text:
Access Phone with broken screen
I've recently broken the screen of my Samsung Galaxy S7 (model number: SM-G390F). USB debugging should be enabled, however MTP seems to be disabled as data cables (work for file transfer with other phones but not for this one) are able to charge it (vibrates when plugged in), but neither the file explorer nor the adb list of devices features it.
Are there any way to force the recognition, to get around it not being detected, to mirror the screen or use a different output, to check if the touch is still active or both screen and touch are broken? To figure out where one would need to do blind presses to enable the necessary permissions?
So far I've tested several cables and are in possession of data micro-USB cables for data transfer, I tried to access it via adb and failed, I tried to do this power, home, vol up or down, but I don't see a result with screen broken. I've read several post on this topic but they are either outdated or weren't successful. Are there any options that come to mind on how to access and recover the data on the phone?
Edit: The only response left from the screen is that the pseudobuttons left and right from the home button light up when I press the home or power button. Also the light in the top left is occassionally blue or red (when charging). Attempts to take screenshots on an sd card (unfortunately only inserted after the screen stopped working) have not been successful, though that could just be a me issue and not a phone issue, I'll keep trying later).

Does your phone has a pin/password/pattern? MTP usually does not work when the phone is in locked state (lock screen is shown). So you have to first enter your PIN/password using an USB keyboard. Also adb access may be limited before the first time you have entered lock screen password, because after reboot most user files are still encrypted and thus not accessible.

Good point. Since I removed the sim card there should only be a swiping pattern left to guard it (I still know that pattern). It might be difficult but possible to apply that. Though so far I haven't gotten positive or negative feedback from trying that. Also while detecting the cable and loading is possible when plugged in and never touching it, the cable was never particularly well adjusted in the socket, switched to induction loading because of that, so might take a few attempts for that as well. So far I wasn't particularly successful with that, but thanks very much for the tip.

I would recommend trying to mirror its screen, for if its only the internal screen then it should have no problem giving an output. Then, if the touch screen still works. Either check settings, Get a new screen, Or try factory reset
See HERE for MicroUSB to HDMI adapter

I checked my local electronics shop and they argued that micro-usb and normal usb have no video out. Then I checked the internet and found that to be bullshit. However there are differences and apparently the phone needs to support Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) and as far as I can find the Galaxy S7 did no longer support that, thought accounts may vary.

Would it be possible for you to get the model number?

Probably no I don't have the manual ready and I can't access the phones menu. Is there a way to tell from specs or exterior?

Well... I mean you could get a couple of useful bits of information from cracking the phone open (personally i have a phone which just pops off.

The S7 is not among those that can be easily opened without tools and damages (at least not as far as I am aware off) but apparently the model number is listed on the case it seems to be SM-G390F


text:
How to download ebooks from Google Play Books for offline reading on other ebook reader apps?
I use Ebook Reader. I attempted to use the download option on the MyBook list (the three dots). The file that came was incompatible with my ebook reader.
It was: Warriors_2_Fire_and_Ice-epub.acsm
I tried renaming the book in various ways such as:

Warriors_2_Fire_and_Ice-epub
Warriors_2_Fire_and_Ice.epub

However, I couldn't import either of those files into my ebook reader.
The extension .acsm might be the offline extension for ebooks.  I thought I had seen it as an epub before.
So if that is the case, can someone advise me on how to convert the downloaded book to a way that I can import it into my ebook reader library?

As the answer to Are Google Books DRM protected? explains, ACSM files are DRM-protected, so you can only read them in the Play Books app itself, not in another ebook app. Once you've "pinned" the book and it has downloaded, you can read it offline in the Play Books app.

Thanks for the information.  I would never have purchased the book if I had known it wasn't possible to read it in my favorite ebook reader.  I'll have to study for future reference how to tell which books I'll be able to download to my android to read in my preferred feature reader.  The features of the play book reader are not easy on my eyes... not easy for me to use.  All the other books I've purchased are in my offline library (the library of my ebook reader).  Thanks for clearing this up for me!

That's one of the reasons I don't use Play Books at all. There are plenty of ebook readers available, and many sources of ebooks without DRM (e.g. my library), I prefer to stick wit those. As an author, ebooks I release are not DRM protected (even not on Amazon) for exactly the reason you named: I don't want to restrict my readers on where/how they want to read the books.

According to the 2nd revision of the OP's question (with copyedit),

This is a clarification of the answer provided by Dan Hulme.
Important components of the answer:

The book is automatically downloaded and readable offline when reading it online.
The download works the ACSM is a package of the download which can be loaded on authorized machines for reading (via authorized readers).

You can get the program for your Mac or Windows at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions/download.html
For Linux, you have to install Wine and run the Windows Version.
At present, the latest Windows release doesn't work with Linux (Wine) you have to use version ADE17 for Linux:
Install Adobe Digital Editions on Linux
For the Android so far I find:
Aldiko Book Reader
I agree with Izzy's brilliant reflection that in the future I'll have to search for books that don't have this restriction.

As mentioned in the other answer, the ACSM files have DRM so one method is to just read in the Play Books app. It sounds like you'd prefer to use another reader though. So, another solution is to remove the DRM using a program I wrote called Knock. This will spit out a DRM-free EPUB or PDF file that you can read in any reader.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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

sort: votes


text:
Backup/restore question for Moto G XT1033 converted to XT1032 GPE
I have installed TWRP as my recovery and rooted my device. But I only had the space to backup the "system" and not the "data". Now I was going to install CyanogenMod.
My real question is, if things go south during installation, will I be able to return to system with Phone (sim) and Play Store apps working through the "system" backup?

Moto G XT1033 as it seems from this question supports OTG, which means you can connect a pendrive using an OTG cable and store complete Nandroid backup in it through the recovery.

Will I be able to return to system with Phone (sim) and Play Store apps working through the "system" backup?

I cannot comment anything about Baseband/IMEI issue, but you will definitely lose Play Store apps since they are downloaded and their data stored under /data, which you're not backing up here.
On a side note, the device has good amount of Internal Storage available; can you not make space enough to store the backup in it?
May be you can try making a backup of /system only and then pushing it through ADB into the PC. Do the same for /data and /boot now. ADB will work in Recovery.

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


text:
How to use Tasker with the new OpenVPN version?
I usually use OpenVPN Connect android client for connecting to my OpenVPN server in a raspberry. I also use Tasker to automatically connect to the VPN when I am outside from home. My configuration is:
Send Intent
Action:android.intent.action.VIEW
Cat:None
Extra:vpn.AUTOSTART_PROFILE_NAME: <PROFILE NAME>
Package:net.openvpn.openvpn
Class:net.openvpn.openvpn.OpenVPNClient
Target:Activity

Few days ago, the OpenVPN version has been changed to 3.0.1 , and my tasker is not working any more. At least the tasks are not able any more to start a VPN connection or disconnect it.
Obviously, that means that with the new version of the App, some configuration must be changed. Do any body knows what are these new configurations?

The offical docs (https://docs.openvpn.net/connecting/connecting-to-access-server-with-android/faq-regarding-openvpn-connect-android/#How_do_I_use_tasker_with_OpenVPN_Connect_for_Android) state:
CONNECT
a) Access Server module
Action: net.openvpn.openvpn.CONNECT
OR
Action: android.intent.action.VIEW
Cat: None
Mime Type: {blank}
Data: {blank}
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOSTART_PROFILE_NAME:AS {your_profile_name}
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOCONNECT:true
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.APP_SECTION:AS
Package: net.openvpn.openvpn
Class: net.openvpn.unified.MainActivity
Target: Activity

b) OVPN Profile module
Action: net.openvpn.openvpn.CONNECT
OR
Action: android.intent.action.VIEW
Cat: None
Mime Type: {blank}
Data: {blank}
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOSTART_PROFILE_NAME:PC {your_profile_name}
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOCONNECT:true
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.APP_SECTION:PC
Package: net.openvpn.openvpn
Class: net.openvpn.unified.MainActivity
Target: Activity

DISCONNECT
Action: net.openvpn.openvpn.DISCONNECT
Cat: None
Mime Type: {blank}
Data: {blank}
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.STOP:true
Extra: {blank}
Extra: {blank}
Package: net.openvpn.openvpn
Class: net.openvpn.unified.MainActivity
Target: Activity

Java code example
String profile = "myvpn";
Intent openVPN = new Intent("android.intent.action.VIEW");
openVPN.setClassName("net.openvpn.openvpn", "net.openvpn.unified.MainActivity");
openVPN.putExtra("net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOSTART_PROFILE_NAME", "PC "+profile);
openVPN.putExtra("net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOCONNECT", true);
openVPN.putExtra("net.openvpn.openvpn.APP_SECTION", "PC");
activity.startActivity(openVPN);

The formatting is off but i hope it will help someone

I like your answer more than mine. Then I will mark this as the correct one.

