text:
Backup Notification Led (Pulse Light) Configuration
I recently switched from CyanogenMod to Paranoid Android on my Nexus. I knew I would lose most of my settings, but I felt rather stupid when I realised I had lost all of my carefully defined Pulse Light per-app configurations.
Given that this is quite likely to happen again, I'd like to know
whether there's a way to back up these settings.
I'm talking about Settings > Display > Pulse notification light,
where you can configure how each specific app should blink and which
colors they should use.
I already use Titanium Backup, but I couldn't find any item in its list
which seemed to regard the pulse light.

Though I'm using paranoid android at the moment, I'm relatively confident that any method which works with cyanogen will work on it as well (given that this feature seems to have been forked from cyanogen).

Hmmm, curious, in stock Android (4.2.2) the "Pulse notification light" setting is simply an on/off switch.

@w3d in cyanogenmod it's goes to a separate customization menu, where you can set the color and pattern off each app.

I use Light Flow app to control my notifications light. It has an option to backup/restore settings that I have used when flashing new ROM or doing a data reset.

On CyanogenMod 11 snapshot M8 I have the notification LED setting in
/data/data/com.androdid.providers.settings/databases/settings.db

This is the main settings database and contains most (if not all) of them. You probably don't want to transfer the whole bunch, so you have to extract it.
At first, there were 2 files in my backup: settings.db (the interesting database) and settings.db-journal (its "rollback journal"). The journal contains data that were yet not transferred to the database due to unfinished transactions or maybe for some other reason. Still, before dealing with the database itself, it's better to process the journal. This little (Linux) command did the trick for me:
$ sqlite3 settings.db VACUUM

After this, the journal should be merged into the database and removed. I've found that the LED settings we are interested in are in the system table. This will get them for you:
$ sqlite3 settings.db "SELECT name,value FROM system WHERE name LIKE 'notification_light_pulse%';"

I suppose the most interesting ones are:
notification_light_pulse_call_color
notification_light_pulse_vmail_color
notification_light_pulse_custom_values

I'm afraid I don't know a good way how to transfer those values to your current settings database, though. You should definitely be able to stay with the sqlite3 tool, maybe use its .dump meta-command and then filter it and insert the selected values into your database. This might get messy, though, as the indexes might differ. I'm really no database guy, sorry. Maybe some GUI tool like SQLite Browser might be easier for the job.
Should someone know a good and easy way I'll be glad to update this response.

authors: حفيد عمر ابن الخطاب


text:
How can I use Tasker to reconnect bluetooth when the connection is lost?
I just bought an Asus Transformer TF300T and I use bluetooth to tether with my iPhone. But it's very unstable and I lose the connection often, and I need the internet on my tablet. I bought Tasker, but I don't have time to learn all its function.
There's what I want to do:
When bluetooth activates: connect to my iPhone
When it loses connection, reconnect on iPhone, after 5 unsuccessful tries, turn off Bluetooth
I'm ready to pay to get this "profile" and "Actions" via paypal or email interact

An app called Bluetooth Auto Connect by a developer named refluxa has the ability to connect to specific bluetooth devices (that have been previously paired) and it acts like a Tasker plugin. So you can have a task that turns on bluetooth, and create a loop that runs five times and uses this plugin to connect to a specific bluetooth source. Then, check if bluetooth is connected and, if it is not, turn bluetooth off.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Copy contacts from iCloud to Android phone
Just went from an iPhone to an Android phone. How do I get my contacts that I have on iCloud on to my Android phone?
I looked at SmoothSync, but what's the point in paying for that when I know there is a free way such as as doing it manually.

See also: How do I transfer iPhone contacts to an Android phone? and How can I transfer my contacts from an iPhone to an Android device?

Assuming you still have the iPhone in order to get the contacts off of it - There are free applications such as "my Contacts Backup" for iPhone that will export all your contacts. This particular one exports them as .VCF (i.e. vcards) and / or .CSV and then emails them to you. I'm sure there are other apps out there too to use, but I went with this one as it's free.
You can then import the vcard file into your Google / Gmail contacts via PC and then sync your contacts from Google onto your device.

Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes end to end.

You could go http://icloud.com and click on "Contacts", there you can click on the cog in the bottom left corner. You will have the option to "Export vCard", with that vCard, you can import it into Google Contacts, similarly to what JonW said.

