text:
How can I use (parts of) a managed account without submitting my device to the Device Policy?
My kid's school uses Chromebooks with Google Apps. All the kids in school have an account which they can use both in and out of school (Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Hangouts, and so on).
I wanted to let my kid log in to that account with his own Android phone (a Wiko Rainbow Jam), but I do not want to allow my kid's school to monitor his phone or erase all his data.
It's not that I'm really afraid they will erase his phone on purpose, but rather more as part of a general action, for instance as part of what they do when a kid leaves school or perhaps even wiping all of their devices at the start of a new school year.
I know it's possible to log in to Gmail through IMAP, but that's just for Gmail. I also found Removing a device from Android Device Manager for a specific account but that seems like a complicated solution, that again just works for Gmail.
I would like him to be able to use all aspects of his school account, without having to subject his phone to the school's device policy.
Is there a way to use his school's Google account on the phone, without allowing the school's device policy to administer his phone?
Alternatively, if I can get the school to do so,
Can the school set an exception to the policy for his device? Or rather, set the device policy so that it only applies to their devices?

This is, of course, not the primary account for his phone, that's something akin to his.name@gmail.com.

Solution linked at the end of your question , which you found overly complicated is one choice, IMAP other, none other AFAIK. Not to defend my answer there but it is simply installing a browser with a plug-in to notify you that mail has arrived. It's explained in detail being a bounty question. Your concern of accidental wipe by school requires you to adopt either method

@beeshyams true, but it's just the Gmail in that case. I would like to use the account (Google Calendar, Google Drive, Gmail) without subjecting to the device policy. Can the school set an exception per device?

No. Google account is a package deal AFAIK

See this for confirmation https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/N0nTCat-7j0

@beeshyams darn.

That's how things work. Unfortunately. You got your answer I guess. If that is the case and if you wish I can add that as an answer

Confused by your latest edit. What do you mean by main account? Are you saying that when the phone is set up for use, it is signed in with your son's personal account?

@beeshyams Yes. It's his own phone, signed in with his own account. We just want to add his school account as "just another account", just like a Hotmail account, to get his contacts from, to see his Calendar data and so on.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

A cow-orker pointed me to the (paid) e-mail and calendar app Nine, which seems to be able to restrict any remote wipes to its data of that account.
So while there may be no way of adding an account without submitting to its device policy, this does solve my problem.

Disclaimer: I am not connected in any way to Nine or the company behind it, 9Folders Inc.

He would have to use the web interface via a browser in order to access this account. Adding the account would make it subject to the administrative policy, and this they would be able to monitor and erase his device.
Now, the real question is why would they bother? I can tell you with a fair amount of certainty that no one is sitting there monitoring accounts with their fingers posed over the WIPE button, they don't have time or care and these features are generally never used unless the circumstances are fairly significant, bad enough for a school administrator to be willing to take the heat from a pi$$ed off parent and be able to justify their actions.
These feature are usually employed at the enterprise level, where a person leaves a position, to make sure the company's data is wiped from the device and they do not take it else where, or to be able to locate or clean the device should be it be misplaced/stolen. The ability to "monitor" the phone is somewhat over-rated, as they can't go in and read your text messages or see what calls your making to who, it simply means they can monitor data related to the account that has device administrator access. The problem is these are kind of all in one permissions, for your child to be able to access this account the ENTIRE permission applies.
The answer is although this is a possibility, the concern is likely unfounded. You should be able to allow your child to add his school account to his device with no issue, and when that account is no longer needed the administration rights can be removed and the account with it.

Concern in your second comment to the other answer is valid from a user perspective but from Android design perspective, the account you have signed in is the one to control your device say, in case of loss. Nothing one can do about that

I'm not concerned about the school would targeting his device specifically to be wiped, my concern is him falling victim to a blanket wipe. For instance, when he leaves school, or maybe even every summer, they'd just wipe all devices (most of which would be their own Chromebooks) for a clean new school year, without checking if there are any devices they don't own. Also, I find it a bit curious that device policies can be made to apply to devices the policy holder doesn't own.

SPOILER: Its off by default
Provided you did not activate the account via the device policy app (just added it as a normal account) You'll be fine. Its the same situation here- the tech team leave notes to remind students to not activate device policy.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work without it.

Really? Try removing the account and re-adding it. If the device was given to you by the school, you can't do anything.

No, it's his own device, set up with his own personal Google account.

This Should work then. Can't see why It wouldn't. In fact, If you have not added the account via device policy, you'll never need too. If they are forcing you to, ask them. They Shouldn't be enforcing this.


text:
Flashing up from 5.0 to 5.1 with CM12 nightlies?
I have LG G3 VS985 which runs the nightly CM12 5.0 ROM. I want to upgrade from 5.0 to 5.1, but last time I tried just flashing the new zip certain apps I had on the phone were not compatible, such as Google Services, which caused my phone to soft brick every time I booted up.
Long story short, I'm sick of the bugs on the 5.0 nightly.
I'm wondering how to get the latest nightly without deleting all of my data and apps, if at all possible. I'm using TWRP.
I considered flashing a new GApps version specific to Android 5.1. Would that work?

So, I just went through this. I have the LG G3 D851. Not realizing that it went from CM12.0 to CM12.1. You WILL need to get the latest GAPPS. I did not, and ended up hosing my data causing me to have to wipe and start fresh.
I am now running CM12.1 with GApps for 5.1 and starting the process of logging back in to everything and recover all of my 2-factor authentication. Hopefully this helps you, so you do not have to go through the same.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Corrupted Images on S4 on Android Lollipop 5.0.1
I am experiencing issues with my S4 and the images I am taking on it.
Over the past week nearly all the images that I have taken have been corrupted when I go into Gallery or Photos to look at them.
I have had images sent to my via WhatsApp that I can save that do not become corrupted.
I'm using a 32gb sd card and I'm on Lollipop 5.0.1.
Is this a botched software update or a failing SD card?

As reccomended by The Droid Guy for Galaxy S5. I can only assume the solution can be proposed for the S4.

Lollipop Update Corrupted Photos in Galaxy S5 Sport
Problem: Good morning, I am hoping you are able to help. Two days ago, Sprint did a lollipop update on my Samsung Galaxy S5 Sport. Since
  that time, about half of my pictures, are black, stating unsupported,
  or media not found. I am heartbroken, as many of the pics are of our
  new grandchild. I have tried everything to fix this, but to no avail.
  I do have backup on, but, they are not there either. When removing sd
  card, to put on computer, same issue remains. Please help. — Julie
Troubleshooting: It appears like the update, somehow, has reached your microSD card and corrupted its contents. If your computer can’t
  ready from the card either, then find some technicians in your area
  who knows how to extract photos or files from corrupted SD cards.
  There’s nothing much we can do about it because it’s more of a
  hardware issue than anything else.

Read more here

Thanks, i'm doing a full format of the SD card just now through Windows and if that doesn't work then i'll just buy a new 64GB MicroSD card. It's frustrating that a software update is affecting hardware in this way.

Lollipop has various issues like this. It's just unfortunate yours corrupted your SD Card, hopefully you didn't lose anything personal.

It doesn't look like i've lost too much, just photos and videos taken over the past week or so. I do have a friend who has had his entire MicroSD fried with all data lost!

Always good to hear, highly unfortunate for your friend though! technology is tempermental like that, i think thats why we love it so much. If you need anything else or if more needs to be added to gain an accepted answer let me know.

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


text:
Flashing .tar factory image with CWM
In the hopes of getting Android 5.0 onto my Nexus 10, I visited Google's factory image download page for the latest image. I noticed however that the file I downloaded was a tar and not a zip. Will this work just the same using CWM to flash it, or do I need to do something special here?

Try unzipping the file in order to get the .tar extension factory image.

Stock factory images are not supposed to be flashed in recovery. Instead, you should follow the instructions on the page you linked to. Open the tar file, it's probably just a compressed file, just like a zip.
But first, let me point you to some custom ROMs that ARE flashable in recovery:
Stock
Rastakat
Cyanogenmod 12 (unofficial)
However, those may all contain extra bugs, as they are made by 3rd party devs.
Now, if you want to install the actual factory images from Google:
First, make sure you have fastboot and adb. If you don't, install the Android SDK.
Extract the files to a folder on your computer, connect your device to a computer and type the commands into a command window (Start -> Command Prompt or type in
cmd

The commands that you need are the one in green text, but for the sake of completeness:
adb reboot bootloader

If you haven't unlocked the bootloader yet:
fastboot oem unlock

The run the flash-all.bat script:
flash-all.bat

It should look something like this:

After looking around a bit, I've learned simply executing the flash-all script will wipe all of the device's data, including the sdcard. I've read you can avoid this by extracting the tar/tgz and invoking the specific fastboot commands manually, e.g. fastboot flash bootloader bootloader.img etc, and skipping the userdata one. I'm wondering, if I'd like to keep my existing recovery, can I also just skip the fastboot flash recovery step without expecting any snags or issues?

The boot loader is not the main problem, it is mainly the encoding of the rom you are using. Instead of tampering with the rom you are going to install, just download rom manager or download the Odin on your laptop. from the internet, download execute variable for your device or .tar if flashing from laptop and apply, DO NOT FLASH AS ROM. this will brick your device. I have tried this method and it has worked without no brick 200+ times. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS METHOD; YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR ACTIONS.

Odin works only with Samsung devices.


text:
Significant battery drop/reboot, but only in cold weather (+5°C/+41°F) with camera - expected behaviour or battery defect?
Disclaimer: This is not a duplicate, I've looked at these questions but none are applicable(temperature) or provide an adequate answer.
Recently I've realized that my 15 month old LG G4 seems to have an issue with the battery in cool or cold weather: dry, no significant windchill, +5°C/+41°C
In at least 3 instances, it happened to drop from 50% or even 65% charge to zero, rebooting without warning. I've not seen issues at other times (higher temps)
I can even reproduce this:

Have the phone at 50% to about 70% charge
go outside if its around 5°C
take a couple of pictures with Open Camera.

