text:
How does the communication between Smartwatch and Smartphone work over the same Wifi?
I'm building a test setup, where I want to load some data from a server, which is based in my local wifi network. I already wrote every piece of code I need, but one question came up on which I couldn't find an answer so far.
When I have connected my phone and my smartwatch to the same Wifi, will the watch communicate directly over the wifi with the phone OR will the watch talk to the phone over the google servers?
This is a crucial question, because my test wifi doensn't have access to the internet and therefore communication with the google server is impossible. I can't test it myself because I don't have a smartwatch that supports wifi so far.
I know this is a very technical question, but I don't think this question belongs to stackoverflow.com. This is why I ask here.
Thank's in advance!

With GPS and offline music support, you can already leave your phone
  at home, then go jogging and jamming like normal. Now Android Wear
  supports watches with built-in Wi-Fi. As long as your watch is
  connected to a Wi-Fi network, and your phone has a data connection
  (wherever it is), you’ll be able to get notifications, send messages,
  and use all your favorite apps. And if you really do forget your
  phone, you can always ask your watch where it is.

From this link.
I hope this text answers your question.

Hi and thank's for your answer. No, this doesn't answer my question. My qeustion is (as mentioned in my post): When I have connected my phone and my smartwatch to the same Wifi, will the watch communicate directly over the wifi with the phone OR will the watch talk to the phone over the google servers?

They "talk" over the cloud... Not by connecting on the same Wi-Fi.

So this is always the case, even if there are on the same Wi-Fi? Any links?

Here you go. The exception is Bluetooth.


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How to undelete photos in a Samsung galaxy S4 active?
How to undelete photos in a Samsung galaxy S4 active? I have deleted a folder on the phone with pictures in it and I would really like get them back. Not on SD card but in the phones memory.

recovery of deleted contents stored in the internal storage is difficult at the best of times and darn near impossible the rest. The issue lies in how you access the storage medium without root is impossible to my knowledge to access the storage space as a raw partition for use with data recovery tools. As with all recovery the more you use the device the less your odds of recovery are that said if you do not clear your cache often you should be able to at the very least recover some of the pics even if your not rooted by looking thought your high rez thumbnails sure the resolution is a major step down from the originals but it's better then nothing. Suggested reading https://android.stackexchange.com/a/84747/122342

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Hacker keyboard emoji button
While in Discord on Android 5.0, Hacker Keyboard puts an emoji button instead of enter, putting enter to be accessed only by going to the special buttons(numbers and the sorts). I have to note that the keyboard is used in portrait mode with "4-row Gingerbread layout" for which I need an answer, 5 rows has the enter in its place.
My question is, is there a way to disable the emoji button and put the enter where it belongs without going to the special characters? Going through the settings I could not notice any option that would help me do so.
Thanks in advance.

In most phones, when you are using a Messaging or SMS app, that button changes to the smiley button by default.
You can long press that button and swipe up (or left - differs from keyboard to keyboard) in order to access the Enter button quickly.
Try using your keyboard in some other apps. If the problem persists, you may need to change your keyboard app.

"Hacker Keyboard" - the keyboard that I'm talking about has no behaviour when I swipe left/right or up/down. The enter button is present in some messaging apps, but on Discord for which I need a solution there is the emoji button which is useless.
Google keyboard on the other hand has no "enter" button no matter what I do. I was searching for a way to disable that button(forever), no matter the ways involved.

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


text:
How can I move in-app downloads (e.g. Coursera videos from Coursera app) onto my SD card without rooting the phone?
I've just got my first Android phone and I bought a 64GB micro-SD card so I can download videos from apps like Lynda, Coursera and Khan Academy. I've moved my apps to my SD card but when I download the videos in the app itself, it appears they are being saved to the phone memory, not the SD card like I want them to. Is there any way around this?
Here's the fix:
I didn't see the option in the Lynda app for some reason but it's there.
For those who are wondering, open the Lynda app and go Home (top left) > Settings (bottom of menu) > Storage Location > Set to external.
Similarly, in Coursera, go into your home page, tap the profile silhouette on the top left > My downloads > Menu (top right, vertically aligned dots) > Storage Location > Select your SD card.

It depends on the application in question, typically there should be an option within the app itself along the lines of "Save to External Storage" which should save the videos to your SD Card
I know Udemy has this option as I have it set to Save to External Storage on my Note 3
HTH

Yep, this did it. I didn't see the option in the Lynda app for some reason but it's there.
For those who are wondering, open the Lynda app and go Home (top left) > Settings (bottom of menu) > Storage Location > Set to external.
Similarly, in Coursera, go into your home page, tap the profile silhouette on the top left > My downloads > Menu (top right, vertically aligned dots) > Storage Location > Select your SD card.

Glad it worked for you :)


text:
Can USB-C charger from laptop be used to charge USB-C Samsung phone?
I have a Samsung S8 phone, which has USB-C charging connector. I lost the original charger for my phone, but I have the original USB-C charger for my Huawei Matebook X Pro laptop. Is it possible to use this charger to charge the phone? Is the USB-C standard itself a guarantee that all the relevant characteristics will be equivalent?
Here is the electric info from the mobile phone charger (which has USB-A female output connector, and there was USB-A to USB-C cable which I lost):
OUTPUT: 5.0V = 2.0A, 10.0W
        9.0V = 1.67A, 15.0W

Here is the electric info from the laptop charger (which has USB-C female output connector):
OUTPUT: 5.0V = 2.0A, 10.0W
        9.0V = **2.0A**, **18.0W**
       12.0V = 2.0A, 24.0W
       15.0V = 3.0A, 45.0W
       20.0V = 3.25A, 65.0W

(There is a difference in ampere and wattage for the 9.0V, is that a problem or is it that the device will just take what it needs?)

Is the wattage really 18.0W? Wattage is Voltage x Ampere, so having the same V and A shouldn't produce a different W.

@AndrewT. sorry, there is a difference in amperes too! I have edited the post. Thank you very much!

According to Wikipedia Samsung S8 uses Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 for the higher voltage levels. When using a standard USB-C charger with the S8 the maximum is 5V * 2.5A = 12.5 Watt.
Most likely the laptop USB-C charger only supports USB Power Delivery and thus it will charge at maximum with 12.5 Watt.

... so, the conclusion is? :-)

@Tomas The conclusion is what I wrote in the last sentence. Expect to get 12.5 Watt @ 5V.

so, what is the answer to my question?

@Thomas I am sorry but the answer is clear and I have already written it: your phone does not support USB power delivery with more than 5Volt so it will not load with 9V because it only supports proprietary Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0.

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


text:
Samsung S7 unresponsive with blue light slightly pulsing
My Samsung Galaxy S7 is completely unresponsive for day and a half, black screen, only blue LED is shining with a slight pulse. According to this guide, it means "the device is turning on or off". For a day and a half already!
So I tried this advice:

Press and hold the “Power” and “Volume Down”
buttons for eight to twenty seconds and the device will eventually
turn off.

Then I tried this advice:

Try pressing and holding Power and Vol Down for about 30 seconds, then
wait a few seconds, then press and hold Power again for another 30
seconds.

Then I tried different sequences as advised here:

up+power 20 secs
down+power+home
up+power+home

Nothing worked. Charging didn't help. Before this happened, my phone was gradually slower and slower in the last month, until it became super slow, as I asked here. Some time before the freeze happened, I also removed the SIM card and micro SD card from the tray. Now I put back the SIM card, the system still stuck.
PS: 10 minutes after the key combo attempts I noticed the battery and display is heated. Interesting.
PS: after 2.5 days the battery finally died and the blue light stopped pulsing. I charged it a little, but now it doesn't even turn on. No response whatsoever.

What happens if you connect the phone to a charger? Does this change anything while it is connected?

@Robert I tried that, it changed nothing. Now I am trying the opposite - trying to starve it out of power so that it turns off physically (because I cannot unplug the battery - where are the good old phones!). But it still holds for more than a day and half. Thanks for asking!

To drain the battery quicker, I have used a spot in my house just within reach of my neighbor's WiFi; the continued attempts to connect can speed the process.

@wbogacz thanks! But I think my system is in such a frozen state that it wouldn't help... it doesn't react to anything, not even the shutdown combos and does not even connect via USB cable to computer.... Anyway we have lots of WiFi here in the air :)

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


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Cannot add gmail to unmonitored apps (battery usage) to get notifications in battery saving mode
I want to have instant Gmail notifications even in battery saving mode (which typically blocks apps from background CPU/network usage). I found these amazing instructions for Android 6, however when I try something similar on my Samsung Galaxy S7 phone (Android 7.0), i.e. I go Settings -> Device Maintenance -> Battery -> Unmonitored Apps -> Add apps, then I don't see Gmail app in the list!! There are lots of others but not Gmail! Chrome neither. How is it possible?? How do I solve the issue? Thanks a lot.
Timely notifications on Android is a bit of a crapshoot since Marshmallow. Thanks to the battery management, no app can guarantee that their background process will be running on the specific intervals they have set. It varies among devices though.

I don't know if this will work since I have a LG G6 and am running Oreo.  So, the way I found to allow Gmail to battery saver mode was this:
Settings --> General --> Battery --> Power Saving exclusions
Scroll down to Gmail, then click on the switch to the right.
Tested by sending myself an email from another account and I got the notification!
Source:  Had to do it myself.


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android 2.2 - extending phone storage to SD
I heard there is a way to "mount" some of the SD card's space and use it to extend the phone's storage. I need this so I can have space to install apps that only allow to be installed on the phone.
Anyone heard about it?
I'm using Android v2.2, with an HTC Desire.

Didn't know we had one of those :)
How can I migrate it?