Ok, thanks to this web. Seems that I am right and the configuration has been changed. The new settings for connecting will be:
Send Intent
Action:android.intent.action.MAIN
Cat:None
Extra:de.blinkt.openvpn.shortcutProfileName:PROFIL ENAME
Package:de.blinkt.openvpn
Class:de.blinkt.openvpn.LaunchVPN
Target:Activity

This is able to start the OpenVPN connection using a OVPN file. For disconnection, I also need to change the profile:
Send Intent
Action:android.intent.action.MAIN
Cat:None
Extra:de.blinkt.openvpn.shortcutProfileName:PROFIL ENAME
Package:de.blinkt.openvpn
Class:de.blinkt.openvpn.activities.DisconnectVPN
Target:Activity

The author comments -and it is true- that when disconnecting the application remains opened on the screen at foreground. A solution proposed on this forum for this issue is to use a not existing profile as a connection. When trying to connect to this non existing profile, the first action will be to disconnect the current one. As the profile does not exists no connection will be performed.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/u/tasker-tips-tricks/openvpn-3-0-0-connect-disconnect-tasker-t3750552
Default OpenVPN 3.0.0 - Connect and Disconnect with Tasker (Solution)
Hi All,
It would appear that the interface / code changed rather a lot in the most recent update and the previous intents are no longer working.
I have figured out how to fix this. Please follow the directions below.
Important Note: Your profile name is now prefixed with PC. E.g. My profile of test.co.uk/example [user] would now be PC test.co.uk/example [user]
So, here are the settings (don't include the curly brackets):
Connect
Action: net.openvpn.openvpn.CONNECT
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOSTART_PROFILE_NAME: PC {Your profile name}
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.AUTOCONNECT: true
Package: net.openvpn.openvpn
Class: net.openvpn.unified.MainActivity
Target: Activity
Disconnect
Action: net.openvpn.openvpn.DISCONNECT
Extra: net.openvpn.openvpn.STOP: true
Package: net.openvpn.openvpn
Class: net.openvpn.unified.MainActivity
Target: Activity
Annoyingly they have made it so OpenVPN remains in the foreground on disconnect. I have yet to look into this.

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


text:
Save & restore a real device's state, similar to emulator snapshot
I am just wondering, is it possible to save & restore a real device's state, similar to emulator snapshots?
By using snapshot, we don't need to boot at every time and can just continue from last state (e.g. last opened app or wherever you were left) of the device. This can be very handy on power failure.

No. What you're describing is something like the "hibernate" option you get on PCs. It would need support from the kernel and the userspace parts of Android. Since 4.2, the boot process on Android has been a lot faster on real devices, so typically it would be slower to boot from hibernation than to boot in the conventional way.

Yes basically i need hibernate option, slow or fast boot is not important i need to see where Android was left. Is there any kernel you know that support "hibernation"?

Linux itself has a hibernation feature called "swsusp", but I don't think anybody turns it on for Android, because as I say, it would also need userspace support.

thanks i'll digg deeper to find a way around like saving the last state of device so that booting may continue from that state


text:
How can I install .jar files on my Android?
I downloaded some 3D games, unzipped them, and got .jar files. How can I use these in Android?  I have a Galaxy S running 2.1.

Although Android uses Java, it doesn't support normal JAR files. Instead, it uses an Android specific format called APK. The main difference is that Android does not use the normal Java Virtual Machine, but contains its own Dalvik Virtual Machine that's optimized for Android.

you means to say that i can not install jar file in android 2.1.

@Jeevan Bhatt: Exactly. This can change in the future (if someone writes a JVM for Android) but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I did search on internet and came to know that android support only apk file so i need to convert .jar into .apk by some converter, is it true?

Yes, there are some converters but these are not very reliable. The problem is, Android uses a part of the entire java library and adds it's own libraries to control most of the features. For example, the Graphical User Interface classes can't be used on Android (eg. swing). Also the converter needs to rewrite all UI events, such as touchscreen/keyboard functionality. Apparently some converters can do this for MIDP applets (J2ME) used on older phones, but normal Java apps (probably) will not work. You can try the converters, but most likely the result will lag, be buggy or crash.

I'd like to partially disagree with Ryan Conrad & onik.
I have a Samsung Spica and it came pre-loaded with an app while it was running v1.6 and now running 2.1 (both official Samsung India versions) - called Java ME Apps.
I am running multiple Java apps (meant for non-Android phones) through it.
Both are JAR files and once run via the Java ME app, both run as expected.
So to sum up, there is a way to run JAR apps on Android. I do however, agree with everything else mentioned w.r.t. APKs and Dalvik.

Android doesn't actually even "use" Java. The language that the code is written in is Java, but the Android SDK takes the compiled bytecode and converts it in to the Dalvik bytecode.
So, it is really a misconception that Android runs Java. Android runs Dalvik, which the core libraries are based on the Java framework, but the end resulting binary files are not the same, and the virtual machines are also completely different.
Just like the Dalvik VM will not run Java bytecode, the Java VM will not run Dalvik bytecode.
Converting libraries to Dalvik is probably possible, if all the features are available in Android (or additional libraries), but anything that has a Java UI, will not work.

I actually disagree. Google did not wrote there own Language called Java, they just simply i believe took the OpenJDK and name it Dalvik etc etc for marketing.

have you ever compared dalvik byte code to java byte code, its different.

@Google: That is, literally, completely wrong. Google used Java syntax (and some libraries), but as Ryan Conrad noted, the bytecode is completely different. They didn't just "rename" the Java JDK for marketing purposes. See Dalvik's Wikipedia entry for more.

If the jar file is for JavaME
There is MicroEmulator which emulates JavaME with help from JavaSE. This makes it possible to convert these jar files to an apk and install it on your device. The process is described here.
NetRunner provides a similar functionality.

Flow, that MicroEmulator link seems to have changed to something else I suppose. Could you please update the answer.

No, you cannot install JAR files on Android. To install applications from JAR, we need J2ME support which is not in Android phones.

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


text:
Discharge while in airplane mode
I am using a Samsung Galaxy S4. Something weird happened today morning. I charged my phone yesterday night and went to sleep after 2 hours or so. When I woke up, my phone was at %30 charge and I was pretty confused. Because before going to sleep, I just opened my morning alarm, closed Wi-Fi, and set the phone to airplane mode.
After checking the battery info, I got something like this,

Clearly, my phone discharged linearly while I sleep.
What is the reason behind this? Is this problem related to the phone or Android?

How old is the battery? Is the battery disfigured at all, also are you using an AC power supply or usb? And Official leads or not?

The screen before the one you took the screenshot of should tell you what's responsible for the power use: what does it say?

well, everything I use is official samsung products, my battery is new. In my country there were a lot of problems with s4 batteries and I had one too. Discharging immediately after you charged was the problem. I gave it to the official service and they gave me another working original battery. Now I am using a pretty new battery and I think it is not 4 months old yet.

android os was something like 30%
and screen was something like 17%
the point is how could this be happened while I was not using my phone.

Could be a background process running, have you installed / updated any application recently?

I may be updated an app but I always close apps on the background before locking my phone

"I always close apps on the background before locking my phone" this alone will drain battery. These apps run in the background and will re-activate themselves. Do not use any task killers on your device, Android itself is FAR better at task management than manually doing it.

I'd imagine android OS being 30% is quite high, on average mine never goes above 10%

Download Wakelock Detector from the Google Play Store. If it happens again, open Wakelock Detector and it will show you CPU and partial wakelocks (will only show partial wakelocks if you enable advanced mode). If the largest CPU wakelock is "PowerManagerServiceWakelock", this means the largest wake lock is the combination of all the items listed in partial wakelocks.
I would suggest (if it happens again) looking for anything over 7% and doing a web search for the wakelock name, and seeing what you can find.
If it doesn't happen again, problem solved.
I would also recommend you don't kill background processes, instead install Greenify (Play Store) which blocks the processes you select from starting.
Other than this, we can't tell you the reason due to Android's default battery diagnostics not being very good.
It is most probably the software, if you download Nova battery tester and run it, it will tell you your battery capacity, and you can then compare this to what it should be to verify it isn't a hardware fault.


text:
Does modifying read cache on my SD card also affect the speed of reading my Ext3 partition?
I'm trying to make Link2SD work on my phone so I partitioned my 16gb SD to 4gb for the Ext3 partition and the rest for normal storage.
I'm noticing some slight lag on my usage of the phone and I read on this article that I can in fact, increase the read cache to speed up reading contents on the SD. My question is; does increasing the read cache also affect the speed of reading my Ext3 partition? Or does it only affect the "normal" storage?

As with normal disks, this should apply to the disk and not a specific partition. Some file systems offer additional caching, which then would apply to the specific partition -- but disk cache should always apply to the entire disk.


text:
How can I save the maps downloaded from Offline Maps in Google Maps for reusing after a factory reset?
How do I save the maps that were downloaded from Offline Maps so that when I factory reset my phone I can simply put the backed up Offline Maps that were downloaded for reusing?

Are you rooted?

Yes, I'm rooted.

If your device is rooted, you can use Titanium Backup to backup the Maps application, which will backup the application and it's data.
After resetting, again install Titanium Backup, (you have to root again, if you had lost the root access, as a first step) and restore the Maps application. While restoring, you get a chance to opt for restoring app alone or app with data. When opting for the later, your offline data also comes.

Have you tried this method out?

yes. tried on my LG P500 running CM10.


text:
Gmail app doesn't sync email at all when on Mobile Data
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I love the new Gmail app. Works awesome. My only problem is that it doesn't sync emails (I don't receive any new notifications when new emails arrive, I have to manually click refresh in the app which is annoying) when I'm on Mobile Data. When I'm on Wifi I receive notifications almost instantly. I've searched on Google Help but couldn't find anything.
I guess I could use the Email app but I don't like that as much as the Gmail app.
What could be the problem?

Please, don't sign your posts, your signature is already on the bottom of the post

Also, are you running any custom ROM or it's stock?

It's possible that your phone is set to restrict data while on Mobile Data -- Android 4.0 and newer have this feature.  Poke around in the settings and see if that's the case.

I've upgraded to Jelly bean and I have the same problem. Found that setting in Settings > Mobile Data > Gmail > "Restrict background data" but it's disabled so that's not it...

I did a factory reset and that didn't solve the problem.

Who is your carrier? Maybe they are blocking Gmail/Google. Why they'd do that I don't know.

Hi, my carrier is Orange. Turns out that nothing syncs while on Mobile Data but manual refresh and browsing the net works. That's weird.

Found out the problem. Orange Wap was selected instead of Orange Internet in Settings > Access Point Names.

Just found this thread and it helped me solve the same issue (gmail not syncing on mobile data) on my Galaxy S3. Under settings/data usage/gmail I found that 'restrict background data' was ON. Just for gmail, not globally. Not sure when or how that got checked, but it may have been that way out of the box since my gmail has never synced on mobile data, even with a factory wipe.
Anyways, hope that helps someone else out there.