After a couple of minutes, it will reboot and only have a fraction (<10%) of the charge, and keep rebooting if I try to take pictures.
I've tried all the "battery reset tricks" out there, but as I said above - I don't have any issues other than in the cold (+camera).
Is this expected behaviour or should I replace my battery ?
Do I want too much from my smartphone ?
Should I scale back my settings to try and keep the power draw lower ?

Additional Information:
It's a Li-Po 3000 mAh (original) battery
Android 7.1.2 (LineageOS 14.1)
Open Camera settings: High Res (16:9 15.87 MP), 90% JPEG, GPS on, 100% display brightness, background thread, no flash
I'm also uploading the pictures to owncloud via the owncloud App ("Instant Upload") over 3G/4G
Here are some graphs from GSam Battery Monitor.
If you look at them closely, it seems to "recharge" around 5% if its in a warmer environment again.

This is really a bad question, it calls for speculation/opinion. You have 3 very specific conditions noted as necessary for the undesirable operation, if any one of those is taken out of the equation is the operation as you would expect? Meaning, if you use Google Camera instead of Open Camera, the temperature is warmer, or the battery has a better charge, this condition does not occur? If so, the answer seems pretty straight-forward, if not, then your question is not really about the problem.

@acejavelin, if I remove the temperature from the equation I don't have an issue - how is that pretty straight-forward ? Are you suggesting I don't use the camera in the cold ? I don't get what you mean. Also it covers all the basics mentioned here. If someone says " ah! open camera has an issue with power draw with these settings" then I wouldn't discard this as opinion, rather see it as informed fact.

Only one of your 3 questions is not purely opinion based... And the one question that is not purely opinion based still calls for speculation. I am not trying to be negative or argumentative here, just clear. And if the cold is the only real factor, that changes the question significantly. If the trifecta of conditions is required, just change the camera app because that is the easiest for you to control, that was what I meant by straight-forward.

All batteries achieve optimum service life if used at 20°C (68°F) or slightly below
For Li Ion ( or Li Po) the ideal charging temperature is 0°C to 45°C
(32°F to 113°F) and operating temperature is –20°C to 60°C
(–4°F to 140°F) Source

Based on the above, it looks like you have a poor battery given that

It is being operated within the designed temperature range
Unexplained sudden drop from above 50% or more to zero
Marginal increase in charge when brought indoors

Till you get a replacement battery all I can think of by way of power consumption reduction is to delay the cloud upload (do it once it's charged / WiFi)
Edit: Try a different camera app. It looks like Open Camera does consume more power and show increase in battery levels after reboot as quoted here -in particular post of 17/12/2017 which matches very closely to what OP describes. If that doesn't help much change battery

Thanks for your answer ! I'll verify this in the coming days but a comment on the SourceForge link you provided "I find that Open Camera drains my phone's battery much much faster than the built in app. I just tested it and on 20% battery I can take about 5 mins video with Open Camera before the battery is critically low. After restarting the phone the battery goes up to 17% or so, and so on." sounds very similar, sans the cold!

Were you able to validate?

I'm working on it !

Hi, so after some time I can confirm at least one thing: Open Camera consumes way more power than it should. I suspect, but cannot confirm: The higher power demands, coupled with an ageing battery and sub optimal ambient temperature seems to have caused this. I was unable (or unwilling) to replace the camera app, but I bought a new (and bigger) battery - which has ultimately resolved the issue. Still, I'm not happy that one app can crash my phone this way..

My phone does this too. It's always done it, the phone (and battery) are 5 years old and everything works properly, just not when it's cold (way colder than +5°C). Maybe my battery is iffy, don't know that it is, don't know that it isn't, but since it works fine the rest of the time, I'm not losing sleep over it.
I'm calling it "normal behaviour" for my phone. As a side not, if you see a guy out and about in -20°C weather holding his phone under his armpit and cursing his battery, come over and say "Hi!".

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


text:
How to add SELinux policy on a user-debug ROM that has `split` policy scheme?
I have a Sony device that supports treble and is a system-as-root and A/B device. It has a user-debug ROM installed on it so, its adb shell is rooted.
I have disabled dm-verity using adb disable-verity after running adb root and adb remount commands.
As documented here, this device also has split policies at /system/etc/selinux(the 'plat' portion of the policy) and /vendor/etc/selinux(the 'nonplat' portion of the policy).
I am trying to run test.sh using following init script:
#/etc/init/m_daemon.rc

# define service, use executable here if script not needed
service m_daemon /system/xbin/test.sh

    # don't start unless explicitly asked to
    disabled

    # Use `seclabel u:r:magisk:s0` to run with unrestricted SELinux context to avoid avc denials
    # can also use "u:r:su:s0" on userdebug / eng builds if no Magisk.
    # It's required if SELinux is enforcing and service needs access
    # to some system resources not allowed by default sepolicy
    # seclabel u:object_r:qlogd_exec:s0
    seclabel u:r:su:s0

# start the service when the boot is completed
on property:sys.boot_completed=1
    # Use it to start the service
    start m_daemon

/system/xbin/test.sh file has the following contents:
#!/system/bin/sh
echo `date` > /sdcard/test

When the device reboot then it fails to run with the following error:

  202.932913 / 11-26 20:21:04.074 audit: type=1400 audit(1574763664.074:213): avc:  denied  { transition } for  pid=8534 comm="init" path="/system/xbin/test.sh" dev="sda24" ino=8150 scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=u:r:su:s0 tclass=process permissive=0
  202.933268 / 11-26 20:21:04.074 init: cannot execve('/system/xbin/test.sh'): Permission denied

To fix it, I have used sepolicy-inject and run the following commands:
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p transition -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p noatsecure -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p rlimitinh -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p siginh -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l

but these needs to be run again after reboot.
So, I have tried to patch precompiled_sepolicy using following commands:
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p transition -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p noatsecure -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p rlimitinh -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p siginh -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l

but the policies are not injected: neither live nor after reboot.
To test, I am just checking the date in /sdcard/test file.
So, I just want to know:

Why patching precompiled_policy didn't work?
Where to patch the required policies using rooted adb shell that should persist after a reboot?

To patch the policies, do the following:

Change the value in /system/etc/selinux/plat_and_mapping_sepolicy.cil.sha256 OR empty this file.
Inject required policies in /system/etc/selinux/plat_sepolicy.cil
"Loading compiled SELinux policy" should show in logs and the init service will run fine.

As I believe the answer answer your questions, here is a shameless copy/paste of my answer to this question:
Note that this answer will focus solely on Android 9 to 13 and Treble devices.
If we want to know how to modify the SELinux policies, I believe it is good to first understand how the policies are loaded in the first place.
SELinux in the boot process
At an early stage of the Android boot process and after mounting most of the partitions, init will attempt to load the SELinux policies from a monolithic sepolicy file found at either /odm/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy or /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy. If init notices that the device is updated out of sync, init will instead recompile the SELinux policies based on .cil files that can be found on several locations.
You can find all the details in the comments of the init/selinux.cpp source file and by looking at the implementation, but here is a summary of the exact steps taken by init:

Find the sepolicy file to use:

if /odm/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy exists, use it as the sepolicy file to use
else, if /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy exists, use it as the sepolicy file to use
else if neither of the above exists, stop here, recompile the policies based on the .cil files and load the newly compiled sepolicy file.

Check if device was updated out of sync:

Compare /(odm|vendor)/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy.plat_sepolicy_and_mapping.sha256 and /system/etc/selinux/plat_sepolicy_and_mapping.sha256
Compare /(odm|vendor)/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy.system_ext_sepolicy_and_mapping.sha256 and /system_ext/etc/selinux/system_ext_sepolicy_and_mapping.sha256
Compare /(odm|vendor)/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy.product_sepolicy_and_mapping.sha256 and /product/etc/selinux/product_sepolicy_and_mapping.sha256
(On Android 13) Compare /(odm|vendor)/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy.apex_sepolicy.sha256 and /dev/selinux/apex_sepolicy.sha256
if any of the above pair of files do not match, stop here, recompile the policies based on the .cil files and load the newly compiled sepolicy file.

If everything is ok, load the precompiled sepolicy file (/odm/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy or /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy)

The compilation of the policies based on the .cil files is as follows:

Get the latest version of the policies that are compatible with the vendor version (/vendor/etc/selinux/plat_sepolicy_vers.txt, note that init does not look at the file in the /odm partition)
Gather the .cil files to compile:

/system/etc/selinux/mapping/{vendor_version}.cil
/system/etc/selinux/mapping/{vendor_version}.compat.cil
/system_ext/etc/selinux/system_ext_sepolicy.cil
/system_ext/etc/selinux/mapping/{vendor_version}.cil
/product/etc/selinux/product_sepolicy.cil
/product/etc/selinux/mapping/{vendor_version}.cil
/vendor/etc/selinux/plat_pub_versioned.cil
/vendor/etc/selinux/vendor_sepolicy.cil or if it does not exist: /vendor/etc/selinux/nonplat_sepolicy.cil
/odm/etc/selinux/odm_sepolicy.cil

Compile the above files with secilc to /dev/sepolicy.XXXXXX
Load policies from /dev/sepolicy.XXXXXX

Modifying SELinux policies permantently
Now that we understand how init loads the policies, it is easy to see how one could permanently add new policies to the system:

Directly add the policies to /odm/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy or /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy with sepolicy-inject:
sepolicy-inject -s su -t system_file -c file -p entrypoint -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -o /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy

Make init thinks the device is updated out of sync (By modifying one of the above .sha256 files, or deleting the precompiled sepolicy files) and modify one of the above .cil files

Note that in both cases, you will need to have a read-write access to the partition you want to modify (/vendor, /odm, and/or /system). These partitions are normally mounted as read-only, so you will have to either:

Remount them as read-write if you have root access (either because your device is rooted, or using adb root on a userdebug Android build)
Boot in recovery mode, mount the partitions as read-write and modify them in recovery

This update-package template I made may interest you there

If you do not want to have to remount the partitions every time you want to change the SELinux policies, you can add some SELinux rules to allow init to load new policies, thereby resolving the chicken and egg problem (as mentioned in this excellent answer) you had with your init script. You can find which SELinux rules are needed by searching for SELinux violations (avc errors) in the device logs on startup:
adb logcat | grep avc

With this, you will be able to have an init script that loads new policies with sepolicy-inject.

