank you for the details! I merged them into your answer, I hope you don't mind :) Question of understanding: Say an app queries the location using an interval of "0 seconds". This would cause the LocationService to wakelock the device. Would Wake Lock Detector show the responsible app then as the real cause -- or the LocationService, as it's not a part of that apps package?

The answer for your question is 'no'  because wakelock detector groups wakelocks that belong to the same app packagename. As Location Service belongs to android os, the solution would be checking User permissions of app

Thanks a lot! I was hoping for an easy solution to the "What if it is the Android System itself?" part. Seems there isn't such a thing -- but if it's possible, it might be a good idea to integrate with WLD :)

A couple of ways that would help unrooted device users

Seeing that @Uzumapps, one of the developers of the app has posted a solution using Wakelock Detector (WLD), I am surprised that he has not updated about using the app which can also be used without root called Wakelock Detector Light ! I discovered this searching for a solution for my new device (unrooted).

This is a recent development and hence posting this for unrooted device users. Tested as working on Moto X Play (Android 6.0.1)

Download WLD from Play store link above
Manual for using WLD here
Instructions for  non rooted devices here. It has all the details but to summarise:

Enable USB debugging on device and adb
Download Wakelock Unlocker for Chrome on your laptop (also works on Chromium)
Enable it and you are done !
Wakelock Detector Light version does not display stats since Unplugged

There is another alternative on reddit which involves running command below in a loop as mentioned here

adb shell dumpsys power | grep -i partial_wake_lock

Note: I couldn't get the second method working, would welcome editing solution in making it work for non savvy guys like me


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Why is Cortana failing to search online?
In case it matters: Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0, running Android 6.0.1 (plus whatever Samsung's put on top of it, too). Region is Australia.
Just got the Cortana Assistant app a couple days ago. Mostly just to try it out, but actually really enjoying it all so far. I even have it set as my default assistant app now, so that with one long home-button press, up she pops from any screen, ready to take my request. There is, however, one glaring issue...
If the app can't find what I'm looking for, it looks like it tries to find it online (which is correct behaviour, of course) but... it can't? To wit, I'll just type in something like "linkedin", it'll think about it for about 5 seconds, then this screen will come up saying "No results found for linkedin", plus generic terms for making sure I'm searching correctly, e.g. "Ensure words are spelled correctly", "Try rephrasing keywords or using synonyms", etc.
She can say jokes, put in reminders, do all the stuff she needs to do to integrate with other apps on my tablet. But when I ask anything which requires an internet search, she fails onto this screen.
I thought maybe it was some weird thing to do with Bing, so I then did things like install the Bing app, made Bing the default search engine in the Android settings, then restarted the tablet, but that did nothing (I didn't think it would do anything - I thought if Cortana relied on having another app installed then she would've just told me rather than having this generic "no results found" screen - but I thought it was worth a shot).
I also looked extensively online, but I couldn't find any answer to this particular problem.
So... Any help?

EDIT: Hmm, it seems like Bing can be reached, or not quite? Now it's getting stranger...
It looks like Bing can be reached, possibly, because if it's something that clearly was meant to be a search, it will occasionally show Bing Ads above the message telling me that nothing could be found for the query. However, the Bing ads are definitely related to the query I entered.
Other times, if it's looking for something, the screen which is obviously meant to show results from a search is just completely white/blank.
Something else is obviously going on here, but I'm still stumped as to what...

I have the same problem here with my Galaxy Tab A 9.7 and Android 7.1.1

@clst Well I'm glad I'm not the only one... though if I'm not, then Microsoft is seriously dropping the ball. Because I got so bored of this issue, I just swapped to using all Google stuff, no more Cortana on my tablet. I will also update the question with a new tag though, because I was still getting the issue when my tablet updated to Android 7, which is when I decided to call it quits on Cortana.

