text:
What can cause a file to self destruct itself?
I had a file on my device (Huawei Mate SE, Android version 8) which I downloaded few months ago.
Few days ago, the file disappeared. It's just gone and I can't find any trace of it. I'm 100% sure I did not delete it myself.
No other file is gone, only that one. This is the first time such thing happens to me, on any device.
If it matters, the file is a song (audio only mp4).
What can cause such a thing?
Additional info about the file:

It was downloaded via a browser on a desktop computer, sent to myself via email and downloaded on the phone from that email. I deleted the original file on the computer.
I don't know if the file had any special protection.
I have several other files downloaded in this exact way, all of them are fine.

What steps does your music player  need to delete a song/audio file? Files don't disappear on their own so something must have triggered deletion. Also, how are you trying to access that file? Using music player or using file manager app?

@Firelord to delete a song via the player I need to tap a three vertical dots icon, choose "Delete" in a menu and confirm. I'm 100% sure I never did that with the song that disappeared. I access it only via the music player, while playing the whole playlist, or choosing to play it directly. I never used the file manager to access a song. I know it's weird, that's why I was hoping someone might know something about it... :)


text:
Removing ads on apps that don't have ad-free version (e.g. Angry Bird)
My disabled child likes this game very much. But he can't handle the advertisement. It is just too much for him. I would like to get Angry Birds ad-free. I would pay for it, but there's no ad-free version on the Play Store.
The device is not rooted, and I'm not going to root it. So if possible, is there any solution for non-rooted device?
.. several months later. Here is my solution
It seems impossible to disable ads on android games. Most of them are completely useless and some are glorifying war.
This is no problem for normal people.
For my disabled child this is information overload.
We bought an old standalone device. This kind of device where you need to buy games on cartridges. This solves my use case. AFAIK angry bird is not available for nintendo DSi, but other nice games.

"I would pay for it, but could not find a solution." What do you mean by that?

With "I would pay for it, but could not find a solution." I mean: I would pay for an ad-free version. But I could not find one. Do you understand this? Please ask again if not. I am not a native speaker. Maybe my wording is wrong.

Switch off your internet while playing Game!!

http://smile.amazon.com/Rovio-Entertainment-Ltd-Angry-Ad-Free/dp/B004SBQGHS?sa-no-redirect=1

Can someone please tell my why this question gets down-voted? Which rule does this question brake?

When I see apps that are capable to monetize only by ADS I uninstall them immediately. We are all so fed up of ADS. I found the best way of not showing video ads is to turn off the Wifi and set the mobile connection to 2G. This way the video ads which are big in size, never loads

Since I don't like complicated work arounds like switching off internet connection or rooting the device, I choose this solution: uninstall it.

Please leave a comment why you think this is answer needs a down-vote. I am curious and always interested in improvements.

I guess because your question is removing ads on apps..., which this doesn't solve.

When I see apps that are capable to monetize only by ADS I uninstall them immediately. We are all so fed up of ADS. I found the best way of not showing video ads is to turn off the Wifi and set the mobile connection to 2G.

If you switch mobile data off or use airplane mode, ads won't be displayed.

If your device is rooted, install Adaway. It will remove ads basically everywhere.

The device is not rooted, and I don't want to root it.

You could use the app Lucky Patcher to remove ads from apps.
A lot of its features are for root-only devices but it works on non-rooted devices as well.
With it installed, you can then patch an application to remove Google Ads, then reinstall the patched version (Uninstall and install) (if it also says "License verification found", you need to patch the APK modified for no ads to remove license verification).
(Except for using this app and writing a few custom patches for it, I am not affiliated with it in any way)
(Google Play Protect will block Lucky Patcher and call it malware. It can be safe to dismiss (More options > Install anyways (unsafe)) if you downloaded it from the official site.)

You can use pihole. It will help block the ads on th DNS level. You can either get a raspberry Pi or install it on any computer.
Link : https://pi-hole.net

Use an app called LostNet Firewall Pro to block
angry birds from going online.
You can find it on Google Play.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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

sort: votes


text:
Contacts not synced where WhatsApp Contact exists

I used tine20 via MS-Exchange to sync contacts to my android device
I added WhatsApp. Some contacts are from both (tine20 and WhatsApp). All is fine.
I removed (accidentally) tine20 account from android device
Added tine20 again
Contacts which don't have WhatsApp are synced perfectly
Contacts which have  WhatsApp are not synced. Information from tine20 is missing. Via tine20 web interface I can see that all contacts are in tine20

What can I do to get all contacts from tine20 on my device again?

Solved it myself this way: since I hardly use WhatsApp. I just removed it from the contact sync accounts.
After some minutes all contacts from tine20 where visible on the android device again. I am happy.
Better solutions are still welcome :-)

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


text:
Take a voice note without unlocking the device
Sometimes, I want to take a voice note quickly. My ideal approach will look something like this:

Take the phone
Push a button
Speak a sentence (without unlocking the device)
Done

Later, I want to see a list of open voice notes (not handled yet) and reply them. No speech-to-text magic is needed. The primary focus is on speed.
Background: If I am talking to someone and want to take a note, I don't want to disturb the conversation since taking the phone, unlocking it, opening a note app, and finally typing it takes too long.
Best solution would be this: Start recording without looking at the phone. Like a dictaphone.
Anyway to get this thing get done?

I have not tried this (hence not an answer), and I'm not sure if a voice recorder would record with the screen locked. If it does, that could be achieved e.g. with Tasker: Have the camera-button (or a shake-pattern) as condition to start/stop a voice recording app.

Not a full answer, you could use Google Now, with the options to use from any screen and when plugged in / lock screen. It's not ideal but you can just say OK Google and 'remind me to whatever' as your note. Or just put a Google Keep (or similar) widget on your lockscreen and enter it there?

Well, I don't know a specific application for this specific task. But you can use the built-in camera to record a video (obviously with audio) without unlock the phone.
Most devices have the function to take a picture without unlocking (camera-button, sliding, shaking etc). On the camera screen you can change from picture mode to video record easily.

Like @Izzy mentioned in the comments, Tasker is the way to go.
Here you can see a List of Plug-Ins and 3rd Party Tools where you can find Easy Voice Recorder. With this installed it will be easy to create a Task for recording ;)

I installed Tasker, but could not start an app without unlocking. But maybe I was blind and could not find the correct configuration.

This is possible (recording audio without unlocking the device, but with the screen on) with the help of the excellent Macrodroid app. When I tried to do the same I found this hint. For those who are not familiar with how MD works, this device automation tool almost always works with the Trigger/Action/Constraint concept. For a basic recording we should created

Trigger: Shake device
Action: Vibrate (to sense that the action is
executed),
Action: Record microphone (for actual recording).

The record action allows choosing a fixed length for recording starting with 30 seconds, but with the help of two macros and variables it's possible to use the first shake to start an unlimited recording and the second one is to stop it (maybe with an additional vibrate signal). Please note that the device might turn the screen off during the recording and for the off action to be successful one should light the screen with the side button.
Also have in mind that there are false triggers possible, for example when you use the device as an alarm clock and grab it in the morning there might be a shake trigger. So constraints settings might be used for example to avoid using the macro when particular apps are active (in foreground). Also additional actions (like the torch in the original article) might be used for additional indication that the recording is on.
The mentioned configuration was tested on a couple devices with Android 7 and 11 versions and worked flawlessly recording audio notes while the device was in the locked state

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


text:
Can I flash a custom ROM and a separate custom kernel after?
I currently use a Galaxy S3 Neo and have recently flashed the latest Resurrection Remix ROM (android 5.1.1 based on cm 12.1). After doing this, I have experienced multiple random reboots which I found to be caused by kernel panics. For this reason, I did some research and some people suggested flashing a new kernel as a solution. Would it be safe to flash a kernel which is not associated with the resurrection remix ROM to a device using this ROM?

Yes, flashing a kernel is mostly safe. The worst thing that could happen would be a boot loop aka soft brick, which can be fixed by flashing another, proper kernel.
Remember that the kernel in your case has to be CM (CyanogenMod) compatible because Resurrection Remix is built on CM. There are many different kernels, so look for the one that matches your needs (performance, stability, battery life).
XDA developers helps with titles (look for [KERNEL] in the title) and the XDA DB gives you a quick and easy way to find kernels and ROMs you want.


text:
How to use two whatsapp accounts on my rooted Samsung galaxy star pro device
Can I use two whatsapp accounts on same device?
If how
Note: my device is rooted

WhatsApp now officially lets you do it. More details here no root needed!

Download the Parallel Space app.
Tap WhatsApp icon and you'll be prompted to sign in to the second WhatsApp
When it gets to verifying your phone number, use the other number you want to use and select call verification after sms verification fails.
Voila, you have one WhatsApp account on your first number and to access the other WhatsApp use the Parallel Space App.

Do you have the duel sim galaxy star?
To my knowledge Whatsapp uses a phone number to create an account so if you have duel sim cards it could be possible.
For example;- You have your phone with your contacts saved to its local storage and used whatsapp with a first sim's phone number but then swapped it for a second sim with a new number, then opened whatsapp with that phone number the account would be different but obviously all the contacts wouldn't recognise your account as it would be a new one.
So, if you were able to set the default simcard for whatsapp in app settings, in theory, you should be able to have two separate whatsapp accounts on one phone but you would have to verify the number each time you switched account with the code it will want to send to the phone number you want to use at that time.
Do you want to have two official whatsapps installed on one device though? Using them at the same time send/receiving messages to/from both?

i would comment but i need more rep


text:
My phone keeps unpairing with my watch when it gets out of range
I'm using a Pebble Time smartwatch (on Pebble OS v3.13) and Xperia M4 Aqua (on Android 5.0).
Whenever my phone gets out of range it unpairs with my pebble. I end up needing to forget my phone from pebble and pair again with my phone. This is becoming frustrating, and I can't find anything relevant on my watch's help page so I think that this is a problem with my phone. How can I fix it?

Is it also vanishing from the Bluetooth devices list?

@EthanZ yes, it is vanishing from paired bluetooth devices list

That would be a problem with your device then. Have you installed any system updates recently and can you replicate this problem with other Bluetooth devices?

@EthanZ I can still see my controller and PC on the list and they don't get removed when they are off range. I last installed system updates a few months ago- they are kinda rare.

That would make it point to Pebble then. Even if they cannot figure out what is wrong I'm sure they can help you out further.