You can move any apps to sdcard if you are rooted. There are apps on the Market for it Move2SD Enabler and App Swap
Better yet, if you are using custom ROMs (e.g. CyanogenMod), some of them have settings to allow you to migrate any apps. You might want to check those out first if you're using custom ROM.
If you want to do it manually (not recommended for pregnant man, or those currently having a heart attack), then you can use Terminal Emulator or ADB to run a few fairly standard set of Linux/Unix commands. The mount command can rebind any folder in your filesystem another location in the filesystem. Alternatively, you may also create symbolic links using the ln command. See the mount and ln manual for this.

Good answer.  I am wondering if he means using an Ext partition on the SD card, though.

@Matthew Read: What does Ext partition mean? I assume I do mean it, but just don't know it.

@RonK: ext partition is the de facto standard filesystem used in Linux (the equivalent in Windows is NTFS and used to be FAT, the equivalent in Macs is HFS+). It is basically a specification that specifies how files and folders are written on a storage medium. However, Windows can't read ext filesystem (at least not without extra software), that's why most manufacturer used FAT for external SD card, despite the fact that FAT is an inferior filesystem.

ext partition used to be necessary for app2sd since FAT partition does not have any security scheme, and Linux (in fact, most Unix systems) relies on filesystem permission to enforce security. ext, being developed specifically for Linux, has the advantage that its security scheme closely resembles the OS' security scheme.

Android OS versions 2.2 and above have built-in functionality for moving apps to SD Card. Go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> SD Card, then tap on any available app without a checkmark, and the button Move to SD card should be enabled.  This will move a major portion of the app to the SD Card and free up space for more apps.
If you are rooted and running a custom ROM that supports Ext2/3/4 partition types, there are special scripts available that can "fool" your phone into thinking that a portion of your SD Card is actually part of the internal memory, thus allowing you to install tons of apps without most of the disadvantages of built-in method.  Be advised that this method is fairly complicated to install, and requires re-partitioning of the SD Card, flashing a hacky script, and can cause instability of the phone.


text:
Can I access the Memo data without rooting?
I basically need to do two things with my Memo notes, which I was unable to do with any simple means:

backup all of them to a file on my PC (to the hell with cloud backups, I wasn't able to get my own files out of there)
get access to the full creation date/times (the Memo app will only show date for older notes)

I tried but haven't found any easier way to accomplish this, so I concluded that the only way is to get the internal data files which the Memo app uses (and try to open it somehow).
Is it possible to somehow get that file(s) without rooting the phone?
I don't know how the permissions on non-rooted phone are set, but could another specialized app be able to fetch that file? I tried to use Total Commander app and to look up different directories mentioned e.g. here but I didn't find anything.
I want to avoid rooting if possible since I heard it's a big operation, laborous and risky.
I have Samsung S7 with Android 8.0.0.
EDIT: I was able to transfer (using Samsung Smart Switch on PC and phone) the file named memo.nmmm to my PC without rooting! But only transfer, not open! So now:

Is this file how it is stored on my phone, or if it was created by the Smart Switch app?
How do I open this memo.nmmm file? It doesn't look like any known file type, file(1) on Linux doesn't recognize it:

analyzing sqlite databases is a hassle, using the app which created that database is your best option. nevertheless you can create adb backup of app and extract it, but DB-Browser-for-SQLite or SQLite-Explorer can not read everything, afaik only Sanderson-Forensic-Toolkit-for-SQLite will handle it. but you will have more fun with XML memos Opening .memo files from Samsung default memo app (btw rooting involves factory reset you would lose all data)

@alecxs 1) the sqlite was just a guess.. unfortunatelly the file doesn't look like any known file type (see updated Q), which also rules out the .memo question (probably slightly different memo app on different phone/system version). 2) "nevertheless you can create adb backup of app and extract it" - this is interesting! So I can get to the app data without rooting? How? See if I can get something better than this damn file. Thanks!

no, adb backup only contain sqlite database. How can I access the files in "/data/data" and copy them into memory card without root?

https://www.staff.hs-mittweida.de/~pawlaszc/fqlite

I have the same desire to backup all my Samsung Memo data in plain text on my computer. I also used Samsung Smart Switch (using default settings) to transfer the information to my computer, then found there was an opaque memo.nmmm file.
I renamed memo.nmmm to memo.zip and found I could extract the archive successfully.
This extraction output three files:

memo.bk
SmartSwitchBackup.json
SSMDummyValue.exml

The JSON file is plain-text, but doesn't seem to contain Memos. I assume that the other files are encrypted, because I couldn't read them. I assumed that exml stands for "encrypted xml", so it's probably possible to brute force the decryption key by searching for the <?xml version=" string.
It seems the researchers here had a similar idea. They apparently developed a decryption tool as published here but the full-text PDF is not available for public download. Sadly, I could find any public tool that decrypted my local data (I did try this but the most recent software did not work as claimed - perhaps an older version of the software might do what the article says, but I didn't pursue that - yet).
However, realising that the publications by the researchers above showed that there's both PIN-based and default encryption for the backups (both happen on the phone before the data is transmitted to the computer, as per their diagrammes), I realised I should actually look at the Smart Switch settings to see if there's a way to remove the encryption settings.
On the phone, open Samsung Smart Switch app.
Press the vertical-ellipsis "kebab" menu:
⋮ → Settings
which takes you to
Smart Switch Settings.
Under the Security heading, there is an External storage encryption option which contains:

Secure with Samsung Account
Secure with password
No encryption

I changed the setting from the first option to the last option and ran Smart Switch backup again.
Sadly, it doesn't seem to have made the files much easier to read. It still outputs the opaque memo.nmmm archive and that still extracts the same three files, with the same file sizes each. Between the first encrypted output and the second unencrypted output, I ran a binary diff on the memo.bk and SSMDummyValue.exml files. The memo.bks are completely different, but the SSMDummyValue.exmls are the same except for the last third of the file. The SmartSwitchBackup.json files didn't text-diff well until I auto-formatted them and then it was obvious they were identical.
So, my remaining options are

wait for the authors of this to respond to my request for the full PDF (but I am not with any institution, so someone else might have better chances) to see if it contains any software that may help decrypt the Memo files
try to obtain an older version of this software, perhaps by contacting those forensics experts
try to brute force decrypt the SSMDummyValue.exml file using the encryption methods mentioned in the aforementioned forensics publications

All of these options take more time than I have right now, so I thought that I would post my current findings here in case it helps someone reach the next steps. I will update my answer later when I have found a more full solution.


text:
Why I have problem downloading iso file in android?
Background: Our company monitor the network data usage and give warning to employee with high internet data usage. What I want to do is download the big file in my android phone because I have a unlimited data usage plan for it.
I wanted to download some linux iso from the internet but I want to do it in my phone. I had downloaded some big files ( 200-300mb, exe files ) back in some weeks and they are successful. I just click the link inside Dolphin Browser HD and it automatically popped up a prompt-to-save.
Today I tried to download some linux iso files ( 600-700mb ) and they were not successful either by clicking the link directly or put the link into a downloader app. But I can download them from my PC without problem ( of course I didn't download it actually ).
Dolphin Browser HD's progress bar stopped at about 1/10 and keeping loading, finally said "Web Page not available".
And the downloader said cannot connect to the server.
Do you have any idea? Here is one of the file I need to download:
http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/17/Live/i686/Fedora-17-i686-Live-Desktop.iso

Phone networks aren't reliable for large file transfer.  Considering torrenting or using a download manager to guard against network errors.

It's entirely possible that your carrier's network has noticed you downloading large files and throttled or shaped your bandwidth - particularly if that file put you over 2GB of data for the month, which it sounds like it would have.

If you're trying to download DVD images, you probably hit the 4GB size limit of the FAT32 file system. This can only be circumvented by using another file system, such as NTFS or ext2/3/4. But, unfortunately, the odds are your phone doesn't support these formats, so you can't download files this large if you can't find them split into smaller parts.
Of course you can try to reformat your SD card as NTFS and see if the phone recognizes it, but don't hold your breath.

The files are just 600-700mb. Are there other possibilities?

Hmm, maybe the apps use the phone's internal memory as a temp location and it runs out of space. I'd suggest trying different apps and browsers, I read somewhere that Opera has a good download manager. Other than that, can't think of anything.

Install Astro File Manager . Go to its Preferences from Options menu and check Enable Browser Download. Ignore warning and tap OK (the warning is fake; it has been patched). Now, you can download any type of files from web using Dolphin Browser HD.

This sounds like it's enabling download of arbitrary content, rather than having anything to do with large files.

@Matthew It also supports resuming, man..

It didn't solve the problem. Astro won't pop up.

@gunbuster Astro works silently..


text:
Youtube videos open in browser by default
When I'm browsing the net using the Internet app (the default browser), youtube links open up in the browser and not in the youtube app. I don't get to choose any option like before. In Applications Manager > Internet there are no defaults set. I tried clearing cache & data for Internet & Youtube app but I still have this problem. Same thing with Facebook youtube links, they open in the browser, no option to have it opened in youtube...it's driving me crazy
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Jelly Bean.
Turns out this problem is also on the HTC EVO (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1688866), something to do with an Apple lawsuit. If I remember correctly, I didn't have this problem when I had Ice Cream Sandwich on.
Also, if I long press a YT link in the browser, no option shows up to open it in the app? What gives?

What do you mean by "browsing the net using the Internet app"? What is the "internet app" you are using. Do you mean default browser?

You could try uninstalling the browser then reinstalling it? See what happens to the links in the mean time on a different browser?

Yes, the default browser.

I can't uninstall the browser, the uninstall button is grayed out.

Have you tried reinstalling the youtube app?

Yes, still doesn't work. Seems to be a problem with Jelly Bean. Other people are having this as well... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1892888

The links open to YouTube in the browser. If you hit Play, does that stay in the browser, or do you then get sent to the Youtube app? I ask because that is the behaviour that I see with Android 4.2.

This worked for me for the Android web browser: Settings -> Useful Features -> Open links in apps. For some reason mine became unchecked.