Ensure that on the device Settings | Data usage | Mobile | Mobile data is set to ON and that if Set mobile data limit is checked that you haven't reached that limit.

It's on and there's no limit. I've updated to Jellybean and I have the same problem.

Yes, this sync was my problem too...just tried below settings and worked:

Go to Settings
then to Data usage
click Menu button
check Auto Sync

Now go to your Account section where you should see all account syncs are enabled :)

Are you sure that the Sync option is enabled for gmail?
Go to Settings->Accounts->Google->Your account -> Gmail this last must be checked.
Also check if the Sync option is active at all.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, my Gmail & everything from google on Accounts and sync is checked. It works fine when on Wifi, just not on mobile data.

Try to clean the app data. Go to Manage Apps->Search for Gmail app->Clear Data and Clear Cache

done and still doesn't work

my problem was that "google play services" was restricted over cellular network so my emails only synced when i had wifi. Under settings/data usage/google play services...turn data restriction off. This solved my issue.

What was my problem:
My emails were syncing over wi-fi connection but NOT via Mobile Data.
Application I used for emails are in-built Mail and Gmail apps.
How I solved it:

Tried playing with all different settings but that did not help.
Later Identified that the problem was with Setting of sync.
Go to Settings > Sync. Enable ONLY the first option i.e. "Sync"
Make sure that you DO NOT select the second option i.e. "Wi-Fi only"

Now, your emails should start syncing over both - wi-fi and Mobile Data too.
Even after this if you have a problem, then:
1. Made sure that the Data restriction is OFF for your specific app or is OFF in general.
2. Your Data is switched ON and has correct APN configured.
3. Your Background Data usage is set to enable for the specific apps.

It might be caused by a proxy server configured in the APN. See this question: Google apps losing connection to the servers when on mobile data.

If none of the other things work, go to Apps > Google services framework. Click Clear cache and data button. Then, reboot.

My Phone Galaxy S4:
On mobile network only my Gmail app was not pushing automatically, gmaps was slow, youtube was not working or really slow and Calendar wasn't syncing.
After looking on the internet I was not able to find the solution. I have tried everything that was simple like clear cache, reboot, sync OFF/ON ...
But finally with this site I come up with the APN reset solution. I did it and also I have found that google services had the check mark ON for restrict background data. Setting/data usage/google services
I have never touched this option before so I don't know why it was checked. After these two steps my phone works perfectly now.

i had the same problem in samsung galaxy J5 running lollipop ( 5.1.1) . I had to enable following under the Settings/Data Usage/Background data
1) Email
2) Gmail
3) Google Settings
I had initially only enabled 1 & 2. Yahoo email was working but Gmail was not. Once i enabled Google Settings , the Gmail sync also started working.

I went through every item under data usage to check for restrictions.  For me it was Exchange Services that was restricted. Solved. Thanks.

Solved how? What does "restricted" mean? I guess you're talking about "background data" here?

authors: Μαρια Αντωνιαδη


text:
Can Applications With Root Access Modify Their Own Permissions?
For rooted phones, there are several apps which require root privileges. Knowing this, the user does allow the app to get root. Now, the app would have been installed with a set of x permissions, say INTERNET, LOCATION. Now, on gaining root, is it possible for the app to secretly (or not) give itself extra permissions eg. BLUETOOTH ? I read somewhere that the Apps requiring INTERNET or BLUETOOTH permissions are added to a user group which has access to these device files. So, can a rooted app associate itself to that group and gain the permission ?

Yes, all rooted apps theoretically can use the entire system, including all facilities that otherwise need app permissions. They could also modify the permissions database "under the radar" to grant its non-root part more permissions than were requested at install time.
You have to trust root-using apps not to violate their given permissions.

interesting. So is there a permission database for every app ? It would be great if you could point me to some documentation regarding the same.

Each app's permissions are store authoritatively in its (compiled and signed) AndroidManifest.xml inside its APK file.  Current Android implementations cache the permissions in /data/system/packages.xml, but as that is an implementation detail, you'll find little documentation on it.  Anyway, changing this file as root (and quickly rebooting before the package manager overwrites it again) makes permission changes persistent across reboots.

nice ! am assuming most Android 'malware' try to do this

They can't -- unless they have root permissions. Luckily.


text:
Custom Kernels on Stock ROMs?
The General Question: Is it possible to install custom kernels on a Rooted Stock ROM?
The Example: I have a Nexus 7 which I have rooted running 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean JRO03D) would it be possible to just flash a custom kernel,
say this one http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1831780,
on my stock ROM using Clockwork Recovery?
Sorry if this is obvious, but I've only really done it on custom roms, and I couldn't find a definite answer on the interwebs

Yes, it is possible to install custom kernels on stock roms. The kernel developer will usually say which roms (or types of roms) the kernel supports. If you are not sure you can try reading the kernel thread, and there will always be poeple saying things like "working great on [firmware version here]". This way you can also make sure that it will work ok on your version of the stock rom.
As for your example, yes you can flash this on your stock rom:
xda-developers

Yes. You can flash a custom kernel on your stock ROM, but it has to be the appropriate kernel i.e. it has to be the version the kernel supports. In this case you will be limited to overclocking only. However, you can download setcpu, nofrills, voltage control, cpu contol, etc to enjoy max.

You should provide links to the apps you're talking about. Also what do you mean limited to overclocking only?


text:
Power management on Android — is app CPU correlated to power usage?
2 questions:

Is application CPU usage on Android correlated and how highly to battery usage? In other words, are apps that suck a lot of CPU also draining the battery or not necessarily?
Is there a way to itemize and display the phone's power use by application, at any given point in time as well as within defined time buckets and maybe view charts and such? Sort of like a diagnostic monitor for power usage by application or system component?

Thanks

Yes. CPU is not the only thing using power but definitely a major one (when not idling).
Most Android devices have a 'Battery' section in settings which lists what applications are using up your battery. I think it gets reset every time you plug in a recharger. There might be 3rd party apps which collect that information over longer term and display it moer pretty.


text:
Stop a force reboot
Today I was prompted to install (firmware?) updates from ATT on my HTC Vivid. My phone is rooted and this apparently breaks the update process. The phone shut down and went to the red exclamation point / dead Android image.
The phone restarts normally and runs for ~30 seconds. It then gives me a "your phone will restart in 5 seconds" message and force shuts down.
Is there any way that I can stop the restart from happening automatically?
UPDATE: Problem solved. I cleared the cache. To do this I restarted the phone into the bootloader by pressing and holding the power button and down volume key. I then selected RECOVERY. From the next screen I selected wipe cache partition.

ClockworkMod recovery installed?

Yep. Used that to clear the cache and the problem went away. Lesson learned.

@BryanGlazer Feel free to answer your own question then (and accept your answer). This way your problem is shown solved even in lists.

Problem solved. I cleared the cache. To do this I restarted the phone into the bootloader by pressing and holding the power button and down volume key. I then selected RECOVERY. From the next screen I selected wipe cache partition.


text:
Can I really tell where the tower is that I'm connected to?
I've been having some difficulty keeping a reliable connection at my house, so I installed the OpenSignal app to see what might be going on.  According to its map, I live in a "hole" between several different towers.
However, the pointer on its home screen doesn't seem to make any sense.  It's supposed to tell me where the tower is that I'm connected to, but it seems to rotate faster than necessary to account for me rotating the phone (unlike a compass needle), and it seems to be fascinated with my home stereo speakers when I bring it close to them.  (like a compass needle pointing to the speakers' magnet)
So is this a legitimate radio problem?  Or is somebody's software getting confused?

I've gotten a lot of feedback about OpenSignal being worthless, but it was only meant to be a diagnostic tool for the problem of getting a more reliable connection.  The reason to know where the towers are, and specifically the one I'm connected to, is to somewhat intelligently play with placement.  (I'm mostly using the data connection for a WiFi hotspot, so an awkward location isn't all that bad.)  If there's a better app or methodology, I'm all ears.

The biggest problem I've seen with OpenSignal's mapping is it's all from user gathered statistics and FCC registered locations, so many things like Network Extenders for example, report as "towers", and it often tells me areas like downtown St Paul or Minneapolis that there are 20, 30, even 40+ towers near me... I have literally driven to a few of these "tower" locations and it's usually just a house or business. Don't trust tower locations in the app.

Locations of tower are from very old data so the app will not help. Moreover, I don't think you can get location of connected towers by any mean.

From app blogs Methodology explains how they collect data

Crowd Sourcing (already pointed in comments)
Monitoring users who installed app continuously

So, the accuracy pretty much depends on how many people use the app with GPS on

Data Analytics

Also see Cell towers/wifi routers not located correctly which is dated but relevant
This app was recently launched in India and I noticed this

Cell towers are very well mapped of a  provider, though, in my area tower density is low ( likely because provider made it open source as a part of publicity )
Cell towers are not well mapped, for another provider,  though the tower density is much higher

Not a very dependable app , IMO

The solution to your issue would be to "fill in" the data. Crowdsourced maps require lots of data points to build a representation of the real world and you sitting in your house is really a single data point (possibly two if you alternate between cells).
Personally I recommend "CellMapper" over OpenSignal but either should work.
Methodology:

Open Recording App
Wait for good GPS lock
Move around the area where your cell (or sector thereof) is located/focused

Most high sites have 3x sectors (think pizza slices) so by recording points in each you triangulate the point in the middle where the site is or should be. More data, more accuracy. Below is an example of poor data (probably wrong) and an example of good data (probably close).

