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Files with names with unicode characters get corrupted in SD Card
When mounting my SD Card on my galaxy SIII files and folders in the card with characters that aren't in  the ASCII range get corrupted. This happens by simply selecting 'Unmount card' in the Storage settings and mounting back. No need to physically remove the card and putting it back in. Turning the phone off and back on results in corruption as well.
Folders when viewed with a file manager on the phone show up as 0-size files with a date of Dec 31, 1969 (which is the linux epoch) and can't be navigated into to see their contents. They shw as empty folders. Files turn to size zero with that same date and can't be opened nor show in Gallery, music player etc. They open as an empty folder. (See image below)
I am using stock Android version 4.1.2.
The card is a SanDisk 64gb micro sdxc card (class 10). The issue ocurred when the card was factory-formated (with exFAT) and also after formating with the phone (settings > storage).
Examples of filenames that cause folder corruption are "Aṣa" or "דניאל". It makes no difference if the file was copied to the card using usb transfer or by taking the card out and using a reader on a Windows PC, or if the name was changed (using the phone) once the file was on the card.
Files with those same names don't get corrupted if they are in the internal phone memory and I can use them without problem.
When taking the card out and using it on a PC with Windows 7 files can be seen. But sometimes the affected folders appear duplicated. That is, twice with the same name both. Checking the disk with windows reports errors and attempts to fix them. But then when putting the card back in the phone the files are corrupted again.
How can I prevent this corruption from happening?

Update: with a 2GB card formated with FAT32 files didn't get corrupted. But after I formatted it to exFAT I could reproduce the file corruption. I think I can rule out a bad sd card.
More info, this is a report from Windows 7 after running checkdisk. Note that the 3 files existed in the TestFolder directory, which was corrupted:
[Window Title]
Checking Disk Removable Disk (M:)

[Main Instruction]
Some problems were found and fixed

[Content]
Any files that were affected by these problems were moved to a folder named "Found" on the device or disk. Your device or disk is now ready to use.

If you removed the device or disk before all files were fully written to it, parts of some files might still be missing. If so, go back to the source and recopy those files to your device or disk.

[^] Hide details  [Close]

[Expanded Information]
Volume Serial Number is 6518-E54A
Windows is verifying files and folders...
Corruption was found while examining files in directory \TestFolder\ (0).
Corruption was found while examining files in directory \TestFolder\ (3).
Corruption was found while examining files in directory \TestFolder\ (6).
Corruption was found while examining files and directories.
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

  62363648 KB total disk space.
  41656576 KB in 43 files.
       768 KB in 6 indexes.
       256 KB in use by the system.
  20706048 KB available on disk.

    131072 bytes in each allocation unit.
    487216 total allocation units on disk.
    161766 allocation units available on disk.

Folders don't get corrupted if they are created on the phone with hebrew names, then unmounted and checked on windows. Only after re-mounting on the phone.
MORE DATA: this is I think relevant info from adb logcat:
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): fsck.exfat 1.1.0p2

I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): [fsck] Invalid dir entry: (92675,0)
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): [fsck] Wrong dir entry name hash
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): [fsck] Successfully recovered

I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): Filesystem was modified.
I/logwrapper( 1897): /system/bin/fsck.exfat terminated by exit(4)

W/Vold    ( 1897): exfat -> Filesystem modified - rechecking (pass 2)
E/Vold    ( 1897): MDM :: sdCardWriteAccessBlocked 0
D/Vold    ( 1897): Detected exFAT file system.

And when booting without problematic filenames I instead get a cute little
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): No errors
I/Vold    ( 1897): exfat -> Filesystem check completed OK

And from adb shell I can try and see the troublemakers (after remount, note 2 directories with apparently the same name, which in a windows console seems to be output as 2 characters per unicode character):
shell@android:/storage/extSdCard/Test $ ls * -l
ls * -l
drwxrwxr-x system   media_rw          2013-02-18 18:39 ╫É╫æ╫Æ
╫É╫æ╫Æ: No such file or directory
1|shell@android:/storage/extSdCard/Test $

From a first glance I'd say this has to do with incompatible character sets used (UTF8 on Android's side, and whatever Windows-specific charset on the PC) -- but file names look spelled correctly on your screenshot... Non-ASCII characters in file names seem to cause a lot of trouble in some cases (this is not the first I see this week), which is why I try to avoid them as far as possible. Luckily my Ethnix albums all use strict ASCII 7bit in the file names :)

@izzy One thing I'll have to update the question with is that the problems happen even if the card is never used on windows. Files created on the phone and then renamed to hebrew get corrupted on next card mount. Files in internal storage are fine.

That's in fact an important fact to include! So it affects only the external sdcard -- internal "sdcard" (the SGS3 has such?) has no such trouble, neither has "phone memory" (if you are able to test)? In this case it looks like a bug with either mount or fsck in combination with [ex]FAT. Question is: Does it happen at mount time, or at unmount (i.e. after unmounting, taking the card out and use a card reader on your PC, are they already scrambled)?

@Izzy I added that information. Corruption happens on mount, not on unmount.

In StickMount (an app to mount flash drive), there is an option saying "use UTF8 IO if supported by kernel". Will this be some clue?

@Narayanan that could be some clue indeed. I'm not sure, but I can imagine the mount process tries to auto-detect something, fails (an here breaks something), but finally mounts it correctly (when it is already broken). So if one could skip the first tep (and have it mounting correctly from the beginning), that could solve the issue. frozenkoi: If you have the possibility to get a logcat / dmesg from the startup process (e.g. via adb logcat immediately after boot, when the relevant entries are still cached), that would help!

@izzy Added the info about lolcat. Putting the full log seemed excesive. And this is starting to look more like a bug report. I haven't been able to find where to send Samsung this info.

You mean logcat, not Lolcat :) And from your entries I see I was right with my first guess (incompatible characters). How did that entry come there which you quoted from ls at the end of your question? That looks like one of the troublemakers. How should/did that name read originally? PS: It's not "two directories with the same name", the first is "normal" output from ls, the second repeats it in an error message. Looks like this goyishe Android doesn't really like Hebrew...

@Izzy (a) I totally meant lolcat (b) I created a folder with the file manager that comes with the SIII and named it אבג. Then restarted the phone.

LOL really lolcat -- cute... Yeah, if it's a bug report, this might be the wrong place. If you found a solution/fix, please don't forget to let us know! Good luck, and חג פסח כשר

Posted to Samsung's developers site: http://developer.samsung.com/forum/board/thread/view.do?boardName=GeneralB&messageId=225047

I updated my S3 from Android 4.1.2 (stock Samsung ROM) to 4.3 a couple of days ago.
The problem had happened consistently for me for a year and a half, exactly as described above, in two 4.0.x (ICS) versions as well as in Jelly Bean 4.1, but in 4.3 it appears to finally been fixed: After the update I copied many files with Unicode Hebrew names to my microSD card, and they have survived numerous unmount/remounts of the card & phone restarts with no issues.
Incidentally, another issue I had been encountering was that automatic rescans of the media folders on the card (done by Android's "Media Storage" system app), which occur every time a card is inserted or the phone is disconnected from USB, were taking a very long time (sometimes hours). This in turn caused issue with syncing my large music library between my Mac & phone using the iSyncr utility.
This issue has also completely gone away, and I suspect that the Android media scanner wasn't dealing well with the corrupted files.
Additional Details:
Phone:
GT-I9300 International version, unrooted, running the official Israeli unbranded Samsung firmware.
Card:
SanDisk 64GB Class 10 (same as original asker's IIUC), formatted to exFAT on a Mac.
I didn't even bother reformatting after the 4.3 upgrade -- I simply mounted the card on the Mac in order to erase all the existing corrupted 0-length files, which as noted cannot be deleted by the various Android file utilities.

Good to hear. I'm still waiting for the update to be available for my carrier.

The update was made available a couple of days ago for the carrier my phone is enslaved, I mean, locked to. Have been able to keep my files so far.

I have experienced the same with my 32gb Sandisk Micro SD card 10 class using in the Galaxy Tab 2. The SD card is genuine so I know that's not the issue.
However, I have found this to work for me.

Format the card on your PC or Mac, to NTFS file system.
Download Paragon NTFS / HFS apk app for your Android device
Without ANY NTFS app for the android, the android WILL NOT recognise the inserted SD card format as the android only recognises FAT file system
Put the Micro SD card into the device and restart the device (if the card icon shows in the notification bar, bottom right, ignore)
Goto and open on Android Paragon NTFS / HFS tool apk and check disk / format using the android app
Restart device again, with SD card inserted, leave card inserted and connect Android device to PC, the External Disk should now be available formatted to NTFS

The card should AUTO MOUNT via the Paragon NTFS app when the device is turned on.
I've tried every method possible to have the SD card in the FAT 32, but it just doesn't last, folder names change, files disappear.

According to the Samsung site it was a bug that is now fixed and due to be released in the next firmware update (whenever that might be).

You have no other solution but to buy another one. You're welcome. ;)


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How to get more space by manually deleting unnecessary system files (rooted S2)?
I keep getting warning that apps cannot be installed on their default location since there is too little space.
However, when I check in system there is a bunch of space, especially for small apps of a few MBs.

Screenshots (click for larger variants)
I tried moving some apps on SD card, but again I got a message that there is not space available.
Is there some system space occupied by unnecessary files which I can manually delete?
Or other way to solve this silly bug?
This is Galaxy S2 with official 4.1 OS. I have root access (rooted phone).

Please check if our insufficient-memory tag-wiki might help you on this. The error usually points to internal storage only, so non of your SD cards (neither internal nor external) should be the cause.