From the extra information you provided in the comments, it would seem as if the Pebble app is malfunctioning, and if it isn't, pebble support will be able to direct you to who can fix this for you. While they can be a bit slow to respond, they are very good.
To contact pebble support, open the pebble app and tap the drop down menu on the top right corner (3 dots). Tap the "support" option. Choose "contact support" from the list of options that open after tapping support.


text:
Phone only works with busted battery
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3. A few days ago I noticed that the phone shut down on it's own, but when I plugged it to a charger it showed that the battery still had 20%. When I removed the battery I noticed that it is slightly swollen. Those look like signs of a busted battery to me.
Now, I bought a replacement, put it in, but the phone doesn't start or charge (not even the red diode is lighting). I've taken my phone to the store where I bought the replacement thinking that I got a broken battery, but the seller tested 2 other batteries (one no-name brand and one original Samsung battery), but neither worked. What does work however is the busted battery. I want to continue using my S3, but I'm at a loos as to how to fix it.
My best guess is that the battery level meter in the phone got decalibrated by the busted battery and the voltage levels on the good ones way too different for it to work.
Any advice?

So I found out why my new battery isn't working, it had a transparent sticker on the power pins (and only on the pins). It was virtually invisible in broad daylight and there was no indicator on the package anywhere that there is such a sticker there (much less that it needs to be removed). It was only when I looked on the battery at a certain angle with electric light that I noticed it.
I'm not an expert on mobile phones and I change phone batteries pretty much never, so maybe that sticker there is common knowledge for everybody else, but the funny thing is, the guy at the shop where I bought the new battery didn't notice it either (and he should have been an expert).

Haha, wow. They should definitely make it more clear that that sticker is there.


text:
When will Nexus 6 get Android security updates?
I am using a Nexus 6 with H2O wireless network. The July 1st 2016 security patch has been out for several days (since July 5) but my phone still doesn't get it. Do Nexus phones get updates directly from Google or through carriers? When can I get that update?

One option to get the latest security updates as soon as they are out, is use a custom ROM.

It can take up to two weeks or so for the full rollout. I just received the July update this afternoon on my Nexus 5X.

My wife's Nexus 5X did get the update yesterday. I guess I just need to be a little more patient. Thanks.


text:
Is there a way for a signature to be spoofed?
What I'm asking is, can someone modify an app to make it malicious and have it retain the original signature? Not sure how app signing works so I figured you would know best.

Well, since apps like Lucky Patcher can patch the classes.dex on the fly, without altering the app's signature, I guess that it's possible, albeit in a limited fashion. What I mean, is that these changes are pretty volatile (since they can be nullified by simply wiping the Dalvik cache). I don't think that there's a way to patch an already signed and packed APK and also make it retain its signature, though.

Yes, it's possible, but it's cryptographically hard. Signatures involve multiple steps:

Hash the application/message/whatever to produce a digest
Sign the digest with a key such that the signature can be verified using publicly available information.

Cryptographic hash functions are specifically designed to have collision resistance properties to prevent someone from finding multiple inputs that hash to the same output. By specifying that the original signature be maintained, you are asking about what is called the hash function's weak collision resistance, whether it is difficult to find a collision for a specific input. This is weak in the sense that it is easier to achieve than strong collision resistance, which is a measure of the difficulty of finding any collision between any inputs.
For a perfect cryptographic hash function, you can do no better than try random inputs (or malware + random element) in the hopes of generating a collision. The probability of doing this is 1/2^n for one attempt, where n is the number of bits in the hash output. For large n, the amount of time it would take to have a reasonable chance of finding a collision is astronomical even with nation-level computing resources available.
For any real cryptographic hash function, there is the chance that very smart people in the future will find a systematic way of finding collisions. This is when people stop using the hash function (for example, MD5) for secure applications and replace it with more secure alternatives.
In short, this is not something you should worry about, unless the signatures are found to be using broken hash functions.


text:
Factory resetting a locked chinese clone without a built-in recovery (Android 4.4)
Being the only knowledgeable person in reach, I was asked by this lady to reset this phone after the owner forgot its password. It's an unnamed model apparently powered by a Spreadtrum SoC and built to imitate the LG G4. Judging by the lockscreen blocked by a Google account password prompt, it seems to run on Android 4.x.

Power + Volume down lands on the screen on the left, which contains just generic test routines.
Power + Volume up gets you into what seems to be the fastboot mode. I'm planning on attempting to flash generic recoveries but I'm slightly wary of USB connecting it to my mission-critical notebook. Either way, I wouldn't know which recovery to flash or, if it comes to, which ROM to flash in it.
Ironically, this might as well be the most secure device I've touched.

Good to know that you have fastboot on it.
I suppose your goal is to wipe the data and reset  and not Porting a recovery or a ROM that it might run.
use the fastboot commands to wipe the userdata and the cache
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase cache
 Good Luck!

Apologies for replying late but thanks for answering!
I had no idea it was possible to do it without an usable recovery routine.
Either way, I returned the phone untouched a few days later. I got a bit suspicious and some flags were raised, so I decided not to take part in it.


text:
How do I use Android Support for Hearing Aid (ASHA) on a capable phone?
I have been looking around for a demonstration of someone using the ASHA feature on an android phone, but a general google search only brings up ASHA feature being announced (from 2018) or something like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ZDzqC3Mak) which shows how to connect an android capable hearing aid to an android smartphone using their custom app.
I believe that ASHA feature being integrated into Android means I should be able to pair with a hearing aid without need for a custom app (correct me here if I am wrong). I have an embedded system development board which claims it can work as BLE device with an ASHA capable smartphone. I also have a Samsung Galaxy s10e which is supposedly ASHA capable (cannot find any official source confirming this, but lots of online discussions imply that s10e series supports ASHA, as well as there are some options in phone settings which makes me think it probably is). One of the only hearing aids in the market that supposedly uses ASHA claims it supports direct streaming with galaxy s10e phones (https://www.resound.com/en/help/compatibility).
If I go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Enhancements > Hearing Aid Support > Bluetooth Hearing Aid in my Samsung Galaxy s10e, I can see that it allows me to pair with my custom BLE device (which supposedly has BLE 5.0 and supports BLE audio streaming with android). However, if I play music on the phone after pairing, I cannot hear any output on the built in speakers, but I cannot hear anything in my BLE device either. It's possible that at this moment the BLE device does not have the required codecs for audio streaming, but that is a different question.
My main question is about ASHA streaming on the android phone. Am I correct in assuming that after pairing with my BLE device by going to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Enhancements > Hearing Aid Support > Bluetooth Hearing Aid, I should be able to hear audio played on my phone from the BLE device, like I would on a regular bluetooth earphone? I haver been searching online for at least a demonstration of ASHA streaming or how the Bluetooth Hearing Aid support on the galaxy s10e is supposed to be used, but I cannot find anything. Does anyone here have any experience with this?

Based on this developer oriented video:
Accessible audio: Android hearing aid support and the audio framework (Google I/O'19), the speaker noted that while apps can provide enhancement to the experience, an app isn't required.
That said, if you are trying to create a ASHA compatible device, you should watch the full video, as it does point out the Android ASHA spec:
https://source.android.com/devices/bluetooth/asha
and note that testing seems more involved as the speaker at end describes 'reference device hearing aids' provided by Google and specifically calling out to use the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) codebase to ensure compatibility.
Also be aware that in the Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) which defines what is needed to obtain the Google Play Store that hearing aid support is optional.
From: https://source.android.com/compatibility/11/android-11-cdd#7_4_3_bluetooth

If device implementations include support for Bluetooth LE and Hearing Aids Profile, as described in Hearing Aid Audio Support Using Bluetooth LE, they:

[C-5-1] MUST return true for BluetoothAdapter.getProfileProxy(context, listener, BluetoothProfile.HEARING_AID).

So what does this mean as a end-user?
Given the quirks of Bluetooth on Android, wait for hearing aid manufacturers to provide a list and even then supporting manufacturers like ReSound have fine print:

Full streaming compatibility with Android devices requires minimum Android v10 and Bluetooth 5.0 and that functionality has been enabled by the phone manufacturer and service carrier. Accordingly, the compatibility information provided should be used for reference only. Although ReSound strives to achieve seamless device compatibilities, ReSound cannot guarantee full compatibility with all Android devices.


text:
What are the icons for bluetooth devices shown in bluetooth scan menu?
In android bluetooth scan menu, the scanned devices are given various icons which specify the type of device that they are reporting themselves to be

What are device types 1 and 2 shown in this picture, and where can I get a list of all possible device types and their icons? Is this icon list specific to a smartphone or is it from the default android?
This screenshot is from Samsung galaxy s7 with android 8.0.0
Edit: or is there any way to probe for this information through adb or something?
Edit2: for anyone interested I downloaded an app called Bluetooth scanner and it shows device 1 as "Unknown". So may be that's just what this icon means.

Similar to this question: https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/other-smartphones/bluetooth-decice-symbols/td-p/769777 Also the icons match my Samsung S9/Android 10 but not my Google Pixel 2. Just a guess (2) appears be headphones (headphone case?) as for (1) some other bluetooth pairing - e.g. my Google Daydream controller.

@MorrisonChang is the list of icons and their meanings for android default/google pixel available anywhere?

From my best searching, you can find a list of what devices would be possible in the Android documentation. It provides both a list of the major device categories and a more detailed listing of all possible devices. I'd imagine it's up to each device to report what it is.
I couldn't find a good reference for each image and these constants.
If you happen to be on Linux, you can use something like bluez-tools to see a device's icon from you command-line:
List devices known to your adapter.
bt-device -l

Added devices:
my-phone (A1:A1:A1:A1:A1:A1)
...
AB-AB-AB-AB-AB-AB (AB:AB:AB:AB:AB:AB)

Take the address of my-phone and pull up its data, here's a snippet from my phone's:
bt-device -i A1:A1:A1:A1:A1:A1

[A1:A1:A1:A1:A1:A1]
Name: my-phone
Icon: phone <- Used to pick an icon
Paired: 1
Trusted: 1
...

Here's the icon from a pair of wireless headphones I have:
bt-device -i ...

Name: Indy
Icon: audio-headset


text:
Is there such a thing as generic touch screen calibration?
I have an Orange pi 2g-IoT board with a 3.97 in TFT touch screen (the whole thing is a set)
One of the provided OS images for this board is stock Android 4.4 (at least this is what it claims, the UI does look like it is probably based on 4.4, but I am not sure whether/what kind of specific modifications the manufacturer has made)
The LCD touch detection is very flaky (sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, works consistently on some GUI components but doesn't on others, etc, see stackoverflow question about it here)
The user manual that comes with the board doesn't say anything about calibration, but I think some kind of calibration is needed. I had similar problems with the touch screen of a raspberry pi board that I had previously worked on, and it worked perfectly after calibrating the screen using the provided software, so I'm assuming that's what I need to do here as well. The board manufacturer is not very helpful with software support, I'm on my own regarding making this work
Is there anything like a generic LCD calibration app for android? I see that there are lots of apps claiming to calibrate the screen if I do a quick playstore search (never used any such app myself). So is that a real thing? How do such apps handle different phone models? I can't use google playstore on this board but I can connect to it using ADB and it has root, so I am ok with installing an apk through ADB.
After some random poking around I was able to get a preinstalled app to run on the board which shows LCD screen parameters. Here's part of what this app shows:

Is there any way to calibrate this touch screen, or any way to make my own calibration app? I can try and get more screenshots from this app pictured above, if it will be helpful.