Note: Once the preliminary collection is done you can manually locate the cell (they can often be seen from the street) and then fine tune the sites position.


text:
Android Memory Problem
So I had a problem with my memory today. I recently rooted my Samsung Galaxy Trend (GT-S7392) with RootGenius 1.8.7 I rooted my phone because I wanted to transfer apps to my ext sd card since Samsung Galaxy didn't support transferring apps to ext sd.
After rooting my phone, everything was fine, except I found out that my internal memory is full, so I checked it what was wrong with it and I saw that my system memory is taking all my space on internal memory. I dont really know what was the cause of it and my question is how to fix this?
-Total Space: 4.00 GB
-System Memory: 4.00 GB
-Applications: 210 MB
Sorry for my grammar, english is not my first language :)
Thank you in advance!

By any chance, could you download Terminal Emulator and then open it, and run the command "df" without quotes and show the screenshot of output? It will help getting clearer picture of memory distribution.

In addition to what @JaskaranbirSingh said, if possible, you may post the screenshot of default main view of the app Diskinfo(<1MB).

Hi there. I have provided the screenshots here http://m.imgur.com/eq5k7Yt,1I2aZk8,FylwCPP

The best solution would be format your mobile. There can be too much waste data in system memory.Or clean the system by using some cleaning app. There can be any number of reason behind this. BTW I would say that your mobile is outdated. In android, 512 ram and 4gb memory is not gonna do anything. It is gonna create problem again and again.

Hello Kumar Thank you for replying. I have downloaded a cleaning app and started cleaning but it still does not work. I also did the factory reset and nothing happened. This is only my temporary phone because i left my original phone back in japan and i will return to japan after two years of college here. Anyway, I cannot download anything on my brower because of the memory problem but the weird thing is i can download apps from play store

Vivek, that is kinda... not an appropriate answer. Cleaner apps are worst thing to use in android. They.Dont.Work. Their only purpose is to extract money using ADs and stuff. Refer this-> Why cleaner apps are useless And the topic isnt related about ram and performance hardware, so lets skip that ;)


text:
Read logs from recovery
I want to read logs of Android devices having stuck at the boot logo, but I don't have ADB access.
Is it possible to read logs displayed by logcat in recovery by mounting /system partition?

A more recent answer was given here by using pstore: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/213336/how-can-i-enable-last-kmsg

The files (if they are considered as such) to which logs are written by the device are not in /system but in /dev/log.
These "files" are reset at every boot, so unless the device you have has a boot-time script that automatically saves logs to a file in, say, /sdcard, there is sadly no way to retrieve the logs you want while in recovery.

While true, this doesn't tell the whole story because there is at least one way to see it regardless of it being saved: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/liveboot-t2976189/post57570477

With TWRP, going Advanced → Copy Log could be a solution.


text:
Lollipop Update Issue: Google Apps
I'm using a Moto G 2nd Gen, and I have recently updated to the new lollipop version. In the last day, I've had to restart the phone a dozen times, as after being powered on, it becomes completely unresponsive in about 10-20 minutes. None of my Google Apps work, the phone freezes, and it is impossible to use.
I wanted to do a factory reset but it won't even allow me to transfer or backup my recent files. It just freezes.
I've seen a few other questions with this issue, does anyone know any fixes?
edit: it occasionally gives me the notification "Google Apps is not responding" but I can't do anything as the screen is unresponsive.

As for Backup, you might wish to check with Full Backup of non-rooted devices (and our backup tag-wiki. Concerning the Google apps, you could try to clear their cache and, if that doesn't help, delete their data (via Setup › Apps › All, picking each related entry). Safe mode might help with that, if the device otherwise reboots too fast to get you done.

Boot to recovery, and remove gapps manually. You can also backup apps and their settings using adb backup -all -apk -nosystem

Uh. That would at least require the device to be rooted – which the OP didn't indicate having done (GApps are installed as system apps).


text:
Can a thief unlock or otherwise access the data on my stolen Android device?
If my Android device is stolen, will the person who ends up with it be able to get my data by plugging it into a PC and using some trick? Is there anything I can do to prevent this or make it harder?

Are you rooted?

@MatthewRead not, but can't anyone root it? Or the password is needed?

I would assume that some rooting methods don't need the phone unlocked or interaction with the phone to do their work, I believe some purely do exploits over ADB and so on.  On a Samsung phone you could flash a kernel that will automatically root the device, and then the data is accessible.

See also Just how secure is a pattern lock? which has a lot of answers on how a malicious person with your phone could access its data.

If you used full-disk encryption, then your data will be accessible until the device unmounted the encrypted disk (e.g. by rebooting) and discarded the decryption key. If you store your sensitive data in encrypted container, then your data will be accessible until the application closes the container and discarded the decryption key.
If you don't use any encryption, then your data is naked in the wild. Many thiefs are simply interested to sell the phone to make a quick buck and so will simply reformat the phone; but if the thief has a specific intent to steal your data (e.g. corporate espionage, identity thief, etc), then you can assume that they can read all your unencrypted data.
If your phone uses SD card (instead of internal memory), then getting to your data in the SD card is trivial. Getting data in internal memory took a little bit more effort, but is still relatively easy. A turned off device with full-disk-encryption is -- for all practical purpose -- a useless brick for your adversary.

In general computing, physical access to a device means all bets are off when it comes to security of data. A determined and knowledgeable thief is likely to either crack the protection, or at the very least copy the contents off the device to try and subvert encryption.
There are several security packages on the Market that can make this job a lot more difficult for the potential thief. These apps can remotely lock the device, wipe its data, and even attempt to "dial home" if the thief was careless enough to let it go online. This will deter most, but the very savvy ones.
Your best bet to safeguard sensitive data is to never have it on the mobile device in the first place. Banking apps that store your login credentials, entering credit card info into web forms on browser, etc. are all points of vulnerability.
In terms of damage control after the phone/tablet is stolen, it's always a good idea to have a list of accounts for apps that are installed, so that you can change the passwords asap. Email, social network apps, etc.

If by "subvert encryption" you mean guess passwords or such, I agree.  But from what I've read Android's encryption seems strong.

I just mean that they copy off the data to do with as they please. Besides, encryption on Android is a recent thing, and most people don't make use of it.

As the other answers already state: physical access to a device means all bets are off when it comes to security of data (from Chahk's answer). As this is already made clear enough, I will focus on some counter-measures with my answer.
One thing to make it harder was already mentioned in Lie's answer: encrypting the device will make it harder to access the data. But there are several more things. If you e.g. leave USB Debugging on, you make it easier for the thief to access your device, so it's a good precaution to keep that turned off.
Already named in several answers are several anti-thief apps available on the playstore. There's e.g. Cerberus Anti-Theft (one week free trial, then ~EUR 3) which gives you a lot of possibilities, remotely controlling your device to locate and track it, set off a loud alarm, record audio from the microphone, and even remotely wipe the phone (to destroy all stored data). Similar functionality is offered by Android Lost (available for free -- also see the video on that app's playstore page). Both are even using a "stealth-mode", so a thief can not easily find and uninstall them. A good thing about Android Lost is you even can remotely install and activate it if your phone already is lost -- as long it is still online and connected to your Google account.
Summary
So in short and summed up: Yes, a thief can get access to your data -- but there are means of making this at least very hard, or even limit the time frame he has for his "bad deed". Several things to consider on this background:

Don't store sensitive data on your mobile device in the first place, if you can avoid it. What's not there cannot be taken.
Chose secure apps which are proven to encrypt sensitive data (and not store it plain-text). See e.g. viaForensic's appWatchdog (viaForensics is a forensic company which also keeps an eye on mobile security. Andrew Hoog's book Android Forensics and mobile security gives a good insight on this topic)
Don't leave USB Debugging always turned on in your device
Consider device encryption
Consider using an anti-theft app such as e.g. Cerberus or Android Lost (there are several more with good ratings) which also uses a stealth mode and thus is not easily found and uninstalled. In conjunction with this: Act fast and wise if your device is lost (e.g. first try to locate it before doing a wipe: it might very well be you simply forgot it on the kitchen table)
Also don't forget the "obvious stuff": Don't leave your Andy alone on the pub table while going to toilet, for example :) It's harder to steal it from clothes you're wearing then when lying around or being stored in a jacket hanging on the warderobe.


text:
Are apps in SD card available after a factory reset?
If I move some applications to a SD card and perform a factory reset, will they be available when I plug the card back again after the reset, even if the device's primary account changed?

I think apps moved to SD are encrypted?  Even with ext2SD or whatever you would still need to re-install the apps, at least.

To add to @Mattthew 's comment, even if you move the apps to SD card part of them always reside inside internal memory. Also the system needs to know what apps are installed, apps like Market need to know about them. So, no they won't work after factory reset.
For big games like from gameloft the extra data you downloaded from inside the game will work though. I don't know what will happen to this with the new Market policy of allowing upto 4GB files.


text:
What is HuaweiOnlineUpdataService?
I have just seen this line in logcat:
I/ActivityManager(  235): Start proc com.huawei.updata for service com.huawei.updata/.service.HuaweiOnlineUpdataService: pid=24608 uid=10048 gids={2001, 3003}

on a HUAWEI U8150 IDEOS with Android 2.2.
Any idea what is the goal of this HuaweiOnlineUpdataService?
Google has only 5 results for this term, with not enough information.

this service will running in background to show any updates is available for your phone.


text:
How can I take a screenshot of a specific portion of my screen?
There is no screenshot by area on my Galaxy Tab 8.9, running Android 3.1.
Is there any software that adds the ability to take a screenshot of only a portion of my screen rather than the whole area?

Since when does Super User develop the Android operating system or Samsung tablets?

What do you mean by "screenshot by area"? Like taking a screenshot of a specific portion of the screen rather than the entire screen?

@eldarerathis Yes, I want to take a specific portion of  the screen.