For Brave browser users, try: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/244632/22600

Try resetting app preferences. Go to Settings->Apps, choose from menu Reset app preferences and confirm Reset apps. This will reset all app preferences.
To reset preferences for specific app (e.g. Browser), choose it in Settings->Apps and press Clear defaults button in Launch by default section.
Next time you try to open YouTube video you should be asked which app to use.
These instruction were verified on pure Jelly Bean (on Galaxy Nexus).

The person asking the question noted that 'clear defaults' didn't work for him.

I had the same problem, here's one way to fix it: set user agent string as desktop.
To do so, type about:debug in address bar to get debug settings, then go to Settings > Debug > UA String. Set it to Desktop, restart browser and load any YT URL - it should show you the option to open YouTube app.
Tested personally on Nexus S running Android 4.2.

Thanks Sumesh, but that doesn't work either and I did everything like you said even rebooted the phone. Oh well...

FacebookLinks fix the problem of Facebook, it allow you to open youtube post from Facebook directly using Youtube app!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.obteq.sharetoyoutube

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This really worked for me! Just follow these steps:

Go to Settings
Go to Apps
click on the Google Chrome app
Go down and click "clear defaults"

Your all done and the next time you click to watch a video it should give you the option to chose Youtube app.

Goto Apps in Settings and clear the youtube app preferences. It will reset your data and you will be prompted to open videos.


text:
Most versatile encrypting option for SD? (without root permissions)
I want to protect my data in case of robbery or loss of my phone; but also to be able to recover my data in case my phone becomes unresponsive/breaks.
Internal memory
This is protected by authentication (PIN/Biometric).
Should I also encrypt it? Is already encrypted?
And would there be any way to access its files from another device? (e.g. my PC)
SD-Card / External memory
Here will reside most of my personal data.
I want to prevent the sensible data from being read without authorization.
But should be readable from outside the Android device (in case the phone breaks; or if it needs to be reset to factory defaults).
Not everything strictly needs to be private though.

Spotify cache doesn't need to be encrypted.
photos/videos, WhatsApp medias or other specific apps' data need to be encrypted.
Dropbox, Evernote and other apps are indifferent as they are implemented already with encryption.

# Implementation
I thought to eventually create two partitions of my SD: one encrypted and the other open. But maybe it's overkill.
Android native encryption
This prevents any other devices to access the SD, when took it out and plugged somewhere else.
Also in case of factory reset the access to the encrypted SD is lost completely. What if I have to because of some technical problem that makes my phone unresponsive?
This answer give some insight of how it works.
Generic encrypted filesystem
I am not aware of the options but would be great to have encrypted partitions that ask a verification/authentication when mounted.
Ideally Android would manage it automatically (encryption password associated to the system user), authenticating to the SO; while instead mounting the partition on other devices would require to type the auth password manually.
Practically, like the native Android encryption, but with the ability to mount the partition somewhere else, if the password is known.
Does anything like that exist?
Private Area (or similar, depending on the phone brand)
My device provides an encrypted Private Area; but I guess it won't allow any other device (let's say a laptop) to access it.
I don't want to be dependant just on some specific proprietary software, running just on a specific device, in order to secure my data.
Is there any other option using the same approach? (selective protection/encryption/sandboxing)
#UPDATE: I found Parallel Space that seems promising. Not sure if the technology is the same; didn't try it yet, so maybe doesn't fit for encrypting data on SD
Other options
I need to keep most of my personal data and settings on the SD; to have the SD encrypted; and being able to unlock & read it on other devices, inserting a password (either to copy files or to backup in case my Android device doesn't work anymore).
All this without rooting the phone.
What are the options available to realise this? Or alternative approaches?

I used this open source, multi platform compatible app on the past, to encrypt selected internal / folders. See if it helps you https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paranoiaworks.unicus.android.sse

Looks like a great tool; and supports many platforms. But requires manual operations for each file/folder (and needs Premium for batching multiple ones). I'm looking more for an automatic en-/decryption option (e.g. photos encrypted automatically once stored). Maybe I am looking for a filesystem solution; but not the "closed one" offered by Android.


text:
Messed With Android Partition
I tried to partition my android phone and messed up the internal partition system.
When I reset my system this message appears
E:Can't open "/cache/recovery"
E:Unable to mount "/cache"
E:format_volume: make ext4fs failed on /emmc@cache
Now (condition): my phone boots up but it stucks with just logo.
Phone Name : Walton Primo Gh3/GIONEE CTRL V4S
Chipset: MTK6582
Os Installed: CyanogenMod 12.2 (Custom)
Is there any way to recover it?

Mention the device name/model in the question..

Please check again now @GokulNC

Why don't you use SP flash tool to flash cache partition of your device?

As @Firelord mentioned above, download your phone flash file (ROM) and flash it with SP Flashtool. Untick all except system or android, cache.

I Tried with sp flash tools. But same problem remains. It just stuck with logo. Is there any way to re-partition it ?

if you can get into recovery mode you should back up all the working partitions, flash a new ROM, then restore the partitions you have, such as data and system

Hope you have fixed that issue by now. As it is a Walton device, flashing a ROM would have done the thing.
However if you can go to the recovery, download a script to re-partition your system.
And, I think the current Walton devices have a fastboot option.


text:
Why used internal memory is greater than total size of apps?
My phone reports 131MB internal memory use but when I add up the sizes of all apps in internal memory, it doesn't add up even to 100MB. I don't have any media whatsoever in the phone. What is the culprit for my ~30MB loss?
Edit: The storage space started to drop significantly after I have upgraded the stock Android Market app to Google Play Store app. After this, I think Google Play Services has been downloaded, which takes up a lot of space. Still, it should not be taking up that much space. Strangely, when I plugged my phone to my PC via USB, the reported internal storage dropped to 70MB again. I can't find an explanation for this.

Did you check all the files (including hidden files and cache)?

Most likely cache as @LorenoHeer said. Could also be photos, music files, videos and etc. Depending on your device. Look in the storage  option under Settings. It should tell you how much free/total space you have, then it should break it down into apps, media files, misc and etc.

Actually, when I plugged in my phone to my PC via USB, it dropped to 70MB. I can't find an explanation for this.


text:
Change the server that Android uses for an internet connectivity check?
As far as I am aware, Android checks internet connectivity by connecting to connectivitycheck.android.com.
On one of the WiFi networks I regularly connect to, they use web filtering, and block the android website. This means I can use the internet, but when I move around the campus and my device has to connect to the next access point automatically (with the same SSID etc.), it refuses, as it could not previously get an internet connection. Provided I am rooted, can I change this server to, say, www.google.co.uk?
I am running Cyanogen Mod 12.1 on a C1905.
P.S. There is very little chance that I can get these guys to unblock the android website. :(

Just to be clear, a failed connectivity check is when you connect to WiFi but the ! symbol appears on the WiFi icon on your notification bar

Technically, sure... Just add an entry in /system/etc/hosts file and reboot, but I'm not sure what it does to check connectivity, a simple ping or something more, redirecting it could cause it to fail on every network everytime. Remember if you flash nightly updates this will likely be written over each time.

In this case you can use some sort of proxy tunnel apps like psiphon, troidVPN, tunel guru etc.

Just execute su then settings put global captive_portal_server SERVER_YOU_WANT_TO_USE in a terminal emulator app or ADB shell. I'm in China so I do this for every device I own when I set them up (i.e. clean flash - this persists through dirty flashing), and I use g.cn (shorthand for Google.cn). Google.com.hk should have the same function though I can't be sure.
I wonder why this didn't get a proper answer for this long...

Thanks! I too wonder why this went unanswered for so long. Is it just a ping it does? Or does it look for certain data?

It tries to reach a certain address for a "captive portal". More explanation in this question and its answers/comments: link

This requires root?

@Nimrod Doesn't seem so at least on my device, not sure if that applies universally.


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default_gain.conf not present (for volume)
I have been editing my default_gain.conf on my android devices for as ong as I can remember now.
I recently upgraded to the Note 4 (N9100F) and I cant seem to find this file anywhere. My device is rooted BTW.
The location should be /system/etc/default_gain.conf but it isn't there.
I also have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running CM11 that I have disabled the radio and deleted all of the bloatware on, just so it can be used as a media player and I can't find the file on that device either.
Has the location been changed and I haven't noticed or do I now need to edit some other file to up the volume of my music player without using third-party apps?
I appreciate the help guys, thanks.

Try the app speaker booster on the play store. It claims to increase your volume/loudness by (up to) 30%, and I must say that (after trying it) it's pretty successful, with a handful of devices not getting boosted by it (it made my LG G2 quieter)
Also, it does not need root.

Thanks for the info, I'll try it out. The problem with apps is that they like to mess with the EQ, which in effect messes with the quality, is this something you have noticed?

Not really. Then again, my speakers tank everything. Also, I have never noticed this mess with my EQ, but it does toggle Xloud (Sony thing) when I turn the booster off (after boosted, exit, relaunch, turn all volume to 0 in-app and exit to turn booster off)


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How can I change the behavior of the volume buttons vs. the orientation of the screen
On the Acer Iconia A200, when you change the orientation of the screen, the function of the volume rocker flips. In landscape mode, with the volume rocker on the right side and at the top, you find that 'down' on the rocker turns down the volume.
Now, flip the device 90 degrees left to a portait orientation, with the volume rocker on the top left. Now the same press that was 'down' before is 'right' and it turns the volume UP.
In other words, the action of the volume rocker is sensitive to the orientation of the device.
I haven't found any way to control this yet in the settings - is there any way to change this behavior? I'll eventually get used to it, but for the moment it's driving me batty.
Added: After seeing Zuul's answer talking about the gpio_keys.kl file, AND getting a bluetooth keyboard, I did some experimenting. When using a bluetooth keyboard, the bluetooth vol up/down buttons are independent of tablet orientation. So either some bit of software checks where the key is coming from and remaps or not as appropriate, OR the swap is happening at some lower layer (i.e. before it becomes a key code).