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


text:
Android Lollipop's notification bar is not transparent in Nexus 4
I had updated my Nexus 4 with Android 5.0 OTA update last week. I observed that the notification bar is not transparent. I see some reviews of Android Lollipop (Nexus 4) in YouTube and as I remembered correctly the notification bar was transparent. Is anybody having the same issue?

Compared to Nexus 5, Lollipop stock launcher on Nexus 4 doesn't have transparency on the notification bar.
Instead, the one with transparency is Google Now Launcher (originally known as Google Experience Launcher). After installing the launcher, you can switch between those two from Settings > Home.

Lollipop stock launcher      Lollipop Google Now Launcher


text:
Is it possible to use hundreds of Android devices with the same google account?
We have developed a App that uses GCM push, that seems that needs Google Play Services (Google account).
Customer has 100-200 devices, it it possible to use the same google account in all devices? Gmail will be inactivated, and buy apps to Market will be disallowed.
Aditional info: We have proposed Google for Work, but Customer is not interested at this moment

Did a quick google search, seems like there is no limit placed devices connected to your Google account. The only apparent restriction is four devices for Google Music.
Aside from a bug, there no documented device restrictions.


text:
Automatically power on Nexus 7 when plugged in
Is there any way to power on Nexus 7 2012 automatically when charging started? I want to use Nexus 7 as a car PC, so I need this feature for energy economy.
PS - my Nexus 7 is rooted and uses CM 10.1

possible duplicate of Automatically power on Android when the charger is connected

This thread covers Samsung only. Is there any option for other devices?

Install Tasker to be able to:

Power off tablet when car is off
Use command
fastboot oem off-mode-charge 0

To reset to normal, change the 0 to 1
Event for Tasker profile : Power

How exactly did you do that?

@Tardo What part don't you understand? First, is what you want the tablet to do. Second, is the command used to accomplish that task. Third, is how to change it back for normal operation. You should read the Tasker website and the forums related to the app, for in-depth info.

I've got it. The command is the task, execute a shell command. But what is the event you're setting as a Profile to identify when the charger is connected?

POWER http://tasker.dinglisch.net/userguide/en/help/sh_index.html

fastboot oem off-mode-charge 0 doesn't work on my chinese tablet..

@Tardo contact the manufacturer, your tablet might not support fastboot.

My guess is that fastboot is a file inside /system/bin ? Is it right?

@Tardo No it isn't located in your android device. It would located in your computer, wherever you installed android SDK (\sdk\platform-tools\fastboot.exe -for windows, Linux would be system/core/fastboot). Fastboot is a tool used to manipulate the flash partitions of an android device. I still recommend contacting your manufacturer and possibly searching out a forum dealing specifically with  your device (same hardware and etc.)


text:
How to record videos with LG G2 Mini with a lower quality or resolution?
Is there a way to force the camera app of the LG G2 Mini to record videos that don't take up a large number of mb for just a few seconds of video? I think it's recording at 1080p, or some other high number. I can't record pass 1 minute it seems, or it'll take up near 1gb of memory (or maybe 500mb, I can't remember).
I looked at the settings of the camera, and apparently there's no other resolutions available, aside from the one that allows for records of .3gp (I think?), but it has a 30 second limit.
Is there an app that allows one to record videos at a lower resolution?
I believe I tried months ago to follow some tutorial where you'll have to edit a system file, but it doesn't work.
So if someone can direct me to a tutorial to deal with this issue or an app it would be greatly appreciated :D I can literally not use my cellphone for video recording for any normal purpose due to the recordings hogging up a huge amount of memory. It's been months since I last attempted to video record anything.

I used this app (Open Camera) in the past. It sure supports various video recording resolutions and guess what? It's open-source! Head over here --- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en

@MANI What's more interesting is that its size isn't even 1MB yet it supports such varied resolutions et al.

@MANI OMG I LOVE YOU FOR THIS APP I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >:D< THANKS A LOT!!!! The app even supports changing the destination folder :D I just tried it out :D Now I'm gonna test it's limitations.

@ValCroft - Welcome! ;)

Note: This is a partial answer to address the issue using an alternative app.

Is there an app that allows one to record videos at a lower resolution?

In my OnePlus One, I use Cinema FV-5. It shows me following recording resolutions:

4096x2160 8.8 MP 4K UHD
3840x2160 8.3 MP 16:9 4K UHD
1920x1080 2.1 MP 16:9 Full HD
1440x1080 1.6 MP 4:3
1280x720  0.9 MP 16:9 HD
864x480   0.4 MP SD
800x480   0.4 MP 15:9 SD
720x480   0.3 MP 3:2 NTSC SD
640x480   0.3 MP 4:3 SD
480x320   0.2 MP 3:2
384x288   0.1 MP 4:3
352x288   0.1 MP
320x240   0.1 MP 4:3
176x144   0 MP

Google Camera on the other hand allows my device to record at 4K, 1080p and 720p. I'll update my answer if I come to know any other app with varied resolutions capability.

Update 1: Suggested by @Mani, the app is Open Camera(Libre software, free, < 1MB in size). Resolutions are more or less same in variety as Cinema FV-5 has.

Thanks! Do you use the lite version or the full version? I was wondering what the time limit is for the lite version, and if the full version is worth it? What do you use it for?

The device isn't actually mine technically but of cousin's and the app was gifted to him by someone I don't know. :) But the installed version is full not lite as far as I know.

Also, there are many latest (2015) camera apps listed here on Android Authority. Have a look here -- https://web.archive.org/web/20150509155910/http://www.androidauthority.com/best-camera-apps-for-android-188148/


text:
Error while installing radio in Xperia m running cyanogenmod 12
After completing installation of CM12 in my Xperia M C1904 , I found that there is no signal capturing by the device,but some times it does.
I doubt it is be the issue with baseband . So i had a try installing zip file containing modem.img according to the post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2703161
But it is not installing
,showing an error in the screen like this
E:footer is wrong
E:signature verification failed

I did this in the cyanogen recovery since after the cm12 installation I'm unable to get into cwm recovery.
Is there any probable way to fix this issue?
thanks in advance

@Matthew Read Thankyou it worked and now my phone is gettingsignal

Glad to hear it!  I've turned my comment into an answer.

Normally only a stock recovery would be attempting signature verification.
I would suggest reinstalling ClockworkMod Recovery and attempting to flash the modem again.


text:
Can I run CyanogenMod without mobile service?
I am wondering if I can run CyanogenMod on a phone without service? I have an HTC Incredible and am thinking of upgrading to a new phone and wonder if I can give my old phone to my daughter to use like an iTouch works where you only have internet access via a wireless connection and cannot make cell phone calls but can use applications.

Yes, even plain Android will do this.  I've heard of some unlicensed phones that didn't properly finish setup unless you had a SIM card but it shouldn't be an issue with CM.

I used to have an Incredible - moved on to a Nexus! - and I noticed a ROM in the XDA forums that was for Wifi only, ie, device without a data plan.
You can search here for it.
There is also a Wifi only mod that can be found here.
Link to Wifi Only Thread.


text:
set another CDMA operator in a verizon wireless galaxy tab
Got a galaxy tab 7 SCHI800BKV verizon wireless tab. It has no rim/sim port. Question is if I root the device will it be possible to set my country's CDMA operator in the device?
Thanks for your help.

The device may have to be unlocked first. Rooting will not Unlock the device. You will also need information from the network you want to run the device on. Like if the device is supported on their network, if they are able to active the device (they will be able to tell you if they support it if you give them the ESN/MEID) and what their mobile carrier code is (SID/NID/MCC).
I did find this info that may help once it is unlocked:

From here, I will walk you through programming the tablet for ota activation with that carrier.
  If its the verizon galaxy tab, to get to the programming menu go to the notepad and type **772 to get to the manual programming.
the spc code will always be 000000
from here touch down 3 times
  clear out the directory number with 10 0's
  then hit down
  then clear out the msin with 10 0's
  from here touch down
  here you will change the system id to what is necessary for that carrier.
  then you will hit left or right and then enter
  then hit down 4 times and you should see mcc, put the mcc number here
  then hit down 4 times, and the home sid should match the one you input, then you will change the NID for that carrier as well
  then you will hit down 64 times, and make sure cdma homesys reg is yes
  then hit down 6 times to where it says slot cycle index, change this to 1 by hitting touch here and clear it and hit 1
  then exit service

you would have to call Verizon, I would think.

I called verizon they say the ESN is good but they won't unlock it for me. Can I unlock it myself?

take a look at this video, it may work for this model too, I am not 100% sure.

Fast gsm also says sorry. Probably I am out of luck

Generally speaking, rooting is completely unrelated to unlocking.
CDMA unlocking is also more difficult than SIM unlocking a GSM phone, and CDMA phones need to be activated on the network, unlike sticking a SIM in an unlocked GSM phone and doing whatever you want.  You'll need help from both carriers (Verizon to unlock, your carrier to activate) in order to do this.

If I root the device will it not automatically unlock from verizon? If the answer is NO, do they (verizon) cooperates in the unlock process? (I purchased this from ebay, how can I do it?)