Aside from Izzy's suggestions, I also find Clean Master helpful in cleaning unecessary files / cache. Check it out. :)

does it clean system folders as well (only for rooted devices)?

@AnDroDroo I am not sure, but maybe NO.

source: Stack Exchange

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sort: votes


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Jelly bean voice search not talking back
I've recently upgraded my phone to Android 4.1.1 and I've tried the new voice search.
It mostly answers my questions correctly, but i didn't get it to talk back.
I checked the following setting: Settings->Voice->Speech Output. It's set to Always.
Does anybody else have this issue? Any ideas on how to fix it?

Voice Search/Google Now only speaks back to me on particular searches. What spoken search term(s) are you expecting a verbal response to?

Ask it "Who is the President of the United States?".  It seems to talk back to everyone for that one.

Have you made sure that your "Music volume" is actually turned up? Only then you'll be able to hear the talk-back.
To make sure it is, go to the stock music app, hit the "Volume up" key on your phone a few times, then go back to Google Voice Search and try again.

Thanks, it seems that was the problem. I feel pretty silly for not checking the volume, but to be honest i didn't even think about it. I expected that after a fresh install it will be at a high enough level to hear the voice.

This isn't working for me on Kit Kat. I've checked to make sure that the language is set to English(US) and all the other common advice, but still no luck. Weirdly, it was working this morning, so something must have changed, but I have no idea what.

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Is there a good way to find out why an Android phone hangs?
Are there any log files you can look into, or any good ways of finding out if an app is causing the phone to hang (if even possible)? My friend has an Xperia Arc and after a while with a custom ROM he's having issues with his phone hanging completely, requiring him to do a "battery reboot" to use it again.
I know that it's probably good to try another ROM and kernel to see if it's specific to that or not, but I'm just wondering if there are any good, general pointers on what to look up first.

From a troubleshooting perspective, it's almost certainly the ROM that's causing this, probably kernel related.

Problem with most log files is: They do not survive a boot, as they are stored on tmpfs (a temporary file system in RAM). So once you have to boot, they are gone. Leaving your best chances to some app capturing the log and saving the capture to SDCard. As far as I know, aLogCat is capable of that. An alternative is to send the log to another machine (such as a PC) via WiFi, which can be done using Logcat UDP. The so-captured log might not directly mention the cause (as the freeze probably keeps the final bytes from being sent/written), but at least it should yield some useful information of what was going on at the time of the freeze.
Some other sources you might want to check:

Where are log files located on Android?
Where does Android store shutdown logs?
How can I view and examine the Android log?
plus check the "Related" section to the right of this page :)

There's the logcat which is almost always the first thing you should look at when you're experiencing any issues. Then you need to distinguish between the app locking up, which will may cause an "Application Not Responding" dialog at worst, and framework lock up, which usually will cause a hard reboot at worst. In the case of framework lock up, logcat may not necessarily be able to reliably capture all log information but usually you may still be able to catch the cause of the lock up by looking at what is happening a few minutes prior to the lock up.
For small janks, there are debugging tools that can help, but they require you to install the large-ish SDK, and most only work when the applications are set to allow debugging.


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Archos external USB Keyboard
I recently bought a case for my Archos 101 9G Turbo, which has a built-in USB keyboard, but I can not make it work by simply connecting the usb cable from the keyboard either the micro USB port (with and adapter) or the normal USB port. The tablet shown in the photo is not the Archos, but it is right to illustrate the example.

As you can see, the case has an USB cable coming out of the keyboard. I updated the tablet firmware to the new ICS 4.0 so maybe it is a drivers problem and I haven't found the solution on the Archos forums.
My approaches are:

The keyboard works because I plugged it into my computer.
The tablet USB also works because I plugged in an USB hub with a LED screen and it received energy (both via micro usb and via normal usb activating the 3G option).

I read that maybe it is a power consuption problem because when the keyboard is plugged in the built-in lights (for example, the upper case key) don't work. I have also tried to plug in a mouse and nothing happens.
I wonder if anyone else had this problem and how he solved it. Should I use a bluetooth keyboard?

Is this an official Archos case?  More info on the keyboard would be useful.

It is not an official product, but can connect via USB cable and I tested it over a Windows machine without problems. I have no much info about the keyboard than that it works via USB. I read that all my problems with the Archos are due to the fact of having gone from 3.2 to 4.0 without a previous full format (the tablet also freezes and some apps crashes eventually)

I know that this is a very common problem between Archos users, not only the USB drivers problem, but the fact that the tablet freeze itself and some apps do not work (I can play a few seconds of BIA2 and then bang! a crash...). Archos suggested me to format the device, to reinstall the latest firmware (4.05) but this didn't solve anything. Despite of this issues, usb memory sticks are working! No one has found a solution (new firmware, or maybe I need an specific Archos keyboard, mouse...)?

Archos deals with a special USB host cable for USB OTG. Perhaps you need it.

So you are forced to buy the host cable from the Archos store, right? Pfffff, I'll try it and then I'll tell you the result hehe. Thank you anyway.

You were right. Buying the Archos cable solved the problem and now my keyboard is working perfectly.


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4G mobile data being used even when mobile data setting is off?
I have a Motorola Moto G, the 4G version, with the original ROM upgraded to the latest version (4.4.4 official from Motorola).
The first thing I did when I got it was the same I have done when I got my previous phone and every time I (re)installed a ROM on it: disable mobile data, so that I don't get charged by my carrier and instead use only my home wireless network.
Despite the above, I just noticed that I am being charged for several accesses to the network. Oddly enough, if I go to the data usage screen on the mobile, it says no data has been consumed since I bought it, which is what I would expect. Yet, my carrier says that in total, since I got the phone 20 days ago, it used a grand total of 1 (one) Megabyte in several very short communications.
When I called customer support, they told me that data traffic can still be consumed if I have the phone on 4G, even with the mobile data setting turned off. WTF?! I may be wrong but I find this pretty much impossible to believe. As far as I know, this is impossible - mobile data off means mobile data off; nothing will be transferred, not even in the background, am I right? Or is it possible for something to slip through somehow?
Even better, he told me this is the information they have from the manufacturers themselves, and that several people have been complaining about the same. First of all, I doubt the manufacturers would say something like that because I don't believe it's true. Second, I suspect that these are cases where people have both wifi and mobile data on, and when the phone goes to sleep, the wifi gets disconnected and the phone naturally starts using the mobile connection.
To top it off, the tech support guy told me that if I turned mobile data on, set the connection type to 3G and then turn mobile data off again, it would no longer behave like that. I was waiting for him to tell me that afterwards I'd have to press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A...
He also mixed the concepts of 2G/3G/4G (cell network type) and "mobile internet", not realizing that the type of cellular network, and accessing the internet over that cellular network are completely different things, so I'm taking what he said with a huge grain of salt.
I've been searching for quite a bit now and the closest reference I find to a similar problem is in a post here but I don't have the GPS on (as stupid as it may sound, I didn't even know how to access the GPS on this phone until I saw that post and wanted to make sure it was off).
Besides a problem on the carrier side, does anyone have any idea about what might be causing this? Is it really possible for data to slip through while using 4G and having the mobile data setting off? If so, how, why, what does the cell network type has to do with it, and how do I stop it?

To be honest, it sounds like tech support simply had no idea what they were talking about, and this is an issue on your carrier's end. Given that, I don't know that there's really anything we could tell you that would be helpful. In my experience, data off == data off, and Android seems to think the same thing since you've noted that the phone does not show any data usage itself.

Yeah, that's what I think as well - that he has no clue about the issue. When he asked me "do you have 4G turned off?" I knew I was going to waste my time. I was hoping that someone here could confirm this for me. But in the meantime I'm also trying to contact Motorola's support to see what they say.

To prove him wrong: Go to Settings, and in "mobile networks" check what APNs are defined (if any). Try removing/disabling them all (if that's not possible, alter their configuration to render them "useless"). Once succeeded, wait a few days. Check their reports again. If they charged you for that time, you've got them: with no valid APN, it's impossible your device could have used mobile data.

My data is closed and I use 4G too. Same problem with LG G5 (not rooted) with Turkcell. Sometimes it appears randomly but most of the time it occurs when I move to the other site of the building (Wi-Fi might be still connected or not) or when I change a room.

Tech guy knows exactly what he is saying as that is whats happening. Thing is they shouldn't charge that!

This has been happening throughout the world and is caused by a technical feature of 4G LTE. Most people don't even notice it because of the small amount of data that's used off their data plan. This is what happens: every time your phone receives or makes a voice call, it automatically switches from 4G to 3G mode due to the fact that LTE is a data-only technology. When the voice call is ended, the phone switches back to 4G mode. You may have mobile data disabled and restricted and yet this switching back and forth from 4G to 3G uses small amounts of data each time. You can prevent this from happening by setting network mode as WCDMA/GSM. So it seems that tech support guy knew exactly what he was talking about after all.

Never heard of it before. I don't have a data plan, shouldn't it cost me money in such a case?

Never heard of that before but even if it is what was happening, the tech support guy didn't know about it. He may have hit close to home but this was definitely not his explanation and the other things he said clearly showed that he wasn't very knowledgeable about the subject.

I have VoLTE, and my phone doesn't switch to 3G pretty much ever.

Where did you get this information? Seems like a good explanation based on what I see happening in my cell phone. But still I see no other place talking about this. Is this still true in 2017?

This is true. I've experienced it in MTS Serbia. They charged me also, but I think this cant be charged as its the part of protocol. Year 2019 stock Pixel 3a.

@100r You are right. This just happened to my wife, and she was charged for a small data usage, even though she was very careful to turn off mobile data long before she reached Bosnia with expensive mobile data. It was just 2€ for the 190 kB, but by principle she called her phone company (winSIM Germany), and they immediately said that it was a mistake that she had been charged for it and that they as a company should pay for that charge. So they would credit her for the charge on the next bill. The excellent employee gave exactly this explanation and said she did nothing wrong.