How things currently work
The Android OS uses a file to map the volume buttons in order to know what to do when they get pressed:
The file:
/system/usr/keylayout/gpio-keys.kl

Contains two lines for the volume buttons:
key 115 VOLUME_UP WAKE_DROPPED
key 114 VOLUME_DOWN WAKE_DROPPED

They aren't "orientation sensitive", just like their physical position on the device.
The issue you're facing, many other tablet owners face, that has to do with the logical position on the action. If we press the down part of the button, the volume should go down, but depending on the orientation, the down part actually raises the volume.
I do believe that the device rotation should account for factors such as this, as to prevent users from having to "create" weird habits for a simple "lower the volume" action. But on the other hand, that's why the volume buttons on your tablet are punctuated by three raised dots for easy tactile recognition.

Possible solution for rooted devices
Since this buttons in order to be changed need to be altered at a "system level", the action must be performed with root privileges on the device.
While the following two solutions cannot deal with orientation-specific scenarios, they are useful to remap the buttons as to have them adjusted to the tablet orientation in which we get most confused about:

Application: ButtonRemapper - Beta v0.2.4

Tool to remap the hardware buttons. Or better: a generic tool to edit the key layout map file Android uses to map the keys.

XDA Developers forum thread with extensive details by the author

Manual Edit of the file: gpio-keys.kl:

With a root File Manager, travel to /system/usr/keylayout and long touch the file gpio-keys.kl;
From the pop up menu, select "Properties";
Change the file permissions to rw-rw-rw- in order to be able to alter its contents;
After having the new permissions, open the file with a text editor;
Search within the file for the following two lines:
key 115 VOLUME_UP WAKE_DROPPED
key 114 VOLUME_DOWN WAKE_DROPPED

Update the lines by swapping the key numbers so it becomes:
key 114 VOLUME_UP WAKE_DROPPED
key 115 VOLUME_DOWN WAKE_DROPPED

Save the changes and reboot your tablet.

You should now have the actions of the volume up/down buttons toggled as they best fit your portrait orientation.
To undo it, just reverse these directions.
Credits for the file edit solution are attributed to user jbeige from thriveforums.org.

After reading your device manual, other tablet manuals and the specifications from the Android OS, this are the best solutions I was able find to work around your issue.

I think you've missed the question a bit. You see, on this device they ARE orientation sensitive. I have two buttons - '1' and '2'. When the tablet is in landscape mode with the buttons on top, '2' lowers the volume, and '1' raises it. When the tablet is in portrait mode, with the buttons on the right, '1' lowers the volume and '2' raises it. This orientation sensitivity is a SERIOUS pain in the neck because I have other devices that DON'T posses this feature, making it devilishly hard to change the volume when I switch devices. Also, see my edits about bluetooth keyboards.

This feature is cooked into the ROM, itself, so it will be entirely dependent on what the chef cooked into the ROM.
You can find ROMs such as CM9 and AOKP that have various options for the volume rocker--- but forcing the rockers to stay static on devices like this where it changes is not one I've ever seen.

Button Savior is an application which will provide you on screen soft keys for all your device's hard keys.  Though it requires rooted device, some features are claimed to be working with non-rooted devices.  The paid version will allow you to customize the soft keys including its position. Please give a try.

Not the solution for me - I don't like adding extra on-screen controls.


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How do I force the ICS browser to finish syncing bookmarks?
I have a brand new Acer A200, and I upgraded it to ICS (4.0.3). I set up sync with my Chrome bookmarks, but it's been a few hours now and it doesn't seem to be finishing the sync - I've got the complete folder structure of the bookmarks on my PCs, but most of the folders are empty. Is there anything that I can do to force it to finish the job?

I seem to recall that taking a long time, too.  Eventually it worked; but then it started showing a "sync error".  I simply disabled Browser, and am instead using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.chrome which works surprisingly well. It also seems to sync more bookmarks than the stock Browser did.

Well, for the moment I'm not coming up with any solution, so I've up and bought ChromeMarks. I went for the pay version because I REALLY wanted to manipulate the bookmarks on the device. If you just need to see them on the device, then the free version (ChromeMarks Lite) does a fine job.
I have no idea what the real problem was, but it was worth $1.99 to me to have it solved immediately (especially since the Browser's built-in bookmarks can't be viewed in any kind of list mode - just the icon view).


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Why does Chrome reload the page when I turn on my bluetooth keyboard?
Lenovo Yoga 10 HD+ tablet with Android 4.4.2.
Logitech Tablet Keyboard
If I am in Chrome and I turn on my bluetooth keyboard, the current page will reload.
This appears to happen no matter which web page I'm on.
This is obviously a waste of time, and I'd like it to stop. Especially because if I"ve already activated the edit control on the web page, the reload de-activates it and I have to tap again before I can begin typing.
Is there any way to disable this stupid behavior? I haven't seen anything in the settings that would seem to be related.
Updated: Per Dain's question, it happens no matter how many tabs are open (1 or many).

I turn on my bluetooth keyboard

That is probably detected as configuration change, which triggers a restart of the current activity in android (chrome in your case). Only the app developer can change this behavior, so the only thing you could do is to file a bug report.


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Can I change my ICS phone camera trigger?
I am using Sony Xperia LT18I. It's ICS 4.0.4 and I was wondering about changing the trigger of my phone's camera with the headset key press. If I connect my headset it should find and change it's default option and should take a photo when I press the key of my headset. Can anyone help on this?

Welcome at Stack Oveflow. Everybody was once new here but you noticed that there are always people around to help out. In case you missed it: [help]

You could probably give Camera Touch-Free a try.

Solution for touch phones that did not have hardware camera button such as Samsung GALAXY S II.
Making shots on touch phone without touches.
Just use hardware buttons "Volume Up" or headset.
Use "Volume Down" hardware button for exit from application.

Others worth trying:

Sensor Camera Pro:

(New) Use the headset's previous and forward media button as focus and shutter release.

  You could also search Google Play for: camera headset

i tried it but i cant disable the flash!!


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open viber audio(.ptt) files on pc or phone
my viber history got corrupted, but luckily i have backedup the important conversation i needed into text format using (backup text for viber). it might have been the reason that corrupted the history since it got corrupted right after i backedup that one conversation.
the problem is the audio files are there in the viber media, but they have no extension,and i can't open them, i tried every program possible but i couldn't find a way to do it. is there a way to be able to open them on pc or phone?

Try changing their extension?

your title says something about .ptt, not correct?

tried changing the extension, it doesn't work, from what i found out, it can only be opened by viber.
the title says .ptt cause the audio files are saved in a folder named .ptt in the viber media folder


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My phone stopped remembering wifi passwords!
For some reason that completely escaped me, this here Samsung S3 mini stopped connecting automatically to my home network, always requiring me to re-type the wifi password.
Since then, I noticed that it's not just for my home network, but for all wifi networks.
More concretely, here's a sample of what happens:

I try to connect to a WPA-protected wifi.
Android asks for the password.
After I provide it, the phone connects successfully.
I turn off the wifi (on the phone).
I turn it back on.
The phone doesn't auto-connect to the wifi.
I explicitly select the wifi network to connect to.
Android again asks for the password I typed in a minute earlier.

Any idea how that can happen?  What could I have done to deserve this?  What could I do to redeem myself and fix this problem?
More details: "forget"thing ("disconnect"ing from) the network explicitly makes no difference (it still doesn't remember the password next time around), rebooting the phone neither.  This phone is running Android-4.4.2, is not rooted.

You can consider factory reset, but that always seems to be an extreme option. Did you consider forgetting a network and then attempt to add it in device? How did it go when you then disconnect from that network? Did the problem persist? Is the Android rooted? Which Android version are you using?

@Firelord: Right, I'm not looking forward to a factory reset, indeed.  I added further details in my question, in case it helps someone to figure it out.

When it asks you for password, the second time, the place you type your password has (unchanged) greyed out? A screenshot when you try to explicitly connect would help.

No, the password field is simply empty.  Also, when I click on the network to connect to it, I'm not offered "forget" among the options (I can only "connect" or "cancel"), contrary to the usual behavior.  Similarly, in the list of networks, the network is only annotated as "Secured", IOW as a completely new/unknown network.

could you include the full logcat log while this problem occurs? Otherwise I highly doubt nobody will be able to help you.  http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14430/how-can-i-view-and-examine-the-android-log

I just recorded the full "adb logcat" while doing "connect to the network named MM; then turn off wifi".  The result is 120KB long and I'm not sure what is needed and what isn't.  Also I don't know how to attach it here, so I put it up at http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~monnier/adb-logcat.log.

Oh well, I ended up resetting the phone to factory defaults, for lack of a better solution.

@Stefan Did a factory reset correct the issue?

@acejavelin: Yes, it did.

There is most likely a problem with the phone's /efs/ss_data file. I think it's basically a key for decryption of your Wi-Fi passwords and other things in secure storage.
Root is required for this fix.
First we need to confirm it's a problem with secure storage.

Install BuildProp Editor from Play Store
Set ro.secure.storage=false
Reboot, setup Wi-Fi & reboot again

WiFi should now remember passwords if there was an issue with secure storage.
Now let's fix the secure storage issue since we know what's broken.

Set ro.secure.storage=true using  BuildProp Editor
Backup EFS using TWRP/CWM recovery
Delete ss_data in /efs using ES File Explorer in root mode
Reboot, setup Wi-Fi and reboot again

Your Wi-Fi passwords should be remembered now on any ROM/kernel, non rooted and without edits to build.props
Tested ON:
Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G920T1 MetroPCS Variant on 5.1.1 build DOJC
Note:
This may work on other devices that require setting ro.secure.storage=false in build.prop for Wi-Fi to remember passwords. I have seen users with Nexus devices experiencing this issue as well.
SOURCE

Can you tell us on which Android version and device is your answer tested upon? Furthermore, can you link this root file explorer?

I tested this on a GS6 5.1.1.

FWIW, I do have a /efs but it doesn't contain any ss_data.  And my grep secure /system/build.prop returns nothing.