@newcomer Rooting won't do anything to unlock it. I don't much about Verizon's customer service, but it might be possible for your local carrier to handle the transfer from Verizon.  If the ESN is "dirty" (the device was lost or stolen) then you're probably completely out of luck ... this often happens with used devices from eBay, at least.

OK I called verizon they say the ESN is good but they don't unlock it for me. Can I unlock it myself?

@newcomer I would doubt it; from what I understand only the carriers have access to whatever tools they have that keeps track of the ESN globally.


text:
No "flash zip from SD card" option on ClockworkMod Recovery
I am trying to follow the steps outlined in the following article in order to root my Nexus 4 running Android 5.1:
http://www.teamandroid.com/2015/04/16/root-nexus-4-android-51-lmy47o-lollipop-cwm-supersu/2/
Step 13 instructs that I apply SuperSU with a "flash zip from SD card" command; however, no such command is appearing on my ClockworkMod menu. I have an "Install ZIP" option, but I am not sure whether or not this should accomplish the same function.
I am running ClockworkMod Recovery v6.0.4.7 (Touch).

Use the Install Zip → select the zip file you downloaded (possibly this) → choose Yes if asked, and the recovery should flash this zip into your system.
Flash zip from SD card or Install zip are basically the same thing.

To OP: The guide that you linked in the question doesn't mention to update the SuperSu app from Play Store. AFAIK, you'll have to download the app from Play Store after flashing the zip file. Anyhow, follow the guide if it has been proved well for other users.

I actually already had the SuperSU app installed from my previously rooted 4.2 installation. Thanks for the clarification, though -- and thanks very much for the answer! I figured "install ZIP" would be pretty much the same as what the guide was instructing, but I also figured I'd err on the side of caution.


text:
Disable history syncing on Chrome for Android
How can I disable Chrome syncing its history on my Android phone? I looked in settings, but I cannot see an option there.

In the
Main Android settings > Accounts > Google (related account) > Browser Sync
remove the tick should work


text:
How do I change incorrect album art on the default Music Player of the Samsung Galaxy S III?
One of my albums has a completely unrelated album art associated with it. I cannot find the album details and hope to get the album art that way because it's an independent album. The album art I'm trying to use is actually a scan of the album itself. I have tried:

Renaming the album and album folder, deleting the previous folder from my phone, and ending my music player's process.
Deleting the album's folder from the phone, and moving the folder somewhere else.
Changed the album art to different images that are slightly different images with Windows Media Player, then uploading AlbumArt.jpg, Folder.jpg, etc. into the album's directory.

I've probably tried a few more, but I can't remember at the moment. It's very annoying having to look at this low-quality, unrelated album art whenever I start playing my music.

Have you tried changing the ID3 tags? You can use on PC: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html

Windows Media Player sets the album art ID3 tag when the user pastes the album art. I even confirmed this by archiving the MP3 and opening on another computer. It still had its album art. I will still try this though.

Though my other answer might still work, it spams the Music directory with album art which is then picked up by the Gallery and obfuscates actual user content.
Instead of my previous answer, I would suggest just using Mp3tag and embedding album art in each MP3 manually. Using either the AlbumArt.jpg or the Folder.jpg created by Windows is not as good because they are both usually 200x200, which will be pixelated when viewed in the Music Player on the phone.

What worked for me, as adx suggested, was to go into the /Android/data/com.android.providers.media/albumthumbs folder on the phone and delete all of the files it contains. They are extension-less files, so it is impossible to tell which one is the offending one, so I just deleted them all. The next time I opened the default Samsung music player, all of the album thumbnail images at first appeared empty, then after two or three seconds, the music player re-generated all of them, and my new album art appeared on the offending album.
(This was after I "showed hidden files and folders" via the control panel in Windows and deleted the AlbumArt.jpg and Folder.jpg files that were there)

This worked perfectly on my Asus Zenfone. Thank you!

Force stop your Music playing app. Connect your device to a PC. Use the search function to search your phone (phone storage or SD card where you store your music) for albumart.jpg. I use Linux so the results appear as icons, in Windows right click - search . You can delete the offending icons, then use whatever app you use to try find new album art. You can be more specific by searching: \albumthumbs , \android\data\com.android.providers.media\albumthumbs and of course each individual album folder.

This is the solution I came up with.
First, it seems that album art is cached, so after deleting the offending album, closing the music player, and restarting the phone, it might still persist. In this case, leave it for a day and try again.
Second, go to Folder Options / View / Advanced Settings / Show hidden files and folders. and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (recommended). Delete Folder.jpg, AlbumArt.jpg, and AlbumArtSmall.jpg in the offending album's folder (and any other jpgs that represent the old album art. Usually they have UUIDs for names).
Third, make sure there is an AlbumArt.jpg representing the correct album art in the album's folder. Ideally, AlbumArt.jpg should be a perfect square.
Fourth, try copying the album's folder back to the phone. If everything in the first step was tried and the album art has not changed, I would suggest changing the album's name. Technically, you're adding a new album at this point, but at least it will have the right album art.

I have faced this problem for a very long time, and have finally decided to try to fix it, finally came up with the solution how to.
Before I continue, I use iTunes on my computer to manage all my songs, copy them out in .mp3 format and then drag them into my Samsung phone. (Note 3) The album artwork I have attached to the albums in iTunes is not showing up, and instead shows another unrelated album which applies to the whole album.
The fix: Download an application called MP3dit which is freely available in the Play Store. This is because Samsung automatically attaches the album artwork to the first song of the album that has an album artwork and sets it as default to ALL the songs in that album.
What I have done is:

To remove all the songs in the specific album
Insert one of the songs in that album
Ensure the song is in the Music Player by playing it
Go over to the MP3dit app and open the song
Scroll down to 'Advanced' and open the sub menu
Select the option 'Delete all MP3 Tags'

Your album now should turn out with the artwork that you have inserted with iTunes (or other music players) now. You can go ahead and add in the rest of the songs in that album.

Try this free app called "pimp my music". It does everything you want to do with album art.

I'll look into it.

This might not work but worth a try.
Connect your S3 to a PC (or use a file explorer). In those Albums, unhide System Files ... and delete the album art.jpg ... or all the hidden image files. SHOULD work.

Unhide system files in Windows or on my Android? I tried unhiding system files in Windows, but it did not show anything extra. I have my Android file browser set to display hidden files and folders, but the Albums folder is empty.

Well if you connect your phone on a Windows PC, then you'll have to UNHIDE system files, to be able to see those hidden album arts on your Android's SDCard. This used to happen a lot back in Gingerbread days with my i9000.

I did have system files unhidden. I just said that. I could try unhiding system files and then connecting my phone.

Very easy to solve this. Go to the Samsung explorer "My Files" find the MP3 with the wrong artwork. Long press, select rename, rename the file (I just added "1" at the end).
Your MP3 file will now play without the unwanted picture.
You can then remove the "1" after the file name.

In correct album art
If you are seeing the cover of another album with a similar or the same name check that you have the album artist tag filled appropriately for each album, some players can't handle such files correctly without this tag.
As already mentioned check for embedded album art and be consistent use either embedded album art or AlbumArt.jpg.
Album art does not show up
My experience is that 1000x1000 pixel with up to 500 KB for AlbumArt.jpg work fine with Google Play Music and most players. Higher resolutions and bigger file sizes may only work as embedded album art, which can be a huge waste of space. Further I had a few files with chroma subsampling 4:2:0 which couldn't be read, so I suggest to use subsampling 4:4:4 if possible, this also provides the best quality.
Troubleshooting
Previously I would only close the player and delete the files of com.android.providers.media or clear its cache. These options seem to be gone in Android 6.0 or have no effect. In case of Google Play Music swiping the card of the app from the Android app history was enough to get the cover displayed correctly. (I forgot about this and was confused about the behavior while changing the image file and the folder name and trying to make sense of what I saw.)


text:
View log files on rooted Nexus 9
I'd like to check some log files of a app I've downloaded from the browser.
I rooted my device already and saw in the "SuperSU"-App a Logs-Tab. How can/do I use that? Or do I have to do something more?
Thank you

Download the app called CatLog - LogCAt reader it can read all your logs and it's open source

This answer might be helpful if you add a link to the app you're recommending.

True, but I found it easy on the PlayStore

Yeah it's on playstore and it's easy to find on playstore i don't have the time to search for the link myself if someone can edit and add it i will accept also i forgot to say that the logs you see on SuperSu is the logs from apps that required root access only not other logs


text:
How to access app menu without app button?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 and my app menu button is broken.  (I accidentally destroyed it while replacing the screen.)
Is there any other way to access the app menu or view a list of running apps, switch between them, close unneeded running applications?

BUILD.PROP SOFTKEYS (ROOT)
If you have root, you can emulate soft keys, like the ones on the Nexus and other devices, by modifying the build.prop file. To do this you will need root. There are many guides to rooting your device, such as this one on XDA.
After you are rooted, install an app like Build Prop Editor. Change (or add) the following key: qemu.hw.mainkeys=0 (add a key named qemu.hw.mainkeys and set the value to 0.) Be careful and make sure that you have typed it exactly as shown. After this, you will need to hard reboot your phone. Power off your device (or remove the battery, not recommended) and then turn it back on. Note: For build.prop edits, you will need a hard reboot; a soft reboot will not apply the changes to the build.prop file.

THIRD PARTY APP
If you do not wish to root, you can install an app like Handy Soft Keys. Please note that this may affect performance, battery, and data usage negatively, as it is not native to Android like the build.prop edit.

Great, I got the app installed and it works, thanks!

authors: معمر الصحراء


text:
Is it possible to install Android L on a device that will not get the update in the future?
I have Sony Xperia M2, and as you probably know, this phone will not get the new Android L update from Sony.
So is there any way to install the Android L manually?
I don't care to root my device and install a custom ROM which compatible with the new version... but is it actually possible to update my device version?