Extra question: what does "soft-keys: false" mean above?

Soft-keys are the navigation button on the bottom that Android 4.x device can have (as shown here: https://android.stackexchange.com/q/32697/2241). They can be implemented in software (black bar with button on the bottom) or in hardware if the device has special hardware buttons outside of the display.

@Robert the screen has the triangle, circle and square symbols at the bottom (can be seen in the Aliexpress link above) but as far as I can tell they don't do anything. Does the "soft-keys: false" here mean I won't be able to get them to work on this screen then?

soft-keys; false just means that the soft keys are disabled in the current OS configuration. Just use your favorite search engine and search for android enable soft-keys and you will find a lot of older posts explain how to activate soft-keys.

I can't say for Android-based IoT-related software, but AFAIK there's no way to resize the touchscreen area on Android (that's a physical hardware issue, and if there was, I'd hardly believe there's no such answer to the existing questions about broken touchscreen). The usual workaround is to resize the screen area using adb shell wm overscan instead (ref: Resize screen for Dead touch zone.


text:
How I can prevent my android phone from getting rooted?
Usually  people try to install a custom rom on a stolen android phone to erase all its data and identity.
Is there any way to prevent the thief from installing a custom rom or rooting it.

If a thief has physical access to your hardware, it's his.
You cannot prevent the thief from entering the bootloader or recovery and flashing your device.
What you can do is go to your local police department, tell them your phone has been stolen and you have the IMEI (it's on the box but note it down separately) and they should block any use of that IMEI.
No cellular connection will be possible with that device, it's merely a small tablet and all connection attempts will be logged with location of the cell tower, approximate location of the device and time.
After that, wipe your personal data using one of many different remote security solutions (like the Google Device Manager).
Also tell your cell provider that your phone has been stolen so you can get a new SIM (might need to pay for that) and to block any use of the old SIM card.
Also: Thieves usually just wipe the data and don't install a custom ROM (rooting is an option, though).

No brother, after stolen you cannot do any thing, for security purpose you can set strong password, always make a backup of your mobile data and note down your IMEI number somewhere and save it for further inquiry or install android device manager app in your android for online track and delete your data. or any other security related app. not more than this


text:
ADB detects but, fastboot does not detect device in windows 10
I am trying to root my phone. I have flashed TWRP recovery from here using Odin. I have installed Android Studio for Android SDK. The command adb devices shows the device connected but fastboot devices just gives me a blank. I have searched for solutions but most of them suggested to install drivers. I have installed the drivers suggested whenever applicable but, the result did not change. I have this issue too, when I select Apply update from SD card in custom recovery I get the following error

E:failed to mount /sdcard (No such file or directory)

The solution suggested in many sites to side step the above error was to use adb and fastboot. Please help me solve this issue.
My Phone Info:

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
Android 6.0.1
SM-925T
G925TUVU4EPF1

You are aware fastboot and adb are used at different times right? Adb when the device is fully operational and fastboot when you are in the bootloader, they don't mix.

fastboot is not detecting the device in Odin (download) mode.

You generally don't use fastboot on Samsung devices (I don't think they support it), you use ODIN.

I guess the problem is that you are still using the stock-recovery as it seems.
Apply update from SD card is typically used in stock-recoveries.
TWRP typically looks like this:

Thanks to Technobuzz for this picture
So again you have to follow this procedure for the Galaxy S6 Edge on Android 6.0.1:

Download TWRP 3.0.2.0 from their official site and place it on your desktop.
Download Odin3 from here and extract it to your desktop. It is a german site - but the download starts after 3 seconds and is clean atleast.
Make sure Samsung Kies is not running, then start Odin with administrative privileges.
Add the downloaded TWRP file under AP / PDA in Odin.
Boot your phone into download mode (volume down + power button), then confirm the dialouge by pressing the volume up button and connect it to your pc via USB.

Your setup should look something like that (don't mind the filename) :

Thanks to pocketpc.ch for providing this image
Then start the flashing process, wait until Odin says PASS! in its message box. Then reboot your phone into the recovery mode and you should be good to go.
If this procedure does not work for you, repeat the process but untick the Auto Rebootcheckbox before flashing. Then manually reboot by holding the power-button for like 5 seconds and try booting into the recovery.
Further Readings:

HOW TO: Install TWRP 3.0.0 Recovery on Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

For most Android devices, there is a fastboot menu with and image of an open Android and some options. Accessing it usually involves turning on the phone while pressing one or both of the volume buttons. However, Samsung devices have it differently.
Instead of using fastboot, you use Odin. (These instructions are for a galaxy tab 3, might vary by device.) If you turn on the phone while pressing home and vol down, you enter download, or if you used Odin before, Odin mode. This is used instead of fastboot to flash Roms.
There are many videos on how to use Odin to flash Roms like CWM and TWRP, so search for one of those.

fastboot is not detecting the device in Odin (download) mode.

You don't need fastboot if you are using Odin. Just use Odin to flash Roms.


text:
My phone's wifi wont stay closed
Every time I close my wifi, it switches back on straight away. I got a Moto G 2nd generation with android 6.0. How do i stop this? Thanks.

As a power user, the following things come to my mind for troubleshooting such an issue -

Try rebooting the phone.
Use any of the reputed android utility apps to check the status of phone software/hardware.
Trying out a soft reset of the phone with a data backup.

If all these fail, then definitely contacting Motorola or a service center for assistance will help.

ive done 1, can you suggest any apps for 2? thanks for the help

i figured it out just now, it turns out to be because of avast anti theft app which secretly kept the wifi on because i changed my sim card so that it could locate my phone

Ahh! The classic case of Companies spying on us :) Glad, I was of some help to you while you sorted it out.


text:
Samsung galaxy s5 sm-g901f v5.0.2 Move an app from user to system
I have a samsung galaxy s5 sm-g901f android: 5.0.2 (I live in france) and I would like to move an user app to a system app. I already dowload system app mover and do the read and write mount but it still doesn't word. I also root my device. And I try to move de file manually but the app does not work anymore. What can I do? Thank you in advance.

Simple steps, but you might have forgotten to do the last step.

Uninstall the user app as usual, but keep its APK somewhere. Rebooting after this is recommended.
Depending on whether it needs system privilege, put the APK into either /system/app or /system/priv-app
Set permissions for APK to rw-r--r-- (0644) and reboot.

Rather curious about what you're trying to achieve by moving the app to system - is it necessary?

Thank you I do everything you explain and the app become a system app but I would like to do this to cheat at pokemon go with the app lockito and the game see that I activate fictional position so though that create a system app would show to pokemon go the false location. If you have an idea?...

----------------------------------Whit correction from the other message----------------Thank you I do everything you explain and the app become a system app but I would like to do this to cheat at pokemon go with the app lockito but the game see that I activate fictional position so I though that create a system app would show to pokemon go the false location, but it don't work. I go where I set the location before but pokemon go see that it's not the real GPS. If you have an idea?...

For that you would want to try other location-faking apps (and many of them are Xposed modules). Moving the app to system does no help in masking faked location.


text:
Defect in updated Marshmallow
Recently, i updated Samsung galaxy J5 to Marshmallow,Today when i tried to change lock screen password,like type previous password then enter new password and then confirmation of new password.I did these all steps and all goes well as they should be but when i lock my phone and try to enter password again it does not accept my new password it says password is incorrect.Then when i try old password it is accepted.What is this? Why phone is just stuck to one password and does not change password.By the way this old password was also in previous Lollipop version.
I have done "clear cache partition" in recovery mode but still the issue is same.
I googled this problem but there was not any matter of this kind.
Have you people any suggestion for this?

Probably a permissions issue. That's why you do a full wipe after upgrading the OS. You probably need to delete the .key files in /data/system. This requires root permission or a custom recovery.

I don't want to root device.There are many folders and files at back end and i don't know where is this key.Actually i found this system folder but there were many sub folders like "app","bin","lib","framework" etc.Now where is this key?Also i don't want to full wipe it after that it take much time to manage all apps again.Only option is key,can you provide full path of this key.I use ES file explorer to open system folders.

So the key files are at /data/system not /system. But unless you root your device, you are unable to do anything with those files.

Friend,rooting device is not appropriate for me i still remember when i rooted another android device,after rooting my phone become completely exposed to adds.Adds irritate too much.Although i removed root but adds remain.So,i will have to do full wipe.Let's see what will happen.

The ads don't come from rooting (unless you use some shady auto-root tool). But a full wipe should do the trick.

A big problem occurred,i made factory reset(wipe all data) then when phone  restarted again it asked me to enter previous e-mail address and password.Well i don't know previous e-mail address and password i just thought that i will made another google account after reset.I have another device kit kat it does not ask for previous e-mail and password when we perform a factory reset.I was not aware of this new security.Actually J5 is not my phone it is my father's phone,they don't use gmail account.They just use it for calling family and business.They even don't remember what is password.So now?

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Let me give another clear answer with steps. It is based on this you tube video
I updated Samsung J5 to Marshmallow but there was problem then I did a factory reset to make it right but after reset it asks me to enter your previous e-mail and password. Well ,this phone belongs to my father. He didn't know password .Then I searched on Google and finally found a solution.Key steps are:

Download Odin software from here
Download Samsung J5 firmware.You have to download firmware whose date is before September 2015, from here
Download Bypass app
OTG cable is required.

After downloading these three, grab your phone. Power it off then after few seconds press Vol down+ home button+ power button. After this a caution sign will appear,press Vol up button.Now your phone will go in downloading mode.
Connect your phone to PC via data cable,now launch Odin software on PC and click on AP button and select firmware which you have downloaded.It will say you to wait...then a message will appear as "Leave CS". When message appears ,click on start button. Firmware will now install to your phone,you will see loading line on phone and PC.When it completed android icon appears on phone. Now,remove data cable,after few seconds your phone will switch on.Now press few next button or skip them.When you reach on "verify your account" it will ask you to enter your e-mail.Since we *don't have email or password  save Bypass app in a USB and connect OTG cable to your mobile,after connecting OTG you will see that phone file manager will open USB on phone, install Bypass app (enable app install from unknown sources).Open this app,now you have access to settings, there go to factory reset and perform reset.Your phone will restart.Finally Google verify account has removed,after few steps your phone will switch on again.
Note :   Every thing works fine except two things:

Skype app does not connect to server network
You will not be able to do Software update

Thank you for adding steps, please delete the earlier answer. You can accept your answer after 48 hours by ticking the green mark below the answer

Thanks for editing and correction beeshyams. It looks better now.