There is no tool with this feature. But it is possible to crop the picture in the gallery.


text:
Phone Shuts Down, Apps Force Close Since New SD Card
I've got a Sony Ericcson Xperia Play that comes with an 8GB microSD card, which is definitely not enough for me as I like to put a lot of music on my phone (streaming is very poor on my network). So I bought a Sandisk 32GB MicroSDHC Class 4 Memory Card which is a MicroSD card like any other, right?
Ever since I put the card into my phone, my phone keeps shutting down and nearly all apps have a Force Close error. I've not installed any new apps since installing the new MicroSD and I've even uninstalled a bunch to see if it would help. Why does my new MicroSD break my phone?
If it helps, I'm running Android 2.3.3 stock.

Formatting the SD card on the phone itself seemed to do the trick. My apps are finally running and my phone longer keeps shutting down with the new SDHC. :)

It happens on my Android 2.3.3. Every week, I backup of all my data. In my Class 10 MMC, it crashes the app backup folder and hides (or deletes) the .apk files.
I have solved the problem by not installing battery backup software or free antivirus.

I would try switching back to the original SD card and see if the issues still continue. At the least, that would help you figure out whether or not the SD card is really the problem. Also, did you move any apps that had been moved to SD back to your phone before switching cards?

No, I couldn't move the apps to the phone before switching as I didn't have enough space. I simply put both SD cards into my computer and drag-and-dropped files from the old one to the new one.


text:
Is allowing an OTA to install after rooting a good idea?
I have a rooted phone with the stock ROM/Kernel. I only use the tethering hack outside of the stock ROM. I was prompted with "System Update" this morning. Should I stay away from this update, or would it be ok?  Thanks!

What version have you got at the moment?

Android 2.3.4
Baseband EG31
Build EG30

As-is this is way too subjective and open-ended.  What are your concerns and what information do you need to make the decision?

If there's upgraded soft/firmware, I'd like to take advantage of it. But I don't want to risk some adverse effect if I update. I already bricked one phone, so I'm extra cautious.

The worst case scenario I could see is that you would lose root (and therefore your tethering).  You'll have to regain root and re-apply tethering.

A system update will most likely un-root your phone, but if all you have is the tethering hack, I would recommend updating, re-rooting, and reinstalling the hack, after making sure the the hack is supported in the next version.


text:
Disadvantages of CyanogenMod
If I root and flash my phone, will I get some limitations? I understand that I will lose any carrier and manufacturer specific apps/launcher/widget (and this actually may be a bonus); however I want to know:

what will happen to my gmail/calendar/market account? Will it work as before?
will I get battery/radio/GPS issues?
will I lose some compatibility with apps (Is a custom ROM less compatible)?
can I still use the phone for developing apps?

Just have one thing in mind - CyanogenMod is even better for developers than stock row as it provides some more options for that (mocking locations, etc), but I had some problems when I was trying to test applications on my S2 phone from within IntelliJ Idea.

You google apps will work exactly the same as before; either they'll be prepackaged with CM or you will download an update pack that will install them for you.
Battery/radio/GPS issues are mostly related to specific hardware.  You'd have to check the CM forums and wiki for your phone model to answer that one.
Compatibility is an issue for some apps, but in the vast majority of cases the answer to this will be no (and in fact, some apps are compatible with CM but not with stock ROMs).
You can most definitely still use the phone to develop apps :)

The nice thing with flashing a new ROM is that you can go back to the stock experience anytime you like, either by making a backup or downloading the stock ROM and keeping it around to flash later if you want it.  So you aren't really risking anything except some time invested in fiddling the ROMs.

I would add that you do risk losing the warranty you have with carrier and/or manufacturer, since installing a custom ROM often means unlocking the bootloader.

@Chahk Apart from possibly for the Nexus devices, I don't know of any agreements that let you flash ROMs without voiding the warranty even when the bootloader came unlocked ;)

@Matthew Read: true, true. However if you didn't have to unlock the bootloader (or could re-lock it,) how would they know of your flashing shenanigans if you restore the device back too stock? ;)

@Chahk I like the way you think :P

And of course you may well get a later version of Android than is supplied for your phone by the carrier. My phone went from Android 2.1 to 2.3 with Cyanogenmod 7 meaning I could install a lot of apps that won't work with 2.1


text:
Android widget to lock my android phone
Is there any android widget which allows me to lock my phone?
The 'power' button on my android phone is broken? I can't use that to lock my phone screen.
Thank you.

Short answer is no.
[Extended Answer]
This would require the use of PowerManager.gotoSleep(long time), and the use of that method requires the android.permission.DEVICE_POWER permission. DEVICE_POWER is only available to applications signed as system applications. Only applications that ship with the device and signed by the manufacture would be allowed to use the method.

I read http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/9826/how-to-lock-screen-besides-pressing-nexus-s-right-side-power-button and I am able to find and install a Lock Screen Widget. Why a Widget can do that despite what you said?

a "lock screen widget" does not actually lock the device. the lock screen cannot be replaced (currently) in android. These applications attempt to override the lock screens. they are nothing more then applications that have no title bar. I have yet to find one that works without any lag when turning the device back on. If you feel that that these fit your needs, then great, but they do not actually lock the device.

@RyanConrad +1. You are right. I have tested such widget apps and they do lag. So its better not to have such wdgets.


text:
Can I format SD to FAT32 from FAT16?
I saw that my SD card is FAT16 formatted. In order to improve performance, can I reformat it as FAT32? What filesystems does Android support for external storage?

Yes, you should be able to use FAT32 with no problems.  Android supports FAT/FAT16 and FAT32, and I believe raw / unformatted cards may work with some phones.  You can also use EXT partitions but this requires some extra work, see for example how to use ext partition in my android?

Nice, it will really improve my Android performance??? Will I see visible improvements this way?

@StickBumps Generally speaking, the advantages of FAT32 are that it allows you to have more files with longer filenames, and waste less space due to better cluster sizing.  (See this for more info.) It shouldn't affect speed very much.

in order to get speed improvements, spend the extra money and buy the highest class rating card you can find. at least a class 6, or a class 10.

@Diogo There's an extreme class from SanDisk too. It's far more faster than class 10, but its slightly expensive.


text:
Motorola Defy does not sync to GMail
I have purchased a Motorola Defy some time ago, and imported my address book from my old featurephone using the SIM card.
Under Settings / Account now I have two accounts listed in the Motoblur section (the motoblur account and an email account), and one account listed under Other accounts (the gmail / google account).
Now I would like to sync all contacts to the google account, but it won't: it has synced only the new contacts I added, but the old contacts are in the telephone only. What is the correct way to sync contacts to the gmail account?
I am running official froyo firmware, french version.

Sounds like the contacts are save either "To Phone" or "To SIM", they need to be "exported" and created as contacts on the gmail account.

I suppose there's no Google logo in the contact lists for these particular contacts ? I don't think Android syncs contacts that are stored on the phone. They need to be associated with a Google account.

Yes I realized that they are not sync'd :) My question was indeet what to do, in order to have them exported to gmail.

So it turns out that there is no other way than to do it manually, and it is not difficult at all :)

Get MyPhoneExplorer (I am sure you can do it using the Phone Portal too, but MyPhoneExplorer is just SO convenient :)
Go to the Contact tab, right click on any contact, click on Export/Import, Export all contacts, and select the csv format
Check that the CSV file is OK opening it in Excel for example
Open GMail, go to the Contacts link and click on Import, select the CSV file and import
Now return to the phone explorer, and delete all your contacts
Click on android's Settings - Accounts, click on the GMail account and click on synchronize contacts. All your contacts are restored to your phone, but now they are linked in GMail.

I'm glad you got it sorted. You should "accept" this answer so that future readers with a similar problem will know that this was the solution.


text:
How to give root access to apps that don't request it?
I've been using the app SystemPanel for some time now to archive my Android apps.  It works great, but it cannot archive apps that have been installed under /data/app-private, because this directory is not world-readable.  I recently rooted my HTC Incredible and have Superuser running on it, so I would like to give root access to SystemPanel, but it doesn't request it.  Is there a way to have Superuser grant root access to an app that does not request it?  Alternatively, is there any other way (e.g. from the terminal) to grant root access to an arbitrary app?
Thanks!
P.S. I know that now I can change the permissions on /data/app-private to make it accessible to SystemPanel, but I think granting root access to SystemPanel would be the safer strategy.

This duplicate question has good answers: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/26046/how-to-add-root-permission-to-some-app-by-myself

The application needs to request root access. If it is not developed to use root access, it cannot be given the root access. in  order for it to work how you want it, you may have to change the permissions to /data/app-private, like you mentioned.


text:
Issue with the Apps that are installed on SD Card after reinserting the SD Card
I am using an Xperia X10 mini pro (Android 2.1-update1). I rooted the phone and partitioned the 8GB SD Card into two parts.
1. ext3 2. FAT32.
I installed Link2SD to move the apps to SD Card. This has been very useful as this application has an option to move the installed/updated apps to SD Card automatically.
But recently it happened to remove my SD Card from phone and inserted another 2GB SD Card for some other purpose. I started the phone and the apps that are showing on phone aren't working as I installed them on my SD card. So I put my 8 GB Micro SD card back to phone. Now the problem arose. I was not able to access the apps installed on SD Card. I had to reinstall all the apps that are there in my phone.
Is it how it behaves ? Don't I remove my SD card from phone ?
I did a little amount of Experimenting on this and found that its happening only on inserting another SD Card. My mobile is searching for the apps on the newly inserted SD Card. As there are no apps found it might be deleting the links on phone memory. This is my guess only.
Still the question stays "How to overcome this kind of scenario ?"

Did you use safely remove option (unmount) while removing SD card from your mobile?

@Power-Inside: Yes. I removed the SD Card by choosing the option Unmount SD card.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/8879/why-my-app-disappear-at-reboot/9255#9255

@Pitto: How to add PIN for the phone card?