Why yes, you can. Mind you that lollipop is not a daily driver for your phone yet, it's in alpha stage. Now, I don't have the same phone as you but the process will be pretty much the same.
Firstly, you need to understand what you're going to be doing so read any noob guide on www.xda-developers.com (it's this site you're going to be sticking to and I'm sorry I'm writing this from my phone and couldn't find the noob guide I was looking for, I'll edit when I'm on PC).
This is your phone's forum: http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-m2
Now follow this:
1.Unlock your bootloader:Find a guide in android development section
2.Root your phone:Find a guide in android development section.

Flash a custom recovery:Find a custom recovery in android development or original android development. By now, you probably already know how to flash.
Flash CM12:Find CM12 in original android development, follow instructions.

Congrats, you will now be experiencing lollipop.
WARNING: Read and follow every post carefully and thoroughly, any mistake can end up bricking your phone. Do this at your own risk, I shall not be responsible if your brick your phone. You have been warned.
Happy flashing.

It is technically possible to install a newer version of Android on that (and probably every other) device.
First you have to make sure the bootloader of your device is unlocked. In doubt just try to unlock it, it won't relock again without notifying you.
Then you flash (in most cases) a custom recovery like CWM, TWRP or Philz.
After that you can install every custom ROM or other zip on your phone.

The best place for specific Android devices is xda-developers. (imo)
  Most developers meet there and publish their custom ROMs like CyanogenMod as well as modded official firmwares.

For your device there is a big guide on how to unlock your bootloader right on xda: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2743694
Installing a custom ROM is then done through your recovery.


text:
Galaxy Grand i9082 how to remove stability update package file
Hii everyone yesterday night i flashed stock JellyBean 4.2.2 ROM using odin tool and i kept WiFi on whole night for restoring apps but unexpectedly 198.59 MB stability update package as downloaded (Which is the root cause for all the hang issues in device ) and it is showing popup for every 3 hours to install the package. please tell me whether there is any possibility to remove the stability update file from device before installing

I was able to fix up the issue by clearing Software Update data. Go to Settings --> More --> Application Manager --> All Applications --> Software Update --> clear data
and then i turned off software update


text:
moving SD card in and out without messing up apps in it
I always leave my SD card inside my phone, but yesterday I had to use it in a Galaxy Mini 2 to install a custom ROM.
As I put it in my own phone, all apps which where installed in the SD card where missing ("App isn't installed") fortunately my data was not corrupted, but I move my SD often and I'd like to avoid this kind of problems. How can I do that?
Also, I'd like to notice that the custom CWM was buggy (in fact the samsung was bricked), but I don't believe that's the cause.
thank you in advance!
PS: I'm sure this is a copy of an older question, but I can't find anything similar

As you neither write what devices were involved, nor how you proceeded to "move the card", I can give just some generic information – though I think you're already aware of those facts:
Never simply "pick the card out" of the device (be it the phone, tablet, or computer). First you need to tell the system to close all files it might have opened from there: for performance reasons, they are always "cached", and only written back in intervals – so a file might be only partially written when you simply drag out the card. Preparation for a "clean remove" is done in different ways, depending on where the card is connected to:

On Windows, it's usually called "safely remove", and found in the systray.
On Linux, most graphical file managers offer an "eject" button.
On Android, you find a corresponding setting in Settings › Storage to remove the card.
On all systems, it's safe to remove the card when the OS is "shut down" and the device switched off :)

Edit:
When the problem remains despite of always sticking to above rules, the cause might be a different one. More than once I've read about specific combinations of device brand and card brand didn't play well together, and switching to a different card brand solved the issue. So in that case I'd recommend trying a different card. Several shops permit you to return it if it doesn't work out, so this would give you an option to try without to much (financial) risk.

So, even if my phone is off, cache persists and I should "safe remove" it (by turning it on)?

No, as I wrote: "On all systems, it's safe to remove the card when the OS is "shut down" and the device switched off". While shutting down, data is "flushed" (the caches are written) and the card safely unmounted.

Then there's no way to avoid that problem? I picked it out while it was shut down... I own an Huawei ascend g610, but I experience that with all my devices

I wouldn't say there's no way to minimize the risk. But when you always only picked it when the devices were shut down, the cause must be something else. Have you tried a different card (other brand)? Some combinations of card and device don't play well together (not that I've experienced this myself, but I've heard more than once that switching to a different brand made similar trouble disappear).

you already know that apps are installed on SD Cards so it's normal not to work when SD card is removed because app files will be missing.
you can avoid this by installing your apps on internal memory


text:
How to forbid my location only for Viber on my Android phone?

I want to know how can I switch off the location service ONLY for Viber on my Android phone. I know there is an option to do that on iOS, but is there any way to do it on Android phone?

Unfortunately, when you get an android phone out of the box, no, there is no way to do that.
However, if you're willing to root your phone, then you can use apps like "Apps Ops Starter" which essentially launch the hidden settings for you to use which would allow you to find Viber (or any other app) and see its permissions and deny them one by one.

Hi Todd, Thank you for the answer and the suggestion. However, my phone is few months old and still in its warranty period so I don't feel brave enough to root it :-).

Ah. Yea... That's the bad part about that. You can try https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.slvn.appops&hl=en ... that might work. I'm not sure because I haven't used it, but it doesn't state anything about needing root.

"App Ops" starters usually don't need root, so this should work – depending on the Android version. "App Ops" where introduced with 4.2 AFAIK, and are no longer available with 4.4.2 and up – so the window is small.

Thanks @Izzy, I had a look at this app and is seems to be exactly what I want, but as I'm with Android 4.2.2 it won't work on my phone :-(

Alternative options come up if your device is rooted. Is it?

@Izzy, no it is not, and I'm still not sure if I want to root it or not.

@RamzyShah Without root, I'm not aware of any working alternative. So while thinking about "to root or not to root": put this argument on the "pro-root" side...


text:
Turn off screen but still let video and streams running
Sometimes, I want to listen to streams or videos while I'm on the go, but I can't put my phone in my pocket because that would press buttons on the display. Is there any way to turn the screen off and still let the stream/video running like it does with music players?

If anybody else stumbles upon this: firefox on android does that for youtube and for local videos, but to open a local video I haven't found a better way yet than to paste file://<path>in the url box

Download MX Player
Play YouTube/Sdcard video using MX Player.
Press Menu button (or the 3 dot icon), and then select Play
Make sure "Background Play" is checked
Now, you can press Home Button and listen in lock screen.

There is also a shortcut for enabling Background Play, which is tapping and holding the Play button, instead of just tapping it to play a video
Update:

Only For Rooted:
You can install Xposed Modules Installer and use Repository called Youtube Background Play

Copied from my own answer on this post

Update #2
If you are open to installing mod YouTube Vanced is the easiest way for getting background play feature and it works well for non-rooted Android too.


text:
How to recover an Android phone if the Launcher has been mistakenly quarantined?
I am using an Android phone with Root access. I have an app called App Quarantine ROOT/FREEZE, which can freeze or quarantine unwanted apps in Android. I mistakenly use this app to quarantine the Launcher.
As soon as I quarantine the Launcher, the Android desktop becomes black. When I try to reboot, it stuck at the boot up screen with logo.
How to recover an Android phone if the Launcher has been mistakenly quarantined? How to recover the Launcher?

Can you get to recovery? You can reset your phone from there

Some phone models have an emergency factory reset button at the back(inside the back cover) of the phone. It looks like a pinhole. Try inserting a pin there. I hope it would work.

I was having same problem but on TV (mistakenly disable default launcher)
So here what I did.
As My TV was already connected to Wifi but was stuck at "Android" black screen.
So just grabbed my phone
Logged in play store with same account I was using on TV using browser.
Searched launcher
Clicked on install
Selected device > android  TV
& Voila in next 5 secs launcher got Installed in my tv &  then i enabled default launcher.
Everything was working fine.

I had the same problem once. but I could access the notification drawer. and I had a battery booster installed. So , I clicked it and clicked the rating button. It went directly to Google play and find the app's page and open it. You can unfreeze it then.


text:
Watch videos with SUB/IDX subtitles
I have video files with their SUB/IDX subtitles.
I'm using MX Player Pro but it does not support SUB/IDX subtitle.

SUB/IDX subtitles won't display.
SUB/IDX subtitle is not supported as of yet. It will be supported in the future.

How can I watch videos on my Android device with SUB/IDX subtitles?

Somewhere between Nov 9, 2014 and Apr 17, 2015, MX Player Pro (and also its ad-supported free version) supports both SUB/IDX subtitles.

Subtitle formats:

DVD, DVB, SSA/ASS subtitle tracks.
SubStation Alpha(.ssa/.ass) with full styling.
SAMI(.smi) with Ruby tag support.
SubRip(.srt)
MicroDVD(.sub)
VobSub(.sub/.idx)
SubViewer2.0(.sub)
MPL2(.mpl)
TMPlayer(.txt)
Teletext
PJS(.pjs)
WebVTT(.vtt)

You can use VLC to view videos with subtitles. Copy the subtitle files on the same folder as the video, then change their names to be the same as the video (don't change their extension).

You can use an application like MKVToolNix on your PC, attach the SUB/IDX file to the video file, make one single video file with hard sub, and after that enjoy watching the video with hard sub on your Android device.


text:
Paper Sizes on Android 5.0
On the Android print screen, I only see American paper sizes (Letter, Legal etc.). Is there a way to add or switch to ISO sizes (A4, A5 etc.)?

For everything else, I have my phone set to American English with metric units.

The issue is linked to the language you've set in your Android device.
Most probably you set the language as "English (United-States)" and with these settings you only get the American format in you "Paper Size" dropdown.
Therefore, if you want to have the ISO size but still keep your phone in English, you just have to set the language of it in "English (United Kingdom)" and your problem will be solved.
Manipulation :
Settings > Language & input > Language > English (United Kingdom)
Close your apps and try again, in "Paper Size" you should now see the ISO formats.