You are welcome, you may like to edit your question also to make it look better and in future would be able to present better questions and answers. Please delete earlier answer


text:
Why is some application not supported by device with Intel processor
Pokemon Go is releasing today but sadly I saw somewhere in the Internet stating that Niantic has claimed that the app is not supported by devices with intel processor (in my case asus zenfone 5). So I wonder why the type of processor will be one of the factors determining whether the app is compatible for the device. Any help is appreciated. =)

Apart from portable Dalvik code, an app can provide precompiled libraries in a native format, compiled for a specific CPU architecture. Intels CPUs are all x86/x86_64 but some developers decide to only compile for arm/arm64 and leave users of devices with Intel CPUs with an imconpatible app (although there is a way to at least get those to work on Genymotion).

@GiantTree thanks for the explaination. But does that means that this is merely caused by compilation by developers? As I am a software engineering student I am interested in this matter and am worried if I had accidentally made my app uncompatible for certain devices just because the decision made during compilation.

It's also depending on the code/other libraries used. Depending on how the developers used native functions, some of them might not be available on x86. Sometimes the compilation for arm is already long enough, that a developer does not want to wait longer just because of x86. Also: Apart from the ZenFone, no major device uses x86, they all rely on arm.

@GiantTree sorry for disturbing you again but, is there any way for intel processor devices to run those apps which are incompatible to the processor like pokemon go? Will rooting do the work or any other suggestion?

You will need an ARM Translation package / libHoudini, but after some testing, the only way to get Pokemon Go working is to use an ARM image of the AVD. Neither Genymotion nor the x86 images work.

I also have Intel (ZF2). Didn't work for me either. After the Niantic logo, I just get a black screen. It works on my ARM Samsung, though :)

@Fiksdal yea same issue, the game is running without properly on my xperua z1. Hopefully new solution can be found or niantic can solve it asap for the sake of zenfone users

Note: This answer covers other apps than Pokémon Go, as Pokémon Go has been updated to work with x86 processors
Apps contain multiple architecture dependent and architecture independent parts:

Independent:

Dalvik code
Android resources
the Manifest

Dependent:

Libraries
Special assembly code in the Dalvik executable (rare but possible)

The major things are the libraries.
Those are shared objects (.so files) much like DLLs on Windows that contain bytecode.
They are compiled using the Android NDK (Native Development Kit) and are compiled for a specific architecture (like compiling Linux applications using a cross-compiler, ie. compile ARM code on an x86 machine).
In our example, this library can only be used in an ARM environment were the ARM bytecode is understood.
Some Android x86 devices (commercial phones/tablets, not the emulators) come with a special ARM Translation toolkit, aka. libhoudini. It basically translates ARM instructions to x86 instructions.
Those instructions however, are not optimized to run on x86 hardware and thus result in poor performance and high battery usage (the latter of those is one reason x86 is not primarily used in mobile processors).
The real problems are the developers:
Either:

They do not compile their libraries (often containing proprietary code) for any other architecture, for some reason.
They use specialized bytecode, only available on ARM so that any ARM Translator or libhoudini fails.

Luckily Pokémon Go received an update, allowing users of x86 devices to run the app, but other apps (mostly games) do require a real ARM device.


text:
Set Warranty Bit: Kernel
So whenever I boot up my device or restart it I see a little yellow message in the top left corner of the screen that reads "Set Warranty Bit: Kernel." I have researched this issue and learned that I must reflash the firmware of the phone.
That being said. If I reflash the correct firmware for the same model for the same carrier, will my phone still have service following the procedure? Or will I have to work with my carrier to reactivate my phone?

Short answer: you don't need to worry.
Provided you pay your bills, your carrier does not care much, if at all, that you root/ flash Roms and such. No extra steps will have to be taken either; its all on the sim, and flashing ignores that. Keep note you have lost your warranty, though!

Well it is a CDMA phone so that really isn't correct either. The answer here is flashing reinstalls the bootloader and does not affect the regular operation of the OS be it programs, files, and settings.

@MalikBrahimi it depends on what you are flashing :) However, provided your SIM card works, and provided you have an IMEI (in /efs) you are fine.

You have that message most likely because you flashed a custom ROM and/or kernel which cannot pass Samsung's verification. Don't worry about it if your phone functions fine right now - it only influences warranty (as the message says), and you only need to consider reflashing when you want that message gone so you can get warranty.


text:
Xiaomi 3s prime not able to read finger print on app lock
Phone: xiaomi 3s prime with android 6 and
Miui 8.
I use finger print lock for apps.
When open such a apps,  screen shows
" couldn't read finger print.  Please enter your pattern"
But i forgot my alternate pattern password.
The interesting point is am able to unlock my phone using finger print but above problem occur only with app lock.
I tried ##6484## and tested my finger print sensor.  Its working fine.

For one app or for all apps?

@SagarV Thnx for Comments. Problem with all apps which i locked using app lock. Finally resolved.

This is settings issue where am using finger print lock for apps and messed with some settings .
Steps which resolved:
1)SETTINGS > > lock screen & passwords >> screen lock & finger print
2) Draw your screen lock pattern
3) switch on “app lock” under “apply finger print option to ”


text:
How to make Exchange client read signed 'application/ms-tnef' mail?
Someone sends an email with (among others) the following headers
Content-Type: application/ms-tnef; name="winmail.dat"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
X-MS-Has-Attach: yes
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL: -1
X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: <guid@server1.example.com>
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AuthSource: server2.example.com
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AuthAs: Internal
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AuthMechanism: 04
X-Originating-IP: [1.2.3.4]

to my Microsoft Exchange account, and the mail is somehow signed (and not encrypted) by a certificate which is issued by a CA within our organization.
In Outlook on Windows, I can read this email just fine.
However, clicking the 'Decode message' button which my the standard Android email client shows me (on Android 4.1.2, through the Exchange connection) results in a message 'Cannot show encoded messages.  Certificate not installed.'  (Label and message actually show up in Dutch on my phone, I've guess-translated them back to English.)
I have a .p7b-file containing the CA's public key (and I can get it in X.509 DER encoded or Base-64 encoded format as well).
My question: How can I make the Android email client trust this CA certificate, so that it allows me to read these mails?
Update: I'm not asking for how to add a certificate with a private key (as can be used for authenticating to a wi-fi network), but a certificate with just a public key (which can be use to verify signatures).

Have you tried this answer: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/16730/5342

@geffchang Thanks for the hint, but no success.  I tried this just now, and (1) I can install the certificate successfully; but (2) I suddenly need to protect my phone using a pattern, since this apparently tries to use the certificate for signing in on e.g. WiFi (so as a 'client certificate', as if it had a private key, which it doesn't); however (3) the certificate does show up in Settings -> Security -> Trusted sign-in information -> User; but (4) reading the signed email still does not work.


text:
Is it safe to charge Galaxy j7 using Galaxy A5 charger?
A5 has 2900mA battery and a charger with fast charging capability and j7 has 3000mA battery with normal charging.
Can I use that to fast charge the Galaxy j7?

Galaxy J7 isn't rated for Fast Charge support either on Samsung's sites or other sites that host specs, and comes with a measly 5V 1.5A charger (for both the 2015 and 2016 versions). Adding the fact that it targets the lower end of the market, it's safe to guess it does not support Fast Charge. In comparison, A5 is at a higher end and supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0.
You should still be able to use the charger, just not getting fast charge from it.


text:
Cannot restore an adb backup due to a tarball with a broken header
I have two devices that have Android 5.0.2 and 6.0.1 respectively. I would like to migrate some non-cloud apps from the device with the older Android version to the new one using adb. The backing up command is simple:
adb backup -apk -f foo.bar.baz.ab foo.bar.baz

Now, after connecting the device with the newer Android version, the following command is expected to work:
adb restore foo.bar.baz.ab

Unfortunately it isn't. As usual, the restoring process fails silently just reporting that the restoring process is ended. Actually nothing really happens. Here are the logs:
adb logcat -s BackupManagerService

08-27 01:02:44.100  1300  2300 I BackupManagerService: Beginning full restore...
  08-27 01:02:44.100  1300  2300 D BackupManagerService: Starting restore confirmation UI, token=1956031088
  08-27 01:02:44.120  1300  2300 D BackupManagerService: Waiting for full restore completion...
  08-27 01:02:45.650  1300  2450 D BackupManagerService: acknowledgeFullBackupOrRestore : token=1956031088 allow=true
  08-27 01:02:45.660  1300 18181 I BackupManagerService: --- Performing full-dataset restore ---
  08-27 01:02:45.680  1300 18181 I BackupManagerService: Package foo.bar.baz not installed; requiring apk in dataset
  08-27 01:02:45.680  1300 18181 D BackupManagerService: APK file; installing
  08-27 01:02:45.680  1300 18181 D BackupManagerService: Installing from backup: foo.bar.baz
  08-27 01:02:45.690  1300 18181 E BackupManagerService: Unable to transcribe restored apk for install
  08-27 01:02:45.690  1300 18181 E BackupManagerService: Parse error in header: Invalid number in header: 'я╛В' for radix 8
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300 18181 W BackupManagerService: io exception on restore socket read
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300 18181 W BackupManagerService: java.io.IOException: Invalid number in header: 'я╛В' for radix 8
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300 18181 W BackupManagerService:  at com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService$PerformAdbRestoreTask.extractRadix(BackupManagerService.java:7380)
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300 18181 W BackupManagerService:  at com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService$PerformAdbRestoreTask.readTarHeaders(BackupManagerService.java:7179)
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300 18181 W BackupManagerService:  at com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService$PerformAdbRestoreTask.restoreOneFile(BackupManagerService.java:6396)
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300 18181 W BackupManagerService:  at com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService$PerformAdbRestoreTask.run(BackupManagerService.java:6254)
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300 18181 W BackupManagerService:  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:818)
  08-27 01:02:45.710  1300  2300 I BackupManagerService: Full restore processing complete.
  08-27 01:02:45.720  1300 18181 D BackupManagerService: Full restore pass complete.