Google Backup Transport service may have screwed up, failing to update the wifi passwords being stored on their servers (methinks it is pulling down a blank password over and over again). In Settings -> Apps -> All look for Google Backup Transport, clear cache and data, and restart the phone.

I just tried it, but the behavior is unchanged.  FWIW, the option "back up my data" (to backup data to Google servers) is disabled.


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Rooted but su says “Permission denied”
[ I first asked this question on stackoverflow by mistake.  ]
I have this "old" Lenovo A2107 tablet which I rooted years ago (using a download from http://androidforums.com/threads/a2107-root-mods-and-rom-discussion.661261/, tho running its root.bat script by hand from my GNU/Linux machine) and that worked fine: I could "su" from the shell and then edit all the files I wanted.
Then I passed this tablet to my daughter for a couple years, and now I got it back.
/system/bin/su is still present, still the same date and size, still mode "rwsr-sr-x", still the same firmware (Android 4.0.3) so all looks fine, but when I try to run it from a shell, it just tells me "Permission denied".  And of course, other applications that require root bump into the same problem.
Any idea what might be going on? What I could try to do to track it down?
[ See also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32353148 where I posted the solution I encountered.  ]

have you tried a root checker app as they can be good to detect a possible issue?

re-root. repeat the procedure that you used first time. that should do the trick.

@iTechy: RootChecker just tells me that my machine is not rooted.

Try
adb shell su
mount -o remount,rw /system

Then you will need to re root

@BoLawson: Thanks, I didn't expect it, but oddly enough, indeed "su" works from "adb shell".  So it's still somewhat rooted.

Good stuff, I figured at least a shell should still be available. Because from what I have seen its just the one-click and root apps that cause permissions  to mysteriously disappear.

Did you find the solution


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How to change the browser of a web-shortcut?
An incompatibility between F-Droid's current version of IceCat and Android 8, makes it that I can't Add to home screen from IceCat (well, I can, but it doesn't do anything other than jump back to Trebuchet).
How can I create a web-shortcut to IceCat in that case?
I figured I could create a web shortcut with another browser, but it seems those shortcuts are "bound" to their original browser, so even though IceCat is my default browser, the web shortcut opens up in another browser.
Maybe another way to ask this, is: how to create a web shortcut which is not specific to any browser, so when I click it I get asked which browser to use.

I didn't know about IceCat :). Anyway, it can be done if you have pro version of Nova launcher- just tried

I don't see it in F-droid.  Is it Free Software?  Also, it sounds like it's a launcher, hence a replacement for Trebuchet.  Can it make/modify a shortcut that Trebuchet will know how to use?

It's a launcher on Play Store. Free and paid. Only paid version can do this. I haven't used Trebuchet. You can download free version and see

Once it is installed it should replace Trebuchet and the paid version I tested with your browser and what you want can be achieved. It's very rich in customisation and hence very popular

For the functionality beeshyams describes (and I vaguely remember that from Apex launcher, which is quite similar), could ActivityLauncher fit? Haven't used it myself so I don't know if it can edit already existing shortcuts.

Hello Stefan. In response to your preference of requiring a solution which is free/libre in character I posted this meta question, and according to the response received as the solution as well as my own understanding of the scope of this site I am asking you to please do no dismiss answers on account of that preference. I have thus removed your comments which dismissed comments and answers where solution was not libre/free. If you cannot part with this preference I suggest you consider asking on [softwarerecs.se].

Try Website Shortcut. Open the app, paste the link of the website/webpage, then click on create shortcut. It will fetch the icon from the website for you.
On the home screen, click on the shortcut, you will be prompted to choose a browser. After selecting your browser, I advise to select "Just once" to allow the selection of other browsers if needed.
The disadvantage of the app is that if you remove it, the shortcuts will also be removed.
Disclaimer: I am not related to the app's developer.
EDIT: Below his the response I received from the app's developer as to why the source code is unavailable. He has given his authorisation to show the screenshot of his response.


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ADB error: insufficient permissions for device: verify udev rules
When I run adb shell, I get the following error
$> adb shell
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
error: insufficient permissions for device: user in plugdev group; are your udev rules wrong?
See [http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html] for more information

The connection gets thus rejected without me getting any prompt on the phone's side. I have enabled the "USB debugging" option on the phone, which when connected correctly says "USB debugging connected".

When you plug the phone to the computer, choose to use the phone as a MTP device and then try adb shell again.

Define udev for device as explained here https://android.stackexchange.com/q/144966/131553

@DeathMaskSalesman: I do not understand the logic of it, but what can I say: it worked!  Thanks a lot!

@Stefan I don't understand it as well, but the Galaxy S3 suffers from the same bug (?) and that workaround does the trick.

@Stefan the logic is that when MTP is enabled, Android device is exposed to the PC with diffetent USB PID (product ID). And a udev (or equivalent) rule already exists for that PID. So it just works.

This can be resolved by enabling ADB transfer in your USB Preferences.

Plug the phone into the USB
Drag the phone's top menu (the drawer) down
Click the notification that says "Android System: Charging this device via USB. Tap for more options."
Click "File Transfer" (newer devices) or "MTP" (older devices)

Note, if successful you may get a prompt asking you to accept the keys of the computer issuing the adb shell command.

Right.  That's the workaround that @Grimoire (formerly DeathMaskSalesman, apparently) gave as well, indeed.  I wouldn't say it "resolves" the problem, because you have to repeat that dance every time.

BTW, I don't understand why you tagged my question with mtp and file-sharing: while the workaround uses MTP/file-sharing the question has nothing to do with either of those.

@Stefan So anyone looking for questions pertaining to mtp and adb can find it? Since that seems pretty likely. However, it's your question, despite being the most popular problem with ADB it has less than 250 views in over 2 years. You do you. ;)

I see what you mean.  But I think I still prefer "doing me", because I believe the tags should describe the subjects related to the question rather than those related to the answers.  IOW, we'll agree to disagree.


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4Gb Storage: Why can it only use 1.6GB?
Why do Android phones say they have 4GB storage but then cazn only use 1.6GB of it? Why is this? Is it possible to access all that other space?
If you see below it confirms how much space this phone has and how little (except for Apps) it really is using. Any advice how I can make the phone use all the available space?
Edit Its a Huawei Ascend

Let me guess: you have a Huawei?

As you don't tell us where those 4 GB are, I try a good guess: the device was advertized with 4 GB "internal storage". If you buy a computer with e.g. Windows pre-installed, which was advertized with a 250 GB disk drive, would you expect having 250 GB free there? Hint: The OS needs some storage space, too :)

Yes its a Huawei Ascend. So..?

@Izzy But the Android OS doesn't need 2.4GB right?

Android OS itself probably not. But your manufacturers "special UI" and pre-installed apps need space as well. Some manufacturers are pretty generous in "reserving" even more for possible updates. All that's on a separate partition (yes, your device's storage is partitioned) – see my answer here. 2 GB+ are pretty normal for /system – and then there's also /cache, /boot and /recovery on separate partitions, all "eating" from those 4 GB.

Give us the output (screenshots) of Diskinfo

You are only able to use 1.6 gig because 2.4 are required by the android system. This includes all 'the code' and default apps, ringtones/sounds, backgrounds etc. You can free some of this by rooting your phone and using tools but to expand beyond this you will need to add a micros SD card.
I sympathise with you, this is a very annoying niggle all android providers do. can confuse many people. (with a 16gb s5 you get about 10 gig of space)

Ok, I understand your problem. And there is the answer:

Storage (click to enlarge)
Now you will see here that the system memory acquired is 3.35 GB. Yes its true. And also my os is android 6.0
So you can get that the storage is of android system which includes OS and G-Apps.


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Remove persistent notification of an app without disabling all of its notifications
The latest Pushbullet update (v17.0.4) for Android  has added a persistent notification to my notification drawer. The app indicates that I can remove the notification by enabling Pushbullet in the notification access settings. However, I can't seem to find these settings in my Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 4.2.2 with Samsung's ROM.
Are there notification access settings in Android 4.2.2? If so, where did Samsung bury them in the settings?
If there are no such settings in Android 4.2.2, is there a way to remove persistent notifications without affecting Pushbullet's functionality (such as through an Xposed module)?
EDIT:
To clarify, I don't want to disable all notifications for this app, it would defeat the purpose of the app. I want to disable the persistent notification that now shows up. It is supposedly necessary in order to allow certain features, now that the accessibility service has been removed.

Yes, it is rooted. Thank you for testing it. This looks like what I want. I will test it and see if it works without removing the app functionality the persistent notification supposedly preserves. It's possible that removing the notification will cause Android to kill whatever background process it's allowing to persist, but we'll see.

@Sophie Jane :  Your post was looking at disabling persistent notification without affecting functionality.  This possibility has been categorically denied by developer as posted by me. This is a definitive, conclusive answer that cannot be disputed coming from the developer. Hence, my request is to accept the answer so that viewers will accept it with  more credibility.  Else it would simply remain a voted answer.  Of  course,  this is entirely your choice  to accept it or not. Thanks

@beeshyams No single reply here has definitively answered all the questions posed in the body of my question, and so I don't feel a best accepted answer is warranted, as of yet. Firelord's has come closest,  as I installed NotifyClean and successfully removed the persistent notification without affecting most of Pushbullet's functionality (I have not tested SMS syncing yet,  but I suspect it will not work as per your quotes of the developer).

If your device is rooted you can install Xposed and install Notify Clean which allows to disable a specific notification which matches some text filter.
Notifications Off can only turn off notifications for whole app so it cannot help in this case.

Please provide a detailed use-case of NotifyClean for the goal in question. Also, does it address the concern raised by OP: "I will test it and see if it works without removing the app functionality the persistent notification supposedly preserves. It's possible that removing the notification will cause Android to kill whatever background process it's allowing to persist"?

@Fire lord thanks for edit.  Can you please direct me to page which shows how to edit?  All my posts are mobile based  so will not have full keyboard functions of Laptop, but would like to try.  Thanks

In the case of Pushbullet, if you don't want to use SMS sync, you can turn off it from Pushbullet settings and the notification will disappear.