I think that android is not rooted.
If you can, you should root it and install something like APNDroid .
Than it will be possible to block data usage completely.
At least I know one person with the same problem - data is off, but money goes to zero. (no data plan)

It's not, and yes, I intend to root it. I'm just holding off until I can upgrade to 5.0 or 5.1, so I don't have to do it twice.

@borfast I am interested in news about this experience. This means android's phone is not your, it belongs to Google.

@borfast have you upgraded your android yet?

I have but haven't rooted it yet, not enough time lately :\

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Manage Emergency contacts remotely
I'm looking to manage multiple Android devices and put ICE Contacts on all of them. Unfortunately EMM/MDM solutions are prohibitively expensive, and all I've looked at don't actually do any contact management (that i can see).
I realize we could just setup a bunch of gmail accounts, and set the contacts that way, but most of the phones have Google contact sync turned off, and there would be quite a few accounts to login to.
We are using ActiveSync with them, but i've not been able to get ActiveSync to actually push Emergency contacts the right way. That may be the easiest solution if we can do that.
Are there any good inexpensive/free solutions to push out emergency contacts?
Alternatively is there a way to manage from a central location, sync settings for gmail accounts? So we wouldn't have to touch each phone directly.

So i figured this out, and it was deceptively simple. It seems to be an 'undocumented' feature that if you set up a category within outlook with the name of ICE, it will automatically (at least on samsung phones) set contacts tagged with that category into the ICE group on the phone.
I ended up writing a script that ensures whoever has outlook gets the category, and then contacts tagged with that category.


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APN setting is missing on Nexus 5 bought from US
I have an unlocked Nexus 5 handset bought from Google in the USA. I just wiped it and installed Android 5.0 on it. However, the UI to edit the APN settings does not appear. By that, I don't mean that the APN info is gone, I mean that the actual UI to view/edit APNs is missing.
If I go to Settings -> More -> Cellular Networks, I see only the 3 settings shown in the picture below: Data roaming, Preferred network type, and System select. This meant there was no way to get the phone working with my SIM card using only the stock Android installation.
Now, I was able to get on Wi-Fi, download the app Tweakker APN INTERNET MMS (removed from Play Store), configure the APN settings using that app, turn off the Wi-Fi, and confirm that I was online via the SIM card, using LTE. So the phone is working. But the APN view/edit UI is still missing from the Settings app, even after adding and activating the OCN MOBILE ONE data-only Japanese SIM card I have.
I googled the hell out of this in the morning, and there is every indication that there are supposed to be APN editing controls at the bottom of that "Cellular network settings" panel in Settings. But there are not.
Does anybody know:

A way to get the UI to edit those settings to appear?
Why they might not be there in the first place?

The only weird/unusual thing here is that I am using a US phone in Japan. I bought the OCN MOBILE ONE data-only SIM card from Amazon here. It seems unlikely, but I suppose there might be weird country-specific telecom regulations that for some reason make Android hide these controls on an unlocked foreign-model phone?
EDIT: I should have mentioned: this occurs with or without the (NTT DoCoMo) OCN MOBILE ONE SIM card in the phone. I even re-wiped the phone and re-installed with the SIM card removed to make sure.

(Click the image for its larger variant)

It's indeed strange. I have Nexus 4 and I also manually flashed Lollipop 5.0, but I can see APN setting on the list. I don't know if this setting is controlled by SIM or not, but there is a similar case

Thank you for that link. No solution there, but it is interesting that the person having the same problem as me was also physically located in Japan. (I updated the post to reflect that I see the problem with or without the SIM installed.)

It seems the problem is related to GSM/CDMA network. As you bought the phone in US which uses CDMA networks, I kind of believe that the default setting is to use LTE/CDMA network.
You can change the preferred network type by:

Dial *#*#4636#*#* (i.e. *#*#INFO#*#*)
Select Phone info
Scroll down to Set preferred network type
Select the one with GSM (e.g. LTE/GSM auto (PRL))

In case it's already selected, select any, and select it back.

Reboot the phone, and the APN setting should be back.

Source: Cyanogenmod forum.

Thanks! That worked. Weirdly, the phone already showed "LTE/GSM auto (PRL))" when I followed your instructions. Nevertheless, I changed it and then changed it back, and after rebooting the APN editing UI did appear.

If your device is rooted, you can use ADB to open APN setting.
adb shell
su
am start -n com.android.settings/.Settings\$ApnSettingsActivity


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"Can't connect to camera", Nexus 6 - Lollipop 5.1
My Nexus 6 is unable to start the camera. The google camera app hangs when it starts and nothing shows up. Earlier the camera used to open but it lagged a bit when HDR was on. Now the camera isn't opening anymore. The other apps like Instagram that use the camera are also not able to open it. The app opens up and hangs, nothing shows up just black screen and sometimes the message "Can't connect to Camera" appears. This issue came after 5.1 and I also had buzz launcher installed once but then I removed it. The phone is less than 7 months old.
What I've tried:

Forced stop the app (Google Camera)
Cleared cache of the app
Booted in recovery mode and wiped cache partition
Factory reset the device

Nothing worked for me, I tried these steps one by one and then tested the camera but it is still not working. Please help me with this, I paid a lot of money for this phone on my own and it feels really bad and annoying that the camera isn't functional anymore.
Thanks in advance.
Update: after no solution was found and no help from Motorola, Google or flipkart, I have sent the phone for repair to the service center.

I'm not surprised that you see this issue on Google Camera, but my issue on CM12 tends to be resolved by a reboot. Yours is odd because it persists even after factory reset.

Yes it is. I have almost tried everything but I think its deeply related to the hardware, idk. If anyone can help me, please do. Thanks.

If you search just "Can't connect to Camera" you quickly realize that it is a common problem not only on Nexus 6, but on Nexus 5 too and even Nexus 4. Maybe there is some fundamental problem with camera interface in these devices. So you are not alone. Use your warranty.

Yes as @Firelord said, A restart of the camera app or the reboot phone always worked in my Moto G2. Have you tried any third party camera apps or whatsapp camera?

Yes I have tried everything. Whatsapp, instagram both. Restarted the phone several times after the problem occurred. Nothing worked.

The phone is back from the service center and it works fine again. They told me that they had to replace the camera unit. It took them more than 2 weeks to get this done though. The people there were not aware of the actual reason for the issue to occur, neither were they concerned. But I'm happy that it works now.

I am nto sure why or how this worked:
I had the same issues described here - cannot connect to camera. at one point i just gave up.
then a different issue started: my battery was draining fast. the blame was on the media service (something like that). so i went to apps, found Media Storage, Stop, clean cache, reboot.
battery issue fixed. suddenly i noticed, camera issue fixed as well!

This is a common issue with some Android devices, but each of them have different reasons for acting up, of course. When I had my Nexus 5 about two years ago, this happened to me. I brought it for a diagnosis to my repair guy. He immediately knew that it was a hardware problem, opened the phone and did his thing and re-wired. It may be a literal wire connection problem with the camera to the phone. I'm not sure of the literal technical terms, I don't repair phones. I suggest using your warranty or try getting a diagnosis and get it repaired, whatever you'd prefer.

Seems to be the only option right now. Weekend is ruined, I guess.

Go to Settings – Developer options — find “Use NuPlayer” and uncheck .
(If you can’t find the Developer options, go to Settings — About phone — Touch “Build number” 7 times to enable the Developer option)

I forgot to mention but I did that as well and then restarted the phone, but it did not work.

oh.. This happened with me just today with yuphoria and doing above solved it.. Maybe one of the reasons why CM is said to be better than android.. Happy independence day anyways!

My nexus 4 did same thing, I found these instructions on the internet and they worked perfectly, I emailed them to myself so I could see them on my laptop and followed them on the Nexus 4 and they worked perfectly, you might want to try them: I wish I had saved the name of the originator so I could give them credit, but have lost the site:
WIPING THE CACHE PARTITION
If your phone is on, turn it off.Press & hold the Volume Down and then press & hold the Power button simultaneously until the phone turns on. You'll see the word "Start" with an arrow drawn around it.Press the Volume Down button twice to highlight Recovery mode.Press the Power button to start Recovery mode. You'll see an image of an Android robot with a red exclamation mark.While holding the Power button, TAP the Volume Up button until a menu appears. 6.Use the volume buttons to scroll to "wipe cache partition" and press the Power button to select it.
Note: This process can take up to 10+ minutes to complete.
permalinkembedparent
[–][deleted] 2 points 8 months ago
It worked: THANK YOU!

OP has already tried this and it didn't work for him. Read 3rd point in What I've tried


text:
What does it mean an ugly pop-up with an smiley face on my lock screen?
I've been getting pop-ups in the lock screen of my "Huawei Honor 6X" like this:

The notifications appear at random times. There is nothing else on the pop-up other than the smiley face made of ASCII characters and an OK button. The UI does not even look genuine.
Any idea what does it mean or what could it be creating these messages?
It is running EMUI version 5.0.1, Android version 7.0 and Android's November 6 2017 security patch.
UPDATE: The Notification History app did not register any app producing this pop-up. Her is another screenshot of the pop-up.

Have you checked for an app named Google Opinion Rewards on your device? That's what the notification mentions. Or are you rather asking about the dialog at the bottom? (For terms, see Popups, dialogs, notifications, toasts: what's the difference? :) In the latter case, the app @beeshyams mentioned probably won't help much.

@beeshyams "ugly pop-up with an smiley face" certainly rather applies to the dialog at the bottom of the screen. Didn't know that "notification history" covers those as well, as the name rather suggests "notifications".

Yeah, the Google Opinion Rewards notification is unrelated. The Smiley face appears regardless of what other notifications I have in the lock screen. I'm trying Notification history now. Thanks.

@beeshyams not yet, the smiley face has not appeared in the last two days. I'll keep you updated.

@beeshyams Unfortunately the Notification History app did not register what app launched the smiley face pop-up.

Sorry Typo. Meant try the Toaster app mentioned here https://android.stackexchange.com/a/154425/131553

I've also started getting these and can't help but notice that you are also roaming with Telcel so my best guess is that these are USSD code dialogs from Telcel, basically it looks like they're either running some tests or having fun with it

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


text:
Call waiting beeps
My phone is the HTC Desire S.  I have call waiting enabled.  On the original HTC firmware I got bundled with the phone, this meant that when another call was coming through I heard a double-beep twice in the background, and then it stopped.  Now that I have installed CyanogenMod 7, I'm getting that double-beep continuing for the entire 20 seconds that the call is waiting, if I don't answer it.  How can I restore it so that I just get the double-beep twice and then it stops when a new call is coming through?

AFAIK, CM does not (yet) support to configure it. Issue 5268 at the CM tracker addresses this (yours, i take it?) - so anybody else affected is encouraged to "star" it.
Meanwhile, an app named Call Waiting Configurations might provide a work-around (not sure, I didn't test it myself) until the CM team adds the possibility of configuration. Or you could instead activate the checkbox to "vibrate on call waiting":

Additionally, the following apps might be worth checking:

Advanced Call Settings
Call Wait Vibrate

May I ask which detail solved the issue for you? Just being curious :)


text:
Can I configure Google Play to see App Reviews in several languages?
By default Google Play is configured to display reviews only in my native language (not english). But there are a lot of reviews in other languages, especially in english and I want to see them also. As a workaround I can change language to english but it is not perfect solution. Can I see reviews both in my native language and in english?

Not with the regular Playstore app, AFAIK. If you want to do so using an app, you might want to take a look at Market Comments Reader. From within the web browser, AndroidPIT allows to show comments of all languages at once, i.e. without selecting each language separately.
Update: note that both, the app and the AndroidPIT site section, are dead by now. For a work-around you could use my UserScript GooglePlaySwitchLang in a web browser (like Firefox) via an Addon like Greasemonkey (see the Greasyfor main page for a list of options for your favorite browser). The script injects links to easily toggle between languages – currently German and English, but you easily can adjust it to any language combination you need.

If You browse Play store via a web browser, then you can add &hl=en at the end of the URL and it may show English comments.

Not working for this page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.kingsoft.officekey&hl=en or this page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.magazin.weekly&hl=en

Did work for me. @Firelord maybe these apps didn't have english reviews?

Perfectly simple & working!

Worked for me with &hl=hu also (for Hungarian)

This should be the main answer and the script option should be the secondary answer for advanced and motivated users.


text:
Offline map app capable of using Garmin Custom Maps / KMZ?
Does anyone know of any map apps for off-line use with GPS support that can view Garmin Custom Map kmz files?
The maps I want to use are the NZ Topo Map ones described here:
http://nztopomap.tumblr.com/post/15386610778/free-linz-nztopo50-based-garmin-custom-maps
Custom Maps is an app I already regularly use which uses the kmz format itself. Apparently the next release will support these kmz files but each image tile in the kmz will show up as a separate map so you'll have to open and view each tile individually - not ideal.
I know there's some map apps out there that will allow you to consume off-line maps created using MOBAC etc. but ideally I'm after one that doesn't require me to play around with file formats - just consume the kmz files as-is directly.
Cheers,
Gavin

A search on the Market shows a couple of likely suspects. Have you tried any of those?

You might want to take a look at Locus Maps: It not only can import KMZ files (I guess the ones you mean keep to the Keyhole standard, so they should work). You can even have media (pictures) embedded within, and use them in offline mode. Maps also can be downloaded right from within the app, so you can be prepared for your off-road trip.
It also supports a bunch of different map formats (including vector maps), so I would wonder if you were unable to get your mentioned material loaded with Locus.
Besides: excellent support, active forum, and much more... Definitely worth a look.
And no, I'm not the developer placing my ad here :)


text:
Problem with downloading files to SD card
I have a problem with downloading to my SD card and I tried using different browsers: chrome, brave, firefox but couldn't find a satisfactory solution. Basically on Chrome I set the download location to SD card and the path is "sdcard/../../Android/data/org.android.chrome/Downloads'. This is the only choice under SD card so I select that. But when I download any file, chrome displays "download error" in the notification bar, but the file has been downloaded to the above path. The only way to open the file is to use a file manager and navigate to that directory which is a hassle if I have to do that each time.

I tried the same with firefox beta and about:config settings following instructions floating around on google. But Firefox completely ignores the folder path and always downloads to the internal storage.

I don't mind saving to that weird path but the download manager I have (Files by Google) does not recognize it as a downloads folder and so the file does not show up in my Downloaded files list, so it's kind of annoying.
I have a MIUI 12.0.4 phone running on Android 10.
Does anyone else have experience with this sort of bug and if so is there a solution for that? (Alternative brower, other settings, a way to map that folder to Downloads in file manager, anything is welcome)

Just to avoid a misunderstanding: the path /sdcard and all directories below this path also are located in the internal storage. The path is just called sd-card for historical reasons.

@Robert the path is copied directly from the file manager and I can see the file downloaded to that location, it's just not convenient to access

Can you check Chrome's app permission for the storage permission? Android 10 changed their storage access policy.

Thanks. I have added storage permission for chrome but there's nothing specific to SD card in there

I'm having the same issue on my Vivo v21e. But I found the solution. You can use 1DM downloader (available on play store) as an external download manager but you have to use Firefox to make it work. Just go to the Firefox settings and turn on external download manager after downloading 1DM and it'll fix the problem..


text:
I have an old android tablet, how do I update it?
Ice cream OS on an Irulu x10 tablet, is there anyway to update to a new version of OS without cracking open the tablet to look at the CPU/board model numbers for an updated firmware flash?

Only if you find a custom ROM for that exact device model and the bootloader of the device can be unlocked. But the device is so old that it is unlikely to still find a ROM. But the hardware specs of that tablet is very low (1GB RAM) so newer Android versions will not really run well even if you would find a ROM.


text:
How do I upload Cyanagenmod when the only things I have access to are Download mode and ClockworkMod recovery?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7, the UK version. I managed to mess up in the beginning when trying to install CM and now have it in a state where I can either boot into Download mode or ClockworkMod Recovery.
The instructions say to use ADB to connect and upload the zip file, but this doesn't seem to work in either of the two modes I can boot into. I can no longer boot into stock Android to copy the file across there either.
How do I upload the CM zip file? Is there another step I'm missing?

It says 'error: device offline'. If I list the devices I get ' offline'. I've tried under both Windows and Linux with the same result.

I'm using the stock cable. I tried install Kies after I started this debacle and it won't talk to the Tab.

In recovery mode, use this:
adb shell mount /sdcard
adb push {filename} /sdcard/{filename}

UPDATE #1: An alternative suggested by ce4:

Pull out the SD card, copy all needed files externally, and put it
  back in

UPDATE #2: It seems the user did not install CWM correctly. After fixing this, adb push now works as expected.

Still says 'error: device offline'. Should I be in download mode or recovery?

Sorry, you did say recovery mode. I wasn't reading properly.

Yes, recovery. If that doesn't work. Try with another cable. If that doesn't work, try plugging it at the USB at the back of the PC.

You can also pull out the SD card, copy all needed files externally and put it back in. Then boot the recovery.

@ce4 BEST and EASIEST idea ever. I always used to do that. A shame I didn't think of it. LOL.

@ce4 But chances are he may not have a card reader.

The storage marked as /sdcard is actually internal. There is an external card and I have uploaded the file to it, but when I browse to it on the Tab, the external storage directory appears empty.

@Simmo Are you uploading it to the correct path? In my case, the External SD is /storage/extSdCard on my Samsung Galaxy S4.

I don't have a reader so I stuck the card in an old phone temporarily. I copied the .zip to the root of the card. On the Tab it's listed as /sdcard/external_sd, but that directory is always empty.

Wish I had CWM right now... From the CWM, can you post the path you are going to? I can't remember the menus in CWM.

Menu - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19316597/menu.jpg

External card, empty listing - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19316597/empty_card.jpg

I realised I hadn't actually been successful in installing ClockworkMod Recovery. Once I'd managed to do that correctly, I was forward a step and your tip worked. Still isn't working but that's a question for another page.

@Simmo +1 to your question, and I added your updates to my answer. :)


text:
Does the built-in Google app data backup work?
This question is a long time coming I guess. I have been seeing claims in Android since the dark ages that our data is being backed-up to the cloud, and recently "Sync App Data" showed up as well in the account settings. However when I have to restore, all I get is the apps I had, and a very small restore.. perhaps wifi passwords and desktop wall paper from what I see. So my question is this..
Does the in built-in backup service work?
I see from code documentation, that the apps need to manage it manually. I guess then it is possible that some apps do not support this?
Is this backup service actually supposed to backup app data or only just system data?
Is installing helium or similar 3rd party services the only way to go?
Second minor question. Am I right in understanding that Helium and its adb backup bretheren rely on the opt in android service, and that Titanium backup and their ilk just copy all possible files of the app and thus do not require the opt in service?
p.s. Am sorry if there is a good post about these details, much of what I see is very cynical posts which plug one of the aforementioned 3rd party software.

Does the in built-in backup service work? Yes.
But maybe not how you expect/want. As you mentioned apps need to 'opt in' to backup data and most apps don't actually use this. I'm only aware of a couple that do. As far as i know, the backed up data is only actually restore to a device when the device is initially set up, not when you install an app from the Play store that you've previously used (i could be wrong on this though). Google recently launched a way for games to sync progress between devices which more apps seem to be using and are publicising this more.
Helium and adb backup work differently in that they backup the data stored on the device and don't require opt in. Helium uses the adb backup method so essentially they work the same way (although it doesn't require a pc to perform the backup).
Titanium Backup backs up the apk and the appropriate 'data' folder (NOT the folder on your sd card by default) and again this does not require any opt in from the app developer.
Personally i use Titanium Backup as it was the only option when i first rooted my first phone. I've not used Helium so can't say if it's better/worse. When i have used adb backup (not via Helium) it took a long time to backup/restore but it does work quite well.

Ah thats good to hear that adb backup does not need opt in. And dissapointing that the default backup system is so underwhelming..

Does the built-in backup service work? Yes. And the restore? Sometimes. Sometimes partially. sometimes not at all... Unfortunately there are many reports for the latter two cases. It seems like the data always find their way to the Google servers, but not always back to the device. Also reported: Backups explicitly deleted from Google servers have been restored to new devices weeks later. So better have another backup ready, just in case...


text:
How to perform a full system dump/backup with a broken screen?
So, yesterday my phone took a serious tumble.  It is now essentially useless, as the screen either fails to turn on, or when it does, there is nothing useful to see (just lines of primary colors, mostly).
I believe (from the fact that it still chirps at me when emails come in, etc), that the phone is still functional, otherwise.
I would like to perform a full system dump, so that I can get off any files from the phone (a TMobile SGS2 (hercules) running slimrom 4.3 build 1).  The sdcard probably isn't important, as I can just pull it, but the phone's own internal storage I should like to get a copy of.
When I plug the phone into a usb port, it 'mounts' the usb via MTP, and I can see all the files.  Unfortunately, when I do a select all | copy | paste operation, the paste op dies before transferring all files.  I've tried a couple other ADB shell operations, in hope of flipping regular USB mounting on, but nothing has worked.
Any ideas how I can get a full dump of my poor phone's contents?
Edit
Currently running a adb pull /sdcard/ ... Its copying files presently, but its too early to tell if its going to get evertying I'm expecting.
Edit #2
looks like its going to work...its taking a rather long time, but it appears to be grabbing everything I was expecting it to.

Having tagged your question twrp: Do you have TWRP (or any other custom recovery) installed? Can you boot into it and see what you're doing (after all, that's text mode and might still work)? If so, a Nandroid backup can be done from there.

I've got no screen to speak of, I don't even get the boot loader animations, or anything.  Every once in a while I get a few random geometrics, but nothing that I can navigate with, and even that is getting more and more uncommon.  I'm afraid that whatever I do needs to be over ADB or similar commandline interface.  I referenced TWRP, just in case there was some special trick that it could do.

I see. As for adb pull: You're aware you're not getting a "real dump" this way which you could easily restore, I hope. Though not having a full strategy available, I'd say it would be a better approach to dump the file systems (e.g. using dd). There might even be a way to trigger the Nandroid Backup via ADB, AFAIK there's a corresponding script on the device.

Yes, thank you.  I'm not so much interested in the overall 'dump', as in just making sure any personal files that may have been stored off the SDCard.  The pull DID seem to get me exactly what I needed.

Indeed, when that's your goal that should work. You could even skip some file systems (such as /system, /boot, /recovery, and /cache) then. What you're looking for most likely resides on /data (app-stored date, which you also could get hold on using adb backup) or the internal SDCard (the external one, if there is such, you can simply attach to your computer using a card reader).

Not a full-fledged answer, as even an excerpt would make it a rather long post, but here are some things you could try:

An XDA article describes How To Backup and Restore using tar on adb shell. The article holds complete scripts for both. Still you should not execute them straight ahead as they are, but first use e.g. the mount command (without parameters) to make sure the mount points are correct, as they might differ between devices.
Use AndroidScreencast1 to "transfer the display to your PC". This way you see what you are doing, and might be able to backup using apps like Titanium Backup or Helium Backup
GadgetsDNA has a useful article with 15 Useful Android Terminal (ADB Shell) Commands2, including how to restore a Nandroid backup via fastboot. Unfortunately, nothing to create such.
A German Tutorial at Android-Hilfe.DE (GoogleTranslate Variant) describes a tool named ADBRecovery, including download links. This should enable you to do a Nandroid backup as well as restore.

I hope one of these hints proves helpful to you.

1: original code seems no longer maintained; yankee found this maintained fork working fine
2: links to Archive.ORG as the original page is gone; you can also find it at Slideshare

appreciate your answer.  Definitely helpful.

The linked version of AndroidScreenshot has not been maintained for a while and did not work with my Samsung Galaxy S3 (image distorted). However the fork here worked for me.

Thanks, @yankee – integrated that with my answer, credits given :)


text:
How to take backup of all the data of all the apps from canvas 4 mobile
I have some apps that contains information like Account summery, TODO list, Notes, Password saver etc. Recently I have lost my cellphone so I lost all my app data as well. I don't want to loose my app data. So is there any way what I can take all my app data backup into my PC or SD card and restore back when required. TIA
FYI
PC-OS : windows 7
Mobile OS : Android 4.2.2
Mobile model : CANVAS 4 (a210)
Hardware manufacturer : MICROMAX

Have you checked out our backup tag-wiki? The answer is already there. As your device runs Android 4.x, take a closer look at adb backup and Helium Backup, both solutions are mentioned there.

Root your phone and use Titanum Backup app.


text:
How to fix Telstra network dropouts on Gingerbread Oxygen ROM?
It's a long shot, but figured i'd give it a go.. I've installed the Oxygen RC6 ROM on my Telstra HTC Desire.  It's pretty much perfect - better than this phone has ever been. It's fast, great to use, no space issues (you can force any app to install to the SD Card which solves my biggest gripe with the desire - minimal internal memory for app storage), and is just all round brilliant.
But there's one problem, and its a doozie.  Every now and then (at least a few times a day) my phone drops its network connection. When i go into settings and try search for networks, it can't find anything.. its as if the radio turns off completely.  Rebooting the phone more often than not fixes it, but still sometimes takes a while to sort itself out.
Its really annoying cos there'll be times where its off and i wont even know it.
The ROM i've installed is this one:
 http://android-roms.net/desire/2011/01/06/oxygen-v2-0-rc6/
I've tried installing a new radio (32.46.00.32U_5.10.05.17_2 on the following page):
 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=687464
any suggestions how i can fix this?  Try a different radio?  Advice on the best one to try?
Thanks heaps
Greg

32.54.00.32U_5.14.05.17 seems to be latest radio; This may help..

Thanks, i tried every radio i could find, but no go

I think i've found the solution... I upgraded my ROM to the latest version (just released recently):
http://android-roms.net/desire/2011/01/22/oxygen-v2-0-rc7/
It's now perfectly stable and hasn't dropped out in 12 hours.. lets hope it stays that way :)

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


text:
Is there any adb shell command to focus camera?
I would like to record some movie on my desk but camera doesn't focus so I would like to force my phone to camera focus. Is it possible?

if you know the exact position to touch for focusing the camera, you can use
 adb shell input tap <x><y> . This will simulate a touch on the particular (x,y) cordinates.

i would recommend you to download some camera manipulation app like Vintage Camera by Fine Droid Devs
though it would have been better if you had mentioned your device.

Before you take a video, focus the camera first.
I had a similar issue with a digital camera (Canon S95). Sometimes, I'd get a blurry video. It turns out that I forgot to focus the camera first, before pressing the record button. The concept would be the same with a phone camera.


text:
No ADB connection to Transformer Prime TF201 on 4.1.1
ADB connection to Transformer Prime TF201 on 4.1.1
With USB Debugging disabled I can see the TF as expected.
With USB Debugging enabled I can see an entry under Device Manager for ASUS Transformer Prime ADB Interface with no warnings or errors. However when I attempt to use ADB to connect I'm not getting any devices returned.
Screenshot here:

If I plug my phone in and list devices I get a single entry returned which works as expected, SHELL etc works normally.
Any thoughts?

This was an issue with the computer I was running ADB on. I took the transformer to work and ADB worked perfectly first time.

The computer I was using to connect with ADB. I used a different computer and ADB was working fine, it was obviously a configuration with my PC at home, a different PC worked first time.


text:
How to stop "Cell Info Display" in HTC Desire X Duos
this question is with regards to HTC Desire X dual Sim. I have this device and since the day I purchased this device I am suffering a lot with the CID massages, in a minute I am getting 10-15 messages, and I am not able to turn that off. So please suggest me how to turn the CID massages off.

Put the SIM in another HTC mobile like Wildfire and go to settings > call > cell broadcast > uncheck it and delete any subscribed channels like 50.

If anyone got problem with cell broadcast sms or service messages, just first save the channel in any name and just block that channel in message block list. If can't block in default sms application, just download any sms application from android market ( i used Handscent sms) and block the channel

Put the sim in any Nokia handset and deactivate the cell info to stop the irritating broadcast messages.

Most people don't have other handsets just lying around.


text:
My phone can't start after backup failed
I tried backing up my Galaxy S4 using this method:
http://galaxys4root.com/galaxy-s4-tutorials/how-to-backuprestore-rom-on-galaxy-s4-with-root-cwm-recovery/

1st backup failed but I could still boot the phone
When backing up, it failed halfway, it failed backing up /data/.
I rebooted my phone and found that my keyboard doesn't remember my custom words anymore.
2nd backup failed and I can't start the phone anymore
I rebooted into the recovery and tried backing it up again the second time.It failed halfway, it failed backing up /system/.Then I tried the backup again (without rebooting) and it failed immediately saying no space on the SD card (I am not sure if it's true)

So I rebooted the phone and it is showing the boot animation forever (I waited over 30 mins).
I tried restoring /system/ from the first backup but it didn't help.
I don't even know where the problem is, how can a backup break your phone??Any help will be appreciated.