It looks somewhat strange that the same backup format cannot be restored on a newer device. I've also tried to repack the underlying tarball using nelenkov/android-backup-extractor preserving the same file order (tar cvf ... -T files.lst) hoping that the broken header gets repaired. No luck.
What does cause such a backup/restore behavior and how do I resolve the issue to migrate the application from the older device to the newer one? Any help is highly appreciated and thanks in advance.

Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.31
LG Optimus E975, Android 5.0.2, CyanogenMod 12-2015...
Samsung Galaxy S5, Android 6.0.2, flashed to a newer Sprint stock firmware (initially Android 5.0.x earlier)

After a whole day of various experiments with another tools like TitaniumBackup (neither worked nice, TB was only able to restore APKs, not data) I've figured out that specifying the -apk key was the problem. Simply omitting the flag during a backup operation makes it fully restorable.
So my new backup/restore plan became as follows:

device 1: backup data only
device 2: backup APK+data retaining the APK only later (requires nelenkov/android-backup-exractor by Nikolay Elenkov; can be easily built using JDK 1.8.x and Gradle 2.7 (couldn't build it using Gradle 2.7+ and Gradle 3.0+) with simple gradle command)
device 2: restore the APK using adb install
device 2: restore the data using adb restore

Here are the scripts:
backup.sh
#!/bin/bash

set -e

PACKAGE=$1

if [ -z "$PACKAGE" ]; then
    echo no package specified
    exit
fi

echo ">>> Backing up $PACKAGE data..."
adb backup -f "$PACKAGE".DATA.ab $PACKAGE

echo ">>> Backing up $PACKAGE APK..."
adb backup -apk -f "$PACKAGE".APK.ab $PACKAGE

echo ">>> Extracting APK..."
java -jar abe-all.jar unpack "$PACKAGE".APK.ab "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar
rm "$PACKAGE".APK.ab
APK_FILENAME=$(basename $(tar tf "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar | grep '^apps/'"$PACKAGE"'/a/'))
tar xvf "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar -C ./ "apps/$PACKAGE/a/$APK_FILENAME" --strip-components=3
mv "$APK_FILENAME" "$PACKAGE".apk
rm "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar

echo
echo "*************"
echo "*** Done ***"
echo "*************"

This script requires a package name as the input parameter and stores an APK and its data as foo.bar.apk and foo.bar.DATA.ab respectively. I also implemented it as a twice-backup script (a device asks for making a backup two times) because I didn't want to re-pack underlying tarballs preserving the original file order just making sure that the DATA.ab file is in its original state.
restore.sh
#!/bin/bash

set -e

PACKAGE=$1

if [ -z "$PACKAGE" ]; then
    echo no package specified
    exit
fi

echo ">>> Installing $PACKAGE APK..."
adb install -r $PACKAGE.apk

echo ">>> Restoring $PACKAGE data..."
adb restore $PACKAGE.DATA.ab

echo
echo "*************"
echo "*** Done ***"
echo "*************"

This script simply installs an APK on a target device and restores its data. The only input parameter is the application package name.
So the overall backup/restore process is:

Connect device #1
Execute backup.sh passing an application package name
Click "Backup..." on the device #1 (one will be asked two times for the data and APK+data backups respectively)
Repeat the previous two steps for other packages if necessary
Disconnect the device #1 and connect the  device #2
Execute restore.sh passing an application package name
Click "Restore..." on the device #2 once asked
Repeat the previous two steps for other packages if necessary

I just want to add to your answer, for people going from KitKat (4.4) to Nougat (7.1). (BTW, I finally came across your question/answer after 2 days of fighting with this, thanks a ton)
There are various bugs in adb from version 1.0.32+ when trying to backup, but version 1.0.31 works great. However, you seem to need 1.0.36 to restore to Nougat.
To Backup: platform-tools_r20 (You MUST set a password)
To Restore: platform-tools_r25.0.3 (No password needed)
As such, I added to your script a bit... (you'll need to add symlinks for adb-1.0.31 and adb-1.0.36)
backup.sh
#!/bin/bash

set -e

DEVICE=$1
PACKAGE=$2
PASSWD=$3

if [ -z "$PACKAGE" ]; then
    echo no package specified
    exit
fi

echo ">>> Backing up $PACKAGE data..."
adb-1.0.31 -s $DEVICE backup -f "$PACKAGE".DATA.ab $PACKAGE

sleep 5

echo ">>> Backing up $PACKAGE APK..."
adb-1.0.31 -s $DEVICE backup -apk -f "$PACKAGE".APK.ab $PACKAGE

echo ">>> Extracting APK..."
java -jar abe.jar unpack "$PACKAGE".APK.ab "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar $PASSWD
rm "$PACKAGE".APK.ab
APK_FILENAME=$(basename $(tar tf "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar | grep '^apps/'"$PACKAGE"'/a/'))
tar xvf "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar -C ./ "apps/$PACKAGE/a/$APK_FILENAME" --strip-components=3
mv "$APK_FILENAME" "$PACKAGE".apk
rm "$PACKAGE".APK.ab.tar

echo
echo "*************"
echo "*** Done ***"
echo "*************"

restore.sh
#!/bin/bash

set -e

DEVICE=$1
PACKAGE=$2

if [ -z "$PACKAGE" ]; then
    echo no package specified
    exit
fi

echo ">>> Installing $PACKAGE APK..."
adb-1.0.36 -s $DEVICE install -r $PACKAGE.apk

echo ">>> Restoring $PACKAGE data..."
adb-1.0.36 -s $DEVICE restore $PACKAGE.DATA.ab

echo
echo "*************"
echo "*** Done ***"
echo "*************"

I got the same error when to .ab file I packed .7z archive instead of .tar. I used 7z.exe, so changing command from:
7z.exe a -t7z app.package.name.7z app.package.name

to:
7z.exe a -ttar app.package.name.tar app.package.name

helped. Regards.

I know it's not a direct answer to your question, but other people may be in the same situation and looking for a similar solution:
This bit me today as well during a Lineage 14.1->15.1 upgrade. ADB 1.0.39 does not really seem to improve the situation.
I did not want to use old adb versions, but wanted it to be simple and open source.
I found oandbackup (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dk.jens.backup/) to do exactly what I want. Just select all user apps, backup apk+data, copy the whole folder to the other phone, restore all apps+apks, and voila, (nearly) everything back as it should be. Account entries (imapnotes, davdroid) have not worked, and backing up the "account" app added an invisible imapnotes account which did not work and could not be re-added. Had to delete app data and re-add the account manually. So I would not recommend backing up account info.
Other than that, I am happy.
I used to use adebar (https://github.com/IzzySoft/Adebar) which was perfect, but now that adb backup/restore do not work reliable, it also does not work.
Every adb version creates different error messages:
DefContainer: Failed to parse package
or
Unable to transcribe restored apk for install
Hopefully some search engine will pick these strings up.

If you have root, there's no problem. The question is to restore without root


text:
Android 12 cellbroadcastreceiver permission denial causing high CPU usage in com.android.phone process?
Every since my Nokia 5.3 was upgraded to Andoid 12 recently, the battery suffers from processes com.android.phone and qcrild using the CPU a fair amount.  It is not completely reproducible, but it happens especially when the the phone is locked, or at least the screen is off.
I observe that increased CPU usage via adb shell top -u radio.
At that same time adb shell dumpsys phone shows a lot of the following:
❯ adb shell dumpsys phone
------- PhoneGlobals -------
  mPrevRoamingNotification=0
  mDefaultDataSubId=1
  mDataRoamingNotifLog:
  isSmsCapable=true
    2022-11-23T13:56:23.510818 - dataAllowed=true, reasons=Data allowed reason: NORMAL
    2022-11-23T13:56:23.512116 - dataAllowed=true, reasons=Data allowed reason: NORMAL
[snip rest of the output]

And that seems to always immediately follow these adb shell logcat -d phone warnings about ...without a qualified user and Permission Denial to read the phone state:
11-23 13:56:23.460  1681  3481 W ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.sendBroadcastMultiplePermissions:1206 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.broadcastServiceStateChanged:2880 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.notifyServiceStateForPhoneId:1608 com.android.internal.telephony.ITelephonyRegistry$Stub.onTransact:455 android.os.Binder.execTransactInternal:1184
11-23 13:56:23.461  1681  3481 W ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.sendBroadcastMultiplePermissions:1256 android.content.Context.sendBroadcastMultiplePermissions:2215 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.broadcastServiceStateChanged:2884 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.notifyServiceStateForPhoneId:1608 com.android.internal.telephony.ITelephonyRegistry$Stub.onTransact:455
11-23 13:56:23.462  1681  3481 W ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.sendBroadcastMultiplePermissions:1256 android.content.Context.sendBroadcastMultiplePermissions:2215 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.broadcastServiceStateChanged:2891 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.notifyServiceStateForPhoneId:1608 com.android.internal.telephony.ITelephonyRegistry$Stub.onTransact:455
11-23 13:56:23.463  1681  2031 W BroadcastQueue: Permission Denial: receiving Intent { act=android.intent.action.SERVICE_STATE flg=0x1000010 (has extras) } to com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver/com.android.cellbroadcastreceiver.CellBroadcastReceiver requires android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE due to sender android (uid 1001)
11-23 13:56:23.463  1681  2031 W BroadcastQueue: Permission Denial: receiving Intent { act=android.intent.action.SERVICE_STATE flg=0x1000010 (has extras) } to com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver/com.android.cellbroadcastreceiver.CellBroadcastReceiver requires android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION due to sender android (uid 1001)
11-23 13:56:23.464  1681  3481 W ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.sendBroadcastMultiplePermissions:1256 android.content.Context.sendBroadcastMultiplePermissions:2215 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.broadcastServiceStateChanged:2895 com.android.server.TelephonyRegistry.notifyServiceStateForPhoneId:1608 com.android.internal.telephony.ITelephonyRegistry$Stub.onTransact:455
11-23 13:56:23.465  1681  2031 W BroadcastQueue: Permission Denial: receiving Intent { act=android.intent.action.SERVICE_STATE flg=0x1000010 (has extras) } to com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver/com.android.cellbroadcastreceiver.CellBroadcastReceiver requires android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE due to sender android (uid 1001)