Disabling persistent notification would affect the functionality of app, as confirmed by app's developer in reply to my query.
My query:

If I disable persistent notification does it affect the functionality[?]

Developer's (guzba) reply:

I'm working toward not needing the notification. It can affect functionality right now though if you use SMS sync or Universal copy & paste because without the notification, Android can (and probably will) kill our app making them no longer work. This is less bad with SMS sync since I can make sure it's running for incoming messages, but will be potentially functionality-ending for Android initiated Universal copy & paste.

Source: Pushbullet  at XDA Developers forum.

You ended up posting at wrong place. Anyhow, you can edit any post by using the URL: http://android.stackexchange.com/posts/POST_ID/edit. You can find the POST_ID under the share option. For e.g., it is 128003 for your answer so the URL would be http://android.stackexchange.com/posts/128003/edit. Alternatively, comment [edit] (without backticks) on your post to get the direct link for editing, such as [edit].

Since the device is are rooted, you may like to give Notifications Off app, a try.
This additionally offers integration with automation apps  and that may offer more flexibility in customizing app behavior.

Again, why are you suggesting this app? Please justify the recommendation and offer alternatives.

The suggested app disables all notifications for specific apps, and so is not relevant (see my edit in the question above).

@Sophie Jane. Sorry missed that portion of question. If you don't find any app or a way  to access settings and are willing to try automation let me know and will try to figure a way

beeshyams, when suggesting an app or a product here, strive to follow the guidelines mentioned here: How do I recommend software in my answers? I believe you would be able to save yourself from the comments asking explanation for justifications (which indeed are valid) et al.

Surprisingly,  no one has yet mentioned that notification access settings do not exist in Android 4.2.2 (my first question in the question post body above), having been introduced for 4.4. Evidence: I found notification access settings on my device running 4.4, but not on my 4.2.2 device. Thus, the only solution is to remove the persistent notification, which I have done with NotifyClean as suggested by Firelord.

authors: D̆̈ĕ̈ĕ̈p̆̈ă̈k̆̈ K̆̈ŭ̈m̆̈ă̈r̆̈


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Black screen, but the phone is working (Moto G LTE)
I have a Moto G 4G (with Lollipop) with the following problem. As soon as the boot sequence completes the screen turns black. It is not broken because the boot animation is shown, and I can take screenshots by pressing the power button and VOL DOWN. I can also see the screenshot animation (a white square that shrinks on the screen) and hear the shutter sound. By holding the power button the "Shut down" dialog appears and it can be touched, resulting in the phone shutting down.
I have tried running the phone in Safe Mode. Nothing changes (except from the Safe mode text in the lower left corner). I have also tried wiping the cache from the recovery twice to no avail.
Can you help me diagnose the problem? Or at least, is there a way to backup the data from the phone before attempting an hard reset? Please notice that the phone is locked, unrooted and the usb debug is not active, so I can't use ADB.

This is likely a factory reset situation unless there is a known vulnerability in the recovery image or bootloader that could allow you to either flash your own recovery or at least use some means of ADB to access the phone.
As a long shot, try ADB backup from within recovery. Some recovery images tend to keep adb accessible to some extent.

The phone is not listed in adb devices when in recovery

Which partitions will the wipe data command erase?

The data, obviously. That includes photos and all other user content. It's equal to factory reset


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Why does my Nexus 5 keep forgetting all wifi passwords after a reboot?
A month ago I got a Nexus 5. It's running Android 4.4.2 (kernel:3.4.0-gadb2201). I noticed after using it for a while that it constantly keeps forgetting all saved wifi passwords after a restart. In the beginning I thought it might have something to do with my router, but the device also forgot the password of my university's wifi network, so that can't be the problem. Before obtaining this device, I had a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.3 which never had this issue. That's why I have a feeling the issue is specific to Android 4.4.2.
Google was my first stop to try to find a solution, but it seems that I'm one of a few people facing this problem generally, and none has it with their Nexus 5. It's not a major issue because I can mitigate it by not restarting my device, but rather an annoying tiny inconvenience I'd like to have fixed.
Does anyone have an idea why this is happening? Is there a solution for it?

First thought is that you have backed up to Google and the backup is blank on their side, so when it synchs on boot it is deleting them.

@RossC I currently have everything backed up to Google. Is there a way to make them reset their backup? I just disabled and re-enabled Google backup from Settings but to no avail.

Short of a factory reset I'm not sure. I wouldn't go down that road first to be honest. That's just a thought on what could be causing it. WiFi fixer on the Play Store claims to fix this, but I haven't tested it nor can I vouch for it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wahtod.wififixer  Have you rooted the device and installed any custom firmware? I've not had this on Nexus 5 or any custom KitKat ROMs myself.

This article points to the file that may be at fault has has a potential fix, but I'm wary of it bricking the device: http://georgecm.hubpages.com/hub/how-to-recover-wifi-password-on-android-without-root   It involves modifying data in bcm_supp.conf or wpa_suppliciant.conf  files, which may have other roll on impacts.

@Maher4Ever: FWIW, you were correct in that disabling and reenabling Google backup is exactly how you would reset the data Google backs up. From Android Developer Support: "...users can disable data backup functionality through the Android system's privacy settings. When a user disables backup, Android Backup Service deletes all saved backup data. A user can re-enable backup on the device, but Android Backup Service will not restore any previously deleted data."

Been using wefi app since nexus s 3g then nexus 4 and now nexus 5. Free app I got to mainly help me find free public WiFi, but it auto connects me when I get home too.

Would it be possible to read or verify the status of the online backup?

I have a Note 3 with Android 4.4.2 and I had the same issue. After disabling Google backup, everything is fine now. I couldn't retrieve my old backed up wifi networks, though.

That works for me on my Nexus 4, as well... but I'm not willing to run without google backup forever.

An anonymous user edited in the following comment "1. Switch off backup 2. Go into Wi-Fi settings, delete (erase) the one you have problem with. 3. Re-enable backup 4. Only the, from scratch, enter the password and save the WiFi."

I'd do something different instead...
Since your problem is that your device does not store WiFi passwords (or this seems to be the real problem) I'd suggest you to go into /data/misc/wifi/ and find the *wpa_supplicant.conf file. In this file the device stores every WiFi entry.
Open it and see if there are duplicates: when you enter a password more than once this file creates more than one voice, resulting in multiple entries for the same network.
If this is the case then it's normal that the device asks you for the password again (because in case of entries conflicts it doesn't know which one to use).
My advice is to delete all the duplicates or all the entries if you feel like (do NOT delete the file, I'm not sure that the device will recreate it).
Happened to me with my Nexus 4 and doing so solved everything.
Let me know if this helped you :)
EDIT: to access this file your device has to be rooted

On my N4 (Android 4.4.4), that file doesn't exist--in fact, /data/misc doesn't even exist. The closest matches are /system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf and /system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant_overlay.conf, neither of which contain any wifi passwords at all. In fact, nothing else in that directory contains passwords, either.

I just checked again. That file is in that precise folder and has every wifi entry I've ever stored. And I checked it on a N4 and on three N5.... O.o

I recently answered a QUESTION which had a similar issue.
I'm wondering if it would work for nexus devices as well.
SUPER SHORT VERSION:

Backup EFS using TWRP/CWM Recovery
Delete ss_data in /efs folder using root file explorer.

Here is the solution which worked for my rooted Nexus 5 (android 5.0.1)

Copy wpa_suppliciant.conf file from /data/misc/wifi/ to your PC
Open with any text editor (I used wordpad) and delete all entries with you problematic wifi name on it.
Choose one of the Wifi in the list which you remember has worked before and change SSID and passkey according to you router. Press SAVE.
Copy/replace this modified file into /data/misc/wifi
Delete DHCP folder in /data/misc/
Reboot your phone.
Voila your phone now connects to your new wifi :)

P.S. Please make a backup of "wpa_suppliciant.conf" file and "DHCP" folder. Just in case
P.P.S. For some people deleting old saved wifi from "saved wifi" did the trick too

I cannot verify this fix, nor can I explain why it might work, but give this a shot

Rename your device

If it works! Awesome! If it doesn't you just wasted 5 minutes of your life following this answer.

Do you have a reason to think it would work?

I remember reading this on some other forum back when a friend had the problem. I am unable to find it again, else id have linked it.

Well, there doesn't seem to be any unified way to "rename your device." Do you have a suggestion for which way matters?

Just name it anything simple, just to be safe try wihout any special characters? Given how this is magically supposed to solve the issue im sorry this is vague :/ just trying to help

My point is, an android device doesn't have "a" name. It has names for different purposes... for bluetooth, in the google device manager, when run as a Wifi AP... and they all have nothing to do with each other. Which sense of "name" are you referring to?

Device Hostname

I have S4 Zoom. Had this problem. Reading your answers i tested with just Root Browser renaming DHCP in /data/misc/ and rebooting and then again passwords needs to put put in but now starts remembering. So you can also just delete that DHCP in /data/misc/. I had this problem already 4 times and this works.
Since i had it already few times maybe Problem then lies in that maybe at some point in reboot or battery down file got corrupted so its not writing or some app changed writing permissions?!?
p.s. for admin. my answer was deleted and now i found this solution and edited and i couldnt undelete so i made new answer.. Thats not helpfull.


text:
Why do I encounter "There is a problem parsing the package" and how to avoid it
I always face this problem during installation of app on my Huawei phone. Anybody got help?

Those apps might not be supported for your Android version.

There are multiple possibilities:

Your APK is corrupted (most common for me)

Get another copy (i.e. Download it again)

Your APK file is incompatible

Check if your phone can meet the app's requirements.


text:
How do I disable the Mobile Hotspot feature?
As far as I can remember, some carriers disable this feature. Now, we have a few dozen phones that we want to deploy to some schools and we would like to disable this feature.
How do I achieve this? A few guesses that I have would be to add/edit something in build.prop or some hidden Android API (can't find any here).

Update: I figured it out a long time ago. The solutions here do work gracefully and the phones behave properly. Normal WiFi is not affected (because hostapd only manages the AP). Upon testing, the worst that happens is
2018-12-04 23:12:23.680 3207-3753/? E/SoftapController: Unable to open connection to supplicant on "/data/misc/wifi/hostapd/wlan0": No such file or directory

in the logcat.  At the same time, the mobile hotspot setting switch flips back off automagically.
What I did was just rename hostapd to something else. Moving/deleting/changing permissions would also work.

In addition to the other answers, I'd like to add that you can alternatively remove the execution permission from that file:
su
mount -o rw,remount /system
chmod 0644 /system/bin/hostapd

This approach looks more Unix-styled.
To restore it, do the same commands again, but use 0755 instead of 0644 (i.e. put the execute permission back).

I managed to solve this without deleting hostapd file (with this method you can easily reactivate hotspot functionality renaming hostapd back to its original name).

Root your phone
Open up adb connection
Enter these commands:

su
cd system
cd bin
mount -o rw,remount /system
mv hostapd inactive_hostapd
mount -o ro,remount /system

Reboot your phone and you're ready to go.

If you want hotspot functionality back to your phone, just rename it back to 'hostapd' (mv inactive_hostapd hostapd).
Tested on Motorola Moto C Plus.

hostapd doesn't seems to exists anymore on Android 11.  How could the wifi hotspot feature removed in this android version?

Erase this file (with root): system/bin/hostapd

Without rooting phone:
Install a display overlay app like "AppLock" and block access to "Settings".

You'd need to also block the drop down access to it.  Which would suck from a user experience standpoint.

you wouldn't be able to access the settings to set the hotspot name and password though, provided you cleared those in the first place of course.


text:
security implications of participating in app beta testing?
I am an IT professional (but not in app development). Two days ago  someone contacted me about a blog post I made and invited me to participate in beta testing for a messaging app which was related to my blog post. I have never before considered participating in beta testing for a mobile app before. For the android app, they are using Closed beta with Google+ community or Google Group.
At first, I was enthusiastic, but then I thought --- whoa! I don't know this person (or this company) from Adam. Although the developer's website looks legitimate, this person contacted ME, so this could all be a setup.
The instructions to download the beta app seem straightforward and seem similar to how legitimate apps do beta testing. And frankly, I doubt that this app has any malicious purpose. On the other hand, I have no reason to trust this app.
In fact, when I begin the steps for downloading the app and seei what privileges I am granting, I literally have no idea what the implications are.
So let me ask:

Are beta apps basically operating in a safe sandbox? Are there
significant differences in security risks between android and ios?
Generally is it easy to uninstall them?
When evaluating whether to install a beta app, is there an access
level which I should be careful not to grant?
Is there any sort of community rating system that might reassure me
that an app is more likely to be safe? I see all kinds of websites
which list apps for beta testers. Is there any reason to believe
that apps listed on these kinds of sites are vetted or determined to
be safe (or do not pose security risks)?
Are  certain kinds of apps  riskier to install as beta apps than others?
I assume that I should monitor performance (such as memory and storage use) when the app is running. Is there any metric I should be monitoring to ensure that the beta app is not dragging down overall performance?

Thanks for your help. Hopefully your answers can help other clueless potential beta testers like myself. I would love to participate in more beta-testing if I could be convinced that it would not pose a significant risk for me.
I have worked in software development before and even done a bit of testing on desktop apps  but I had VMs and understand the security model for Windows and Linux fairly well. But I only have one phone and 2 tablets (ios and android), and don't want to mess things up (though I regularly test ebook design on multiple platforms and displays).

Also consider that installing Beta apps often comes with an implicit agreement that your usages may be tracked more closely than with final release. The purpose of a Beta after all, is to collect feedback.

There is no real difference between a beta test application and a regular application for security purposes. You can remove any beta test application the same way you would a regular application. Android is setup so that applications do not normally have access to the data for other applications.
If a beta test is closed, then the Google+ or Google group is the access control for the beta test. This has no effect on the application on the phone.
If an application is in the Play Store, you have general assurances that it has been virus scanned. The Play Store is much safer than installing applications from generic websites. The Play Store will not, however, tell you anything about how the application works.
The permissions requested by the application determine how risky it is to use it. Permissions include things like:

camera
contacts
location coarse/fine
network access
read call log
read contacts
microphone

The general trouble is that applications ask for many permissions, and it is not possible to tell what an application is doing with those permissions. But if an application that turns your flash on and off is requesting access to your microphone or contacts, then you should get suspicious. If an application has access to your contacts and the network, then it is capable of sending all your contacts' information to a server on the Internet.

I don't know how it is in iOS, but there is no "install as beta app" in Android. All apps in Android are installed the same way - you install it or you don't. Once installed, a "beta" app would have the same rights and possibilities like any other "release" app. "Beta" has only lexical function here, not technical.

It isn't run in a safe sandbox mode, it runs the same way as other apps. You can uninstall the app or leave the beta test group if you want. iPhones are a bit more secure as they have to support less phones, but with Android and the right knowledge, you can make your phone very secure.
If it requires root permissions (only available if phone is rooted), then you should evaluate if it is safe to use or not as granting root permission is basically admin access. If it requires access to files or photos etc you should also check if you should install.
I do not know, but a general Google search can help here.
This is the same as Question #2. As some apps require access to more private stuff (like files), you'll need to evaluate it and see if the risks are worth taking.
Betas are used more to find out potential bugs, and to test new parts of the app, but you can monitor performance if you so desire.

General Way to join Beta Test
You'll join the Google+ Group, then access the beta join link, so that you can participate in the beta.
Once that has happens, you'll be able to download the update from the Google Play Store (may take a little while to show up).
And as such like any other app you have used before it will ask for permissions to install.


text:
centrally manage corporate android devices
We may be about to start rolling out android phones/tablets in our company.
We currently use non-smart phones.
We would be looking for a way to centrally manage the devices - remotely administer/wipe, track location, remotely add/remove apps, lock down devices so users can't make changes etc etc.
If we could remote control them then that would be even better.
Any suggestions for tools that would allow us to do this? If they were free then even better.

You might wish to take a look at similar questions on our site, e.g.: Which program allows remote management of Android devices?

yes i saw that, but as the thread was over a year old i thought things might have changed since.


text:
Bluetooth headphones won't re-connect automatically
I'm using an old HTC Sensation XE with Android 4.1.2. Recently I bought a Creative WP-250 and encountered a weird issue with it. It paired with no problems, sound is going out through those headphones, mic is working as well but if I turn them off and on again it won't reconnect automatically and I have to manually go to Bluetooth settings each time and tap on the on it in the devices list.
Isn't there any way to make Android reconnect to a Bluetooth device automatically if it's available? My friend's Nexus seems to be doing it but I can't find any such option in my phone.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S5 Active no SIM Card
I tried rooting my device with towelroot only to find out it didn't work. I went to bed before doing this, and when I woke up my phone said no SIM card, please insert in the notification bar. I got rootchecker from the playstore and it said my device wasn't rooted. I tried removing the SIM card, and then re-inserting it, which didn't seem to work. I then tried to factory restore my phone. It still didn't seem to work, so then I googled the problem. I checked my "about device" and everything seems ok. I then went to status and it seemed alright, I had IMEI number is there, but my mobile network type is unknown so is my service state, mobile network state, phone number. I have no idea how to fix it, so I thought I would make a thread of my own before I go into AT&T and try to talk to them about it. I can't call, access my mobile data, or text. Basically just an iPod with wifi.
Model Number : SAMSUNG-SM-G870A
Android Version 4.4.2

You have destroyed your gadgets mother board while trying to root your device with towelroot. Now the only solution is that you have to change the mother board
of your device.

This sounds like nonsense.  How exactly does towelroot affect the board?

And how did you reach this conclusion? How about citing some sources?

authors: Ростик Петров


text:
Dual booting linux on android galaxy note 10.1
I have a samsung galaxy note 10.1 and would like to be able to run a linux distribution. I would suspect that this is attainable, and that people have already done it. What I want to know is the specifics such as:

When I start my tablet, can I select which operating system I would like to run? I do not want to run both at the same time.
Which Linux distribution will give me the best performance?

I pretty much want to keep my Android functionality for the S pen, note-taking, and games (as it was made for that). I would also like to have the option to run an efficient Linux distribution so that I can run the standard UNIX tools/programs/compilers that are all familiar to me. Also, I do not really care about having all the features of my tablet working with the Linux distribution (such as camera and GPS). That being said I do care about the Bluetooth working as I have a Bluetooth keyboard!

I just want to start this answer off by saying that if you are not an expert computer user, this is probably not for you. You will need to know how to setup and edit partition tables, along with knowing how to resize, delete and add partitions. I of course accept no responsibility for any damage you cause to any device from reading this tutorial.
In theory here is what you need to do:

Repartition your device's SD card so that you can make room for all the the Operating Systems you want to run
Get a new boot loader that supports dual (or multi) booting
Flash the partition with a build that is compatible with your phone

Specifically for your device (the Galaxy Note 10.1), here is a GREAT link on dual booting:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2258867

The tutorial is on an Ubuntu machine, if you do not have Ubuntu it is pretty easy to install from their website:

http://www.ubuntu.com

You probably don't even need to install Ubuntu to do this tutorial, I think you would be fine just running off of the live CD. I am a little biased because I love Ubuntu, but I would recommend installing it when you have free time. It really is a life saver and it runs on top of a linux kernel so you get all of the benefits of linux when you use Ubuntu.
VERY IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU START THE TUTORIAL

1) Backup your device every time before you make a change to the OS or to the boot loader. It is extremely easy to brick your device if you don't know what you're doing. If you brick your device and you have no backups to go from, then you are out of luck my friend.
2) You need to have a CWM (Clockwork Mod) installed on your device before you start the tutorial along with Nandroid Backup. See Extra Stuff below for install information.
3) I cannot stress this more: MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE INSTALLING A MOD THAT FITS PERFECTLY WITH YOU DEVICE!! You will potentially render your device unusable if you do not check your ROMs thoroughly.
4) This is not so important but will save you a lot of time in the future. Go get a bigger SD card, no 1GB or 2GB is not enough and 4GB is pushing it. Go out and buy a 16GB SD card, they are not that expensive and if you are going to be doing multiple booting, then you will want the extra space. It will be a huge pain to transfer all of your files onto a bigger SD card because you decided you wanted to triple boot Android, Arch Linux and Ubuntu all on one device. This is the voice of experience unfortunately.