For me (Froyo) is Android settings --> security ---> set up sim card lock

I hope that's your problem otherwise is some mess done by link2sd :(

Have you tried rebooting the phone after re-inserting the SD Card?  Some older launchers (e.g. Eclair stock) simply don't refresh their app drawer when you remount the SD Card, even though the apps are re-mounted. You can check that the apps are indeed back by going to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications and seeing if the "missing" apps are listed there.  If so, a reboot (or even killing the Launcher app) will fix it.

Try rebooting the phone after re-inserting the SD Card.
Some older launchers (e.g. Eclair stock) simply don't refresh their app drawer when you re-insert the SD Card, even though the apps are re-mounted. You can check that the apps are indeed back by going to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications and seeing if the "missing" apps are listed there. If so, a reboot will fix it.
Alternatively, you can simply restart the Launcher app by going to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications then scrolling down to "Launcher" and tapping on it, and then tapping on the "Force Close" button.  Now if you press the Home key, the Launcher will restart and should have all the apps back.

It didn't help me. I tried both the ways. It asked me to format the SD card. Again I had to do Partitioning and reinstalling the apps.

Sounds like the Link2SD app doesn't like you removing the card. I'd reach out to the developer for confirmation.


text:
Can't log into google apps after sim card change
I went to Germany and I had switch my PLAY (PL operator) SIM card with Blau.de SIM card. Everything was good, I had Internet connection and full facebook/twitter/google sync. After return to Poland, I switched to my original SIM card and my android phone failed to log into facebook/twitter/google.
I'm sure I'm using good passwords.
Error message says that phone was unable to establish Internet connection. But Internet is fully working (now I'm using my phone as a modem).
I have correct apn's and I can use for example gmail through default web browser.
I found in Internet that this is common problem with android phones, and it can be repaired after factory reset.
It's very important to me to avoid factory reset. Anyone know other way to log in?
My telephone: Samusng i5500, Android 2.1
Update:
I found that I can't fully use applications such as Waze, Glympse, Opera, basically all applications that use internet - they cannot connect to internet. But, I can use default browser to check gmail, and surf net. It looks like phone has disabled ability co connect to internet for every application except default web browser.
Update2: I can log into google account and fully sync phone when I'm using wifi. After disconnection from wifi everything is stopping despite the fact that I have GSM internet connection working.
Solution: My operator has 3 different APN's, one for WAP, one for MMS and one for internet. First two was automatically configured, third one have to be added manually

You're actually lucky -- my phone does a factory reset when I switch SIM cards.

First, I'd start by ensuring that the APN settings are correct.  A different SIM card from another carrier could have overwritten them.  You can access these by going to Menu -> Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks -> Access Point Names and then tapping on the selected one to edit it.  The correct settings are sometimes listed on your carrier's website.  At worst you may need to call their support line.  While you are there, make sure under "Network Operators" option your provider is selected.  After making the changes toggle the Airplane mode on and off to re-connect to the mobile network.
Try dialing the following number in the Dialer app: *#*#2432546#*#* (spells out "checkin" between the stars and pounds) and see what it comes back with.

Thin number appears to be to long, or nothing come out from it because it vanish right after I type it in dial pad.

It's supposed to vanish - this is a special code that sends a "check-in" request to Google servers from your handset. A "checkin success" notification should appear if it worked.

OK, I tested this code on my wife telephone and I know what to expect. So on my telephone nothing appears.

As the post points out, first of all check the APN settings


text:
Does bluelight filter app on Android really work to protect eyes?
There are many apps on the Play Store that claim to filter blue light and thus protect the eyes.
Do they really work? Can you tell me why it is helpful to protect your eyes?

Bluelight filter apps do help to reduce blue light.
Assume you have a fully blue screen on your mobile. Each pixel would obviously be emitting blue light. The effect of blue light is not the effect of the waves unlike UV rays that damage cells. Its effect on human beings arises from the fact that our biological processes associated with sleep are linked by nature to an absence of blue-colored objects in nature at night.
Now, let us place a red opaque screen on top of the blue screen described earlier. Obviously, the eye now sees a red screen and it does not trigger any sleep hormones. A blue light filter app uses this phenomenon by using a semi-transparent non-bluish overlay that increases the reddishness and/or greenishness of the screen.

Sorry to tell you that no app can really filter the blue light emitted from your digital screen.
This kind of app does reduce our eye strain because it helps to change the contrast, adjust the brightness, and add some shades. Want to know whether the eye care app filters blue light effectively, you should use a spectrometer.

This answer makes a claim but does not offer anything to back it up. The video does not address apps. "No app can really filter the blue light emitted from your digital screen"? Prove it.

Some useful apps can truly block blue light and offer eye protection. And I also approve the upstairs' point: blue light blocking percentage differs due to the different apps and products. Generally speaking, I enjoy the F.lux on my Android phone very much.
Besides, a blue light protective eyewear is great for eye protection, too.


text:
How can I disable voicemail notifications?
I have a prepaid T-Mobile line that I use for development purposes only. I do not really use it for calls. However, some 800-number company has been calling me constantly (which I have already added to a "block" contact which directs all calls to voicemail via Contact app menu option). However, they leave voice mails which creates this notification on my phone:

Click the image for larger variance
But I cannot swipe away this notification. It is a constant and persistent notification.
Is there a way I can either:

Never show voicemail notifications (without having to call T-Mobile and disable my voicemail box)
Swipe to remove the notification or hide the notification (via an app or similar?)

I am rooted on a stock Nexus 5.
I would have just used Google Voice as my voice mail box but apparently T-Mobile prepaid lines cannot have call forwarding so I can not use that option.

I'd say this is a bug in Android. Or the operating system is being abused by the carrier. A notification you can't dismiss is malware.

Ten years later, and they are still doing this in Android 12. Voicemail notification cannot be dismissed and the Phone Services app which generates them has greyed out the toggles for disabling voicemail notifications. Only the clear data option of this app gets rid of it. You have to do it everytime, and it shows a scary warning too.

You can install and configure T-Mobile's own Visual Voicemail app. You will get notified about your voicemails through it instead of the system's Phone/Dialer app, with the ability to dismiss that notification. As a bonus, you can also listen to and delete your voicemails without having to dial in and waste prepaid minutes.
Be aware that this app needs to be able to send and receive one SMS message in order to enable its functionality.  If you are using Voice+ feature of CyanogenMod custom ROM, you will need to temporarily disable it.

Hm, I didn't think about trying T-Mobile's Visual Voicemail. However.... when I try to install it (via web), it says that "No eligible devices for app install." Does the app require it to be a T-Mobile branded device? I'm using an unlocked Nexus 5. I also can't find it searching the Play Store on the device.

I had problems finding it on the Play Store as well, I had to go to My Apps because I remembered having installed it in the past. I am running it on an unbranded Galaxy S4 Google Play edition, so that can't be the reason (it also shows as installable on my Galaxy Nexus and AT&T's Galaxy S2.)

According to a not very helpful post by T-Mobile CSR, it could be because it's not compatible with KitKat yet.

@BryanDenny: FWIW, I've been using T-Mobile's VVM app on my N5 without any issues. I just had to sideload it, since like you said, you can't install it via the Play Store. I got an apk from this XDA thread.

@eldarerathis thank you for sharing that! Just installed it and it works perfectly! I think this will be the solution to my problem, I'll try it out for a few days. Thank you!!!

Too bad I can't downvote T-Mobile :-/

The only thing that worked for me is to stop the Phone Application. It restarts itself again, so you don't have to worry for missing calls or anything.
Steps:

Settings -> Apps -> ALL -> Phone.
Click Force stop

Source:
Clear Voice Mail Notification Icon

I used "clear data" instead of "force stop" and the icon vanished. It was a few minutes ago, so I still don't know if it'll come back when I restart or by its own will. Device is a Galaxy S4.

Clear data didn't work for me. Moto E2. Neither did force stop, though...

I fixed this problem by simply removing my sim card and putting it back in.
Evidently dis- and re-connecting to the cell carrier was enough to do it.
I'm running Android 5.1 on a Moto E2.

I think aside from calling your carrier, there are only so many [few] things you can do.
I've been reading, and it seems like you can change your Voicemail number in settings so call forwarding would be an option.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/276901-there-way-turn-off-voicemail-notifications.html
And a very helpful YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eXN-8wxtk8
From the video: force stopping the Phone application will clear all notifications from the Phone application, including the voicemail notification.

Unfortunately, I cannot use call forwarding as an option as T-Mobile doesn't allow it with prepaid accounts. Otherwise I would just forward it to my Google Voice mailbox and let the spam voicemail die there.

Can you contact your carrier, then? You can tell them to disable your Voicemail Feature. Or you can go to your T-Mobile app and they may have the option there. Did the YouTube video not help, though?

Yes but wanted to contact T-Mobile as a last resort as I'd rather not waste time on the phone with their customer support. Force stopping the phone application does work (via video), but I'm called 5+ times a day with a voicemail left every time so it isn't a very feasible solution. There is no option in the T-Mobile app. Only to change password or to turn password on/off.

Also, please try to give some information when you post a video. You could have easily wrote to force stop the Phone application, no need to watch a minute video.

True, you're right; but then I don't think there's a way, sorry Bryan. I hope I'm wrong for your sake, because I know how annoying it can be. But as of now, don't think there's a way out. Perhaps look on Google Pla for a call blocker that WON'T send the call to Voicemail? I remember a while back they had something like that, but I never had use for it. Your query "Voicemail Block" or "Call Blocker" but look for the Voicemail blocker as your key feature.

I had a similar issue, but it was with visual voicemail notifications.
Easy fix for this instead of calling T-Mobile is to:

Login to your T-mobile account > plans > services
Unselect the free visual voice mail service
Go into your phone and go into apps > running apps and disable all the T-Mobile services (apps labeled in pink)

Since then, I don't see notifications for visual voicemail.


text:
"File too large" when merging a video file on TubeMate
I have Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and I'm using TubeMate 2.1.2 to download an HD video on YouTube. After the download finished, there is a merging file problem, and an error appeared:

File too large

However, I have a huge empty space on my SD card.
What should I do to fix this problem?