And that results in a lot of logging that seems to be about refreshing the data about my mobile carrier (onRefreshCarrierInfo()), which may be where the CPU time is actually spent (following log capture is from a later occurrence):
11-23 14:18:08.592  2936  2936 D ServiceStateProvider: subId=1
11-23 14:18:08.592  2462  2640 I CustomizedNetworkIcon: getConfigValueByKey: oem_key_rat_name_of_4g_int=0
11-23 14:18:08.595  2462  2640 I CustomizedNetworkIcon: getConfigValueByKey: oem_display_lte_icon_int=1
11-23 14:18:08.597  2936  2936 I Telephony: TelecomAccountRegistry: onSubscriptionsChanged - reregister accounts
11-23 14:18:08.598  1676  2040 D CompatibilityInfo: mCompatibilityFlags - 0
11-23 14:18:08.598  2936  2936 D Telephony: isEmergencyPreferredAccount: subId=1, activeData=1
11-23 14:18:08.598  1676  2040 D CompatibilityInfo: applicationDensity - 280
11-23 14:18:08.598  2936  2936 D Telephony: isEmergencyPreferredAccount: Device does not require preference.
11-23 14:18:08.598  1676  2040 D CompatibilityInfo: applicationScale - 1.0
11-23 14:18:08.600 31066 31066 D CellBroadcastReceiver: onReceive Intent { act=android.intent.action.SERVICE_STATE flg=0x1000010 cmp=com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver/com.android.cellbroadcastreceiver.CellBroadcastReceiver (has extras) }
11-23 14:18:08.600 31066 31066 D CellBroadcastReceiver: onServiceStateChanged, ss: 0
11-23 14:18:08.600 31066 31066 D CellBroadcastReceiver: networkOperator: 20416
11-23 14:18:08.600 31066 31066 D CellBroadcastReceiver: update supported roaming operator as
11-23 14:18:08.601  2936  2936 I Telephony: isRttCurrentlySupported -- regular acct, hasVoiceAvailability: false
11-23 14:18:08.601  2936  2936 I Telephony:  isRttSupported: false
11-23 14:18:08.601  2936  2936 I Telephony:  isUserRttSettingOn: false
11-23 14:18:08.601  2936  2936 I Telephony:  alwaysAllowWhileRoaming: false
11-23 14:18:08.601  2936  2936 I Telephony:  isRoaming: false
11-23 14:18:08.601  2936  2936 I Telephony:  isOnWfc: false
11-23 14:18:08.607  2462  2640 E CustomizedImsIcon: customizedVoLTEandVoWiFiIcon:
11-23 14:18:08.608  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] customizedImsIcon:++
11-23 14:18:08.608  2462  4440 D CustomizedImsIcon: isAirplaneModeOn: false
11-23 14:18:08.608  2462  4440 D CustomizedImsIcon: customizedImsIcon:clear all vowifi icon which is added with TAG when airplane is off
11-23 14:18:08.608  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] isOperaterCustomized:mccmnc=20416
11-23 14:18:08.609  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] isOperaterClaroCustomized:mccmnc=20416
11-23 14:18:08.609  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] isCustomizedBySkuId:isCustomized=false
11-23 14:18:08.609  2462  4440 D CustomizedImsIcon: getSimCount: simCount=1
11-23 14:18:08.610  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] isWifiCallingAvailable: isImsRegistered is false
11-23 14:18:08.610  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] isShowVoWiFiIcon: isAllowed=false
11-23 14:18:08.612  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] isAllowShowVoLteIcon:OEM_ALLOW_SHOW_VOLTE_ICON_BOOL=false  phoneId=0
11-23 14:18:08.612  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] isShowVolteIcon: isAllowed=false
11-23 14:18:08.613  2462  4440 I CustomizedImsIcon: [0] customizedImsIcon:--
11-23 14:18:08.615  2936  2936 I Telephony: reRegisterPstnPhoneAccount: subId: 1 - no change
11-23 14:18:08.615  2936  2936 D CallNotifier: updatePhoneStateListeners: update CF notifications.
11-23 14:18:08.616  2936  2936 I NotificationMgr: updateCfi: subId= 1, visible=N
11-23 14:18:08.616  2936  2936 I NotificationMgr: updateMwi(): subId 1 update to false
11-23 14:18:08.618  2462  2462 D KeyguardUpdateMonitor: received broadcast android.intent.action.SERVICE_STATE
11-23 14:18:08.618  2462  2462 V KeyguardUpdateMonitor: action android.intent.action.SERVICE_STATE serviceState={mVoiceRegState=0(IN_SERVICE), mDataRegState=0(IN_SERVICE), mChannelNumber=1656, duplexMode()=1, mCellBandwidths=[], mOperatorAlphaLong=Simpel, mOperatorAlphaShort=Simpel, isManualNetworkSelection=false(automatic), getRilVoiceRadioTechnology=14(LTE), getRilDataRadioTechnology=14(LTE), mCssIndicator=unsupported, mNetworkId=-1, mSystemId=-1, mCdmaRoamingIndicator=-1, mCdmaDefaultRoamingIndicator=-1, mIsEmergencyOnly=false, isUsingCarrierAggregation=false, mArfcnRsrpBoost=0, mNetworkRegistrationInfos=[NetworkRegistrationInfo{ domain=CS transportType=WWAN registrationState=HOME roamingType=NOT_ROAMING accessNetworkTechnology=LTE rejectCause=0 emergencyEnabled=false availableServices=[VOICE,SMS,VIDEO] cellIdentity=CellIdentityLte:{ mCi=70817281 mPci=66 mTac=527 mEarfcn=1656 mBands=[] mBandwidth=2147483647 mMcc=204 mMnc=16 mAlphaLong=Simpel mAlphaShort=Simpel mAdditionalPlmns={} mCsgInfo=null} voiceSpecificInfo=VoiceSpecificRegistrationInfo { mCssSupported=false mRoamingIndicator=1 mSystemIsInPrl=-1 mDefaultRoamingIndicator=-1} dataSpecificInfo=null nrState=**** rRplmn=20416 isUsingCarrierAggregation=false}, NetworkRegistrationInfo{ domain=PS transportType=WWAN registrationState=HOME roamingType=NOT_ROAMING accessNetworkTechnology=LTE rejectCause=0 emergencyEnabled=false availableServices=[DATA] cellIdentity=CellIdentityLte:{ mCi=70817281 mPci=66 mTac=527 mEarfcn=1656 mBands=[] mBandwidth=2147483647 mMcc=204 mMnc=16 mAlphaLong=Simpel mAlphaShort=Simpel mAdditionalPlmns={} mCsgInfo=null} voiceSpecificInfo=null dataSpecificInfo=android.telephony.DataSpecificRegistrationInfo :{ maxDataCalls = 20 isDcNrRestricted = false isNrAvailable = false isEnDcAvailable = false LteVopsSupportInfo :  mVopsSupport = 3 mEmcBearerSupport = 2 } nrState=**** rRplmn=20416 isUsingCarrierAggregation=false}], mNrFrequencyRange=0, mOperatorAlphaLongRaw=Simpel, mOperatorAlphaShortRaw=Simpel, mIsDataRoamingFromRegistration=false, mIsIwlanPreferred=false} subId=1
[...snipping a lot more similar logging...]

What could be wrong?  Or at least, how can I further debug this?

Also cross-posted this to https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/android-12-cellbroadcastreceiver-permission-denial-causing-high-cpu-usage-in-com-android-phone-process.4529991/.

After more research, my current best quess is that the Qualcomm RIL driver (presumably via qcrild) very often sends a '1002 unsolicited response (voice) network state changed' event: com.android.phone logs "D RILJ    : Unsol response received; Sending ack to ril.cpp [PHONE0]:" and "D RILJ    : [UNSL]< UNSOL_RESPONSE_NETWORK_STATE_CHANGED [PHONE0]", often 10+ times per second.


text:
How to investigate/solve Google Play Store high memory usage (-> high CPU -> battery drain)?
Ever since my (not-rooted stock Android) Nokia 6.1 phone was upgraded to Android 10, last January, I have a performance issue with it: A couple of times per day it becomes near or completely unusable, often permanently until a hard restart.  Also this causes high battery usage.
However, using a battery analysis app didn't turn up any specific suspect.
Recently I discovered adb shell, and when the phone starts behaving badly,

top showed me that the CPU-hogging process at such moments is kswapd:
Tasks: 681 total,   1 running, 680 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
  Mem:      2.6G total,      2.4G used,      198M free,       11M buffers
 Swap:      1.0G total,      1.0G used,      112K free,      311M cached
800%cpu  38%user  10%nice  52%sys 684%idle  10%iow   2%irq   4%sirq   0%host
  PID USER         PR  NI VIRT  RES  SHR S[%CPU] %MEM     TIME+ ARGS
 1739 system       18  -2 7.9G 144M  47M S 12.3   5.2  13:37.24 system_server
  148 root         20   0    0    0    0 S  8.6   0.0   3:50.15 [kswapd0]
  564 logd         30  10 168M  10M 0.9M S  7.3   0.3   1:11.69 logd
28119 shell        20   0  35M 3.1M 1.7M R  5.0   0.1   0:00.45 top
  705 root         20   0 5.1G  44M  24M S  5.0   1.6   0:54.88 zygote64

top -s 6 (sorts by memory use, RES) showed me that the main memory-using process at such moments is com.android.vending (= Google Play Store).
Tasks: 690 total,   1 running, 689 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
  Mem:      2.6G total,      2.4G used,      180M free,       17M buffers
 Swap:      1.0G total,      0.9G used,      2.1M free,      412M cached
800%cpu   9%user   3%nice  13%sys 772%idle   1%iow   2%irq   1%sirq   0%host
  PID USER         PR  NI VIRT [RES] SHR S %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ ARGS
 5296 u0_a105      20   0 2.1G 472M  24M S  0.0  17.2   1:18.80 com.android.vending
 1739 system       18  -2 7.9G 150M  53M S  3.0   5.4  13:12.22 system_server
 2233 u0_a111      20   0 6.1G 108M  56M S  0.6   3.9   2:03.84 com.android.systemui
 7120 u0_a161      20   0 7.7G  93M  45M S  0.6   3.4   8:22.83 com.google.android.youtube
 2931 u0_a90       20   0 5.9G  83M  36M S  0.0   3.0   3:05.21 com.google.android.gms.persistent
26244 u0_a90       20   0 5.2G  74M  39M S  0.0   2.7   0:02.38 com.google.android.gms.ui

[Side note.  That seems to explain why battery analysis didn't help: Presumably kswapd CPU usage is ascribed to general kernel processing, not to this specific app.]
And that app is really the cause: Stopping that Google Play Store process (e.g., using am force-stop com.android.vending) quickly brings performance back to normal levels.
As a workaround, I tried to disable automatic updates in Google Play Store, and that seems to have improved things a little, but the issue is definitely still there.
So now, as another workaround, a couple of times per day I hard-stop that application, which helps to prevent it usually.

My vague question is: How to I get further with this issue?