I've just added the boot-loop tag, please check its tag-wiki for first aid. Btw: restoring /system was pretty unnecessary here: as that's read-only, it wasn't changed in between. You should check your available free space on the SDCard (where your backups go to) and make sure you have about twice the space your other partitions consume ("twice" is kinda "safety margin"), as the Nandroid backup copies their images here.

Thanks Izzy, but how can I do that without booting into Android?

Did you follow the link I posted with my previous comment? All explained there. If you've tried that, please [edit] your question and include that information. It's hard to give advice when you never tell what advice you've followed already :) EDIT: Just saw your answer now, so you have been able to resolve the issue with that information. Glad to read, and thanks for answering yourself!

I finally did a Wipe/Factory reset. I lost all apps and data, but at least I can use my phone again.
And yes, that was because I ran out of space in the internal SD card.


text:
Is there any way to change the size of the text box in Messaging?
I find it hard to edit text messages in the tiny Messaging box. Is there any way to increase the size of it? I'm using CM10 (JB), but the app looks the same as the CM9 (ICS) version.

You can use an alternative like Handcent SMS - it has a button to allow full screen editing. Also, you can customize the font size / style to something more suitable from within Handcent.

Thanks, but I would rather not start downloading separate apps unless there is no other way.

Try turning your phone sideways (to Landscape format); then you have a larger window. Works for me (Android 6 Moto phone)


text:
How can I customize what notifications show up on my notifications bar (RAZR MAXX running ICS)?
I want to customize what I see in the notifications bar/shade. (eg. I don't want notifications for facebook messages, I don't want to see my weather app in the notification bar).
I looked in the apps' setup areas, but didn't see any way to change this, specifically for the weather channel app.
Thanks!

In ICS, it's up to the application. You will have to check the settings for each individual app and see if they allow you to control what shows up in your Notification bar. Unfortunately, there is no way to control this through Android itself...
However, note that in Jelly Bean, the ability to monitor and control which apps display notifications is integrated into the app settings options. See below:


text:
Does Swype have custom auto replace?
I love how Swype works but there are a few rather long phrases that I need to enter quite often, and wish I could enter faster, such as my email. I know the user dictionary will let me add custom entries, but that still requires me to Swype out all the characters.
I'm looking for a way to have a user defined phrase pop up as a suggestion when another, shorter, user defined phrase is entered. For example, I could then Swype E to M, and have my  email as a suggestion I can tap.
Is this possible?

You can tap for those words, Swype's autocompletion will use your personal dictionary to finish the rest.

Useful trick, thank you. however for my email it needs half the letters tapped out for the entirety to pop up.

@Ampersand: I don't know if Swype's autocomplete would, like some other keyboards, "learn" your frequency of word usage and over time rank your email address higher. If it doesn't then it's definitely something Swype should add IMO.

I think more a matter of my email not being obscure enough, with too many possible words on the way to it. it would be a good feature to add though.


text:
Close app as opposed to letting it run in the background
I'm not sure whether this is a Galaxy Nexus question or an ICS question, but here goes:
Suppose I'm using some app and then I move to the home screen, rather than shutting down, the app is left to run in the background. Is there a way of exiting an app such that it gets closed upon leaving it rather than being left to run in the background?

Would someone also be able to clarify whether this is an ICS or galaxy nexus question?

This is really a question about Android in general, and is based on a misconception of how Android handles background apps. Check out this XDA post for a nice explanation of why processes sitting in memory in the background really aren't a bad thing. You should only worry about exiting/force-quitting/killing an app if things start misbehaving.

Usually, holding/tapping on the BACK key should "exit" an app. Of course, the best way is to use the Exit button if an app provides it.
THat's how one would gracefully "exit" from an app. In order to force an exit or kill it, you'd best look at a Task Killer and forcibly kill the process.

On the galaxy nexus, "holding/tapping on the BACK key" does NOT kill the app.

Correct - note that I said gracefully exit and NOT kill. In order to kill, you need a task killer.

In AOKP ICS ROMs, and a few other's I have used, there is an option that you can enable that will allow you to kill (close) an active app by holding down the Back button. I do not know if this was a feature of ICS or the CM9 ROM family, but I will let you know if I find that out.


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Disabling ALL roaming?
It's relatively easy to disable data roaming on an Android device in the "Wireless & networks" settings section, but the phone still tries to connect to other services via roaming like voice and SMS.  Is there a way to disable ALL roaming whatsoever?  I know about airplane mode, but that completely disables all connectivity, and it's also annoying to have to remember to keep turning airplane mode off and on again when I enter/leave the vicinity of this network.  I'd like to be able to connect to my network but not allow any roaming.
Why disable?  Becuase the network offering the roaming isn't one I trust, as I think it may be intercepting and recording my data.  So I don't want my phone to use it.

Because I believe that the people providing the roaming service were my company, and they monitored all traffic (even doing a MITM for HTTPS) going over their computer networks.

@Jez: Why the paranoia about it? You worked for that company before is the impression I get. If you know that you're going to hit on that network when roaming, don't use it - simples :) Or get a pre-paid sim card of another network instead and pop it in to your device?

Choosing a network manually and then forcing that network only seems to be the only solution. Might break functionality when you go out of that area though, as mentioned. That said, I think you're being paranoid. Even if you don't access their roaming point they can still sniff your signals right out of the air if they want to, the data isn't encrypted AFAIK, and if you encrypt it yourself then who cares about untrusted nodes.

@bigbadonk420 I think your latter solution might actually be the solution in the long term - we need all mobile comms to be encrypted as a matter of course; voice, MMS, data, etc.  All is reduced to data, all data should be encrypted.  Then roaming wouldn't matter from a security perspective.

So start encrypting your traffic. HTTPS for websites, PGP for e-mails and so on.

What about voice and SMS?

Why doesn't turning Airplane Mode on count as a valid answer for disabling all roaming? Airplane Mode doesn't do this?

I don't think this is possible.
I think when carriers agree to let users roam on each others use their network, that probably their policies would comply in the way that when you can trust your carrier, you can probably trust it when it trusts the other one.
EDIT: Actually I recently found this out:
When you go to Settings > Wireless and Networks > Mobile networks > Network operators, you can choose to select your network manually instead of having it done automatically. But in fact, I'm not sure what it will do when you go out of coverage of the network you chose.

Is there a way to get info about which network you are roaming on, then?

Ah, I found something out yesterday, sec, I update the answer.

The best way to do this in 2017 is to first turn on aeroplane mode which disables everything, then enable WiFi manually.


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Foreign phone, stuck on 2G
I am currently working on a Coolpad 8150, a Chinese phone running Android 2.3.7. It is connected to T-Mobile (in the United States) and can place calls successfully. However, it is stuck on 2G. I have been lead to believe the phone supports 3G, though I may be mistaken. How may I further pursue this issue?
When I scan for networks, I only see networks marked 2G, like T-Mobile (2G).
In status, it appears I am still marked as using the China Mobile network operator.

Looking at this,

GSM:900/1800/1900 Mhz,3G TD-SCDMA 2010-20250 MHZ

And scrolling on down a bit on that page under the 'Data Application Features'...

Data Service  GPRS;EDGE;TD-SCDMA

That would explain it, no UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ mentioned in the spec of that hardware, as that would be required to have T-Mobile operating to enable 3G data.
It may be basically a cheap and cheerful but crippled phone, but only for a certain market segment, if there is no supporting data protocol support such as UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+, it will fall back on 2G.

Am I correct in recalling that T-Mobile no longer supports data transfer over their 2G network? I ask because I am thus afflicted.

The problem is your phone is using china mobile's td- protocol. In the rest of the world all phones are CDMA or GSM. Thus yours is a 3rd strange Chinese type. If you had a China Unicom Coolpad you would be able to use it just fine. You are out of luck as this only works in china, except for calling.


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Reset Knox password
I had installed Samsung Knox on my Galaxy Note 3 and now I have forgotten its password. It is not very clear what should I do, in order to reset the password.
From the login page, when I click on the "Forgot password", it asks for an email. As I enter the mail, it says the email has not been registered.
How to reset the Knox password?

After you go to the web portal, follow the steps below:

On the My KNOX User Portal, Click on Devices and select your device.
Click on Reset KNOX Password.
Launch your My KNOX if you aren't inside it already.
Enter your new unlock code; tap Continue.
Enter your unlock code again; tap Confirm.

From To manage My KNOX

authors: Зинченко Дмитрий


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How to run TWRP recovery headless?
I have samsung s5 having damaged screen. Its screen is blank and touch is not working. I have checked USB debugging by connecting to tv via hdmi to enable adb and flashed  twrp ecovery twrp-3.2.1-0-k3gxx.img.tar from here via odin.
It installed successfully as blank TWRP folder is created. But I am unable to access recovery using adb as mentioned in this guide. It shows no device in  adb devices.
How can I enable adb in twrp recovery if it is not enabled by editing twrp settings file or some other way.

Did you enable USB debugging? Enabling ADB and recovery is not the same

Yes. I have already enabled usb debugging under Developer options. But I want to enable twrp recovery adb also called openrecoveryscript commands so that I could fire command directly to flash zip.

Then smth is wrong with your phone except broken screen. TWRP command will work out-of-the-box on working ADB. For example, see this

Don't confuse chicken and an egg: ADB should be enabled before TWRP, not another way.