Hopefully the tutorial works out well for you. When you get comfortable with installing OS partitions, then you can start trying out different flavors of Linux. My favorite is Ubuntu, followed closely behind by Arch Linux (ARM) (Which is great for server applications).
Extra Stuff

Installing CWM and NAndroid Backup on Galaxy Note 10.1

Here is a Video tutorial for installing the CWM on the Galaxy Note 10.1 if you need to do that. Again make sure you get the right ROM for your device.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYiXzcW7xs

If YouTube is more your thing, then here is a pretty good video on doing the same thing in the other tutorial. This YouTube video requires you to already have CWM installed on your device.

Galaxy Note: How to dual boot 5 different ROMs

For those of you who do not have the Galaxy Note, here is something else I found that might be useful (or at least a starting point):

http://lifehacker.com/5826050/how-to-dual-boot-multiple-roms-on-your-android-phone

Please feel free to edit if you have something to add (Tutorials for specific devices etc.)
Also, if you need more info, just comment and I will help you out.


text:
Software for offline pedestrian navigation in New York
My fiancée is going on a trip to New York City and she'd like to have some kind of navigation there on her G1/Dream.
Is there a software (preferably free, or not too costly), that would allow me to save the street map of the whole city (or state) to the SD card and do offline navigation for walking around during the visit? I suppose there should be something that uses OpenStreetMap that might even be free.

See also these previous questions about offline maps and GPS apps http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1624/offline-map-for-android and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/591/gps-offline-application-for-android-download-maps-by-city-or-area

Google Maps 5.0 has an offline mode that will allow you to view maps without an internet connection.

Google is now caching large areas on Android devices based on what areas they frequently search in Google Maps from their Android phone or tablet. This means people living in New York City, for example, will always have local street and area Maps content.

But if that is not satisfactory, there is always MapDroyd:

MapDroyd stores map files locally on your device using our highly compressed and efficient MicroMap format which is designed and optimized for embedded devices.

+1 for MapDroyd, but
cmiiw, but for Google Maps, it sounds like you can't choose which locations are cached, it only cache the areas that you access the most (automatically). Since his fiancee is not from NYC most likely NYC is not what she access the most.

OsmAnd is the perfect software for this. I just had to download it from Market, then download New York maps from the app, and then disable the internet connection from settings.
MapDroyd did the same, though, after I checked it out.

Take a look at these two transit map apps:
NYCMate and NYC Bus & Subway Map
Both include bus maps for each borough which are detailed enough to get you around and incredibly useful if you find you've walked too far and you really want to sit your way back home.

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


text:
How to know what triggered an apk installation
I have been trying to solve a malware problem for the past couple days in a certain chinese phone (Android system version=6.0), the problem I am facing is that a malware keeps being reinstalled even after uninstallation, I have tried a couple of methods to no avail.
First, I tried uninstalling using the pm command, rebooted the phone and the problem was gone but as soon as I was connected to the internet the malware was installed again. I didn't want to touch the system at first so I tried to start a fresh and performed a factory reset. I tried using the internet again and I was back to square one, this time with more than 5 malware apps installed. I checked the installer package for the malware packages using pm list packages -i and all I got was installer=null so I couldn't get the app responsilble.
After this I was sure the problem lied within the system so I took fresh system images from 2 different factory ROMs and flashed them separately to the device each time performing a factory reset before switching the phone on and believe it or not when I connected to WiFi again the malware apps were still reinstalled.
I then tried capturing the traffic using Packet Capture in hope to see what app was responsible for downloading the malware, for the entire time of the packet capture session (about 1 hour) I was using internet without seeing any malware, I stopped capturing packets and after a period of 5-6 hours of using internet the malware problem began again.
At this point I have really tried everything I know to spot the culprit app that installs the malware and I have run out of options, so is there really a way to get what process or app that caused silent installation of a package or should I just admit defeat and move on?
Here is a list of some malware package names:
com.yunshi.market
com.app.dov
com.glb.compass
com.loee.lv
com.androidapp.filemanager

Raw idea (untried): Capture the broadcast receiver for PACKAGE_INSTALL and PACKAGE_ADDED (should be doable with Tasker), then let that trigger a logcat dump to file. Investigating that dump it should be possible to find what triggered the broadcast. As said, raw idea and not tried, so I cannot give a detailed step-by-step guide to it or guarantee success.

It might try then, but still keep its own records out of the log (still, it won't be able to suppress entries from other apps (here: PackageManager) unless having root powers.

I have a hunch that it might be a modified system app in /system/priv-app that is doing this but I have no way to verify it yet, as logcat seems to make the culprit app dormant somehow

Wouldn't it be strange that the very same app should be present in different ROMs? Unless those ROMs are all by the same dev, that is. Maybe you should [edit] your question and include which device, Android version and ROM it is about?

Have you tried identifying apps with permission android.permission.INSTALL_PACKAGES?

What device, Android version and security patch date are we talking about? Older devices may have vulnerabilities in installed software that can allow a malware to hijack your device while browsing the net. In such a case you will not find anything malware-related on the device.

I think I might have found the apps(2 apps), I connected to the internet after factory reset, let the phone use internet for a while and then fired up PacketCapture and found an app named WirelessUpdate sending info like my imei, imsi and even wifi MAC address to a remote server, some other packets were GET requests querying for some apk file from the server, I checked its package name and found another similar package (both started with com.adups.* ) and came pre-installed in the stock factory system images in /system/app.There might still be some left but at least now the phone is usable

@Firelord don't apps with INSTALL_PACKAGES permission leave an installer package info to the apps they have installed?, these malware apps had null installer package

@AguThadeus not always. E.g. apps installed using Titanium Backup app would show null installer package. Please try my technique.


text:
How to unbrick a HTC Magic?
I have bricked my HTC Magic. Now when I try to boot it normally or in hboot or in fastboot or in recovery, it only shows a white box with an arrow and a bugdroid then a blank screen. It's not detected by adb or fastboot in any mode. Is there a way to unbrick it?
I think I flashed a bad radio. At least, it was after flashing a radio but I thought it was a good one. The old radio version was 2.22 and the new one was a 6.35 and I used ClockworkMode recovery to flash it.

If you can neither boot to fastboot or recovery, then tough luck; there is not much you can do.

As you did not provide any information about your workstations OS, it makes things harder. Did you try whether the fastboot tool on your workstation is able to detect your Magic when connected via USB? Is it detected, maybe, by ADB? What did you use for flashing? A few more background data will be necessary to make us able to help :)


text:
Wireless doesn't work on college campus
I can connect to the school's campus wifi, but when I try to get on Opera, it will not let me connect to any website. Apps that use the internet do not work. I get bars on the wifi. Usually, on the first connect from a new device, it will ask me to register my device. I am guessing that since I haven't registered with the new device, I cannot access the internet with any apps. The problem is that I usually get the page that asks me to register my new device when I try to connect to a website. Opera doesn't take me to that site, though. The wifi works on all other devices.
Edit: When I connect to the home wifi, it works.

Have you tried other browsers?  This sounds like it might be something your campus IT would have to sort out.

Yeah. Depending on the mode its in, and Opera will try to render sites using an intermediate server. This may not work out if your gateway is interfering with things in order to shoe you an authentication page. As Matt suggests, confirm that the stock browser also doesn't work. If it also gives problems and you're sure you're allowed to use the Wifi,  work with your IT folks.

You didn't specify whether you're using Opera Mini or Opera Mobile, Opera Mini uses compression proxy server to optimize the page for your device; and this almost invariably breaks in-browser wifi authentication page since the browser will try to connect to its proxy which it can't do because the gateway blocks access to the proxy until you authenticate. Opera Mobile by default do not use the compression proxy, but if you turn on the Turbo feature then it will use the proxy.
You still can use Opera Mini or Opera Mobile with Turbo if you authenticate using the regular Browser then switch to Opera.  If you're using Opera Mobile, then switch off Turbo temporarily for the authentication page.

I've seen some lame WiFi gateways (especially at hotels) that only intercept correctly for top-level URLs like "http://www.somesite.com", but more specific URLs like "http://www.somesite.com/this/that/another" don't work because they get redirected to "http://192.168.0.1/this/that/another" which doesn't work on the lame gateway.
So, try browsing to "www.google.com" or any other bare URL to trigger the login page.

I used to face the same problem for long time. But now I've got the solution. Very easy:
Go to Menu → Settings → Advanced → Protocol and choose HTTP only.
It works for me :)

Wi-fi is used for just wireless networking (not necessarily for internet sharing). So, if you get bars on wi-fi, it doesn't mean you've got internet access. Wi-fi can be used to share files or gaming, for example.
In your case, I suppose.. your school's campus wi-fi would be providing internet (the only purpose they advertise wi-fi campus). If you are unable to get to the internet, it means access control of wi-fi router is blocking you. Why? Ask wi-fi administrator. The probable reason: You haven't registered your device.
But, before asking wi-fi administrator, use Fing - Network Tools to check TCP connection with external host. If there's really a problem, contact wi-fi administrator. There's nothing more you can do.

Disclaimer: I answered after presuming that your apps can connect
  to internet over other wi-fi networks.

Reasons explaining downvote would be nice..