Is this a known issue that has already been reported somewhere?  Is the cause known?  (E.g., is this triggered by the Google Play Store app detecting updates?)
Can I report it to Nokia in some bug tracker?  Can I report it to Google somewhere?
What kind of additional information/dumps/logs would help to investigate this further?
Are there any other/better workarounds?  (Disable some feature, go back to an older version of Google Play Store, clear some cache or force something to be regenerated, disable swap, whatever...)
Is there some way to automate the workaround I currently have?  (I'm already using Automate for some other things, but any automated solution apparently requires my device to be rooted.)

(Note that my device is not rooted, and I would like to try to keep it that way.  But I will consider rooting it, if there some kind of solution or workaround that requires that.
If it helps, phone model is TA-1043, currently running build number 00WW_4_10C_SP04.)

118 views over 4 months and no suggestion for even one of my points? Anything would help me here.  (It doesn't seem helpful to go back to factory settings, since it's install the same apps and run into the same issue?)

It may not be germane, or even helpful, but I started seeing this on my Nexus 4 yesterday and a search brought this up.

For the record, this specific issue is moot for me, because within a few months of asking this question, this device stopped working with an apparently unrelated hardware issue.  (Even after reset to factory defaults, it would spontaneously restart once a day or even more often.)  I still would appreciate 'where to report' and 'how to debug' pointers and advice!  For example, because I again bought a similar phone, and I'm now debugging another issue ; see https://android.stackexchange.com/q/249383/37933.


text:
Transfering mp3 file from a pc and play it on Android 4.1.1?
I recently bought a smartphone with the intent of not having to bow to iPhone and its iTunes etc.  I am a PC only user and so I don't really want to change my religion from Win-to-IOS!
However, what I thought would be simple is proving to be difficult.  I am sure there will be many like me.  And that is why I am posting here.
My pc runs Win-XP.  The ALDI phone is Medion E4002 (MD 98388) and runs Android 4.1.1.
I want to copy some mp3 files that I have to the Android phone so I can listen.  Not too much ask, is it?
But I am unable to.  Tried the Help Line of ALDI.  The bottom line from support person is that under Windows it should work without any additional software.  Because in my case it does not work, the problem must be with my pc!
In Android under System Settings, I tried connection as a USB Storage.  Yes, two new "removable drives" are recognized, but properties shows as 0 bytes and all blue disk.
And if I try the connection as a Media Device (MTP) the phone is not recognized by the pc.
Any help?
Update from original psoter (july 25, 2013)
As was suggested by the Aldi / Medion Help Centre guy, I tried copying files from a Win 8 laptop. There too, the USB mode did not work, but MTP did. Thanks for the answers.

+1 for the intent of not having to bow to iPhone and its iTunes etc

Dan, it would be interesting how you've got that working. Did any of the answers do the trick, or was it something different altogether?

German Wikipedia notes that Windows XP supports MTP only with Media Player 10 installed, so this is one thing your could try.
A second pointer is provided by How do I install the MTP drivers for Windows XP ? in the MS help center, which points you to download and install the Media Transfer Protocol Porting Kit from their website.
Number 3 advice: You wrote you tried connection as a USB Storage. That should do without any specific drivers even on Windows, as the device then poses as "USB disk". It should present you at least the SD Card this way. You wrote it shows with a "0 byte size": if that should mean how much data is in there, that could be normal (card still empty).
Last one: If all other fails, take a look at apps like e.g. AirDroid, which lets you remotely administrate and manage your Android device, and also includes a file browser with drag-and-drop support. You start this app on your Android device, and it will show you an URL to type into your browser on the PC. Then you can handle everything else from within your web browser.

I could not get USB transfer to work either (Windows 8, Nexus 4 and Nexus 7). As a workaround I am using AirDroid (Google Play).

I've been tearing my hair out with this one as well. The one thing I wanted most, and it didn't work. I found the missing info at whirlpool forums. You actually have to turn USB storage on, not merely enable it in the settings. Also, what you really want is for the phone to autoplay. Here's the process I went through; don't know which step actually fixed the issue:
Go into settings and check usb debugging and usb tethering.
When you connect the phone by USB and the two dive icons appear, right click on them, go to properties and select autoplay, change the drop down menu from music to mixed content and check the prompt me each time to choose an action. This is for Win XP, mind you.
When you next connect the phone to USB, tap the top of the screen where the battery and USB icon is. Slide down to reveal your options, and a message saying connect as usb storage will appear with the Android robot icon holding his arm up as a USB connector. Press turn on USB storage when it connects. Autoplay will automatically open a removable disk drive box asking you what you want to do. Click open folder to explore files and voila - cut and paste what you want.
I only got this far after I put in the micro SD card. Before that, I never saw the Android robot appear with turn USB storage on/off after sliding the screen down, only the connect as USB storage setting. The checkbox would be there, but it wouldn't connect and merely charge even though there is another selection for that.
Hope it works for you. Good luck.

I was able to copy MP3 files to my 4.1.1 Android phone by:

Connecting the USB cable to the phone.
Select "Media Device (MTP)" from the menu which pops up.
In Windows 7, I just used Windows Explorer and copied files from my PC to the SD card (E: Drive for me, could be different for you). Finding the right place to drop the files on the SD card is sometimes a challenge, but for me, I just dropped it at the root of the "E:/SD card".

MTP devices doesn't show with drive letters in Windows. They are shown under "Portable Media Players".

An easy low brow way to do this that I find the best for investment/reward ratio is ..... drum roll, flourish of hands, magical passes over sequined leotard clad assistant's body,   ..... copy the MP3s onto a microSD card that is plugged into a USB port on the PC. And then disconnect the microSD card from the PC and insert it into the microSD slot next to the SIM slots of the phone.

Not all Android devices have a removable SD storage.

If you do not mind transferring files wireless-ly, you can always go for an option like WiFi file transfer as explained in this answer. You can try updating the MTP drivers of your PC and installing device drivers if any.


text:
Can't pin Last Added auto-playlist: "This music is only stored on this device"
Update: Recent versions of Play Music seem to have this issue fixed.
Recently installed a new ROM on my Galaxy Nexus and am trying to redownload all my music from Play Music (I do have All Access, so I can't just transfer files). I need to keep them offline because I have no mobile data connection, only wifi.
When I try pressing Keep on Device in the options menu of the playlist, it gives me a toast saying "This music is only stored on this device". Also strange, where there should be an image of the pin, it is just blank. You can still press the area and it'll give you the same message. The Last Added playlist is the only thing I can't keep offline for whatever reason. I tried installing older versions of the app, but no dice (up to v5.0, since that's when all the All Access stuff was added, i think). What can I do to fix this?
When trying to keep on device:

Invisible button where pin should be:

EDIT: I tried decompiling the apk and that toast string named "toast_cant_pin_side_loaded". And the function in which it is called seems to imply that the playlist is either unpinnable or had some problem while pinning.
EDIT 2: Just noticed that in the playlist, the latest song added was some song that wasn't part of my library (The Phantom pt. 2 by Justice). I pressed add to library, but that didn't fix the problem. I pressed remove from library and it didn't fix anything, but it's no longer in the playlist. It doesn't seem to be on my device and there should be no reason why it would be on my device. Also, I tried manually creating a playlist with all my music and that pins just fine. That is not a solution, as I want to have Play Music automatically download new songs without me having to manually add them to the playlist.
EDIT 3: Flashed the new stock 4.3 from Google (after wiping of course), and the same problem >:(. So it seems this is a problem with the app itself, and not my ROM.
EDIT 4: Same problem exists on another Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 4 I tried.

Found a solution, follow the link and download version "4.4.811H.526848".
Install the old version and pin the last added playlist, then use the play store to update to the latest version.
Your last added playlist will now be pinned, when you update there is no still no pin icon but it is pinned.

Tom... I think I love you.

If I understand correctly, the message means that you can't set the tracks to be kept on the device, since they are currently on your device, not from Play Music. Even the toast string toast_cant_pin_side_loaded suggests this (see Sideloading). Unfortunately I can't confirm this since Play Music isn't yet available in my region.

I'm not entirely sure what sideloading means in the context of Play Music. Typically it means to install a package via USB from your PC, right?

In this case it means that you have the MP3 files on your device, either in internal storage or your SD card, and that they've been loaded there from somewhere else than Play Music.

The MP3 files are located at /data/data/com.google.android.music/files/music. Clearing the data from the app manager seems to clear everything in  /data/data/com.google.android.music/, so there is not already an MP3 file there.

You don't have any music in your Internal or External Storage that you didn't download from Play Music ?
(Edit: missed the reply button...)

No, I wiped everything so it should be clear. My Galaxy Nexus only has 16GB internal storage, no external storage. It is reporting about more than 12GB remaining, and before I had more than 6GB of music so it's definitely gone. http://imgur.com/ZtZu95l

Did you wipe it from recovery or from settings? Some recoveries don't wipe internal storage on the GNex. It really seems like you have some sideloaded MP3 files in the Last added playlist, which prevents the Keep on device function from working, but I may be wrong too.

Wiped it from CWM recovery. I have no clue where else to look, and i'd rather not have to wipe again.

Have you ever uploaded MP3 files from any device to your Play Music account?

From my PC, yes. I have a mix of uploaded music and streaming music from my All Access subscription.

I think the problem might be that the playlist contains tracks uploaded from your PC and not just from All Access. Those tracks could be considered as sideloaded and therefore the playlist can't be pinned.

It has worked like this before I had All Access, so I had only uploaded tracks.

I think you should try do a full wipe data/factory reset using your preferred custom recovery ..and then re-flash the ROM and tell us what happens.

Just tried full wipe and re-flash to the latest stable CM 10.1, same problem. I'll try stock 4.3 soon.

Stock 4.3 has same problem.

This is weird! did you try de-authorizing? in case you have more than 10 devices connected to Play Music?

I did, I only have about 3 devices authorized including this one.

I'm sorry, I'm out of ideas.. if you find the solution let us know :)

I wrote to google about this issue and they advised to clear app data (Device Menu > Settings > Apps > All > Google Play Music > Clear Data). This worked! However, mind you - you will need to download all your music again if you keep it offline.

I think that's because recently Play Music seems to have been updated to fix pinning the Last Added playlist.


text:
Accessing termux user environment from other consoles
I've recently started using the amazing Termux terminal app and linux environment.  It provides a wealth of full-function terminal utilities.  It would be great to be able to access these utilities from other consoles, especially when connected via ssh or adb shell.  I've managed to make some functionality available by setting my PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables to the same values used by Termux's shell, but there are permissions problems and it seems messy.
Is there a way to ssh in to a Termux session?  Termux doesn't seem to provide an ssh server package.  Even if it did, presumably that server, and thus the ssh session granted by it, would run as a separate user from the termux user, resulting in similar permissions problems.
Is there a supported way to access the Termux user environment from other consoles?