This question is completely unique to "tubemate" as an application and should be filed as a bug with the developers of that application.

any suggestions for another app ?

TubeMate app might be using phone's internal storage for merging.

I change default download to my SD card and vid size is 5 GB while my external storage is 11 GB

according to me tubemate uses phone internal storage for temporary storing of video for merging so you are out of luck.however you can mail to tubemate team concerning your problem.

from tubemate guide ,,,                                How to save videos to SD external card?
TubeMate automatically save videos to /mnt/sdcard/Video folder. Almost all devices have this folder in SD external card. However, Samsung Galaxy series have this folder in phone device internal drive. So if you want to save videos to SD card, please go to preferences and change your download folder as '/mnt/sdcard/external_sd' or '/mnt/sdcard/sd' or any folder in SD external card.
If you don't know how to change the saving folder, please look at http://m.tubemate.net/help/change_folder.jsp.

Consider verifying 3osman's last comment and adding it into your answer.

If you are using default location of internal storage, then it needs more time to clear buffers and sometime have memory problem. So it's better to change the video download location to sdcard which should be large capacity as compared to file.

Why would storage location affect the buffer? Do you have anything to support this?


text:
Right to Left English for left handed people
I have a big phone (Moto G). I'm left-handed, so everything on the left of the screen would be so much more convenient on the right, and vice versa.
But wait, Android 4.2 introduced Right-to-left (RTL) layouts! The problem is that I don't speak any RTL languages, just English.
My understanding is that Android sets whether it's LTR or RTL, and any app can read this setting to display an appropriate layout. Can I set my Android device to be right to left while still using English?

!crazy That's ?backwards English read You

Yes you can do that.
Firstly enable the The developer mode by tapping the build number in About Phone
Then go in developer options and then check force RTL layout

Exactly what I was looking for, thanks!http://www.theandroidsoul.com/android-4-2-developer-mode-is-a-tricky-thing-heres-how-its-done/ gives details on how to get developer mode.

You'd have to use a custom ROM to do this, because the layout direction is a fixed part of the locale information, not a user-visible setting. Even if you could, you'd find that most apps wouldn't change. It takes development and testing time to make Android layouts bidirectional, and the support wasn't added to Android until Jelly Bean, so apps tend to only use it if they actually do support RTL languages.
Even on apps which do support it, you'd probably find strange behaviour because English isn't supposed to be laid out right-to-left. For example, text labels that are too long might have the "..." at the start instead of the end, or vice-versa.
So in summary, it's a lot of effort to end up with a broken configuration.

authors: Артем Мяленков


text:
LG G2 is not showing up in ADB even if I check USB debugging
I can't find my device in ADB for my LG G2 phone running Android 4.2 ICS. I have enabled USB debugging.
What did I miss?

Could be, but that requires some more details: where are you looking for it (Windows, Linux, Mac)? What exact steps have you performed? If Windows, have you installed the appropriate drivers?

what OS are you trying this on?

Make sure "USB Debugging" option checked and your driver has been installed properly.
You can try following step command:
1. adb kill-server
2. adb start-server
3. adb devices
Hope this help.

On What OS?
For linux try lsusb to see if something is listed that could match your phone.
Is the debug icon showing in the notification bar on the phone?


text:
How can I see what people are searching for on the Android Market? (i.e. Google Insights for Android Market?)
I'm interested in launching my application to the Android market, however I'm not sure if there is a market for my idea. I'd like to be able to put in a query and see how many searches there are for that query. Google do this for the normal web searches, Google Insights for Search.
Example: I'd like to know which is a more popular search on the Android Market: "Motorbike" or "Motorcycle". You can do this for Google search engine using Google Insights.
Is there anyway to see what people are searching for on the Android Market, and to see how popular various searches are?

AppBrain will show you who is searching for what. They even show broken down by country, age group and many other areas. You can see what is "Hot Today" or even this week or year. If you load the app on your phone it can make recommendations on what you may like based on what you currently have installed.

I asked them (http://twitter.com/#!/TheAppBrain/status/4930324500848640), they said they don't do this.


text:
"/sdcard/Sounds" folder appears empty in Windows 7 for Samsung Galaxy S3
For some reason, the folder that once allowed me to access all my recordings using the default Sound Recorder app appears empty in windows even though the files are still there according to ES File Explorer. My phone is not rooted.
(Similarly, some files in my Downloads folder are not visible from Windows.)
I've also begun having an issue where deleting folders in the "Music" directory gives an error "cannot delete _____ the storage is write-protected.", but I don't know if this is related. I really need these recordings without having to "share" every single one of them individually in ES File Explorer.
What is going on?

I don't know what's going on causing your issue, but may have a work-around to offer: you could still pull the files from the device using ADB tools (and there are even graphical file managers available). Another option might be using "helpers" like Airdroid, which let you manage your files via WiFi remotely from your PC. If you're interested in details on the one or other, let me know, and I'll make it an answer.

So I did manage to install adb and the drivers for my phone. But now whenever I try to grab files from my phone in dos like such: "adb push /sdcard/Sounds/ E:\audio\phone" I get "cannot stat '/sdcard/Sounds/': No such file or directory"  I know this is unrelated to the original question, but what is going on? I can access /sdcard/Sounds/ just fine from shell, but trying "push" in shell gives me "/system/bin/sh: push: not found"!

Well, first to grab files, "push" is the wrong approach: you want to pull them: adb pull /sdcard/Sounds E:\audio\phone would be the correct command for that. Sure push "cannot stat '/sdcard/Sounds/'", as the first parameter for push is the local file/folder, i.e. on your PC :)

Haha, switched the terms and it worked like magic. I guess it really is a matter of perspective.. it says pull, I say push, etc. :p

If you put as an answer "just man up and use adb", I'll accept it, though the underlying issue of why the KitKat update would make files in that folder invisible to Windows is still a mystery. (Feels like every major update for the last year has been regrettable.)

Being aware it is not a full-fledged solution but rather a workaround (it's still unclear what's causing the underlying issue), this answer sums up what we figured being a work-around at least:
As the files/directories don't show up the usual way via "sharing the SDCard", they can still be accessed by other means. One example is using ADB: using adb pull files can be transferred from the device to the computer, and with adb push in the other direction. Examples:

adb pull /sdcard/Sounds/ E:\audio\phone would take the entire folder /sdcard/Sounds and save it as E:\audio\phone on the computer
adb push E:\audio\phone /sdcard/Sounds/ for the opposite

The culprit: types of "source" and "target" must match. If "source" is a file, "target" must be a file as well: adb pull /sdcard/Sounds/some.mp3 E:\audio\phone would fail as the source is a file and the target a directory.
Other draw-backs can be worked around as well: if you prefer a graphical solution over tinkering with the command line, there are several good GUIs available, e.g.

QtADB
Droid Explorer (by our member Ryan Conrad)

And several more. As a side-effect of installing ADB, you've got a powerful tool ready which will certainly help you with many other things!
For getting ADB to work without installing the full SDK, please refer to Is there a minimal installation of ADB? More ADB related information can be found via our adb tag and its tag-wiki.
Alternatives include several "WiFi file managers", which are too many to be listed here. So if you rather want a "simple app installed" on your Android device, and then do everything with your browser, you might wish to take a look at the following lists:

Manage your Android Device from your Computer
FTP Server
Various File Servers

An alternative I found after the fact is to use ES File Explorer or something of the like to move the files into a different folder. They're visible to windows in the new folder.


text:
What is open source archive?
I just got notification from Drippler app that open source archive is released for my device. This is the Xperia SP v12.1.A.0.266 link. I just want to know what is open source archive.

Rephrased so it doesn't get closed.

Open source archive is for the developers or ROM cooks. It contains files which can be used when building a kernel. This is mainly intended for experienced developers and not for normal phone users


text:
Why does my Samsung Galaxy S3 with 4.3 run so slow?
I live in South Africa and we recently received the 4.3 update for the Galaxy S3. When I  perform general functions on the phone (open apps, browse web, run multiple apps), everything goes very slow. As an example, if I push the home button, the apps on my home screen are gone and then return again after a while.
Why would this update do this to my phone? How can I increase the performance of my device which now runs on 4.3?

This is because of the update not being done on a clean install. Also Samsung phones have TouchWiz overlay on android which is a bit heavy.
To make your phone fast do a full factory reset after taking a full data backup so that you can restore everything! Doing this would clean up any mess left behind by the update process.
Always try and do a clean install for a major update.

If I do a backup does it keep all apps along with their data and will I have to download 4.3 again for can I just do a reset on the current version?

for the apps get Titanium Backup.

Can confirm. Just did a factory reset on my S3 that was running slow and manually reinstalled everything. Device is still 4.3.
Wow. Much speed. Such faster.

it will just get really slow again after you install some stuff, I'm starting to think it was just a bad architecture of Android, any phone when you install some background running apps gets really slow.

I will agree, the reason this happens is because all the big players dont add an overlay on the android code rather they modify the core android framework code itself to help with the company apps! This in turn affects every app

I have tried many things but I have found a cause of the problem.
The RAM on the phone was full. My carrier is T-Mobile, There is a free app, T-Mobile My Account, which has a tab Device Health. Click it, you will find Device Performance --> Show all tests -->RAM Usage --> Memory Boost (tab to clear all RAM usage).
Give it a try! My two-year-old phone is back to life again.

Every time another app start running, more of the phone's RAM is used, if too many apps are t=running, the phone will slow down... Get a RAM optimizer like Memory Booster.    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=imoblife.memorybooster.lite&hl=en   Works for me, I have it on all of my Androids...


text:
Where is the backup folder of TextSecure and Signal?
In TextSecure, you can choose to backup your SMS to the SDCard.
It says "Success" but there is no evidence where it does store it on the SDCard.
I cannot find it.