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


text:
Sending email to multiple recipients
I need to use my Note 10.1 to send an email to multiple recipients in the cc or bcc field. But it seems I cannot copy and paste the contacts which are automatically put into the 'to' field. Gmail in android also seems to allow only 250 contacts to be emailed at the same time.
Is there a way to copy and paste the contacts from the 'to' field into the 'cc' field? And send more than 250 emails at the same time? Thanks.

Frankly, if you need to send email to that many recipients on a repeated basis, you're using the wrong tool for the job.

If you frequently need to send these mails to the same large groups of people, have you thought about using Contact Groups, so that you only need to add and remove that group from the To or CC fields, rather than constantly dealing with huge numbers of names?
Creating the groups is easiest to do and manage in the web version of GMail (which you can use from your tablet). See GMail Help -> Creating Contact Groups for more info on this.

I have contact groups. But cannot send emails to more than 250 contacts in any group at the same time using android gmail.


text:
Text messages sent from Outlook do not show in my Android's messaging folder
I can send and receive text messages with my Outlook 2010 on an Exchange 2010 server.  Received text messages appear both on the phone and Outlook but sent text messages only appear on the device that sent it. (Outlook or the phone but not both)
I would like to see text message replies that are sent with Outlook in my phones messaging app with the original message that was received.  Can this be done?  I have a Samsung Galaxy S2.

Are you using the default messaging app?

Yes and would like to continue to if possible.

Text messages from Outlook? I'm confused, can you explain how you're doing that? Or do you mean emails?

Outlook 2010 with Exchange 2010 can send a text message (SMS) from the Outlook client or OWA when you have phone associated with the email account using Active Sync and you enabled the sync of SMS messages on the phone.

Better explanation can be found here.  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/send-and-receive-text-messages-sms-HA101823438.aspx

I'm pretty sure this isn't possible as you have an Android phone. If you were on Windows mobile it might work to have your sent messages sync, but the default app will not do what you want it to do with Outlook.

Disappointing.  It is a nice feature to be able to send and receive text messages from the Outlook interface but if half of the conversation is missing when I go mobile and only have the phone with me then the benefits quickly diminish.
I did find repeated references to Windows phones but was hoping the Android’s Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync feature was up to the task.  Anyone else have a suggestion or know a secret to get it to work?


text:
Is there some app that allows me to answer phone calls with my computer?
Is there an app that allows me to answer phone calls with my computer? Sometimes it's uncomfortable to receive phone calls with the headset of my smartphone, it would be nice to talk when receiving a phone call through my computer headset which is way more comfortable.
Note: No, there isn't a comfortable headset in the near markets.

Is Google Voice available in your area? (That's what I use to answer phone calls on my computer.)

There is at least one. See this post on XDA developers for the Play store link and some extra tweaks the post author needed to perform.

Yes. But I want to use my cellphone service for the call.


text:
How to dump and recover sdcardfs
Sdcardfs is a virtual file system in Android or some Linux systems. It is implemented using FUSE.
It is called Android's 'adopted storage', is used in virtual sdcards, or protected partition areas. (For example: /storage/simulated/0)
If you try to dump an sdcard file system (ex: /sdcard) by dd command, It is not dumpable. (It does not have sectors or anything.
So, if I try to dump the parent file system (ex: 'FUSE like vFAT' on EXT4), it is not recoverable by all of commercial file recovery software. Because sdcardfs is a virtual file system using FUSE, it is not stored like a file or agglomerate something(s).
How can I dump and recover an sdcardfs file system?

FUSE is not a virtual filesystem. It's a framework that allows developers to write virtual filesystem drivers. On the other hand, sdcardfs is a virtual filesystem. The fact that it's implemented using FUSE is an implementation detail. What you're really asking is how to dump and restore an sdcardfs filesystem, right?

@Gilles yes. I asking about how to recover files in sdcardfs file system when having only dumped file system image(ex: mmcblk0, mmcblk0p12). the data on SdcardFS is not analysable by general FAT or EXT supported file recovery software.

And it is not mountable becuase it it not stored like a file or partition or agglomerate somethings, and SDcardFS do not supported read sector by sector, it can only read and write by file unit.

SdcardFS  is not a FUSE, it's an in-kernel solution.

sdcardfs, FUSE and Adoptable Storage are entirely different things. sdcardfs replaced Android's FUSE-based virtual filesystem. