text:
how to install OTA updates on TWRP rooted stock image
I have a stock ROM Android 10 on which I installed TWRP recovery and magisk root

now my stock ROM after quite some time offered an OTA update
,
and it will not install ,obviously ,via TWRP.  my device is type A only ( unlike  A / B type) for which there is this detailed guide which I cannot use.

I then I read about this module
DM verify no encrypt

Questions
-will flashing this module help resolve this issue &  I should be able to install OTA updates seamlessly through my current recovery
-if the former isn't relevant what would be the approach for a Type A phone to install OTA updates other than just restore original stock boot and recovery and once again re install custom recovery and re-root, which is painstaking.
-to install the above-mentioned module should I decrypt my phone which I think is encrypted I have a fingerprint pattern and password lock

additional observations
I could manage to get hold of the update zip and changing permissions  permitted me to open the zip file.
I see two files that attract - in terms of of giving hope that I can tinker this update.zip so that it can install without a verification

updater
found here at this path
/storage/emulated/0/update.zip/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script
entire script is uploaded here
and otacert found here
/storage/emulated/0/update.zip/META-INF/com/android/otacert
and it looks like
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIID2zCCA etc  -----END CERTIFICATE-----
approaches  is it possible to tweak the Updater script and tell it not to do verification so it can be installed via simple TWRP

the other approach - certificate file that particular certificate can it be changed so that the content matches with the current phone hash. I don't know how to generate one that matches the current  phone
update #2

modified the Updater script and after deleting relevant portions I get this error . this is after two modifications to skip through verification errors which I overcame
original Updater script
modified Updater script used
recovery log

error that I get
Verified system image...Verified vendor image...Verified vendor image...
Verified product image...
Patching system image after verification.
performing update
Verified product image...Patching system image after verification.blockimg version is 4
maximum stash entries 0
creating stash /cache/recovery/cc46ebfd04058569d0c6c1431c6af6c1328458e4
405680128 bytes free on /cache (29192192 needed)
/cache/recovery/last_command doesn't exist.
stashing 468 overlapping blocks to f93e6436fba55bbb8e1990df38044cff68a4bf8f
405680128 bytes free on /cache (1916928 needed)
 writing 468 blocks to /cache/recovery/cc46ebfd04058569d0c6c1431c6af6c1328458e4/f93e6436fba55bbb8e1990df38044cff68a4bf8f
patching 468 blocks to 467
Failed to write 409256 bytes of data: Operation not permitted
ERROR 10-08 01:39:43 external/bsdiff/bspatch.cc:324: Error writing to new file.: Operation not permitted
bspatch failed, result: 1
Failed to apply bsdiff patch.
Failed to apply image patch.
failed to execute command [imgdiff 0 9878 f93e6436fba55bbb8e1990df38044cff68a4bf8f 3c32c4f15abb00cab0e4103c3bf09ac67b7ceff8 2,218312,218779 468 2,218312,218780]
new data receiver is still available after executing all commands.
script aborted: E1001: Failed to update system image.
E1001: Failed to update system image.error: 1001
cause: 115
Patch application failed, retry update.
E:unknown command [retry_update]
Updater process ended with ERROR: 7
I:Install took 16 second(s).
Error installing zip file '/sdcard/update.zip'
Updating partition details...`

Does this answer your question? Is it possible to flash a custom ROM without a custom recovery image?

Does this answer your question? How to install a firmware without losing your data and restore the previous one in case it goes wrong?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.


text:
Approaches to support exFat on AOSP Android 10+ where it isnt native
Just found out that my AOSP Android does not support exFat. Any thoughts about getting exFat support  added.  I read about this plugin that will work  only for USB-OTG not for memory card - lest I will be forced to go VFAT with the 4gb limitation.I have seen some discussion on stack regarding this but no solution.
--How do I compile exFat support in Kernel
--  -- If my /proc/mounts list ext4  does it mean if I format this to ext4 it will auto mount it or 1st partition of SD card unless vfat will not auto mount
 Alternatively how can I adopt this posix-vold project to my ROM .  I modified the install script & removed the checks ( for Oreo ,Arm64 etc )  and installed it via magisk and it get stuck at this point
Compressing Ramdisk to fit in partition.....insufficient partition size ...installation failed

 /proc/filesystems looks like this :
     # cat /proc/filesystems
nodev   sysfs
nodev   rootfs
nodev   ramfs
nodev   bdev
nodev   proc
nodev   cpuset
nodev   cgroup
nodev   cgroup2
nodev   tmpfs
nodev   configfs
nodev   debugfs
nodev   tracefs
nodev   sockfs
nodev   dax
nodev   bpf
nodev   pipefs
nodev   devpts
    ext3
    ext2
    ext4
    vfat
    msdos
    iso9660
nodev   sdcardfs
    fuseblk
nodev   fuse
nodev   fusectl
nodev   overlay
nodev   pstore
nodev   selinuxfs
nodev   functionfs

I am looking for something that will work. How about an X-posed mod any out there ?

Related: Since which Android version is exFat supported? and How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions? and How to create and use multiple partitions on external SD card with different filesystems?

guess the Known issue section applies to all solutions. maybe check post from Ziona (at least NTFS, untested)

ziona did not work I will post my debug log there

seems you must build your own kernel first

how "easy" is that..if easy enough remember that ota prob. ? wanna inc that as well. Surprised ... how in the world did Android dev think of iso9660 aka optical disk support and forgot exFat / NTFS

it's not easy, but possible. probably hardest step is find kernel source code https://www.xda-developers.com/micromax-in-note-1-in-1b-bootloader-unlock-guide-kernel-source-code

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
❓APK components - services, activities, broadcast & content receivers where's their data Stored?
As I understand
Every APK install is associated with these components. Trying to figure out precisely where they are stored.

Services
Activities
Broadcast receivers
Content receivers

For most apps through third party I am able to enable and disable these

But for certain APK which are /system APK's I am unable to save my settings .
They flip back to their default settings where all the undesirable components which are actually spyware are selected
So here are my questions

-- for a specific APK install , how do I enlist the names of APK components - services activities ,  content and broadcast receivers using ADB shell commands

---what would be a switch to disable them using ADB shell commands & ensure my settings are saved
---lastly  for certain APK's that is /system/priv-apps I am unable to to save my settings. What would be the reason. Do I need to chmodthe octals or remount rw

---where are these components stored APK folders .....
/system/app ,  /system/priv-apps , /data/app OR data folders  - /data/app

I am attaching the screenshot of  certain components whose settings I can't save
Appcomponent screenshot

You can get the information you are after by decompiling the target app's manifest (AndroidManifest.xml) and by looking into the output of adb shell dumpsys package PKG_NAME. Services and Activities can be disabled using adb shell pm disable-user --user USER_ID PKG/COMPONENT_NAME. See https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/47924/where-android-apps-store-data/218507#218507 to know where data of an app can be saved at.

Content and broadcast receivers are implemented in the app. What they do with the data you send is not specified. They can just ignore it or save it somewhere or do something else with it.

Thankyou folks. This third party tool screenshot of which I posted here successfully  checks off  all the adware broadcast receivers content activities and services for most apps. However in xiaomi phones there are system privileged apps where even if I un-check certain services activities etc. they will be checked back again. I wonder if the above   ADB  command's effect will be saved. It begs the question as to why that third-party tool wasn't successful in saving it's changes. Do I have to chmod  the APK file in spite of being   rooted

Android doesn't save app settings in APK files. They are merely read-only installable packages. So chmoding APK file doesn't make sense at all. Disabled states are saved in /data/system/users/<User_Id>/package-restrictions.xml. // Disabling components of system / privileged / framework apps isn't always possible. See my comment: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/239374/how-is-google-play-services-still-running-after-disabling#comment317806_239374

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


text:
"cold Blooded" hotspot : frequent internet connection failures. ... why do they happen
Short Story shorter
Hotspot  denies internet access to  Puppy Linux client only on a specific laptop while all other clients have no issue ( the same laptop with Windows partition can connect without any issue     ) and the only way I could fix it is "reset network settings" + reboot. Nothing else seems to work.
Scenario
2 Mobile phones : 1 Culprit Xiaomi  H1  and 1 AT & T ( control ) H2
Here is the picture cheat sheeted
normal laptop NL
Problem laptop PL

Problem hotspot # 1 H1
Ok hotspot # 2 - H2
puppy refers to the puppy Linux partition on the laptop
so e.g. PL.Puppy  ❌   H1 means puppy Linux on PL aka
problem laptop does not have internet connection via
hotspot H1

PL.Puppy  ❌   H1
PL.Puppy  ✓   H2
PL.WIndows ✓ H1
NL            ✓  H 1 && H2

I am able to ping the gateway 192.168.43.1 & traceroute
e.g.  www.yahoo.com will resolve the hostname to IP
but there will be no progress and it will time out and die.
this seems too strongly suggest that the gateway which
is the hotspot itself is not allowing internet access.

Question
--Why does my hotspot only on a specific phone keep denying internet access  ( unless of course the issue is at the  client aka laptop end but seems that's not the case )

--How can I do equivalent of "reset network setting" using  adb   and then  avoid reboot ( delete part of dalvik or /cache ? if so which specific files / folders )

Your analogy is a bit outdated. Nowadays Microsoft embraces Linux, you even can run Linux software on any Windows 10+ machine via WSL. And for your table, sorry I don't understand it. What is "Puppy"? And what are the columns/rows should tell me?

thanks for helping me e correct thst MS stereotype.... that was just on the lighter side I am aware think that changed with MS  (  but that was its business model once upon a time which made it king    ) ...... amended question to make it easier to understand

puppy refers to the puppy Linux partition on the laptop
so e.g. PL.Puppy  ❌   H1 means puppy Linux on PL aka
problem laptop does not have internet connection via
hotspot h1


text:
com.whatsapp_preferences.xml periodically gets overwritten how to prevent that from happening
on a magisk rooted Android 10 device
com.whatsapp_preferences.xml
( /data/data/com.whatsapp ? ... can't remember that path now )
has been updated with non default parameters as I needed but it periodically gets overwritten how to prevent that from happening.
what I did so far
even if reMount the partition as read write ( for my convenience I do it using total commander with root  though  I haven't tried I would assume it would end up the same way if I did it on command line ) it will not let me overwrite the original file with my modifications   & but if I  delete the original and copy the modified file that is allowed.  funny...why   ?
I did this and then chown (  to  root ) & chmod ed it to 444 then force stopped the app
cleared cache .new settings were working until next day I landed up with the same old file that it overwrote
question
now I am aware that for WhatsApp or any app to be able to write it should be the owner or maybe  the owner should be everyone .. that is the case here as well but the issue is how can I selectively prevent it from overwriting just one file  - implement this at file level   ?  alternatively how do I conceive a method that periodically overwrites the the original file with the one I have... after detecting that it has changed.
btw : my APK and data  is linked to to second partition which is ext4 via apps2SD

If the file is located under /data/data/com.whatsapp/... then only WhatsApp itself can write the file (or an app that uses root permissions) if you have not messed up the directory/file permissions.

i think the file is simply re-created because it can't accessed

yes that is the design directory private to an app is owned by the app. my question was if root  created a file in a private directory   & marked it  444  how can app hv privilege to del it & create its own file .  how can I prevent that behavior?

it's not the app. looking into /data/system/uiderrors.txt might give you idea how package manager handle wrong file permissions

opened that file & I do not see any recent reference to    WhatsApp and definitely won't find that file com.whatsapp_preferences.xml  but it is being replaced  (after deletion  ) I think and even the ownership changes as well as the privileges. if root  created an object anywhere and made it read-only how is it that a standard user can mess around with regardless of whether it is it is private directory

right. it's for uid (not permissions).. anyway, why do you think a standard user does this (and not package manager which has privileges)?

well it could be package manager as well but I assumed based on the fact that the owner was the app WhatsApp

replacing the file at startup every time which means I should make the changes every time at boot via init scriot

what is your namespace isolation settings?

global namespace  mode out of isolated inheritent  and global

You can make file immutable using chattr but that is very likely to break the app when it fails to write its own preferences file.

ok ✅ I could make the file  read only  but now it will not respect the changed parameters at least one of them may be others will be respected. multicast_limit_global value is being ignored. wonder how it is overriding that and considering the default ? I think the server refreshes the default value and copies them locally and now that it is not able to do so it is somehow taking into consideration its own values.  strange part is it used to work immediately after I made the change and then on the file refresh issue disappeared because I made the file genuinely read only but it it disr

Changing the permissions of the file can solve the problem.
Get the WhatsApp system group, you can use:
ls -la /data/data/com.whatsapp

Let's suppose that the WhatsApp system group is u0_a301.
Change the owner of the file to root and the group to WhatsApp group:
chown root:u0_a301 /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml

Then remove the write permission to the group:
chmod 640 /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml

That will prevent WhatsApp from writing the file and it can read it.

I tested it and it works, the file is not overwritten but I did not test if all the application works as expected.

I've already had tested file permissions   but the above answer was written as if with full  optimism which made me think maybe I haven't tested all cases . as I verified it gets overwritten on reboot .

:/data/sdext2/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs # ls -al com.whatsapp_preferences.xml -rw-rw---- 1 u0_a209 u0_a209 5948 2020-08-19 20:06 com.whatsapp_preferences.xml :/data/sdext2/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs # chown & chmod  both having reset

Strange! I tested it and it persist even after I rebooted multiple times and killing WhatsApp with `am force-stop com.whatsapp".

in fact even without reboot it is periodically checking for the file and resetting the perms and rewriting data  do you have the same Android version and this is the latest version of WhatsApp  ( in fact we may not be too concerned about the version because below a certain version they will not let you connect to their network )

The permissions are not overwritten in my case after rebooting and killing the App. -rw-r-----  1 root    u0_a301 5742 2020-08-19 10:24 com.whatsapp_preferences.xml the file still have the same permissions with the latest version of WhatsApp and Kernel version: 4.14.112 . Did the file change permissions after reboot only or at each time you open WhatsApp ?

are you by any chance running selinux permissive (SuperSU)? or lower android version?

No, SELinux is in enforcing mode. Android 10.

mine is permissive   ... and whatever I do even without reboot  it will periodically rewrite that file. I think you may be working on a laptop with simulated  environment of  Android. . . I had seen this in lower Android  versions also but never really pay serious attention.


text:
how to identify on command line terminal emulator apps and packages that have active network connections
I tried this using an app and I am able to identify most apps and their  network connections however there are certain apps listed as  '?' so apparently it is not able to identify a package name I would like to know how I can get this information on command line using termux or any other emulator. I am magiskaly  rooted on an Android 10   phone
also would like to get a list of apps that can modify contacts and then revoke modification of contacts from certain apps by command line

and on command line how do I force kill an app I mean I can use the hang -9 Signal ....but I am sure there must be a more gentle package-level way of force stopping an app title the equivalent of getting inside the app property on gui and clicking that force stop button

also delete the cache on command line

what I want to do is write a `batch` script that will overwrite certain app specific files that the app keeps resetting every time and then force stop and clear `cache` and restart the app

If you mean by network connection the applications that has "android.permission.INTERNET" permission, then run this shell script:

for package in $(pm list packages -3 | cut -f2 -d":"); do
dumpsys package $package | grep "android.permission.INTERNET: granted=true" > /dev/null && echo $package
done;

If you want to list all applications that are connected to internet:

netstat -tuplna

That will list all application that has an established connection

If you want for each App an their mobile data usage:

for package in $(pm list packages | cut -f2 -d":"); do echo $package; pm dump $package | grep  "Mobile network"; done;

To kill an App:

am force-stop PACKAGE_NAME

Clear cache:

pm clear PACKAGE_NAME

Good Morning  thanks for responding I actually extended the question with some other related subs as well if you have a chance to respond to those .....will then gladly ✅ this off.


text:
How to prevent an app clearing its own data
How to prevent an app clearing its own data . Thats the 3rd time WhatsApp deleted its own data against Users wish. There can be a zillon reasons which I don't care . If the user does not clear data - then the data should be there.
Is there anyway to implement that ? If I am rooted how about if I do this :
busybox chattr +a +u /data/data/com.whatsapp

You can append but cant delete files. will the app crash ? what happens. I want to ask before crashing anything that works.
what if you do just +u
u set : When such a file is deleted, its data is saved enabling the user to ask for its undeletion.

In the latter case , if the app were to del. its data , I'd be able to restore it ?
P.S. this is not your internal storage f2fs but its an ext4 file system  since the  data  folder is linked to my SD card Partition.

I don't think that this will work. Databases like SQLite create temporary files when opened and delete them when closed. Better make backup so you may be able to restore data. And avoid the scenarios where Whatsapp deletes your data (usually apps don't delete their data without a reason, otherwise this would be a bug).

A more fundamental issue here is that Android doesn't really control what apps do, it just gives them specific permissions to do (or not) do things... One things apps are explicitly allowed to do is have their own file "space" and control over their own files, read, write, edit, and delete, within their own context... I don't know of anyway you could prevent that and keep the app functional.

Android is  a  'hypercustom' Linux .  The command is available. I tried some scenarios myself I can add files to a dir. I can append data to a file but I cant delete it - but the Q I had was  how  WhatsApp ( WA  ) modifies msgstore.db in its internal data. If it adds records without creating an open file handle it will work . If it has to open the file , modify & close it will not allow it. I wonder what situation will apply


text:
Set the background image of the main menu in Lollipop
Since Lollipop it seems like the background of the menu you reach when pressing the "menu" bottom at the middle of the bottom of the phone is not the desktop background anymore but rather is just white. Can I somehow set it to be again the desktop background?
This is Android 5.0.2 on a Moto G (2nd gen)

From what I'm reading, this must be something they took off for Android 5.0 Lollipop, as it sounds as if you need a custom ROM, or a special launcher to make this happen again.  It no longer supports having the background image on the menu.

In Android 5.0 Lollipop, Google introduced a white background to the app drawer screens. This follows their material design philosophy, but may be too bright for some of us.
There is no setting to switch app drawer themes or get KitKat's dark semi-transparent background back, but you can change this by installing a different launcher app.

Source 1
Source 2

I use apex launcher..

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


text:
Media volume automatically goes to zero when removing headphones
Whenever I remove the headphone jack1 while I have some media playing2, the file stops (which is what I want and expect) but the media volume also goes down to zero (which is unexpected and I would prefer not to happen).
If I pause the media file before removing the headphone jack this does not occur.
Is this a setting I missed? Is there a way I can prevent it from happening, or do I simply need to remember to pause before removing the jack?

1 Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.4 (although this also happened with 4.0.2).
2 I have observed this with DoggCatcher and Google Music.

Did you ever use Tasker or Locale to setup some sort of trigger (on headset removal) previously?

Haven't used either.

I've come to assume this is a bug, because I've experienced the same problem (along with this seemingly related one).

@eldar: Thanks for the pointer to Volume Control +. I think it'll be helpful (although not for the issue I'm currently having).

I was having the same problem with my phone until I uninstalled the turntable.fm app.  This is the post that clued me into the fix: https://forums.motorola.com/posts/bc23079218

That might be it. I did recently install that app. I'll uninstall and report back.

Well, what do you know? That appears to be the issue. Now why the %$@# turntable.fm would mess with a global setting like that is a mystery.

Nice find, by the way.

Oh wow. I've had other issues with TT.fm. They didn't develop that app very well :/. For example, I lost connection once and TT.fm (of all apps!) comes up with a screen saying I need a connection to continue using the app (I had already left a room and was no longer using the app before I lost the connection). Then I had a hard time getting that screen to go away, it was as if it kept popping up. Bizarre.

What a piece of junk. After uninstalling turntable.fm not only did this issue get fixed, but also my device stopped automatically turning off silent mode when plugged in to charge.

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


text:
Is there a way to make the Gingerbread notification behave like ICS?
The ICS notification allows users to "swipe" single notifications away. I was wondering if this can be done on a rooted Gingerbread phone?