I looked at various tutorials and I could only figure out how to connect via USB (wired) tether. I couldn't figure out how to get a wireless IP for the sshd server in Termux. If anyone is having trouble finding the IP address of your phone, plug it into your PC (with USB cable) and then look for the "Default Route" on the new wired connection on your PC, that's the only way I could get it working. Also you may need "whoami" and/or "passwd" in Termux to get the username. Port defaults to 8022. PS: Tried sshuttle through the Termux sshd and my ISP still throttles it down to pathetic .5 Mbps :-/

@PJBrunet what did you try on termux to get the Ip Adress?

For getting the ip of a device, Linux-Know-How might help. As a starter I recommend Lpic1.

Termux does provide the openssh package, which contains both the ssh client and the sshd server.
Install the package with: apt install openssh, then start the server with sshd - it will run on port 8022 by default, so connect to it with ssh -p 8022 DEVICE_IP, and you can find the device wifi ip using ip addr list wlan0.
Password authentication is not supported, so you need to setup $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys.
After you have connected you will run as the normal Termux user with environment variables setup correctly.

Wow, they should really mention that in the package description, which just says that it is a "Secure shell for logging in to a remote machine".

Password authentication is supported. You need to run passwd to set a new password for your SSH server. However, what doesn't work is usernames (i.e. everyone can log in with every username with that one password), AFAIK.

You can launch sshd on every boot using https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Termux:Boot

"wlan0" didn't give me a useable IP address

@MAChitgarha your point is essential, otherwise there is no chance to connect. Well done!

On your knees and bow,
Ip_Address_Of_Remote_Host = 192.168.1.20
(Assuming you have generated a key on the termux machine using
ssh-keygen -t rsa
There is a space inbetween ssh-keygen and -t
and copied the key to Remote_Host using that machines log-on details
ssh-copy-id user@192.168.1.20).
There is a space inbetween ssh-copy-id and user
You should now be able to log on to the remote  host without using a password.
ssh user@192.168.1.20
The rsa key generated above is not the key you place into the authorized_keys file on the termux machine.
The issue is getting the
id_rsa.pub
file from your Remote machine to the termux
~/.ssh/authorized_keys
file on the Local system (phone) the solution I used was scp, this command confuses a lot of people but if viewed from the position that it is just a cp command it's mysticism vanishes
cp file_to_copy  where_to_copy_file
This command is run from the Termux machine (phone)
scp user@192.168.1.20:/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub   ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
There is a space inbetween id_rsa.pub and ~/
The path to your .ssh directory may be different just make sure it is the correct path you enter into he above command.
If you still have trouble logging on navigate to the
/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/etc/ssh/sshd_config file
Activate these two key pairs
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes

For anybody with a slight understanding of SSH this should be straight forward for those who are new to GNU/Linux paths are what you need to be focused on. My next port of call is to see if X forwarding is possible for then it opens up the possibility of using the productivity suits on your desktop but writing to the termux machine, let me expand you will be able to use LibraOffice software on the termux machine but have it displayed on the desktop without lagging/latency this is the power of GNU/Linux.

You need to install openssh in termux by running
pkg install openssh

and then, on the device you want to ssh from, generate a Public ID Key,
ssh-keygen

and just confirm and down change anything, then do
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

and copy the output into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and restart the sshd server and try to ssh,
if you encounter any errors, check the authorized_keys file and makesure your public key is all on one line
You have to do these steps above because Termux sshd doesnt support password logins, (IE, ssh user@ip_address then entering a password)
you have to ssh into termux using
ssh termux-ip-here -p 8022

Password authentication IS now supported.

These are Android commands to run on Termux and setup a SSH client and server,
allowing to connect from your desktop to your Android and vice-versa.
This does not cover the SSH server and client set up on your desktop computer.
Using the SSH server
https://termux.com/ssh.html
apt update
apt upgrade
apt install openssh

Here you can create a password for your keys and use it to connect to your computer, if you like
a password. Otherwise, leave them in blank and no passwords are required, other than your
DESKTOP user computer password.
How can I set up password-less SSH login?
https://askubuntu.com/questions/46930/how-can-i-set-up-password-less-ssh-login
ssh-keygen -b 4096 -t rsa

This allows you to connect from your ANDROID to your DESKTOP by SSH connection without
your ANDROID user password (as passwords are not supported by termux sshd server)
3 Steps to Perform SSH Login Without Password Using ssh-keygen & ssh-copy-id
https://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/11/3-steps-to-perform-ssh-login-without-password-using-ssh-keygen-ssh-copy-id
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub your_desktop_ssh_user@YOUR.DESKTOP.IP.ADDRESS

This allows you to connect from your DESKTOP to your ANDROID by SSH connection without
your ANDROID user password (if you want to use your's computer user password, skip this command)

First Option
Accessing termux user environment from other consoles
Accessing termux user environment from other consoles
scp your_desktop_ssh_user@YOUR.DESKTOP.IP.ADDRESS:~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Second Option
How do I add SSH Keys to authorized_keys file?
https://askubuntu.com/questions/46424/how-do-i-add-ssh-keys-to-authorized-keys-file
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh your_desktop_ssh_user@YOUR.DESKTOP.IP.ADDRESS "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Scripts and notes for setting up and using SSHd on your Android device using Termux
https://github.com/tomhiggins/TermuxSSHDsetup
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

ssh blank passphrase but still asking for it
https://serverfault.com/questions/845623/ssh-blank-passphrase-but-still-asking-for-it
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/known_hosts
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Start the server by executing sshd (which will start it on the default port 8022)
and run logcat -s 'syslog:*' to view the log output from the server process.
Execute pkill sshd to stop the server.
logcat -s 'syslog:*'
pkill sshd
sshd

Finally, connecting from one to another and vice-versa:
Connecting from your ANDROID to your DESKTOP (the usage of your DESKTOP user password can be optional)
ssh your_desktop_ssh_user@YOUR.DESKTOP.IP.ADDRESS

Connecting from your DESKTOP to your ANDROID (must not to use your ANDROID user password)
Since Termux is a single-user system you may connect as any user - regardless
of your specified username you will login as the only Termux user available.
The Termux sshd binary does not support password logins, so a key needs to be authorized in
~/.ssh/authorized_keys before connecting. Use ssh-keygen to generate a new one if desired.
ssh -p 8022 -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa IP.OF.YOUR.ANDROID

(ANDROID) If you still have trouble logging on navigate to file and activate these two key pairs:
/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/etc/ssh/sshd_config
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes

Extra: Locking and unlocking the file system from read-only to read-write and vice-versa.
How to copy files to an Android emulator’s data directory with ‘adb push’
https://alvinalexander.com/android/how-copy-files-android-device-emulator-adb-push-read-only-error
mount -o rw,remount rootfs /

Revert the changes back after finishing the changes!
cat /proc/mounts
mount -o ro,remount rootfs /

As an alternative way, I build termux app and then adb shell to access termux console from PC without requiring root.
The prefix below of [PC]~ $, [ADB]~ $ and [ADB's BASH]~ $ indicates where the command type from.

In Android settings, enable Developer options, toggle on USB debugging, and uninstall existing termux app for all users. And of course, the existing termux data will loss.
Clone termux source code, [PC]~ $ git clone https://github.com/termux/termux-app
Open that project in Android Studio, plug-in phone cable, select phone device from menu then direct run or build it as debug apk which allow you use run-as without root.
[PC]~ $ adb shell
[ADB]~ $ run-as com.termux
[ADB]~ $ cd files/usr/bin
If not yet install bash and vim, either go to Android device to install, or [ADB]~ $ export PATH=/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin:$PATH first then pkg install bash and pkg install vim.
./bash to launch bash shell session.
[ADB's BASH]~ $ vim ~/.bashrc and put this 2 lines which set environment when launch new bash session: PATH=/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin:$PATH and export LD_PRELOAD=/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/libtermux-exec.so
[ADB's BASH]~ $ . ~/.bashrc to take effect immediately.
Use rsync command, e.g. [ADB's BASH]~ $ rsync -rvtP --remove-source-files source_dir foo@IP:/home/foo/Downloads/ to transfer file between Android and PC. (Note: Source directory don't trailing with /, and need find source_dir -type d -empty -delete after done to remove empty directories) . Alternatively use [PC]~ $ adb exec-out run-as com.termux cat '/data/user/0/com.termux/.bashrc' > ~/Downloads/.bashrc to pull file from Android to PC.
To quit, Ctrl+D or [ADB's BASH]~ $ exit. [ADB]~ $ ./bash
to re-enter new bash session.
For unknown reason, first time access will no internet, you need launch termux app in android device manually once, after that can exit termux app.


text:
How do I make an expandable skype popup?
I was switching between skype, as a person replied, and twitch on my phone and wasn't paying particularly close attention to the switch at one point and magically there was a little skype icon on my twitch app I could move around and expand into the skype convo I was going to and then collapse again without ever causing the stream I was watching to go away.
Problem is I'm not entirely sure what I did to do that and I would really like to be able to have that open anytime I'm doing something in particular on my phone and chatting in skype at the same time.

Found out that with some apps, Skype included, if you swipe down and to the left in the app from the corner it'll make the app into a little popup that just sits on your phone till you do something with it.


text:
Galaxy S6 Edge unresponsive Download Mode Screen
Worth noting my home button doesn't work (although the fingerprint scanner does).
I'm able to access the 'Warning: A custom os can cause critical problems..' screen by holding down my power button and either of the volume buttons, but once on the screen I can't continue or cancel using the volume buttons, the phone simply doesn't respond. To turn the phone off again I have to hold both volume buttons and the power button for an extended time.
If anyone has any ideas, that'd be much appreciated.

I found a way around this by using a utility called 'Samsung 300K Tool', it allowed me to put the phone in download mode without rebooting.
EDIT: After recommendation by beeshyams.
Googling 'Samsung 300K Tool' after seeing it in a video I was able to find it very quick, however it seems Mediafire has deemed the program dangerous, I scanned with Malwarebytes but proceed at your own risk. I also can't guarantee this will work for your phone but it worked for my S6 Edge. I've uploaded the executable to TinyUpload, it can be found here:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=06981153934260620870
First make sure your phone is on as normal, plug in the phone and open the utility, after given the go ahead by the dialogue on the right, click the image of a connector on the left, wait a moment and your phone should be in download mode, run Odin as normal.
Hope this helps someone.

Please link the utility source and describe key steps involved to add value to your answer