I have run twrp in other devices in which it asks "Swipe to Allow system modifications" when twrp recovery is booted for the first time. Is this preventing adb from running ?

No, this message simply states that your partitions are to be mounted r/w. It has nothing to do with ADB.

I have checked USB debugging by connecting to tv via hdmi to enable adb. But I can't see and control anything in recovery mode via hdmi.

If your phone is rooted, install Terminal and boot into TWRP by typing reboot recovery in terminal

Here is the .twrps file, I found inside TWRP folder :: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ccvdMFmwEWD4JaARXP5qzGbQyzK0yuo/view?usp=sharing

I am doing all this just to root my phone. Inside recovery, I would fire command to flash supersu zip file .

No way. You are out of the luck. However as a last resort you can try to boot into TWRP from fastboot (1, 2) and try to flash supersu blindly. Though I dunno how it will help you in your case

I have finally rooted my S5 by flashing CF-Auto-Root-k3g-k3gxx-smg900h.tar from https://autoroot.chainfire.eu/ via odin .   Thanks.

Cool. Post it as answer, if you will be successful with TWRP.


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Filesystem for sdcard to store large file and apps access
I am running android oreo 8.1 (custom ROM) on Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro.  I have a 64GB memory card in which I want to store large files of size 15GB, 20GB etc. So I can't use FAT32 filesystem.
I formatted it to exFAT but battery started draining faster as mount.exfat process uses CPU above 20-30% during read/write operation.
If I format to ext4, How can I made sdcard files available to all android apps ?
 Is there any other filesystem which can store large files and android apps can access it as well ?

extX filesystems are in general not supported for external storage, only Fat/exFat. Perhaps you should be looking at using your card as adopted storage, but you did not give any details as to your device make/model.

I don't want to use it as adopted storage.

ExFat would be the preferred method here, if it is causing battery drain there is a problem with ROM, you should go to your maintainer and report the problem through the ROM's appropriate channels. A card's type of file system should have negligible effect on battery life.

I think your Micro SD card is not compitable with Android system try to use class 2 micro SD card sdhc(secure digital high capacity) type see if it's work. I do have same problem I have used 16GB Uhs-1 class 10 A1  (ultra high speed) micro SD card  but it's not compitable with the Android system it says can't read and Android system notify it's corrupted sd card, but soon after I try another micro SD card which is class 2 sdhc its work fine no countering any problem at all it's working  smooth when transferring data and fast rendering any apps I want to open that i have installed in my phone. There's so many type of micro SD card out there but need to see carefully some of it only suitable for hi digital camera which is usually using different file format system.


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How to completely remove Clean Master?
I am having some troubles with my android phone. It's a Nexus 5 running CyanogenMod 11.
I once installed Clean Master from the Google Play Store and decided (non long after) to uninstall it.
The problem I have is that CleanMaster seems to be still installed as I can sometimes see some popups claiming that "CM Game Booster" could free some RAM/space whatever or even that my android phone is too hot (which is wrong).
I used the app '/system/app mover' from F-DROID to see if something was installed but I couldn't find anything (from user and system apps) related to Clean Master.
The problem is I gave CleanMaster root access (for '15 minutes') when I installed it.
How can I uninstall CleanMaster ?
Thanks
UPDATE
The strangest thing is that CleanMaster was installed 3 months ago, uninstalled 1 week later and I only noticed those popups last week. As the popups doesn't disappear untill I quit it (or press clean.. which I don't do) I'm quite sure the problem was not here before last week and nothing was installed last week or the week before..

It is possible that CleanMaster installed an app, when you allowed root access to it. Search for apps and sort for installation date, then search for suspicious apps and uninstall them.

I know but there really is nothing that seems to be suspicious :/

Have you looked at system applications? There is usually no install date but looking at the last modification time of the related files in /system/app and /system/priv-app should give you more information.

As said in the post I used an app from F-DROID to investigate in user and system apps. Nothing relevant found but to be honest I don't know a lot about all those system apps which names are often not meaningful to me

Could you provide the download link to Clean Master that you downloaded and uninstalled? (there are some apps that have similar name, and I wanted to experiment with it)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard

Have you cleaned dalvik-cache since then? Sometimes things will remain, they don't get cleanly uninstalled. Did you also remove the entry for CleanMaster from the Superuser app? Can you please provide a screenshot of the popups? Also you don't mention where and when the popups occur (what apps are being used and your activity).

@FromBabylon Can you find cleanmaster with Titanium Backup?

@jonvon73 if you're the same user as FromBabylon, I suggest you to request for account merging.

I'm not jonvon73.
I didn't clean dalvik-cache after uninstalling CleanMaster. I did remove it from superuser
I won't be able to provide any screenshot as I've erased all data of the phone. Thanks for your help


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Is there software that will completely wipe your Android device when there are too many pin attempts?
I love the option that your iPhone will wipe itself if someone preforms way to many pin attempts but I do not see that option on Android devices. Is there software that will completely wipe your Android device when there are too many pin attempts?

authors: Оксана Ангелова


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I need to backup my contacts & information
I saved my information on gmail then lost my phone. I bought another phone but when I tried to restore my information from the lost phone I remove or delete my all information by mistake. Can you help me to please to restore my information?

Backup or restore? Backup- save what's in your phone to your Google account. Restore - take what's in your Google account and add it to your phone

If you are talking about contacts, you can go to https://contacts.google.com.
Under "More" press "Undo changes" to restore any changes you did to the contacts.


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can't save phone number after reset factory
I recently rooted my cellphone after reset factory , but unfortunately I can't add phone number to contacts , How I can fix it? sony xperia J 4.1.2

Well, that's weird, do one thing try tapping over the menu>settings>application manager>Swipe left to all> Look out for contacts>tap over it clear the cache and the data stored. Once done try storing the contact again and see if that works out for you ?

@FarzanNjr, that's only half the answer I've asked for. Mind to [edit] your post again to include the other half? Quoting myself: Did you something apart from rooting it? What approach did you take to root it?


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File Explorer for HTC Desire X - too many permissions asked for?
I have a HTC Desire X running Android 4.0.4 (not rooted)
I am looking for a file explorer mainly for 2 things
- Just browsing around the file system
- Copying an apk from my PC and executing it.
I went to Play Store to install ES File Explorer. It asks for the following permissions

Storage
Phone Calls
Network Communication
System Tools
Hardware Contols

I have no idea why a file explorer needs so much permissions.
Are there any decent file explorers which make do with a minimum set of permissions?

ES Datei Explorer is more than just a simple file explorer. It offers a bunch of additional features, which explain most of the permissions you've listed. I'm using this app for years already and can assure you: it never abused any of the permissions (especially I never saw it making "phone calls", and yes, I supervise such things).
But for the things you list:

Storage: What do you thing where your files are, um, stored? All file managers access the "storage". Otherwise they couldn't write there, so you could not copy/move files.
Phone Calls: This is a Permission Group, not the permission COST_CALL itself. The only permission from that group which ES File accesses is read phone status and identity. So it can detect whether there is an incoming/outgoing/ongoing call (and see the remote number), as well as check your device's ID (IMSI). Not sure what for the app needs this, though.
Network Communication: This app can also access the network (feature list: Remote File Manager). So you can e.g. use it to copy files from/to your computer, e.g. using Windows Shares (also known as Samba, SMB, CIFS). A feature I really enjoy quite often. So nothing bad about this!
System Tools: Again a permission group. Here the app requests: modify system settings, connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi, set wallpaper, install shortcuts, uninstall shortcuts, access Bluetooth settings, prevent phone from sleeping. All mentioned permissions are explainable from the app's feature list, though the "modify system settings* is a little unclear.
Hardware Controls: Once more a permission group. Only used permission here is control vibration. So no danger from that, either.

So the point is to look behind those "Permission Groups" what permissions are really requested by an app, and cross-check that with its features. If something's unclear: ask, as you did :) "Better save than sorry" is a good attitude!
If you're still concerned, and rather want a more minimalistic solution (as you don't need all those features), there are plenty alternatives. But I personally can warmly recommend you this app, from my own experience: It's easy to use, and never let me down in years. No "permission abuse" either.


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Running a program as root on Android
I have followed the guide at XDA Developers for a Samsung Galaxy Note II, and used "option 2" and flashed the firmware using heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery.img --CACHE cache.img in Linux.
This gave me a SuperSU program, which I could execute. After executing it immediately wanted to update. I allowed it. It required a reboot, I allowed that. The program asked if it should attempt to install by the "normal" or CWM method. I picked CWM.
The device started up in the CWM minimal OS, but it was not apparent to me what option the user should take at this point to proceed. I tried various options, like installing from cache or sd card, but there didn't appear to be any file to install.
I rebooted again, started SuperSU again. I selected "Install SuperSU into /system". The program needed to reboot again, this time I was not given the option of how to install it ("normal" or CWM).
After reboot, I started SuperSU again. The option was still available to "Install SuperSU into /system", it is unclear if this means SuperSU has not successfully installed, or if this option is always available in case you need to repeat the procedure after an update.
I downloaded the Titanium Backup program which as I understand required root access. When executing Titanium Backup, I was prompted by SuperSU if I wished to grant root access. I clicked yes. The program appeared to function properly.
My questions are:

What action is the user supposed to take within CWM when SuperSU requests to reboot using this method?
Is the choice "Install SuperSU into /system" supposed to still be possible to select after a successful install?
How do I run an arbitrary program as root? What I wanted to do in the first place was to get a terminal to run as root. I have already a program called "Terminal Emulator" installed. How do I make "Terminal Emulator" execute as root?
Is it normal for SuperSU to "close" itself spontaneously while looking through the settings? I think once it updated itself while I was in the settings, but I'm not sure.