I believe it's up to the developer to provide whichever print job attributes they want to support for their app. The ISO, Japanese, and other media sizes are defined in Android's API here and I think it would be up to the developer to use them.
The developer can modify the print dialog for the user via a custom print document adapter that can include a set of default print attributes that are appropriate for what's being printed, and I bet this is where they'd include the ISO sizes.
Unless someone has a better solution (and who knows-- there could simply be an option somewhere to change based on location or language that I just don't know about), your best bet may be to contact the developer of the app you're using and ask them to add the ISO sizing attributes to the list of default print attributes.

Hm, according to that documentation, the app only sets the default. I did try changing the language of the phone to German and now it shows only ISO sizes, so it seems to be linked directly to the language.

Interesting.  So does that work as a solution then?  I think the developer can make changes to include those ISO formats as well...

Well, it will get me through the printing process, though I think it's rediculous that I have to change the language every time I want to. :/


text:
How do I select the number of an incoming SMS?
I received some SMSes that show up both in my SMS app and in Google Hangouts; however for the life of me I can't figure out how to just copy that number (in order to report it as a spammer), short of either adding it to my contacts (I don't want to) or writing it down on a piece of paper and re-entering it (which seems just plain silly).
Googling around, it seems there are quite a few SMS/MMS applications in the wild and I can't tell which one exactly mine is (it says "Version 4.1.1", but I can't find an ID), but I would expect either it or google hangouts to have that functionality somewhere ... so what am I missing?
(the obvious things - long press, short press, double click etc. on the number do nothing, and the menus only show me options for blocking the sender or adding it to my contacts)

Hint: For identification of the SMS app you're using, it might help to name your device and Android version, plus adding a screenshot (the latter especially when that app didn't come pre-installed).

In Google Hangouts, if I click the contact bubble (the circle on the right where their picture would be) it brings up their contact card. If you long-click the number there, there's an option to copy it to the clipboard.
NOTE: you may need to add the number as a contact to view the number in the "contact card."

Yep, that worked, and I didn't need to add the number as a contact. Thanks a lot!


text:
How to edit the "ME" contact?
On my Galaxy Nexus running (stock, non-rooted) ICS, there is a contact entry for "ME".
This is different from the contact entry farther down the list with my actual name on it.
And the contact for "ME" actually contains some incorrect information. Some non-existent email addresses, etc. I don't even know where these came from, as they aren't anywhere in my contacts lists nor in my G+ profile.
When I try to edit "ME", it does not give me the option to modify the email addresses.
And it also doesn't let me Join this contact with the other instance of myself.
How can I edit this "ME" contact to show correct information?
Or can I somehow delete it and choose a different contact to represent ME?

I looks to me that a lot of this info comes from your Google+ profile. I'm looking into it further.

Possible duplicate of: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/17159/4168

For what it's worth, it looks like the majority of the outdated information I'm seeing in my entry came from my Google+ profile. I've since edited that, and "refreshed" in the Google+ app, but the information remains. Annoying, to say the least. I'm inclined to call this a bug.

In my case, this info was never in my Google+ profile. The only connection that I can see is that one of the email addresses used to (but doesn't anymore) forward to my gmail address. But hopefully this is something that they can address in an ICS update, either to make the "ME" contact more editable or more refreshable.

I also had the same problem and it took me 2 days to fix this
Try going to contacts.google.com.
Find your profile (should have your gmail on email address)
Re-add the faulty data (it was an old phone number in my case), save, and force your nexus to sync contacts
Now delete the faulty data, sava, and force sync again.
If that didnt work, do the same but with your google+ profile: re-add faulty data, save, and force sync, then delete it.
I did both of the above, so I'm not exactly sure which method worked
Edit: just remembered there was one other thing i did after all of the above:
Go to google plus app on your nexus
Click "settings" and uncheck the contacts syncing.
The old phone number was removed at this point. And turning sync back on did not make it reappear
Hope that helped!

I haven't thought about this question in a while, and I just went and looked and my ME contact was magically correct (all the crappy old email addresses were gone); who knows what happened.  But I'm still marking this as Best Answer because you put a lot of effort into a specific answer. Thanks!

I posted my fix on the Google Mobile Help Forum.
I couldn't get the Me profile to update, so I deleted it. There was a warning that it would just be hidden, but after I did it, I couldn't find a way to bring it back. So I created the local profile instead and just entered my email address.
I also did a lot of cleanup using my PC:
I went to Google+ and cleaned up my profile info. I went to Google Contacts and deleted my contact record, then re-created it. The contact record connected to Google+ when I entered my email address.
I disabled contacts syncing for a bunch of apps on my phone, like Twitter and YouMail.
To get the Me profile to connect to Google+ again and pull my profile info, I went to Manage Apps -> All -> Google+ and hit the Clear cache and Clear data buttons. I opened up the Google+ app and connected my account. Then I went back to the Me profile to confirm that it worked.

Had the same issue.  Open the Google+ app on your phone.  Sign out of Google+ then sign back in again.  Fixed it for me.

Thanks! I tried all the methods above, and none of them works for me. But this works!

I found the solution, at least for me:

Go to the Google+ app on your phone;
Go to setting in Google+ app;
Click on contacts;
Click so the "Keep contacts up to date" check box is selected;
Check my local profile (Me).

Thank you! This helped me fix a similar issue.

It's definitely connected to your Google+ account.  I had a blank "me" profile before logging in to Google+, then the fields began to populate after logging in.  Still working on linking the Google+ to my contact in Google Contacts

I'm sure it is at least partially connected to your Google+ account, but my ME contact still contains email addresses that have never been listed in my G+ profile.

Some of the steps provided by others are not needed.  I had the same problem and did the following:

Look at your (ME) in contacts and determine if you are linked to Google+ or Gmail.
Open either G+ or GMail in a web browser based on answer #1
If Gmail - Open Contacts and fix the information
If Google+ - Open your profile and fix the information
On your phone (Mine is Galaxy3s (4.0 ICS)) and Settings->Application Manager->Gmail or Google+-> Click Clear Data then Click Clear Cache.
Then go to Settings->Accounts and sync->Then click Sync All

And that was it.  The phone was holding onto old data that was deleted on the web and it needed to be sync'd from scratch.

I scoured the internet and found that the "ME" profile was actually related to my MAPS application.  I went to settings > applications > MAPS > uninstall updates and this cleared my "ME" profile.  Hope that helps.

Have you taken a look at your Google contacts data?  I believe what you see in Android is actually a combination of data coming from a few different sources, so you likely need to fix it upstream.  At least for me, the data I see in my "me" contact coincides with what I see for myself on google.com/contacts.

Yes. I looked in Google Contacts, and these extra email addresses (which technically once belonged to me, but I don't want in my contact info) are nowhere to be found there.

As Will said: the me contact is a mashup getting information from different interlinked accounts.

I'd just like to edit it directly, or be able to see its sources of information, since I can't find the "accounts" where these certain email addresses are being pulled from.

I wasted many hours trying to edit the ME account.  Finally, I just deleted it, and then reentered all the information correctly.  It is absurd that there is no help about this matter, or that one cannot edit this contact, which would save a huge amount of time.

I finally managed to rectify this problem.
The problem persists if you have more than one gmail account in your smartphone and all of them linked with Google+. So, this is what I did, step by step:

Login to your PRIMARY gmail acount from your desktop and view your Google Contacts.
Search within Google Contacts your PRIMARY gmail address. Your own contact should appear, so just add in your mobile phone number. Save this information if Google Contacts hasn't done it automatically.
Next, from your phone, go to the Google+ app and sign out from ALL of the accounts that you have signed into.
Lastly, sign back in using your PRIMARY gmail account. By this, 'ME' or 'Myself' from your phone's contact list should have the correct info.

Note on "me" profile for dual-sim phone users.
The ME profile appears to recognise multiple numbers as "me" at the same time and will override dialing / texts to/from number "a" to number "b", or even to numbers "c" or "d" if you occasionally use a third or fourth sim.
Best advice is to just delete the "Me" profile.  I've not found an advantage to it and it's a constant annoyance.  Particularly annoying when it appears to choose which of your numbers to think is 'me' at random.  Stops me calling my voicemail as it recognises the number I'm ringing as "Me", then decides if I'm ringing "me" (1234...) I really mean "Me" (5678...), overrides the number I've just dialed and conencts me to a different number.  Same issue if I text, it'll overriride the number I entered and send to a different one.  Although it's pretty rare I have occasion to text from one account to another.

Edit your contact on gmail contact first (using your PC) and then
Uninstall google+ from your GT and run it again.
Open profile from google+ application and it will lead you to choose which account you will use for google+, select don't sync when it ask to sync google+.


text:
Nexus 7 2012 usb debugging not connecting (needed for Nethunter)
Bought a second-hand Nexus 7, the 32 GB 2012 3G model with Android 4.4.
I'm trying to install Kali Nethunter on it, but to do so I first need to unlock and root it. I followed the installation steps on nethunter.com.
Right now I'm trying the same things after a factory reset, but to no avail so far. I also tried several USB cables, but mainly the OEM one. I could copy my whole music library onto it through MTP connection without any problem.
I disabled MTP and PTP, enabled dev mode and USB debugging.
When I connect it I see "USB debugging enabled" in the notification area, but then it should show a pop-up asking me if it should pair the device with the PC, yet it shows no such thing.
I've tried this on Windows 8.1, XP and Ubuntu. All of them see the device. (I checked with the Device Manager and the lsusb command)
On Windows 8.1 I tried the solutions I found on other sites.
(Some I even tried on XP, but I'm not sure which ones. The results were the same.)