I just checked on my HTC One M8 that is still running Android 4.4. There it works perfectly fine. I used Cortana beta 2.7.1 which claims it is the latest version (but I am pretty sure it isn't). Seems MS dropped proper Android support quite a while ago :(


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Firefox - long img titles cut off
This is one thing (in fact, the only thing that comes to mind) about Firefox on Android that bugs me. If an image (or "img") has a title, I can long-press the image to get image options to pop up, but it also shows me the title-text. If the title text is too long though, it gets cut off with an ellipsis.
For example: xkcd.com/1987 <-- on my Firefox, the title text shows as: "The Python environmental protection agency wants to seal it in a cement chamber, with pictorial messages t..."
xkcd is a long-running comic, which (since it began) has continuations to its jokes (or sometimes just related bits of information) in the comic title-text. Frequently, these are too long for me to read in Firefox, so when this happens I have to swap to another browser just so I can view the full title-text. In Firefox, I've also tried double-tapping or long-pressing on the cut-off title-text, in case it was just hidden but is able to be expanded, but I've had no luck on that front.
Is this a bug in Firefox? If so, is there any word yet on when it will be fixed/has this been reported yet? And if it's not considered a bug, are there any Firefox extensions out there which ensure that the full title-text is shown?
Asking this here on the Android stack-exchange, as I don't have this problem with Firefox on my computer.

What you are seeing is the default behavior of Firefox. Rather than calling it a bug, I'd say that it is how Firefox for Android is designed. That said, I see that this is pretty inconvenient and you should probably open a bug report at bugzilla.
Meanwhile, you can use this handy addon (extension) for Firefox for Android which allows you to view the complete tooltip menu. It goes by the name Mobile Tooltip. You can also use this link to see it at Mozilla Addons (AMO). In your case, you can use it to read the full title tag of the image.

Thank you and accepted, this works perfectly! Hopefully though, this will be added into the main version of Firefox for what seems like such a simple thing to be left out... FYI, following your advice, I opened a Bugzilla report here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1460128

Mine was marked as duplicate for a ticket which is over 6 years old. 6 years for this apparently, meanwhile it's already part of the basic package of other major browsers. A bit disappointing... Anyway, in case anyone else is interested in poking the bear on this issue, here's the original Bugzilla link: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=768291

It's a pity that they have kept it open and pending for like forever. I hope they fix it, but I generally do not keep much hope from Firefox development team. They'll just do what they like and ignore all the rest. Luckily, somebody designed the Addon to at least make it usable for people who love Firefox.


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wifi only when traveling; also necessary to turn off packet data?
My son has a Galaxy S3 and is travelling to Russia. He'd like to be able to use his phone for Internet use, and Skype, when connected to Wifi. Otherwise, he doesn't want to incur extra or roaming charges for voice, text, or data.
I thought I had this figured out. The instructions I got were to
1) go into airplane mode, and then
2) turn Wifi back on.
However, I just called ATT, to verify my approach, and the person said he also has to go to
3) Applications -> Settings>  -> More Settings -> Wireless and Network -> Mobile Network -> Use PacketS Data
and uncheck "Use Packet Data"
I Step 3 necessary, even after having done Step 1 and Step 2?
Thanks,

On android devices, when you turn airplane mode on, it automatically disables Packets Data usage and any other network functionality.
After, you can turn wifi on without any extra cost issue.


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Multiple Locations in Google Now
With Google Now, more specifically, the "time to home" card, is there a way that you can add more locations than Work and Home?
I found it set home by itself, and then later I stumbled upon how to set up a "work" location which I called school at the time. Now I would like to have a school location, a work location, my home location, and maybe even others if it is possible. Can this be done manually, or is it only automatic once Google Now suspects that I keep going to the same location several times?

I have found that if I search for an address (or other location), not too long after that I get a card with driving directions to that location. If I tap the card, I'm asked if I "care about travel time to this location". Usually I say no, but if I say yes I'll have a new card that gives me the travel time to that location, just like for work or home.
In case you're wondering, the place to edit your work or home is Settings | My stuff | Places.... only home and work are available for me, but maybe they'll add some more custom locations in the future.

In Google Maps, you can save locations as favorites. They will eventually show up.


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Force a download manager not to manage downloads
I have a nexus 7 and I use chrome on it for my browser. I have a download manager installed, and I use it to download files by URL. However, it has usurped the downloading of chrome, and I like chrome's way of downloads better. Can I change the default download opener in chrome? (I'm running Jelly Bean 4.2)

What is the name of the download manager you are using?