3: For the terminal emulator, a workaround is to simply execute "su" (of course) program after executing the terminal emulator itself. However, is there no way to execute the terminal emulator itself, as root?

related: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9194725/run-android-program-as-root

Ugh, that's 4 questions in one. Our site works best with one question per post; but let me try:

How to install via CWM (custom recovery)?
usually, it's "install update.zip from SDCard" when the deal is to "install something via recovery". By default, there should be an update.zip file in the root of the SDCard, which you then navigate to and select.
Hint: I always update it via Google Play (the "normal way"). Works smoothly, never had trouble, doesn't require a reboot.
Is the choice "Install SuperSU into /system" supposed to still be possible to select after a successful install?
I'd say "No", but it depends. This usually moves the app from /data (user-space) to /system (system-space). After having moved it, it should no longer be in its original location. But depending on how updates are installed (SuperSU e.g. updates via Google Play, like any other app), this update could again end up in user-space, in which case the user might wish to "repeat" the system integration.
How do I run an arbitrary program as root?
Two-fold. First, "arbitrary programs" (apps) must request root access themselves, you cannot make them "run as root". That's a little different when it comes to the command line: prefixing your commands with su makes the terminal app requesting root access. So you could e.g. list all directories below /data using su ls /data and succeed (while a simple ls /data wouldn't be able to access all files/sub-directories here).
Is it normal for SuperSU to "close" itself spontaneously while looking through the settings?
I've never experienced that, and I'm using SuperSU on one of my devices for a year now (the others have chainfire's SuperUser). But I must admit I'm not often calling it directly and stay there for longer. I mostly only see the access requests of apps, or the update recommendation via Play :)


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How to add another language to a Samsung Galaxy Chat physical keyboard?
Having got a Samsung Galaxy Chat (B5330) I'd like to use its physical keyboard to to enter not only english but also central european (czech) and cyrillic (russian) letters (I am ok with english-only key labels). So, any directions on where and how?

Possibly related: How do I add a new language? / How do I add another keyboard layout to my ICS phone?

You can try External Keyboard Helper, which is designed for bluetooth/usb keyboards but I believe it should work for the Chat's physical keyboard!

The problem is (at least was in the older and many newer versions of Android) there's not a simple way (to my knowledge - without adb/root) to add language layouts. Even the common ones like Czech (QWERTZ) were missing for a long time.
For a simple solution you want to find packaged keyboard layouts (usually tiny .apk) but be wary of malicious ones.
If you want to create/import layout(s) I believe you should start looking into Key Layout Files (.kl) but I personally haven't done it that way.
For me, Raidsix Input Devices (.apk (<100kB)) helped back in the day (from Google Play, when it was there year(s) ago). However it isn't available anymore and there seems to be no official or trustworthy way to obtain it.
I still have it on my tablet so I shared it now with other tools to come in the future. Link [Mediafire]

If you decinde to install Raidsix Input Devices then after the installation you'll just have more options in the System Settings for keyboard languages (layouts) (usually called 'Language and input') => The steps will be the same like other answers here afterwards

I had a similar issue as I was learning Spanish. I was finding it almost impossible to key in the Spanish words using English text, one by one character. To get round this, I enabled two languages and therefore my phone now recognises both Spanish and English words and therefore I have no problems when switching from contacting colleagues to learning languages. To do this, go onto 'Settings', then 'Language and input'. Then scroll down to the option titled 'Samsung keyboard' and click the setting cog next to it. You should then see an option called 'Input languages' and from there, you should see a list of all the available languages on your phone. Simply check all the tickboxes of any languages you would like to use and then those languages will be enabled and you'll be able to type with them throughout any app on your phone. Hope this helps and answers your question.

Does this work for the physical keyboard as well? Or is it only for on-screen touch keyboards?

I'm not sure actually, sorry. None of my devices have a physical keyboard. I just knew this was the method to do it on a standard Samsung device.

Then this most likely won't work for this question. It's just for on-screen keyboards, I'm pretty sure.

You need to go into input properties and choose the languages you want.
If you do not find the desired language then you must root your phone and use an app like language enabler from Google Play.

You can try a 3rd-party keyboard like GO SMS Pro. It will allow you to use different keyboard layouts, including Russian. I think it has Czech (but probably not written in English).

This method doesn't work for galaxy chat since it has physical keyboard.

aww you cant just make your physical keyboard to enter different language, You can try this:
-Use On Screen Keyboard
-download Google input for your desired language
-and change input method by long clicking any textfield

this isnt a right answer to any question @Dr.andro

There is no other option @cyberwalker

@Dr.Andro, I'm fairly certain there are other options. See my answer. You don't just have to take my word for it, you can look at the reviews for that app I linked.

authors: สมพงษ์ สุรวัฒนานันท์


text:
The difference between NFC mode on Android (e.g. card mode, P2P mode)
On my Samsung Galaxy Note 4, there are two NFC modes: card mode and P2P mode.
What is the purpose of these modes? Is there any other modes in NFC?

There are 3 NFC modes.
Taken directly from official Android Developer - Near Field Communication,

Android-powered devices with NFC simultaneously support three main modes of operation:

Reader/writer mode, allowing the NFC device to read and/or write passive NFC tags and stickers.
P2P mode, allowing the NFC device to exchange data with other NFC peers; this operation mode is used by Android Beam.
Card emulation mode, allowing the NFC device itself to act as an NFC card. The emulated NFC card can then be accessed by an external NFC reader, such as an NFC point-of-sale terminal.

To make it more easier to understand, Android Authority has a down-to-earth explanation,

In order to determine what sort of information is to be exchanged between devices, the NFC standard currently has three distinct modes of operation for compliant devices. Perhaps the most common use in smartphones is the peer-to-peer mode, which allows two NFC-enabled devices to exchange various pieces of information between each other. In this mode both devices switch between active, when sending data, and passive states when receiving.
Read/write mode, on the other hand, is a one way data transmission, where the active device, possibly your smartphone, links up with another device in order to read information from it. This is the mode used when you interact with an NFC advert tag.
The final mode of operation is card emulation, whereby the NFC device can be used like a smart or contactless credit card in order to make payments or tap into public transport systems.

Didn't see your answer and posted

@beeshyams sometimes it happens, (or in other word, great minds think alike ;)

Is NFC card mode just Emulation? It means there is no build-in nfc tags in the phone? Does the phone emulate some kind of NFC tag feature?

@user1156041 Correct, there's no built-in NFC tag inside a phone. For more information about the emulation and its supported NFC card, read the documentation on official Android Developer

Near Field Communication (NFC) from Android Developers explains (emphasis added and edited for clarity)

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4cm or less to initiate a connection. NFC allows you to share small payloads of data between an NFC tag and an Android-powered device, or between two Android-powered devices.
Android-powered devices with NFC simultaneously support three main modes of operation:

Reader/writer mode, allowing the NFC device to read and/or write passive NFC tags and stickers.
P2P mode, allowing the NFC device to exchange data with other NFC peers; this operation mode is used by Android Beam.
Card emulation mode, allowing the NFC device itself to act as an NFC card. The emulated NFC card can then be accessed by an external NFC reader, such as an NFC point-of-sale terminal.

Android and NFC modes explains with more examples


text:
Lenovo Vibe P1 randomly reboots after upgrading to Marshmallow
I use Lenovo Vibe P1 Series Phone. I got it upgraded to Marshmallow and ever since then it reboots each time I locks the screen. It's working perfectly when I'm using it. It was working perfectly when I had Lollipop.
Please help me fix this problem.

There's someone who got the same issue, and he mentioned about restricting any app under 'background app management'. Unfortunately, I don't have the device to test.

OK....I think I have figured out something. This is definitely not a genuine solution, but still it may help..........From settings go to power manager -> background app management and unrestrict all. This helped me & rebooting has stopped but as I have said, this is not a proper solution. Waiting for Lenovo Team to help us asap.

This worked for me. Than you so much :)

There are quiet a few things  to try in the following order.
1) if it was an official update, and your device is under warranty, then get it repaired.
2) try a factory reset via recovery. Search to find the key combination to get into the recovery and Perform a factory Reset.
3) Android Marshmallow has the ability to grant/restrict specific permissions to apps. Make sure that all system apps and Google apps have all the permissions granted.
4) this step is recommended only if you have some knowledge about the working of an Android device. Connect device to a computer and check the logcat to find what went wrong. try to fix the error that caused the issue.


text:
Read the chip info from a built-in NFC chip in mobile phone
As I know, there is a built-in NFC chip at the back of a mobile phone such as Samsung. So I would like to read the built-in chip info from that mobile phone.
Is that possible?

Why do you think that your device has a NFC-Tag?
Devices have normally a NFC-Reader with which you can read/write NFC-Tags

After googling, I found that Android bean use NFC chip to transfer data.  And S Bean use wifi-direct. Is that right?

You mean Android Beam and S Beam. Yes S Beam uses wifi-direct and Android Beam uses NFC.

So is there any chip on the back of phone to use Android bean feature?

No there is no chip but the android Beam feature writes the information 'to the air' and the other device reads it.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/108776/does-nfc-enabled-phone-means-the-phone-has-an-nfc-tag-inside?rq=1 This answer said there is built-in chip.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

What are you actually trying to achieve? There's no "fixed data" to read like with an NFC tag, the phone just transmits the data from some running app.

As I thought before, if there is built-in chip in phone, I don't need the extra NFC tag and I can also use this built-in chip as a identifer for my app.

There isn't an NFC Tag (as the hardware device) but there is a chip which can act like an NFC Tag and provide data.

I found the one of nfc modes: NFC card mode in phone. It is used as a identifier for phone.