Like Chahk said, the folder is /sdcard/TextSecureExport. I've had trouble accessing it (even after moving it) over the camera-centric USB interfaces.
I ended up compressing the file to a Zip archive using ES File Explorer and then using Google Drive to browse and upload the file. This also makes it easy to pull back down to a different device or after wiping memory.

I'd recommend encrypting it first before copying it to Google Drive (with something like APG) unless you're happy with Google seeing all of your "secure" text messages.

The backup is already encrypted by TextSecure, unless you back up with the option to not do that.

The folder is located just in the base dir of your SDcard:
/sdcard/TextSecureExport

Since Textsecure is now called Signal, there is no extra folder. It is located directly in your SDcard home folder:
/sdcard/SignalPlaintextBackup.xml

Note: sometimes the phone doesen't show the folder on your computer, then you could use a filemanager on your phone (like Ghost Commander) to move the backupped files into another folder that is visible on your computer.

My Android Signal app version 4.10.12 (date 2017/10/01) saves media of conversations in Device storage > Pictures.


text:
How can I do adb backup without a visible screen?
I need to repair my Android phone (it is Jiayu G4 with Android 4.0.2) since its display is not working. Yet, touches are being handled. Could anyone with Android dev tools installed at their PC instruct me which gestures should I do after
adb backup -apk -shared -all

command?
It expects me to unlock the device and allow backup, but I cannot see which button to press.
Good answer is:

Press button at 3/4 of height and 2/3 of  width of the screen;
Swipe selector located at 1/10 of height in the left...
...or something.

Please help.

When you invoke the adb backup command, this is the screen popping up on your device:

The button you would need to hit is "Back up my data". So after invoking the command, wait for 3..5 seconds to be sure the screen is "loaded", then hit the area on the lower-right where the button should be. The backup process then should start immediately. Even if you see nothing happen, give it another 30s or so, then check (from a different terminal/command shell); you should see your backup file growing then.

Thanks a lot! My data are being saving right now. I forgot that one picture is better than a hundred words. One more little question: is it safe to restore these data to later version of the system? 4.2 or 4.4. Looks like i need to flash my device with later firmware in order to get my new replacement screen working. The screen is of a new revision of device.

Depends. If you included system apps, I'd be careful (adb restore allows no selection, all-or-nothing only). Otherwise: Save I'd say. After all, that's what Helium Backup does to sync apps/data between devices.

(For later Android versions)
You may want to try ways to mirror the screen. (Method 2 involves mirroring over WiFi)
Or narrate the screen.
With a totally blank screen, you can:
# enable USB debugging (not shown here, but the prompt is in the upper 40% of the screen. Yes is on the right)
# verify the phone is recognized and has authorized your PC
adb devices
# unlock the screen on the phone (power button, swipe, enter password, etc.)
# send the backup command (adjust as needed and try quotes or escape characters)
adb backup -apk -shared -all file.ab
# Respond to the prompt on the phone

The prompt is full screen and the confirm button is in the bottom right, above the launcher tray (back, home, recent apps).

Once confirmed, there is nothing on the destination PC that shows it's working.
On the source phone, it will display each package as it copies them (seems that way).
The destination file will show as 0 KB (empty) until the process completes.
Use a reliable cable and leave the phone somewhere it can safely rest without moving or even touching it. It took around 30 minutes to backup a Pixel 2 (16 GB backup, about 64 GB of data on the device). Not everything is part of ADB backup.
If you ctrl-C the process on the dest PC, the dest file will fill over the next few seconds with the incomplete backup. The phone will also show more packages that it was iterating through to copy. You could maybe use this to verify the backup was working.
It's not clear what the collision policy is on sending a backup with the same name as an existing file.


text:
Notification LED's generic power consumption
I know that all phones got different hardware, and that leads uses just a little power, but:

What if I set my LED notification frequency to high (like the light will pulse faster)? How much would that chew off my battery?
What about "always on"? How much would that eat? Would it damage the LED in any way?

(I know LEDs are supposed to be durable, but the phone switches them off-on for a reason.. I guess.)
What I'm looking for is a generic answer, like "it's not noticeable", or "a couple of percent drop".

Even after ma battery is fully drained and switch off, the led still blinks when I press power button.

The power consumption isn't noticeable. Even a tiny watch battery can run a small LED for a few days continuously.
Increasing the blink rate won't change the power consumption at all: what makes a difference is how long the "on" part of the blink is compared to the "off" part. This is called the duty cycle of the LED.
Most LED controllers use the duty cycle to control the brightness of the LED (because LEDs aren't sensitive enough to voltage), so even when the LED appears to be on continuously, it's actually blinking faster than you can see. You can see this by waving the phone around in a darkened room: instead of tracing a continuous line in the air (like a sparkler or torch does), it looks like a dotted or dashed line. If you can keep the waving speed constant, and measure (or estimate) how long the dashes are compared to the gaps, you know the duty cycle.
The only reason for the LED to blink is a human one: to make it more eye-catching, so you can see when you have a message (or whatever).

Thank you. For now I will just use ALWAYS ON. Charging light is always on anyway, so it should not be an issue for the LED. I just hate this blinking thing, as I developed a habit of looking at the phone all the time.


text:
How does WhatsApp show the name in the contact list?
This is bugging me about WhatsApp. My contact list in the WhatsApp app is presumably the list of contacts I have in my phone book who have WhatsApp. I can see their picture and status if they have one. But their actual usernames are as I have inputted them into my phonebook.
However, I'm sure it should appear as they have chosen their names to be (because I can choose how I want my name to be in the edit profile section). It may seem trivial, but I'm worried I'm missing something or have done something wrong.
How does WhatsApp show the name in the contact list?
P.S. I have a Samsung Galaxy S2, Android 4.1.2.


text:
ADB disconnects frequently while moving in a car
I filed this as an Android bug (AOSP Issue #175555) and somebody recommended posting here. I'm actually not sure it's appropriate to post this here but I'll give it a shot.

Get into a car a passenger.
Open your laptop and plug in your phone.
Watch logcat
Ask the driver to make their way to the freeway using a route that take more than 5 minutes.

Roughly, after about 5 minutes the phone will disconnect from ADB. Unplugging the phone and plugging it back in, the phone will reconnect but disconnect. Maybe it's an illusion but it seems the faster the car is driving, the quicker it will disconnect.
I've tested this with an HTC One M7 and a OnePlus One. If the OnePlus is not involved, the HTC always seems to be able to reconnected. However, once the OnePlus can't connect enough times, nothing can connect, not even the HTC One. The OnePlus seems to "poison the well" as it were.
I've tried several different USB cables and ports on two computers, a Macbook Pro and a Lenovo Yoga. I'll be on a road trip this summer and can debugging more with a third phone.
If there are any tools that I can use or commands I can run to help debug this issue, please advise and I'll use them the next time I'm debugging my app in the car.
Lastly, sometimes my OnePlus disconnects while on my desk but it's far less frequent and usually only after a long period of not being used.

We don't really accept bug report since we can't do anything to fix the cause, but perhaps this is not a bug but a hardware issue, which is on-topic here. I still doubt if the "inside the car" is related and intensifies the issue, but I never try that, so I can't comment. If it's related, then it makes this issue very interesting though. I'd suspect loose USB host, but it doesn't seem to explain why "the faster the car is driving, the quicker it will disconnect".

Which CM version are you running on OnePlus One? I've this seen this irritating problem in CM12?

@Firelord, I experienced this on CM11 and have not had the opportunity to reproduce on CM12, yet.

Since you are sure that its not a port/USB wire issue and since ADB does detect phone, its not a driver issue either. Hence saying what the real problem is likely not really possible to be accurately predicted. ADB is a very "delicate" stuff. A slight connection problem causes disconnects... My best bet here would be loose connections. You should certainly try with other computers if you can.
For timebeing, there is one thing you can try if you debug while phone is on (and not in recovery or fastboot mode), ADB through wireless. Like using your wifi for adb. The adb client will be on your laptop and you can issue commands just like normal to phone through your laptop. Although modern ROMs have inbuilt option for this called ADB over wireless which you can find under settings->developer options. But in case you dont have that option, you can also use third party apps that allow you to do so like ADB Konnect.
Just install and open any such app and it should give you an address according to wifi/network you are connected to. Lets say it gives you 123.456.7.8.
Then open CMD/Terminal in laptop and use the command adb connect 123.456.7.8 to get connected to adb. Then you can issue all your commands as normal.
The downside is that your phone Has to be on. So in recovery/fastboot etc, you cant work using this.

I did try with other computers and different cables, but the issue persists with OnePlus One only. Ultimately, I ended up using SSH shell to access my device.

I updated the question. I forgot that I tried this on two different computers.


text:
WiFi not starting : accidentally deleted wpa_supplicant file
My device is moto g xt1033 android 5.0.2 (rooted). During my experiments for enabling reverse tethering over USB, I accidentally replaced the original WPA_supplicant file from system/bin folder with the one downloaded from internet.
Now my WiFi , Wi-Fi hotspot won't start.

Options: 1) use the one from your backup (oh... yeah, I guess it already, so) 2) find someone with the very same device & ROM to get a copy (wrong place here for that), 3) flash your ROM again. And no, a factory-reset won't bring it back.

Arun, have you noticed what point 2) in my previous comment says? This is the wrong place to ask for sharing files, sorry. You might also wish to consult Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions? for a fitting place to your question.

@Izzy sorry, I'm new here. :)

finally flashed stock from here

For the "being new": We have a nice Tour to learn how this site works, and a good [help] (<- recommended reading :) // If your issue is solved: You might consider to answer your own question and accept that answer then, so that becomes clear to possible others in a similar situation. Thanks a lot!

authors: عبدالله حسين الانسي