I am currently using something called Android Download Manager, but I am open to using anything which will download a pasted/typed URL.

Android has a "defaults"-system for handling predefined requests such as opening a URL or pressing the home button. If you go into Android's System Settings -> Apps -> Android Download Manager and scroll down to "LAUNCH BY DEFAULT", you should see a button to clear the defaults. The next time you open your chrome browser and tap on a URL that has the <a download=""> property, a screen should pop up, asking you to choose which application to use for downloading.

I assume this would work, but I already wrote an app to do the downloading for me and nothing else, so I uninstalled Android Download Manager.


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Can I use tasker to override "lock on power button"?
I have the app Tasker, I want to know if there is a way I can create a task that changes the state of the lock screen setting "lock screen when power button pressed" from on to off and vice versa?

Would it be enough to turn screen locking on/off altogether? In that case, you could toggle keyguard. For finetuning, also take a look at the Secure Settings plugin. Always good ressources: Tasker UserGuide and my Tasker ressource collection :)

I wanted it to lock on power button when im not connected to wifi but just stay on a timer when im connected.  Ive tried enabling keyguard on display off but it doesnt seem to do anything, when I push the power button again it just goes back to the unlocked state

That should be the normal behaviour with keyguard off. As for your "timed keyguard", AFAIK that's made easier with the Secure Settings plugin. But OK, you gave some background -- let me try to put together something matching with Tasker. As I didn't yet work with Secure Settings, I can only include hints to that.

Here you go! Sorry that it took a little longer -- I was interrupted by a longer phone call...

I'm not sure if the following will be a perfect match for you, but you always can adjust it once you've got the idea. In my example, I will refer to Tasker only: not having worked with the Secure Settings myself, I can only tell things about it from the hear-say and what I've read.
Basic Tasker knowledge assumed:

Conditions:

State → Wifi Connected, parameter: SSID set to your WiFi's SSID
State → Display is off

Task:

Display → Keyguard off1

This is with plain Tasker, and should solve half of your problem: When connected to the specified WiFi, and the Display is turned off, turn off Keyguard. As soon as you turn on the display, the condition is no longer met -- and Keyguard would automatically be activated again. Problem will be: if you do not take any immediate action, that probably locks your screen again (first action of keyguard). To prevent this, you could try adding an exit task:

Exit Task:

Tasker → Wait, parameter is the time interval (start with e.g. 10s)
Display → Keyguard on1

This would cause the Keyguard re-activation to be delayed by the given time interval. I did not try this -- it might very well be that keyguard still would lock the device, even though you already might do something in another app. But you have already noted the "footnote sign", so let's go for that:
1 Instead of handling Keyguard directly, let Secure Settings do that. I know it has the ability to e.g. have Keyguard only come up once (initially) when a condition is met. This would simplify things greatly: the Task then would be Plugin → Secure Settings, and the Secure Settings parameter should be to set Keyguard as described: "only needed once initially, then no more until the condition is no longer met". Also drop the "Display off" condition: when the display is off, you cannot unlock it either (you see where your problem most likely was). So it should work as you have intended -- after the first unlock.
Not exactly what you wanted (one-time unlock is still needed), but almost. The Exit Task would not be required in this case, as Tasker automatically reverts back once the condition is no longer met. Play a little with this, maybe Secure Setting even allows for something better.


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Audio playing only on right side on my Galaxy S3
I'm using Cyanogenmod cm-10.1.0-RC1 on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (at&t US version)
With either a headset or bluetooth, I'm only getting audio from the right side. It doesn't matter which output device I use - all are only playing on the right side.
Is this a known issue with CM RC1 or is something else causing this problem?
The getprop("ro.bootloader") checks are all failing for the nightly builds, so updating after RC1 has been problematic. However, if RC1 is the culprit, I'll take extreme measures to update to a different CM version.
Thanks for any advice.

I had the same problem with google music. If you move the music slider to a different position, it will output sound on both sides, but the bug appears again once it changes track.
I believe this is a bug on Cyanogenmod 10.1 RC1. I just updated to RC4 and the bug seems fixed. Yay!