On a stock carrier/manufacturer's ROM there's probably not a whole lot you can do I would imagine, but CyanogenMod 7 (its Gingerbread-based version) allows you to dismiss individual notifications by swiping them away. You can see it in action in this Lifehacker article.

Are there any 3rd party apps or mods that will allow me to do that on the Xperia GB rom?

@ShedoSurashu: I've never seen one (although that doesn't mean one does not exist somewhere). Re-working the notification bar's behavior is somewhat non-trivial, though, and AFAIK it's not really possible without modifying the Android source.

There is a mod for this by, I think, TeamNocturnal...I have it working on Stock gb 2.3.5 for ZTE Merit.  Google search "swipe to clear notifications mod."


text:
Play High-Resolution mp4 Videos on Galaxy Y
When I try to play high resolution videos on my phone I get this error message:

Sorry, this video cannot be played

Is there a way to make these videos play, like an app that can handle these videos or is it a limitation of my device?

mp4 is not a supported format by default in android, your question shows very little research into the matter because a simple google query gave an answer.

I can play all videos like 780p HD on Galaxy Y. Download MX Player from Google Play.

If you can, please provide link to the app.

Yes: Galaxy Y can play .mp4 videos. I'll tell you how to do that:
The first thing you should do is download Mx Player from Playstore, install it and open the app. Enjoy your .mp4 videos!

Please fix some typos and check your spelling. Other than that the answer is quite right.

And please avoid txtspeak. Keep in mind that many users here are not native English speakers, already having a hard time without that.

The answer, unfortunately, is not better than the existing answer and instead a dupe. Please avoid adding an answer if there's already a same answer.


text:
Samsung p7510 versus p5110 : what are the main differences?
I'm in a tight schedule to buy someone a tablet in the ipad2-range, but I want to buy an Android device.
After some research I decided to buy the Samsung Tab  10.1" P5110 (I don't need 3G).  However the Samsung Tab 10.1" p7510 is much easier to find in a short term.  When comparing both I got a bit confused because I don't get the main differences between both models.
Is there an obvious 'best one' ?


text:
SGS3: I have all LED indicators turned off, still get blue led when gmail sees an email and screen is off
If I have LED Indicator/missed event set to off I wouldn't expect to see the blue led flashing.
I want the incoming email noise and icon as usual, just don't want it flashing away (I'm trying to sleep!). Don't want to have to turn phone face down.
Anyone know why it seems to ignore my settings?
Thanks.

It's not actually possible to fully disable the LED for Gmail without disabling email notifications altogether. Your only alternative is to use an app like LightFlow (of which there is a free, 'lite' edition).
Hopefully there will be a fix for this in a future update.

Hope so, this is a pretty big oversight. Why have settings when they don't get obeyed?


text:
Closing applications
I guess this has to do with our habit on desktop computers where we

open an application
use it
close the application

AFAIK there's no direct way from within the application to close it. And by pressing the Home button app just gets into the background. Still running.
I got a habit of pressing Home, then Recent apps and flicking all open apps out.
Is this a bad habit? Should I leave applications like GMail, FB, Currents, GNow, etc. running or is it better to close them and have as less apps as possible running?

AFAIK, flinging the apps from Recent Apps view doesn't close them but simply removes them from your view so it doesn't do anything at all other than clear up your Recent Apps clutter. Might come in handy if you have a lot of apps open.

For a slightly older perspective on this, including the difference between pressing the Home and Back buttons to exit an app, see What is the right way to close apps in Android?

See also: How can I stop applications and services from running?

Just to correct the comment @Propeller made (at least for recent Android versions), please take a look at What actually happens when you swipe an app out of the recent apps list?

From a developers point of view (my point of view):
Application's on Android work a specific way, they all have their own life cycle, the main ones we are talking about here is when the application is paused, or stopped (onPause, onStop) and when the application is destroyed (onDestroy), these two states are brought to light in different ways, onPause is when the user can no longer see the application, or screen, this is when the user presses home or clicks something on the screen that takes them to another screen, like pressing a link for example, there is still a possibility of you needing this screen, for example when you press the back button to get back to the screen, you still want it in the same state, so the application is still open and waiting for you to return.
The other state, when the application is destroyed, can happen three ways, firstly the developer might of added something in to close the application automatically, for example the Endomondo application you can press menu > exit, this will "close" the application and it will no longer be in memory. The next way is the user pressing back on it, as in there is no way to get back to the exact screen (for example you can't press forward to get to it) so the application is no longer needed so it is closed.
The third way that an application is destroyed, or closed, is when Android needs more memory, when this happens it clears the applications that haven't had interaction the longest. Android does this itself, if it needs more memory it will get it.
So in all leaving applications open isn't a bad happen, however some applications can still use a lot of CPU power and not memory when its in the background, if you think this is going to happen you should close it yourself, android should be able to pick up on this however
Have a look here at the states of a activity, or a screen:

EDIT:

Pressing back on a screen: Activity destroyed (onPause > onStop >
onDestroy)
Swiping application away on recent apps: Activity
destroyed (onPause > onStop > onDestroy)
Pressing home: Application
kept in memory, only if the developer hasn't added a self close
feature (onPause > onStop)
Navigating away from app, link etc:
Application kept in memory, as above (onPause > onStop)

I'm a developer too so this info is very easily consumed by my brain... :) So where in the flow diagram is the event when I press the Recent apps and swipe an app off it (I understand this act as actually closing the app)? Between onPause and onStop or between onStop and onDestroy? If it's the latter, then please explain the state transition between the first one. But if it's the first one, then I can see the transition to onDestroy similar to garbage collection? Non-deterministic event?

check out the edit, on think thats what you want.

Kinnda... But I think you're wring at #1 and #4. Pressing back gets the app to stopped state and not destroyed. It's still in recent apps. So the same as pressing home. and with #4: navigating away (i.e link) gets the app into paused state as per flow diagram.

BTW: While testing this with GMail app I actually found a bug in it when it resumes from stopped state. :)

The activity theoretically should be finishing on 1 and I was right on 4, onPause > onStop is correct

The answer is simple: Do not close apps when possible!
Android takes care of app managemnt by leaving them stick around (which is not necessary in memory) when possibile allowing faster startup times and resumption where you left. Swiping out a app of the recent app list is similar too closing it, but not the same.

This is not technically better. One of the main characteristics of Android is to simulate multitasking. When you switches the application to another (yeah, even the Home launcher is an application), Android pauses the current activity and tries to load the data of the next into memory. So, two things can happen here:

If there's enough free memory, the data is loaded and the new activity is started. In this scenario, there's no trouble to switch back to the last application, since it's already running;
If there's a lack of memory, Android have to "backup" the data of the current activity into internal storage. This has a cost and a delay; after doing that, Android can finally load the new activity into memory.

From a performance point of view, keeping as much data as you can on RAM memory is benefic. The fact that an app data is still on memory doesn't mean it's consumming battery resources, unless there's a service running, which is not always the case.
So, pressing Home or Back buttons has in practice the same effect on memory usage. Android is designed to manage RAM itself, and it's not a good idea to kill apps unless you really know what you're doing.
Many people start having problems when use many apps that run services in background. Some services tend to stay always in memory performing some task (like keeping you online, checking for new messages etc.). This costs more resources (memory and battery), and if your phone is slow everytime, it's a good idea to check which services are running and maybe uninstall some of them (you can see them in Configurations/Applications/Running services).
If you want to learn more things about that, you should take a look at this post: http://android-developers.blogspot.com.br/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

As far as I understand, Android is supposed to look after this itself. Many apps have services that run almost separately from the visible part as well and part of the lifecycle of Android apps is that the OS can indeed choose to close threads down as it sees fit.
But buried in the docs so well I don't remember quite where it is is the information that "Back"ing out of an app will tend to shut it down rather than if you just go "Home". Graphics-intensive apps like 'Angry Birds' should be closed like this, in fact, because the app gets the opportunity to shutdown processor-intensive threads properly.


text:
How do I disable all emoticons on incoming/outgoing text messages?
I just received a couple of text messages from a friend. The first message read "Type in this expression exactly, or the script will not work." The second message read "Equals symbol, emoticon, five, emoticon, closing parenthesis, emoticon"

I later found out that he actually sent "=x-(5:O)<3" ("Equals symbol, x, minus symbol, opening parenthesis, five, colon, capital o, closing parenthesis, less than symbol, three")
I have noticed that my outgoing texts have the same problem.
I have searched the internet for solutions, but there is conflicting information about whether or not the emoticons are sent over the internet as text or as images. Some say that smileys are not ordinary characters and are converted into MMS before sending and others think they are just sent as it is and phone translates them later, Furthermore, none of the proposed solutions on the internet have worked for me.
I have 2 questions:

How do I disable all emoticons on incoming text messages?
How do I disable all emoticons on outgoing text messages?

Can you also mention your device model, Android version and messaging app that you use? (I assume it's Samsung Galaxy Note 3's standard Messaging app, based on the link and image?) AFAIK, real emoji are characters with their ID outside of standard characters (latin or other languages), so it seems that your/sender's app automatically converts some familiar emoticons with their real emoji counterpart.

My device is a Samsung Galaxy Note 4.  My OS is 5.0.1.  My messaging app is the only one the phone came with, "Messages".

The Simplest solution for this not to happen is by putting a space between each, but this won't solve you're question. Android has a few default Emoticon it uses, and as such if the correct lettering happens they will auto convert.

You can install a 3rd party SMS app called Handcent Next SMS which provides the option to disable emoticons on all (incoming/outgoing) sms.
Install the app → Settings (inside app) → Custom style → Conversation settings → Disable smileys

Click to enlarge

Alternatively if you're on rooted android, you can recompile your Samsung Stock-Messages app (SecMmsCandy.apk) by deleting all the supporting pre-defined resource files and install back the modded version onto the phone although I'm not sure if it's such a good idea and most probably won't work, too. But if you're feeling adventurous here's the path
/system/priv-app/SecMms_Candy/SecMms_Candy.apk

Click to enlarge


text:
Black status bar icon on Marshmallow making it unreadable on dark wallpaper
Even though the title enunciates the problem, the question is about a solution or workaround to this behaviour.
As I have found, Marshmallow normally colors the status bar icons (Wi-Fi, Battery, Clock) on the launcher (home screens) by taking the colour of the topmost region of the wallpaper currently set and tinting the icons to a darker version of it.
This is all well and good if you have the sky there in your wallpaper, or something light-coloured; but if you have a night-time cityscape as your wallpaper, it colours the icons to be "Darker Than Black" (pun intended). So, magically, your Wi-Fi, Battery, Clock and everything else just disappears from the status bar. Only they haven't disappeared. Set a light wallpaper or a dark one with the top region light, and they're back.
I don't think that this is a problem with the launcher, as I use both Nova Prime and Google Now Launcher, and both have this problem. I also checked the System UI Tuner options for such settings relating to this tinting mechanism, and they're nonexistent (The settings there include what statusbar icons and quick settings tiles to show, battery icon customization, demo mode, and that's it).
I know of 3 possible workarounds to prevent this behaviour:

Disable Nova Launcher's transparent statusbar option under "Look and Feel", but I don't want to do that.
Use Xposed+FSCB (Flat Style Colored Bars) or similar. Well, Xposed on Lollipop 32-bit was unstable. Marshmallow ARM64? (I really have no idea, but I'm definitely not willing to take the risk.
This was a no-brainer. Use a light wallpaper. (Well, then I wouldn't have asked this question, would I?)

The question is: "Can I have the best of both worlds (i.e., my dark nighttime cityscapes as wallpapers and visible statusbar icons)?"
The solutions I'll prefer can involve root but not Xposed, and not 1 or 3 above. Also, it's preferable if the solution tints the icons to white on a dark wallpaper but preserves the stock behaviour otherwise, and doesn't affect apps other than the launcher, because my problem doesn't affect apps other than the launcher.
Background:
My HTC Nexus 9 16GB, Wi-Fi, flounder/volantis running Marshmallow 6.0.0 MRA58K rooted with TWRP 2.8.7.0 ElementalX 4.02
Some pictures:
Click images to enlarge
Light wallpaper:

Dark wallpaper:

Dark wallpaper with light top region (Whaat?):

What I want ( This is from my phone, same Nova Prime, 4.4.2, (Lollipop signal icons courtesy GravityBox KK)):

@AndrewT. I don't know why it was happening in Google Now Launcher, but turning off said feature in Nova fixed the issue in both launchers

I had no idea Nova enabled this by default on Marshmallow. The option doesn't seem to exist on my 4.4.2 phone

Yeah, that problem might be on my side, but as it got solved, I won't investigate it further. Thanks.

Based on reddit (and I have tested it myself), apparently it's a feature of Nova Launcher on Android 6.0 Marshmallow called "Dark icons". It seems it's enabled by default for existing users after updating the app (on my case, new installation will have to turn this setting on manually).
The setting can be checked on Nova Settings - Look & feel - Dark icons. Note that this is a new feature of Marshmallow, allowing an app to have black status icons for light status bar, and thus, the setting is only available on Marshmallow and above.
As for why it also affected Google Now Launcher, I actually have no idea, since I couldn't reproduce the issue on Nexus 5 running Marshmallow 6.0. Even if I leave the option enabled on Nova Launcher, changing the home setting (on Settings - Home - Google Now Launcher) and pressing "Home" button will revert the whole launcher to Google Now Launcher with its default white icon.

You're right. I got it by default by updating the app.

Based on @Andrew T.'s research, I understood that this isn't actually an issue with the system, rather it was a feature, "Dark Icons", that Nova Launcher only shows on and enables by default on Marshmallow, not on KitKat or lower (unsure about Lollipop).
The option on Marshmallow devices exists under Nova Settings → Look and Feel → Dark Icons (a switch). Disabling this made the icons go white everywhere, as normal.
I had no idea why this affected Google Now Launcher also, but disabling the option in Nova fixed it there too. The effect on Google Now Launcher made me think it was a system feature/bug, but I'll clarify this was not actually so. This was due to Nova Launcher and some unknown condition which made it affect both launchers. That reason might be system-specific. Thanks for everyone's help.


text:
How to disable the assist input when the home button is long pressed?
I have removed Google Now in order to assign long press on home button to open another app. But recently it comes back with a different interface I'm familiar with. I guess the phone just has updated it.
However I'm unable to disable or uninstall it. In Google Play I can't find which app has just been updated. In the setting of the app there is no option to disable it.
These are some system Google apps that's under my suspicion: Google Services Framework, Google Partner Setup, Google One Time Init, Google Play Store and Google Play services. But I find no evidence to against them.

It turns out that it's actually from Firefox, not Google. To disable this, go to Setting › Apps › Configure apps (the gear button) › Default Apps › Assist & voice input and change to none:

Try installing a launcher, like Nova. It gives you a vast amount of options for customisation of your device, including long press home.
Hope this helps

I'm not sure promoting "pirating" paid apps on here is a good idea, certainly not moral.

sorry, will edit accordingly, went for maximum benefit of users here @JonnyWright

I'm actually in a non-stock launcher (Apex). I also have root and Xposed, but this still happens


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Move to SD Card doesn't move everything
I have noticed that when I move apps to the SD card, it doesn't move everything. Is this a bug or a known behaviour or something weird going on with my phone?
Here's an example:

Start point: Phone free space: 18MB
Install Skype app: Phone free space: 3MB, Skype is apparently using 15MB for the App
Move Skype to SD Card: Phone free space: 8MB, Skype is now apparently using just 5MB for the App.

What appears to have happened is it's only moved some of the App, not the whole thing. It's a real pain for me as I have an HTC Desire, which doesn't have much internal memory (I live on the balance of the low memory warning). It's running the official HTC Gingerbread install...

Just realised I didn't really ask a question here, but I guess it's implied! But should be: "Is there anything I can do about this?" :)

Indeed, Android's native "Move to SD Card" does not move the entire app to the card.  Things like app's data, cache and dalvik-cache (optimized bytecode) are left on the device's internal memory.  You can try to mitigate this by regularly clearing out the cache of apps you use most often (e.g. Browser, etc.) by going to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All, then selecting the app, and tapping the Clear cache button.  However, you will just be delaying the inevitable.
Also, the fact that not all apps support being moved to SD does not help the situation.  For example, widgets and sync adapters may not be moved to SD Card due to a limitation of Android.  Other apps simply have not been updated to support this functionality.
If your phone is rooted, you have more choice to mitigate this shortcoming.  First, some custom ROMs (e.g. CyanogenMod) allow you to move all non-system apps to the SD Card, even if they don't explicitly support this functionality (even Widgets can be moved, but will stop working after a reboot.)
There are also alternative "Apps to SD" solutions that can move all non-system apps to the SD Card on a rooted phone.  For example, the S2E app works wonders on CM ROM, and is very easy to install and use.  The DarkTremor A2SD script is a lot more difficult to set up and configure, but works on different custom ROMs.

I waited so long for HTC's official Gingerbread release and now it looks like I'll be best rooting my phone after all. I'm now having to Clear Data on one or two apps once or twice a day to try and keep some space available! Once it's low on space, it won't download any more Gmail emails, which is very annoying as it's my main source of email!

Some apps simply need things in system memory. Whether it's to access them more quickly or there's some implicit dependency, i do not know. i have observed this as well, although in my experience, it's not with every app.
For example, a game should not depend on any inherent system files, and should be able to be pushed fully to the SD card (in my experience, they all have). On the other hand, an application like Skype depends on several system functions (and if it had to run completely from the SD card, i'm not sure how well it would work).
I'm in the same situation, the EVO only has ~420 MB to work with, and i like apps ;) so i'm constantly in the balance. I've taken to uninstalling things i haven't used for a week or two.

Sorry, I think you're on the wrong track here. The topic is storage memory, not working memory. These apps are taking away space in storage memory while they aren't actually running, so most of your points are simply irrelevant and/or incorrect.

i'm not talking about working memory

Then I don't understand what you mean by 'access them more quickly' and 'depends on several system functions' and how that's relevant for storage memory.

The solution is to link dalvik-cache folder (/data/dalvik-cache) to
a copy of it in the ext partition of the sdcard (/sd-ext) after
deleting the original dalvik-cache folder. The command on the
terminalemulator window should be something like
"ln -s /sd-ext/pseudo-dalvik-cache /data/dalvik-cache"
where pseudo-dalvik-cache is just a renamed copy of original
dalvik-cache. Of course you need root permissions (a rooted phone).


text:
How do I get a gmail account on my HTC Cha Cha?
I live in China and when I go to Settings > Accounts it's not an option to add a Gmail / Google one, is there any software I can download ?

You can manually add a Gmail mailbox using IMAP in the separate Email app.
As to adding a Google account to sync your contacts and calendar, unfortunately a great many of Android devices obtained from China have this "issue". The best course of action is to flash a firmware meant for the same device, but from a different region.
THese links might help - SuperDroidROM for ChaCha // HTC ChaCha forum on XDA

As to registering a new Google Account (Gmail Account), you can do it on this page: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp
As to how to add the Gmail account to your phone, you can do it from the Accounts & sync menu:

"Google" is not an account choice on Chinese firmware.


text:
Will I get OTA updates after installing Android L Developer preview?
I installed Android L developer preview on my Nexus 5. Now I was wondering if I still would get over-the-air updates. If not is there a way of fixing this?

No.
For users who are using Android L Developer preview will need to reflash the phone and install the fresh build.

If you want to receive the official consumer OTA update in November and any other official updates, you will have to have a factory image on your Nexus device.

Official Source

For the developer preview versions, there will not be an over the air (OTA) update.

This is clearly mentioned in announcement at Android Developer Blog.
So, when the actual Lollipop comes out on November 3rd, Google will create factory images for Nexus Devices and upload to Factory Images for Nexus Devices. Fetch it and flash it again to enjoy Lollipop on your Nexus 5.

authors: Алексей Горин


text:
Install Android-x86 in Virtualbox VM, then root it
Problem
I want to install Android in a VM to restore a backup using Titanium Backup. For this to work, I need Android to be rooted.
What I tried
I've tried to install Android-x86 4.3 in a Virtualbox VM. The installation seems to work. I made an 8GB partition disk (sda1), made it bootable, and installed Android in it from an ISO file. This all seems to work. Android starts, I can browse the internet, install apps, etc. Then I want to restart the VM, and guess what?! I go back to the installation screen, like starting up from the ISO live image.
For normal stuff, I can make a snapshot, start that up, and do anything. My problem is that I need root permission to restore a Titanium Backup in that VM. And I cannot root this VM because the disk is not writeable. With Alt-F1, I become root and I can use a script to root Android. But my guess is that I'm still on the ISO and that is not writeable.
Update - another try with Android 4.2
As mentioned in the comments, 4.3 would have problems with root access. I tried 4.4, which didn't start at all. Then I tried 4.2, which has the same problem as 4.3 for me. I made a screenshot of what I see when I try to run the rootscript, which is described here.
You can see the errors: rm failed - Read only filesystem
How can I fix this?

My question
How can I install Android permanently on this VM, so it can reboot and then be rooted?

If you're talking about Android-x86 in VirtualBox: It usually comes with root access. Except for the 4.3 image, which I also failed to get root access on. You might wish to try a different image then.

I'm going to try 4.4. It does come with root access, but that only works for the terminal via ALT-F1. It does not mean that the apps can use root access.

I've got 4.0 (ICS) running in a VM. It has /system/xbin/su as well as /system/app/Superuser.apk, the latter being for the apps part. Never checked 4.4, but doesn't it have these as well?

I can't get 4.4 to start up. So I'll give 4.2 a try and hope that works.

Aside from the rooting, why can't I reboot after installing? Why does it seem like I go back to the live image? Do I miss a step somehow?

I've updated the question - 4.2 didn't work as well.

Sure, if /system is read-only. On install you can decide to have it read/write by default (which is what I did), makes things easier. You can also mount -o remount,rw /system to make it writeable. You might also wish to check first whether Superuser.apk does already exist, before you try installing it (I don't remember if I needed to install it or if it already was there).

For your reboot problem, it sounds like your boot order is booting off the .iso, i.e., cdrom, before it looks for the disk partition where you installed Android. Shut everything down and disconnect the .iso. You can just delete the CD device under the controller within VirtualBox Settings->Storage. You probably shouldn't just change the boot order or you will have trouble reinstalling if you ever need to. However, if you want to change the order, look under Settings->System->Motherboard.

Step 1: Choose File > Close > Power off the machine. Start the Android VM again, but this time choose Advanced options > Boot from local drive > Android x86 debug mode.
Step 2: Execute the following commands one by one to open the menu.lst file.
mount –o remount,rw /mnt
vi /mnt/grub/menu.lst

Step 3: After the menu.lst file is opened, press “i” key to enter the edit mode. Then, add “nomodeset_” before “quiet root”. After that, press “Esc” key to exit the edit mode. Then, press “:wq” and Enter to save changes and quit.

Tip: When I type the “:wq” command, I get the “:wq not found” error and I fail to solve the problem. I just continue to power off the machine and the method works still. If you also receive this error, just ignore it and continue.
Step 4: Choose File > Close > Power off the machine. Then, start the Android VM again and choose Advanced options > Boot from local drive > Android x86. Wait until you enter the GUI. Then, you will get the following picture. Please follow the on-screen instructions to set up Android.
Tip: Some people also report that they have solved the problem by going to Settings > Display, setting graphic controller to VBoxVGA, and then turning on or off the 3D Acceleration accordingly.
Source:Partiton Wizard

Credits : here.


text:
Disable Location History in Android

If I disable Location History and keep Location Reporting enabled, will Google still save the Locations I've been to? I am purchasing an Android phone for the first time and I am quite paranoid about security.
If I use plain GPS and not Google Location Services, will I be missing anything?
Is using Google Maps on Android secure, or should I use any alternate apps. I am looking for an offline GPS that I can use for apps like Runtastic etc.

In theory no, but probably, can be deleted at any time. 2) It will ONLY use GPS and not WiFi location and use more battery and not work indoors. 3) Opinion based. If you don't trust Google I guess Android is a bad idea to begin with to be honest.

The answer to "Is X secure?" is always "secure against what?" What are you worried about? It's secure in the sense that it won't let people run malware on your phone, but that's probably not what you're thinking of.

If you're "that paranoid", I might refer you to my Android without Google series. I can not really proof it, but I would bet Google is collecting all it can get – and disabling history just disables you from seeing it. There were enough other "incidents" where similar things were discovered which I could name (but don't fit in a comment, nor are on-topic here).

@RossC 2) can be done with OpenCellID for WiFi/Cell location. Concerning "Can be deleted any time" I have my doubts. That was said for backups of WiFi APs as well – still, tech magazin Heise found them restored weeks later. For 3) – Android != Google. The former works fine without the latter (see link in my previous comment). Not sure if that can be said the other way around, too ;) But yes: definitely opinion-based.

@Izzy yeah can (in theory) be deleted. Unofficially (from sources) Chrome saves an extraordinary amount of data on the user, and it's saved full time. I wouldn't trust it myself tbh. Yeah Android and Google can be separated but it is hard to disable EVERYTHING and be sure there's nothing running somewhere behind the scenes. I can't tell the actual story but suffice to say I have seen people quit jobs and face serious hardship, claiming ethical concerns around data gathering in certain applications / browsers/ OS functions. Then the OEMs store their own data and send it out....

I have had 12 Mb .txt files send out from my phone despite disabling all those options thanks to Samsung amongst others. It's 'off in theory' but sending data like a good thing.

Which is why I'm speaking of a completely open source ROM using open source apps only. No chance to control proprietary stuff. Guess that's also the idea behind Replicant.

@Izzy thanks for the link you provided on Replicant

You're welcome, @HasH_BrowN (missed you in chat, btw ;) You might be interested in my summary below as well then :D

Summing up all the comments:
Will Google save the locations?
Definitely. As soon as you want to use the more battery-friendly “network based location” you have to agree that Google collects your location data “to improve its services”:

click image for larger variant
So “location history” and ”location report” are meaningless in this context. As it was adressed: Whilest theoretically you should be able to delete all collected data associated with your account, first Google claims here it's “anonymous” (so not connected to your account) – and second, noone except Google can tell if “deleting” really means the data was “destroyed”. Different reports rather suggest otherwise, as e.g. a German tech magazin found out: They decided to delete all backups from Google servers. Weeks later, they wanted to test a new device, and configured it with the very same account. Miraculously, that device immediately connected to their WiFi. How can that be, with the backups deleted? (Find the full article here, in German).
Will you miss anything when switching to GPS only?
Depends on your “usage profile”. When no satellites are in sight, you would be unable to find your location. That could be e.g. with heavy clouds, or inside buildings – where otherwise a “coarse location” based on WiFi APs and mobile cell IDs would be possible. But there are ways to get that functionality back without Google: The OpenCellID project is aimed to provide the data, and there are several connected apps – including alternative open source network location providers. But to use those, your device must be rooted, as these services must be installed as system apps. You can find out more in my Android without Google series.
Should you use alternative maps?
That's pretty much opinion-based. I do so, but not solely for the reasons you mentioned. There are alternatives (part 2 of the just mentioned series names some). Furthermore, let me quote Dan here:

The answer to "Is X secure?" is always "secure against what?" What are you worried about? It's secure in the sense that it won't let people run malware on your phone, but that's probably not what you're thinking of.

IMHO you cannot avoid completely that some services collect data on you. You can minimize it, you can make it harder for them – and you definitely shouldn't offer your data on a silver tablet. It's always balancing privacy and convenience. So how much privacy you can gain, depends on how much convenience you're willing to give up.
More hints
Not only if you're absolutely paranoid (correct: today that's called “informed”), a custom-rom can offer you advantages. As those usually ship without all the pre-installed bloat, your battery will last much longer (on my “Android device without Google”, 3 times longer: 4,5 days, and still 20% left). In this context, I have to mention Replicant – which is aimed at absolute open-source. Unfortunately, only few devices are supported.

Great write up!  +1


text:
How to bypass FRP on Google Pixel(1st Gen)?
First, It's not a duplicate post. I have already tried the methods written for different phones like this generic one but it's for LG and Samsung phones.
Also, I have watched this video but "Maps" is not shown as an option along with cut and copy.
Please help me get this phone to work.

Try this: https://www.hardreset.info/devices/google/google-pixel/faq/bypass-google-verification/ [Edited by Moderator Firelord]

This has been discussed on site meta and currently all questions dealing with FRP are marked as dupe, though that question is for a specific device but the logic in the answer linked earlier holds


text:
LG Nexus 5 touch screen not responding
I had a LG Nexus 5 running Android in developer mode with the "Show touches" option enabled. Suddenly, while holding the phone steadily in my hand, the device registered tons of touches in the top of the screen, and I decided to turn it off immediately.
Now, after a reboot, the touch screen does not respond at all (not true; very rarely responds in a weird manner, that I can not reproduce). Everything else is working: volume buttons and power button.
I have tried the following:

Rebooting (obviously)
Restoring to factory settings (which is why I am now stuck on the "Select language"-screen in setup)
Clearing phone cache
Clearing the sim tray (has always been empty, but I tried ejecting and taking back in)

I always updated the software to the newest version available.
I have not yet tried pulling the battery out and in again.
Any ideas?
Update 1:
I have now tried pulling out the battery and re-inserting without any luck. I also installed Kitkat (version 4.0 from https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images). Still no response.

Might be a hardware problem. I suspect digitizer.

I had a similar problem. Dropped my Nexus 5 last night with screen facing downwards. There was no damage to the LCD and its power and volume buttons were working fine too. However phone stopped responding to any touch. I suspected its digitizer was broken. So I googled for a solution and whacked the screen a few times as suggested on few of the forums. Also came across a suggestion from someone who had a similar problem to keep it in a freezer for 30 seconds. Alas phone remained adamant and refused to embrace my touch.
I checked with LG service centre for the cost albeit it was a too expensive proposition to replace LCD and digitizer (apparently in Nexus 5 its one unit and in case of damage to either component, you need to go for both).
With nothing to lose as a last ditch effort I kept my phone in the freezer again and forgot about it for an hour or so. Voila that did the trick and phone is alive again and working like a charm!


text:
Issue with WhatsApp's downloaded videos
I have got a new Moto G4 Plus. When I tap to play a downloaded video message, I tap it many times but it doesn't play. However, when I go back to all chats and return to the message, it then opens finely with one tap only. Please tell what's with it?

Try updating the Google Photo app from Google Play, or install it.

First reboot your mobile and try to uninstall and reinstall it back...

It is already updated.

@VigneshReddy  I often hate doing thus, but still will try and update you.


text:
Unlocking screen brings up Phone app on Lollipop
I just updated my Nexus 4 to Lollipop. Now, every time I unlock my phone, the Phone app opens. Surely this is a bug and not a feature. It doesn't matter if I received a notification; and I'm not clicking the phone icon at the bottom - I slide to unlock, draw my secret pattern and am instantly taken to the phone app.
Does anyone know what's going on here?

I figured it out. Swiping to the right opens the phone, swiping to the left, the camera and swiping up unlocks to the home screen.

This seems to be a common complaint.


text:
How to change device name used by Google Chrome?
I use the same Google account with Google Chrome on several devices including my Android phone. So, Google Chrome shows me tabs opened on other devices (ex: chrome://history/). Is there any way to change the name assigned for my Android device there?
See the following screen as example - I would like to change "Galaxy Nexus" to something else.

As of 2019, the Android devices cannot be renamed; both from themselves and from other devices.
The name listed on "Other devices" currently depends on the operating system:

Windows, macOS, and Linux use their hostname
Android possibly uses its marketing name from Google Play's supported devices
Chrome OS use their product name (e.g. Chromebook, Chromebit)

However, renaming the device directly from the Chrome browser has not been implemented.
This was reported as Issue #124964 in Chromium Bugs Tracker since Apr 24, 2012, requesting a feature to allow devices in "Other devices" menu to be renamed. The report was branched into 2 separate issues:

Issue #455925 for mobile UI
Issue #664647 for desktop UI


text:
Device recognized as ????? in ubuntu
Hello good people of stack exchange, I am having trouble setting up my Ubuntu 11.04 boot to use for app development on a hardware device. I have followed the instructions here to try and recongnize the phone. However, when I run ADB devices or in eclipse, the device is listed as ?????? and can not be used to install an app to. Any advice?

What device are you using?

The problem is that you ran adb as an underprivileged user. So when adb server starts, it does not have the permissions to run read/write to the device. First you have to kill the server, and then restart it as root:
sudo adb kill-server
sudo adb start-server

Then you can run this as any user:
adb devices

You don't always have to run adb as root to start the server, but it's a lot faster when you're dealing with a lot of devices.

What number are you using for your udev? I wrote about my experiences with my HTC sensation here: http://colinwren.com/using-your-htc-sensation-to-debug-android-apps-on-ubuntu-11-04-natty-narwhal-using-udev-and-adb/
As stated by aspitzer use sudo to start the adb server. Also make sure you've got the correct device code. You can find this by using lsusb and looking at the code given here (use the first 4 characters)

(Note that referring to other answers as "above" or "below" isn't helpful as the answers can be sorted in numerous ways, not just chronological.)

+1 . I got caught there too when I assumed that the vendor id for my nexus s would be Samsung. In fact it's Google. The command is lsusb.

amended answer for both of these.

Note that first is the vendor code and the second is the product code: the latter changes depending on the mode you are in.

When I've experienced that, I've had to kill adb and restart it with sudo.  You might have to sudo the rest of your adb commands as well.


text:
SD card formatted to ext4 and permissions
I'm using CyanogenMod 7.1.0 RC1 on HTC Desire HD. I've formatted SD card to ext4, because I wanted to use Fedora through chrooting  into it, and Fedora ARM image requires FS which can do symlinks.
Now, when various applications try to save data (reading works fine) on SD, they get permission denied (so, for example, downloads don't work, camera can't save images, etc.). I've chmoded everything on my SD card to 777, but that didn't help (I don't really understand why, as a guy with strong Linux background I've assumed that this would make it readable to everyone).
I've also tried fixing permissions through ROM Manager, but this feature seems not to care about SD card.
All files on SD card seem to be owned by root:root.
Now, how do I make my SD card usable again? Should I format it back to FAT?

You can't have the full SD card formatted as ext4.  Android only natively supports FAT / FAT32.  The primary partition should be FAT, and you can use a secondary partition with ext4 only if you install an app for it like Simple2Ext.

This isn't true. Cyanogen natively supported my ext4 card fine. My current phone has a locked bootloader and I can only run the stock rom. I can mount my ext4 sdcard, but all the permissions are wrong.

@djsumdog A lot has changed in the past 4 years. I see you've asked your own question with more detail, which is great -- I hope you find an answer.


text:
How do I sideload Google Wallet onto my Verizon Galaxy Nexus?
The Verizon version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus famously shipped without Google Wallet. This is ostensibly because Verizon is coming out with their own mobile payment system and didn't want a competing product baked into the phone OS.
So much for a pure Google Android experience.
How can I get Google Wallet on my device? No rooting solutions, please. I am okay with sideloading the app from a trustworthy source if that's possible.
Once installed, will I be able to get updates from the Play Store? What other things won't work quite right?

Grab this .apk file from the XDA forums and sideload it like you would any other app. The instructions state that it will work on unrooted devices, and CNET actually ran an article detailing this a little while back. The original XDA thread is here, the link you need is the one under the QR code (the "APK method").
This particular method will evidently only work if you live in the US and have Android v4.0.2 or later installed, but that should cover any typical VZW Galaxy Nexus at this point.
As far as I'm aware, you will not be able to get updates from the Play Store if you sideload like this, but that is the only caveat I've personally encountered thus far on my VZW Galaxy Nexus. I used the free $10 prepaid balance at McDonald's without any issue.

A few additional musings after doing some experimentation: after sideloading the .apk above I was not able to update Wallet from the Play Store app on my phone. However, if I logged into the web store and visited the page for Wallet, it listed my Galaxy Nexus as compatible. Hitting Install on the web page allowed me to push the updated version to my phone successfully, despite the fact that I could not do it from my phone.
If you're itching to try out the newly added ability to add your credit card to Wallet, you could try the above to get yourself updated to the newest version. Alternatively, if you consider me a "trusted source" (I'm trustworthy, I swear) you can get a copy from my Dropbox account. I simply pulled the updated .apk file from my device after I updated through the Play Store, so I can safely say this version has not been tampered with by any third parties.

That's interesting that you could update from the web.

@AlEverett: Haven't a clue why, either. I'm rooted, but I just sideloaded Wallet the "normal" way, without doing anything special that required root. I'd be a little curious to know if it works on an unrooted device as well.

I've got it sideloaded from the original information you gave, but it isn't showing up yet on the Play Store website for me to update. It's likely just waiting for some synchronization. If I don't see it later I'll download the newer version.

Well, the rooting must be key to a better experience. I've installed the latest version from your link, but the app does not appear in the Play Store app on the device or in the Play Store website under my installed apps. Even if I get to the app page directly it doesn't show as installed and I can neither upgrade or install from there. So, while I've got it sideloaded it's going to be a manual process to update in the future. And, of course, I haven't found a place to use it yet; it's probably not worth it.

@AlEverett: There's only something like 3 places around me that take it (none of which I frequently go to) so I get the feeling you wouldn't be missing much. The deals/coupons are usually pretty obscure places, too.

Damn you, Verizon! Droid Life: Google Wallet No Longer Working at all on Verizon Galaxy Nexus

@AlEverett: Did you try the one they noted in their update? http://www.droid-life.com/2012/09/14/google-wallet-no-longer-working-at-all-on-verizon-galaxy-nexus/#comment-650598964

Can't do it from work. I'll try it later.

@AlEverett: FWIW, it worked for me, but as I've mentioned before I'm rooted.

I have an unrooted RAZR M and I was just informed, when I side loaded and installed the app, that it is unauthorized to run in my country/carrier.  My country is the US, so Verizon is definitely on to this trick.... bastards.


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A simple explanation of CWM and Odin
I'm going to root my Samsung Galaxy Note and I come across the terms CWM and Odin very often. What exactly are they? It seems that CWM is used for rooting and Odin for flashing the phone. Is there more to it?
I've posted here because I have been unable to to find a good explanation online.

For the second half of your question, see this previous question: What is the Odin tool?

CWM is the shortform of ClockWorkMod.  ROMManager, CWM recovery, Tether etc are their products.  CWM Recovery and ROMManager are tools which enables you to backup your current ROM, install custom ROMs etc.
If you are interested in knowing more about CWM, see this page.  For rooting you do not need CWM. In fact for installing CWM you need to be rooted.
For anyone who plays with ROMs, tweaking and testing, CWM Recovery or some thing equivalent to it is mandatory and would save your neck several times.
Also, you could specify which part you are not clear with.  It will help to get better answers. :)

I would give all my upboats if I could. I'm trying to figure this out as a I go along. So CWM Recovery replaces the default menu that i get when I press (Vol Up + Home + Power) ad adds more options to it, right? ..and in order to install CWM Recovery, I have to download ROM Manager from the Play market and use the "Flash" option which would replace my boot-up options. Thanks Narayan.

Yes, CWMRecovery replaces the standard recovery which is not that useful. As you had said, you have to download ROM Manager and choose "Flash CWMR". It will identify your device's code name and will opt you to choose if it has ambiguity.

@MridangAgarwalla To flash CWM using ROM Manager, you need root access. If you aren't rooted, you can use Odin to flash CWM directly.


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Logging in with a non-gmail account
I got here an ePad running Android 2.3 and I want to set up Market on it for its owner. He doesn't have a Gmail account, neither he wants one. I have just made a Google account that is associated with an existing ISP email address.
I can successfully login with my personal email address (someone at mydomain.org) from my Iconia tablet, but this doesn't seem to be the case of older Android versions. I made the Google account from the plain old ISP address because I thought it would have worked like my case!
Am I missing something about logging in to Market with a non-gmail account? Googling around I found that somebody fixed by joining Google+, so I did with the tablet's owner, but the tablet still requires me to open a new account with a gmail email.
Thank you

It looked like a Gingerbread-related problem.
Since Android 3.0 you can login with any Google account, with or without Gmail.