In the Device Mgr. installing it as a Generic USB Device (and a few similar options). It should be noted that there was supposed to be one option that Windows automatically finds compatible, but that option did not show up, it just listed all available options.
Installing Google's USB drivers. I pointed Windows to the driver folder, but it did not recognize it.
Connecting with MTP and then disabling it and reconnecting.

Ok, apparently a factory reset and using MTP fixed it.
I'm not sure why or how, but USB debugging only connected when MTP was on, so I had to leave it on for the majority of the installation.


text:
What is the attack vector of <= 4.3 web view vulnerability?
This is in reference to the vulnerability that Google is not patching, since the WebView in 4.3 and less is part of the OS and not a separate updateable component.
Since some people will not have easy upgrade options from their phone manufacturer or cell carrier, they might consider just staying with 4.3, or some are still hoping their carrier provides an upgrade at some point.  In this case it's useful to understand what one can do to mitigate the risk of the vulnerability.
Is this a vulnerability that any website can exploit just by visiting the website with the standard web browser?  I.e. if I go to someverymalicioussite.example.com and it contains specific javascript that targets the vulnerability and allows remote code execution.
If so, is that risk mitigated by using a browser like Firefox or Chrome (that I am guessing does not use the WebView component).
Or does the vulnerability require installing an app that a developer has maliciously written to exploit the Web View component, to allow the app to perform actions that it wasn't permitted to?

I don't think it's been publicly disclosed. The blog post sourced by most articles about the issue implies that the vulnerability was only reported to the Android security team via email.

While this is getting attention by the media only now there is already one exploit in Metasploit that explore this vulnerability.
The "single-click" Metasploit exploit targets a vulnerability in a WebView component that's used by the native Android browser, although the component can also be used by other apps.
According to an attack-demonstration video published by Rapid7, the bug can be exploited by tricking a user into scanning a malicious QR code that includes the attack code, which then triggers the vulnerability in the Android browser and gives the attacker command-shell access to the device.
But the vulnerability can be exploited in other ways, too. "A secondary attack vector involves the WebViews embedded inside a large number of Android applications," says an overview published by Rapid7. "Ad integrations are perhaps the worst offender here." In particular, if an attacker could gain man-in-the-middle access to a vulnerable application's HTML connection, or to the cross-site scripting code used by the application, then the attacker could inject the malicious JavaScript code and gain command-shell access to the device.
How to defend against that? As almost anything that harden android you will need root then do :

Completely delete the stock browser using your favorite app or delete the stock browser app and odex correspondent file (for advanced users)
Block all ads entirely giving no chance to an man-in-the-middle intercept and change ads displayed by apps with malicious code. Adaway is a good free open source app that can help and it's avaible via F-Droid.
Using firefox chrome or safari should be safe but if you want even more security and don't really care about breaking some pages make sure Javascript is disabled (no root needed for this step) this will protect you against a large quantity of attacks.

Could you add the reference link? I guess this page on rapid7.com is the one?

Yes , also from here http://www.darkreading.com/mobile-security/webview-exploit-affects-most-android-phones/d/d-id/1113903

This sounds related to apps which enabled native javascript bridges on the web view component? Which enables javascript to make make native Java calls:  https://labs.mwrinfosecurity.com/blog/2013/09/24/webview-addjavascriptinterface-remote-code-execution/

Yes @AaronLS yes it is related i assumed the safest option is to block all ads entirely the tips to defend against that you won't see on net because i have come to that by myself

I'm pretty sure this is a different bug. The article has a link to the fix in AOSP, whereas the one that's been seeing coverage recently is, according to the article I linked in my previous comment, not going to be fixed at all. Either that or the new one would have to be an extension of the old attack, but I've not seen any sources that state that.

Yes from what i understand they are different vulnerabilities but they same exploit the same target WebView either embbeded in apps or via the stock android browser pre-4.3 what changes now it id that google won't fix any more vulnerabilities and there will be more that now the world knows it won't be fixed this is a huge incentive for people to look for bugs and vulnerabilities so for me safest option to protect you against WebViews attacks is not having the android stock browser at all and not even let the apps render ads over http://


text:
Error "help: permission denied" when using ADB
Using this tutorial, I installed ADB shell. I actually just wanted to mess around and see what can it do. My device isn't rooted but that's ok, I'm not trying to do anything dangerous. Just trying run normal user linux commands.
USB debugging is enabled.
So I typed:

What's that supposed to be? Is really exit the only supported command?

Does the command adb devices show your device? What other commands did you try? Try ls, mount, mkdir, cd, etc... and see if it works. Installing busybox from play store will increase your command repertoire.

The standard command for help in Linux is man for manual, not help.

First of all help is no actual command that comes with the Linux system (even though many systems like Ubuntu have one). If you would like to see valid commands, just list all files inside /system/(x)bin with the appropriate ls <directory> command.
If help is listed there then it may not be your usual help command you know from windows.
It may also be a limitation by the manufacturer so that terminal access is restricted to the system only.


text:
Things to check after dropping a Nexus 7
I just dropped my Nexus 7 from about a height of 4 feet. It landed on a hard floor, but luckily there were no cracks. But, when I picked it up, it.....rebooted....?
I've read sites telling me that the hardware inside tends to break before the screen, so what should I check to see what, if anything, is broken?

Your tablet probably rebooted because the impact caused the battery to go loose for a split second.
I would check all the sensors with an app like CPU-Z, making sure that all the sensors respond to any change. That should cover most of the potential damage.

Alright, thank you. I ran a performance benchmark test, and nothing seemed to be wrong. Will try CPU-Z. I was curious as to why it restarted though.


text:
Is there anyway to bypass the Geo-IP restriction when trying to stream movies outside US?
I have an Amazon Kindle fire, I have an Amazon Prime subscription, and I am living outside the US.
Every single time I want to enjoy Amazon streaming video service reserved for the Prime membership, the Amazon Geo-IP check stops me from doing so ("this service is unavailable in your region" ).
Any idea to bypass this Geo-IP check?

Apart from using Proxy, may be contacting customer support will help. I had downloaded Amazon Kindle in my phone and registered using US Address while I live in Nepal. After downloading 5 or so free books, amazon told me to contact customer support as my IP was not from US. They said if I was living outside US the support person might be able to help.

@roxan, from what I know, the Amazon support is more likely to ask you to prove that you are a US resident rather than to really help you solve the problem.

Yes, they wanted me to prove them that I was a US resident living outside due to some business.

@TonyCuthbert , why are you linking the question to itself in the comment?

To answer my own question. Yes it is possible, by using VPN or DNS service.

you should be aware, service like Netflix are already suspending service for people that use Proxy/VPN/DNS to bypass their geo-ip restrictions. They have these location based restrictions because of contracts with studios, and local laws.

And if this does work, you should provide a little information, like how you set something like that up on android, or something. Think about the next person that may have this question. Your answer may technically answer the initial question, but for most users, it will just create more questions.


text:
Wifi hotspot and Flashlight
I am being told by my device (HTC one E8) that the camera flash (and thereby flashlight app) and portable wifi hotspot cannot work at the same time.
I dont see any logical connection between the two, question is can anyone explain the reason this is happening and any workarounds/alternatives

For comparison, stock Lollipop on Nexus 4 doesn't have this limitation (I could turn on both, no warning at all), but it's true that the device became so hot. So I believe this is more of a custom safety precaution by HTC.

Both of those functions consume a large amount of energy. The phone's processor and other components require a minimum amount of energy to remain stable. The battery can only output so much at a time. The phone is not letting you use both simultaneously time to avoid a "brown-out" and potential crash or other failure (perhaps it is unsafe for the battery as well, overheating is dangerous). Many phones also restrict the use of the flash when battery power is very low.
If you use a third party flashlight app, you may be able to bypass the restriction. I know I can, however my phone is also rooted which makes everything easier.

I agree with you that this is a plausible explanation, I will wait for other more convincing answers and accept if none exist

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for my HTC One E9  cannot function unless I install a flash light app. I don't know how they are related,but have read several articles advising users to install the app as solution to faulty Wi-Fi.it works


text:
OpenGL apps not responding to touch on Xperia M2
I have a Sony Xperia M2 (not rooted, on stock 4.3 Jellybean). When installing some apps, I noticed they won't respond to touches. After installing a few more apps it became apparent that the apps that didn't respond to touches all used OpenGL. Other apps work perfectly, but ones with OpenGL get stuck.
The apps aren't frozen because any background animations they have still work fine.
With developer mode visual touch feedback enabled, my touches show up on screen, so I know android still registers them.
What's going on, and how do I fix this?
Also, will updating to KitKat affect this in any way?

I updated to 4.4 KitKat and the problem seemed to have been solved. All OpenGL apps now work like normal.


text:
Missing 2.2 GB of space on my micro SD card
I pulled my micro SD card out of my phone (LG G3) and inserted it into my PC (Kubuntu 14.04). I was in the process of moving several large video files off of the SD card onto my computer. Moving these videos would have given me 4.0 GB of free space on my SD card.
As the process appeared to finish, I encountered an error that said the last of the files (2.5 GB) could not be deleted (from the SD card). And my file manager could not access the directory (/DCIM/Camera) that held the video files I was moving.
I safely ejected the SD card, then re-inserted it. Everything appears fine and the video files I was moving are all apparently gone. However, there is only 1.8 GB of free space on the SD card, not the 4.0 GB of space that there should be available.
How do I recover this missing free space? I would prefer to use my Linux desktop tools to do the job.

Well, that's something weird I would say why don't you try formatting your SD card using PC and see if you can get the space back ...

If there were problems with the file system (which your error message suggests), broken files may have been "re-allocated". For such things, *nix systems have a special directory on each file system, usually called LOST+FOUND or, on FAT file systems, LOST.DIR. Whenever things could not be "assigned to a file", they are placed there with some "cryptic" names.
So I'd suggest you mount the card on your Linux PC again, and check for that directory. If there's something in that directory, that could be the "broken" video files, and you simply could delete them to re-gain your space.