I was just going to mention that you're correct - it was a bug in 10.1 RC1. I was able to update to RC2, which fixed the problem, but unfortunately had the same getprop() errors for RC3 and RC4. Thanks for the reply. Now I just need to figure out how to get to the latest RC!

How did you update from RC1 or RC2 to RC4?

You go to Settings > About Phone > CynanogenMod Updates to check for updates. I selected for stable release only and RC4 popped up. RC4 was released like a week ago. Good Luck.

I was able to update to RC2 which fixed the bug introduced in RC1. As I mentioned in the comment to @mohdyusuf unfortunately I can't upgrade beyond RC2 now, due to the same "getprop()" errors mentioned in my question. But at least the right-side audio problem is resolved with RC2.


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"Hangouts (replaces Talk)" -- can I replace Hangouts with Talks if I don't like it?
I'm disappointed that Google Hangouts is going away from XMPP.
If I download the "Hangouts (replaces Talk)" app on my Galaxy Nexus (Google Nexus 3), will I be able to go back to Google Talk, if needed?
Is there a way to keep Google Talk?  Or is there a way to communicate with people who use Google Hangouts through Google Talk or XMPP?

As far as Android is concerned, they're the same app, and Hangouts is just a new update for Talk which happens to change the user-facing name. (Apps also have a package name, which is how Android decides if they're the same app.) It works like any other update: it completely replaces the old version in your phone's internal storage. Like any other update, once you've updated, you can't go back to the version you had before.
But in this case, Talk is an app that's built into your ROM (assuming you're not on a custom ROM: if you don't know, you're not). Like any other app from the ROM, you can uninstall all updates and go back to the original version. To do this, go to the Settings app, go to the Apps page, find Hangouts in the list of apps, and click Uninstall updates. This won't restore the version you had before the update: it'll go back to the original version that was on the phone last time you did a system update. (If you've never done a system update, that's the version that was on the phone when you took it out of the box.) There's no guarantee that such an old version will continue to work.

Thank you, that explains the situation and, I guess, answers the underlying Android-themed question; however, I disagree with your statement "Hangouts is just a new name for Talk.", because it could be misinterpreted out-of-context -- the apps are, effectively, completely different, and Hangouts are, supposedly, no longer based on the interoperable XMPP, e.g. it will no longer work "across everyone's devices", contrary to what Google claims.

Yes, I see now that that was unclear. I've updated my answer and I hope it's clearer now.

BTW, is there a way to have both apps concurrently, by any chance?

No. You can't have two versions of the same app.

just uninstall hangouts.the app will go back to the  old gtalk


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Google Hangouts gives "Can't sign in because we couldn't reach Google. Try again" error
I have updated and replaced Google Talk with Hangouts on my tablet running Cyanogenmod 10.1. Now every time I open the Hangouts app it shows me the following error message:

Can't sign in because we couldn't reach Google. Try again

How can I fix this?

Re-installing the 'Google Play Services' updates solved the problem for me.
Simply go to Manage Apps → Google Play Services and press Uninstall Updates. Now if you start Google Hangouts again it will ask you to update Google Play Services. If you do so, it will bring up Google Play where you can install the update.
After this, Google Hangouts started without any problems on my tablet.

Thanks for covering this, first thought it was really just a connectivity issue. Solved it for me. Any idea why this happens?

Glad that I could help. Please also upvote the question if it was helpful for you.

I think it started when I blocked Google services background data?

And this fixed it yay

@endolith Thanks! This is the only way it worked for me. Not been able to Unistall "Google Play Services" updates.

For me, the fix was to update "google play sevices" then remove my app (google photos in this instance) and reinstall it. FWIw


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While flashing , is it necessary to unlock the bootloader?
If need to be unlocked tha bootloader.  How can i unlock the bootloader ? For lava pixel v1 android 6.0

It has mediatek chipset. This issue of unlocking bootloader or not doesn't arise for devices with MTK chipset.

Lava has a Mediatek chipset (MT6582), you don't have to unlock the bootloader because MTK devices don't have it.
You'll need SP Flashtool and a ROM (with scatter file) and you're done.
You may want to see this thread on XDA Developers forum  on flashing a Lava Pixel phone.