You can only log in to the market with either your gmail account, or an account hosted with Google Apps for your domain.
This is not just to authenticate you, information is synced between your device and google servers. If you don't have an account with them, they don't know who you are. You said that you can login with your personal email address (someone at mydomain.org). I am going to guess that mydomain.org is hosting the email on google apps for your domain.

Sorry for de-accepting but I'm still unclear with something. I currently own both an HD2 with Gingerbread and an A500 with Honeycomb. From Honeycomb I can use the Google account associated to mydomain.org (I have AdWords and AdSense but no gmail, no Google-hosted email etc) but not from Gingerbread. Could it all be a Gingerbread-related problem?

Having an account associated with Google account is different then an account hosted by google. for example, when I log in to my email at foodomain.com, I am presented with a "gmail" interface, but it is not a "gmail" account. Google provides the services like email, and user management to me.

From all my experience with The Market, You need to have a gmail account. There doesn't seem to be a way around this. Login Android Market--Google non-gmail account?

To confirm - this has been resolved in later Android versions.  The wife has a phone with Android 4 and I can use my Google Account that does not have Gmail attached.  On my phone (Android 2.3.5), it requires I use a Google Account with Gmail user id.

Seems a touch irrelevant 3 years after the question was asked...

@TurboFool I beg to differ :-) http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/23996/does-it-make-sense-to-answer-old-questions Official source: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6078445?hl=en


text:
Upgrading hboot fails: signature verify fail
My Goal
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1762790
Putting jelly bean on nexus one
My Problem
Upgrading hboot
I'm just following everything step by step (link)
$ fastboot flash hboot hboot_jellybean_260-8-168.nb0
sending 'hboot' (512 KB)...
OKAY [  0.095s]
writing 'hboot'...
(bootloader) signature checking...
FAILED (remote: signature verify fail)
finished. total time: 0.219s

What am I overseeing?

The hboot flash region is protected from accidental/unwanted/etc writes.
You need an exploit most probably.
I found this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1486201

The explout worked great!

have fun with jelly bean!


text:
Support for Ultra High Speed MicroSD cards
I am going to buy a new MicroSD card for my Motorola Milestone. The phone has Cyanogenmod 7. The upper limit as told by the manufacturer is 32GB, and because they got cheaper now, I'm going to buy the maximum possible. However, there are those new types of cards called “Ultra High Speed” which, I believe, weren't available when the phone came out.
Questions: Will those cards work with my device? Do they need any special support from the OS? Will I benefit from extra speed?

The new UHS-I card
Your phone comes with a microSDHC form factor, and according to Scandisk, their cards are  compatible:

SanDisk Ultra® microSDXC™ UHS-I card: see specifications tab

Available capacities: 8GB,16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Performance/speed: Up to 30MB/s read speed; write speed lower
Compatibility: Compatible with all microSDHC [or microSDXC ]supporting host devices

SanDisk Extreme Pro® microSDHC™ UHS-I card: see specifications tab

Available capacities: 8GB,16GB
Performance/speed: Up to 95 MB/s (633X) read speed; write speed up to 90 MB/s (600X)
Compatibility: Compatible with all microSDHC supporting host devices

Since the form factor remains the same, there's no problem here.

Your Device
Your device, while capable of reading, will be unable to take advantages over this new card speeds.
Mainly because this technology is new and the OS simple wasn't prepared for it.
On a personal note: Don't spend your money with this card on that specific phone. You'll have no gain from it.

I actually bought the first one you mentioned, mostly because the price of it was about the same as of a slower class-10. And, as predicted, it works. Thank you.

Same price == nice ;)

Will those cards work with my device?

Yes, I believe SDHC UHS-I (Ultra High Speed) cards are backwards compatible and will "work" in an SDHC only device (that the Motorola Milestone appears to be).

Do they need any special support from the OS?

Yes, in order to operate at the advertised higher speeds. "Use of UHS requires that the host device command the card to drop from 3.3-volt to 1.8-volt operation and select the 4-bit transfer mode." Wikipedia - Secure Digital

Will I benefit from extra speed?

No, it will work like an ordinary SDHC Class 10 card.


text:
Installing original OS on Samsung s3
Is it possible to install Google's original OS without all the manufacturer-added bloatware that comes with the device?
Is there a chance that I would ruin the phone and/or not be able to get it to work as it used to if I don't like it for some reason?
Are there any important features that I would miss out if I had to do so?

You can have some custom ROMs, but if you want just to remove the bloatware, I would just root my device, uninstall those bloatwares and if possible unroot again.
Some rooting methods does permit to unroot and some do not.  Even in latter case all that has happened is just you had rooted your device and still have your original ROM.

I also like the look that comes with the nexus, but that's secondary really.
How would I root it? And I assume rooting will void warranty?

I just made a Google search and found http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s3-gt-i9300-root-clockworkmod-recovery-95849 explaining it step by step. Some manufacturers does not provide warranty on rooted device. But rooting is not illegal and some manufacturers permit, though they are literally countable.  After rooting, you will be able to install any ROM and that includes the original ROM that was unrooted. So, in case of problems (of certain kind) you can restore the original ROM.

This page says http://blog.everyonehere.info/how-to-unroot-samsung-galaxy-s3 how to unroot your S3.

Thanks for the detailed help.
One question, if I had to unroot it and restore the original ROM, there'd probably some trace of my tampering with the device anyway would there? That will probably be enough for Samsung to void the warranty.

No absolutely not. However, Samsung has different versions of ROM for different regions. You can see your ROM in Settings->About phone. If you can get the same ROM type instead of that said in unroot procedure, there will be no difference at all.

@Narayanan Wont there be a counter which will be incremented when we flash our phone with some other ROM ?

I haven't heard of such counters. As a far as my device LG P500 is concerned, I had flashed more than 5 different ROMS, each several times, the total should at least should have exceeded 20 times - to best of my knowledge.  Just learnt now that Samsung seems to have such counters. And there are minds to provide solution for that as well :) http://www.shetalksandroid.com/2012/03/how-to-reset-sgs2-flash-counter-and.html


text:
Why does my myTouch 4G lose battery so fast?
So I formatted my phone today. I have not used it, and it was at 100% this morning. No apps installed, the screen was only on for about 10 minutes. Yet when I go to check it now, about 12 hours later, its battery is at 13%. I got a new battery a few days ago, so the battery isn't worn out. My phone is a myTouch 4G from t-mobile. My android version on it is 2.3.4

Please check if one of the following is helpful for you: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3052/what-does-battery-use-tell-and-how-is-it-implemented / http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/12347/what-can-cause-android-os-process-to-use-high-percentage-of-battery / http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/24675/battery-usage-by-certain-applications / http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/17382/how-can-i-find-out-what-causes-android-os-to-consume-battery

You can install BetterBatteryStats (from Play Store or from XDA, the latter is free) and see which is causing this.
If you're running the phone without a SIM card this might also be the reason:
Some phones aren't tested well if there's no SIM inserted (my old Xperia X8 is such a phone for example).
Narrow it down this way:

Switch the phone to airplane mode (switches wifi/bluetooth/gsm off)
Then re-enable wifi (plus maybe bluetooth) again. Just leave it for a while and see if it's better now.

I am running it with a SIM card, and need my wifi and stuff one.


text:
Why my phone battery has four terminal? what is the use of the fourth?
I have a LG Optimus One (P500). For sometime I am wondering why my phone's battery has four terminals. I am aware that two terminals are for the positive and negative points and the the third connects to the battery's internal thermistor to monitor its temperature. Still that leaves me puzzled with what the fourth terminal could be for?
Interestingly my phone has only three terminal where as the battery has four. I have searched for answers in Google but no useful results other than description about temperature monitoring comes up.
Also since another doubt also lies in the same image, what is the port that is marked as "A" in the following image? It appears to me as some sort connector and my guess is that it is a connector to a cable with which manufacturers can access something deep in hardware. The Nokia phones which I had also had this feature and I guess this should be common for all phone then.

Update: I am more keen on knowing what the fourth terminal on the battery does rather than why there are three in phone and four in battery. As @Axeman said, this battery could be used in other phones (of LG) as well.

I don't think this question is related to Android.

My guess is it's for NFC, my Galaxy Nexus has 4-pins and all 4-pins exist in both battery and phone. Even if the battery itself does not have NFC, I guess it's still going to be cheaper, manufacturing-wise, to only have a single form factor for both NFC-enabled battery and non-NFC battery.

Ahaa, upon prodding the Google with this clue, I landed up in AndroidForums.com and 'binary visions' said: NFC circuitry in the main board will have the chunky battery between it and NFC readers and hence a RFID antenna is kept in battery and the connection from the circuitry goes through this 4th terminal.

The battery model is LGIP-400N which is used in the Optimus (GT540), Optimus One (P500), GM750, GW620. The GAlaxy Nexus has also 4 terminals, the fourth and another is used for the NFC antenna (see Why is the NFC in the Galaxy Nexus battery?). It could be that one of the models includes extra functionality like the GN and just the battery got reused for your model (not changing the 4th terminal). EDIT: all of the other models also only use 3 of the 4 terminals (maybe they got rid of the 4th for price reasons but didn't change the battery)

And what's the problem that you're trying to solve? How will this help future readers?

I don't mind if it has to closed or removed. but to answer the above question, I have learned that the battery plays an important role with Nfc. Choosing a replacement battery without this thought might resultin loss off NFC capabilities.