Thanks. I actually recovered even more space than I expected. I have 5.5 GB free now.

So it looks like this wasn't the first time something like that happend. Glad we were able to solve it!


text:
Sync google+ Albums with Nexus 5
Is there a possibility to sync my google+ photo albums to my Nexus 5?
My Galaxy Nexus, with the old gallery app, had the feature to "pin" albums locally to the device. My new Nexus 5, with the new photos app, dosn't seem to have this feature.
The photos app shows all my g+ albums, but always needs to load them from the web.

According to this site, it is (currently) not possible:

You can view and manage your albums when logged in to the Google+ Photo app. We do not offer the ability to view albums offline at this time.

Apparently it does not work for albums (at least with the Google photos app version 4.8.0.81189390).
I'm using this app as a workaround, because it allows to sync the albums for offline access.
Tool for Picasa, Google+ Photo
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=larry.zou.colorfullife


text:
Which apps do gapless music playback?
Are there any apps around that are good at gapless audio playback? I listen to a lot of music that continues from one track to another and the stock app puts a small but noticeable gap between tracks.

I'd be interested as well, I get so annoyed by the jarring split-second of silence.

In the interim, I've decided to join the files together with http://www.makeitone.net/audio/mp3albummaker.htm ... would prefer to get this sorted though.

Try the latest Museek player. It has support for gapless playback. You need to enable it from within the ADVANCED settings in the app.
There's also PowerAmp and Winamp which seemingly offer decent gapless playback quality.

Thanks. PowerAmp and Museek claim to have gapless, but the music I've used to test this didn't play that way and fiddling with the settings didn't help. Winamp doesn't do gapless at all. The forums for PowerAmp claim that true gapless is in the works.For the record, Winamp on Windows plays the music seamlessly.

The Amazon MP3 player adds gaps. Luckily you can play songs downloaded to the device with any music player, and Google Music does gapless playback out of the box.

Re Google Music: I wonder if that's a per album thing? I used it to download Black Sabbath's first album to my device and going from one track to the next still had a gap.

@MarkHewitt: do you have other albums that Google Music plays without gaps? So far it seems to work fine for the Jean-Michel Jarre albums I've played.

Can you give me a specific example that I can test? I'm assuming this is an album available in All Access?

@MarkHewitt It's music from Amazon's Cloudplayer. I don't recall the specific example right now, I just noticed that Google Music played it better than Amazon MP3.

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


text:
Disable annoying full screen call notification
So i have a kit-kat 4.4.4 on an xperia z2.
all incoming calls show a full screen notification whether i like it or not, even during an non interruptable full screen activity.
on iphones and windows phones it is possible to change the full screen mode into a notification on the notifications bar, which will also be possible in android 5 from what i have heard.
is it possible to achieve the same in android 4.4? or even if there is any app for that it would be great...
note: i prefer not to root my device if its possible.
thanks alot in advance guys, this thing can really get on my nerves sometimes, you know when you cant answer but cant hung up either? and just have to wait it out till the call ends...

LCALL  or LOLLIPOP CALL or LOLLIPOP CALL FREEwill give lollipop style call notification.

comments say this app hangs calls when you click answer. maybe you are familiar with some better alternative?

Updated one more alternative


text:
My Rooted Note 4 needs a new carrier
I have a galaxy note 4 from T-Mobile the phone is rooted. Now I need to switch carriers to At&t. I have the code to unlock the phone but I need to know (if I put the new at&t Sim-card in my phone will I brick my phone? Do I need to unroot phone?) The phone is running stock rom t-mobile right now.

Putting in the SIM will not hurt your phone at all. Even if you don't have the unlock code, your phone will be fine. The unlock code just allows the phone to be able to read the SIM of the other carrier.
You do not need to unroot, nor do you need to do anything beyond entering the unlock code.
T-Mobile is a great carrier when it comes to giving customers the unlock code for their devices. Usually as long as you are in good standings with T-Mobile, and have been a customer (I think for at least 90 days) they will give you the code.


text:
How does Android measure connectivity state?
I know Android has some sort of connectivity measurement, because when there's connectivity the wifi or phone network icons will turn either green or blue, depending on the Android version.
In my opinion, this measurement isn't perfect, because although it will indicate accurately the absence of connectivity (e.g., lost wifi connectivity), it is not so accurate when the phone is connected to the Internet: at work, my Defy running Cyanogen 9 (Android 4.0.4) has icons that are always gray, no matter what, even when the connection is obviously up (see image below).
I wonder how, exactly, Android measures the connectivity status. Is it by performing a ping or other sort of probing of a server? By listening to a port? By testing if some protocol is enabled? Or what? This accepted answer to a closely related question doesn't seem to answer it.

I'm not sure I understand how your situation is differnt than the other questions. The second question in particular describes the exact same symptoms. The Internet works, but the icons are gray because the icon color is only an indication of your connection to Google's services, nothing else. It could be that your office network is somehow restricting your access to Google's services, but not the Internet at large. We'd probably need more information to make that determination, though.

@eldarerathis The accepted answer says "the phone is connected to Google services", but it means nothing to me. Is there a specific server it contancs? A specific protocol? Port? What?

I have now completely rewritten my question. I believe it's more clear now, and hopefully won't be closed as a duplicate.

As it now is a completely different question, we should all go delete our comments, answers, votes, whatevers. Unfortunately, at least for the last two items that's not so easy; so maybe next time you consider starting over with a new question and delete the old one. Changing a question this drastically when there are already answers might make the answerers (and commenters) look stupid ;)

See also How do I make Android consider my WiFi Access Point as valid (blue?) which mentions opening tcp-udp port 5228. Or What Android versions have captive wifi detection? which has links to some of the code

@GAThrawn: Amazing! That's really close of what I wanted, specially the first link. Thanks for including even the captive portal detection, going beyond the original question. If you elaborate it just a little bit more and turn it into an answer, I'll accept it!

Note: As of Android 4.4 (at least in the unmodified version) the icons will always be white. You need to open the settings pull-down menu to see if you have a "good" connection.

All of the information about it is pretty vague. Probably because they don't want people attacking a particular Google server.
For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 owners manual has this to say:

Note: Network status icons turn blue if you have a Google Account added to
  your tablet and the tablet is connected to Google services for syncing
  your Gmail, Calendar events, contacts, backing up your settings, and
  so on. If you do not have a Google Account or if, for example, you are
  connected to a Wi-Fi network that is not connected to the Internet, the
  network icons are gray.

I wonder if it is possible to use mobile packet capture to identify it better?


text:
Restore Droid Explorer Backup
How do I use Droid Explorer to restore a back up either the enhanced or normal ab?

To restore you open Windows Explorer and navigate to the backup directory.
c:\users\[username]\Android Backups\[device_id]\

There you will see the backups for the device. You can then double click on the backup file and restore it to the device.

If it is an Enhanced Backup, it will only be allowed to restore to the device that it was taken from.
You can also convert Android Backups to Enhanced backups, and vice-versa by right clicking the backup and choose 'convert to xxxx'.
You can also choose to unpack a backup. This will basically extract the contents of the backup so you can browse it on your computer.
When you start the restore, it will run the adb restore command on your device, using the backup selected.

double clicking on the file opens Droid Explorer though it crashes as soon as I push the restore button. To remove the startup error about permissions of root adb I have adb insecure installed on my device and activated at boot.

The device is a Nexus 7 2nd generation ROOTED.

@DonMoody, the crash is a bug, I have reproduced it, created the issue on the issue tracker, and will get it fixed in the next release.

@DonMoody Disclosure: Ryan is the dev of the fabulous Droid Explorer :)

@Izzy, thanks, Yeah, I should have said that... DonMoody I hope the rest of this answer is actually useful to you. So if there wasn't a bug that prevented it from running successfully, this would tell you how to use it :)

@RyanConrad No prob. Though we have that policy-of-disclosure here, it's safe to assume more than half of the people on ASE are aware ot the fact in this case – I just wasn't sure about our new member :D

@RyanConrad I look forward to the new release. Thank you for the responsive reply.

When I right-click a .ab file and choose unpack, then type the password, nothing seems to happen. Where should the unpacked file appear?

@RobFisher it would be in the same location. Make sure you have java installed, as it is required to unpack.


text:
View LogCat from unrooted android device without computer assistance
Ever since Android 4.1's new security model, all LogCat viewers I've came across require root access. Even the LogCat viewer for the IDE I'm using (AIDE) won't work.
Without rooting my device, or needing a computer to assist me, how could I view the logcat of programs I write?

Without root or a PC: you can't. As you noted, the behavior you're seeing is entirely intentional, and cannot be changed. If you could find a custom ROM that did not enforce these restrictions then you could feasibly install that, but if you do not want to root then I would assume this is also not an option (and I would imagine such a ROM may not exist). The only other option would be to write your own LogCat viewer within your apps, since each app can access its own log data.

Luckily I got my IDE's logcat to work. I also found that catching unchecked exceptions and printing the stacktrace allowed me to work around the need for a logcat. Although, I never thought about creating my own logcat, so thanks for the heads up :)

the link provided no longer works

With the following command you can give the app permission to read all logs without root permissions:
adb shell pm grant <pkg> android.permission.READ_LOGS

It works at least with catlog application in Samsung Galaxy S5/Android 6.0 as well as with Galaxy S7/Android 6.0.1.


text:
Updates installed on auto
I have found that my Samsung Galaxy SIII's Play Store is auto-updating applications without telling me anything. This is not acceptable, since it is updating apps most of which I never use. How do I turn this off?

Try the following:

Click on your Play Store icon
When the play store app opens click the 3 horizontal bars symbol (top left hand corner beside 'My Apps'
Click on Settings
Click on 'Auto-Update apps'
Then select 'Do not auto update apps'

Hope this helps!

Well, if the definition of the setting isn't lying, that should do the trick :). Thx.