It varies from OEM and you need to look at battery pin out diagrams to be sure- searched but couldn't find your device. This , and This are two sources for pin outs I am aware of. Related my answer for Samsung quoting electronics SE reference

As @Axeman said, the connector is an Ultra Small Surface Mount Coaxial connector (quite a mouthful and still could not get how it was abbreviated as U.FL) which is a kind of expansion port which could be used for any radio communication, including GSM, WiFi, GPS.
And as @Lie Ryan said, the fourth terminal in the battery is for connecting the antennae in the battery to NFC circuitry on the motherboard.  Few searches in Google confirmed this and gives raise to following information:
Those who have NFC in their phones, may lose the NFC capabilities if they try to replace with cheap and duplicate batteries which may not have the NFC antennae as said here.
I am summing up all the points to make this question as answered. I was unable to accept @Axeman's answer as complete as it did not answer the NFC part and @Lie Ryan had added as a comment only.
Kudos for them both!
Update: I happen to get hold of LG P500's service manual which confirms the RF connector with the following image tagged as SW1001.

Connector A seems a U.FL-R-SMT-10 and probably is for an external/additional antenna.

U.FL, is a miniature coaxial RF connector for high-frequency signals
  up to 6 GHz manufactured by Hirose Electric Group in Japan.1 U.FL
  connectors are commonly used inside laptops and embedded systems to
  connect the Wi-Fi antenna to a Mini PCI card. Female U.FL connectors
  are not designed with reconnection in mind, and they are only rated
  for a few reconnects before replacement is needed. The female U.FL
  connectors are generally not sold separately, but rather as part of a
  pigtail with a high-quality 1.32 mm doubly shielded cable, which
  allows for a low-loss connection.

(from Wikipedia)

+1 Thanks for the info on connector. Can't accept as answered as the battery terminal question is still not solved.

It's likely that you'll never have an answer to that question. Battery could be used in more than one phone model, with different mechanical connections, and that pin could simply be connected to one of the other battery pins. I can't be sure, but I bet my two cents on this :-)

Talking about LG, it's likely this is not any kind of NFC. I have an LG phone with 4-pin port on the phone and 4-pin battery. When I cover the 4th pin with some masking tape, the phone complains the battery is not genuine and refuses to boot picture.
A quick poke with a logic analyzer has shown me that there's a communication between phone and battery of some kind. Conclusion - it's "battery DRM", used at least on some LG phones (mine is LG Tribute). If your LG phone has 4 pin battery port, it's got this "DRM". If not, it simply doesn't care.

Nice answer - irrespective of whether I can verify it or not.

The extra connections on the battery are for an NTC thermistor within the battery so the phone can monitor the battery temp. How else do you think the phone can display the battery temp? Std on iphones, some Androids can also display it with the right software installed but it does monitor it during charging etc to protect the phone and battery from fire risk.

"How else do you think the phone can display the battery temp?" People don't necessarily know how these things work hence the reason questions are asked. Monitoring the battery temp doesn't protect it from anything unless there is some form of built in protection that shuts the power down if it gets too hot. Not all phones do, and in fact most protection of this type is built into the charger, not the phone.


text:
My Samsung Galaxy tab 2 (7.0) can't see 5ghz networks
My Samsung Galaxy tab 2 (7.0) can't see 5ghz networks.
Am I missing anything?

Is your wifi's channel set to one the Galaxy Tab cannot operate with (due to legal restrictions you cannot use some channels in some countries, depends on your device' settings, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi#Limitations ).

The spec sheet lists compatibility as "Wireless Internet WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi Direct".    If it has a 5 Ghz radio, it should list a/b/g/n.
Despite this, there are plenty of discussions around the net about getting the Galaxy Tab to work on a 5 Ghz AP, so your problem may be something else.

Entirely incorrect..  The earliest WiFi 802.11 (now called '802.11a') is generally universal, and often ignored when stating capabilities.  However, both WiFi 802.11a and 802.11n can support 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but this is not available unless both the AP (access point) and client (your device) both support 5GHz.  The other advantage for the 5GHz spectrum is that it is not overcrowded and is (generally) unaffected by cordless phones and microwave ovens.

A support is not 'generally universal'.  A does not predate B, both having been released in Sept 1999.  A does not operate in 2.4Ghz.  The term Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, formed in 1999 to promote 802.11b.  It did not apply to 802.11a until 2002.  5 Ghz support didn't start to become popular until the days of the 'pre-N' routers, which offered an early implementation of MIMO and sometimes dual band.  A device marked B or G operates on 2.4Ghz.  A device marked A operates on 5.0Ghz.  A device marked N is ambiguous.  It's odd for a dual band device not to support A and say so.

Possible answer (untest)
Galaxy Tab 2 - 5GHz WiFi Support?

Q. Can anyone please confirm? seems strange a new device does NOT support 5GHz?
A. If it's the same as the Tab ver 1 it only works if the router is on a low channel in the 5400 MHz range... Use 36... the high channels
  at 5700 MHz don't work.

[ More authorative later, I only bought my Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) yesterday. ]

UPDATE
Tested with router 5MHz set to channel 36.
Still unable to connect.

Link without summary is not considered helpful as when the link dies the answer might be useless.


text:
How can I monitor and visualize the current resource usage (CPU, Memory, etc.) caused by the running Apps?
I am looking for typical per app/process resource usage information (CPU, Memory, etc.). This information is often useful to find and identify misbehaving apps.
How can I monitor and visualize the current resource usage (CPU, Memory, etc.) caused by the running Apps?

There are several ways to collect this type of information, I'll be speaking about two that I use on a daily basis as to oversee what's going on with my devices:

Terminal
Using a terminal application, you are able to run Linux commands like top or ps that provide information about the currently running processes:

ps

ps (i.e., process status) displays information about a selection of the active processes.

top

The top program provides a dynamic real-time view of a running system. It can display system summary information as well as a list of tasks currently being managed by the Linux  kernel.

The terminal I most use is called Android Terminal Emulator by Jack Palevich available from Google Play Store.

Application
There are several applications with the sole purpose of providing you with real-time information regarding the processes being executed, detailed information about apps and their system resources usage, system logs or system monitoring:
Android System Info by ElectricSheep available from Google Play Store.
This app presents information divided with 5 tabs:

Dashboard
An overview of you device important information: battery usage; Internal Memory used/free; SDCard size and free space; RAM; etc.
System
All system information is presented here: OS; Buildinfos; Battery; Memory; Telephony; Networks; Wifi; CPU; Screen; Sensors; Features; JavaProperties; and many more. Just tap over each one to unfold the detailed information.
Tasks
Shows the total CPU load and CPU load/memory used for each process. You can tap a process to get more details about it; kill the process or switch to the process.
Apps
List of all installed apps, providing means to stop or uninstall an app. If you tap over an app, you have several options like: launch; Manage; Uninstall; etc. Additionally, you are able to see all the useful information about the package itself and in relation to your system, including all permissions he uses.
Logs
Provides you with your system logs. If you press "menu" the logs will be saved to your SD  card.

This app doesn't work on Android 8 :( shows only the "Android System Info" in Tasks tab :(

Android Terminal Emulator doesn't work with more recent Android versions,  last updated in 2015.  Termux is a more recent one.

Settings -> Applications -> Application manager -> RUNNING

shows the memory taken up by running apps.
Trepn Profiler

shows CPU taken up by running apps (it has modes average and instantaneous).


text:
Show plain lock-screen when multimedia cover creates text contrast issue android 5.0
Occassionally I'll be listening to or reading media on my phone and the screen will lock.  When this happens, the lock-screen background is the media "cover".  For white or very light media covers, there is very little contrast between the lock screen numbers and the background, rendering the numbers virtually invisible.  In my last android version, I could swipe down from the clock to bring up a lock-screen with a plain black background.  This is not working with Lollipop.  Is there some trick I'm missing, short of forcing a restart on my phone?  (Samsung S4 16GB)


text:
application for changing fonts in android 4.3
Is there any appication by which you can change the fonts of your android, which it also supports greek language?
Unfortunatrlly, I don't own a well known brand, but somehow I managed to root it!

I am not sure if it supports Greek, but Language Enabler looks promising.


text:
Stop GOSMS from encrypting private messages
I use GOSMS app because it have Private Box Feature which i like the most, but now GOSMS encrypts the messages in private box.
I have to sometimes use the apps which show SMS(of phone) on Computer or in Browser, but private messages are not shown (even not in other apps) because they are being encrypted by GOSMS.
Is there any way that I can temporarily stop the encrypting feature (so SMS can be seen on PC OR BROWSER)?
Also, there are more then 25,000 messages in single conversation so I cant remove that Contact from Private Box because once remove it will start moving sms from private to normal list which will definitely take time, this is an option I am aware of, but don't want to use.


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Lock Screen is showing Junk Characters
Intermittently, my lock screen will start to display junk characters. A power cycle will clear up the problem but I'd like to know how to keep this from happening again.

The first time it happened in the afternoon and the second time happened overnight so there's no commonality in usage or behavior or updates that I can see.
Update: I've just tried to change it back to the default font and now it's showing up in my notification bar all over the home screen.

Are you running custom software like CyanogenMod or are you running an app that modifies your lockscreen?

Nope, I'm running an out-of-box from Verizon phone. It's not even unlocked or in Dev Mode.

Interesting! It may be extreme, but it'd be interesting to see if it continued after a factory reset.

Seems an issue from official update, many reports about the same case: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

(cont'd) but no confirmation from Samsung yet. I'd say to wait for some time until Samsung aware and fix this issue.

If this wasn't my first post, I would vote you guys up but unfortunately I have no rep yet. +1 to you guys.

What software are you using to manage the fonts on your phone?

Built in OS Functions: Settings -> Display ->  Font -> Font Style

I have exactly the same problem.

You have to restart to fix it :( not a good answer but I've been having the same issue. It was definitely after upgrading to lolipop. It may come back, usually during charging.

I know this is an old thread, but I only just discovered a workaround better than reboot today.  Reboot certainly works, but I hate to do it every 2-3 days.
If you are rooted, you can correct these funny characters on your lock screen by resetting systemui without reboot.  There is an app on the Play Store called "Reset System UI".
Alternatively, if you are a Tasker user, do as follows to automate this process.
Create a task by going to
Code -> Run Shell -> under command type in "killall com.android.systemui" without the quotes of course and then check use root.
Then it's up to you to create a trigger to exercise this task at a time and situation least intrusive but also frequent enough so that you don't see these funny characters again.
Good luck!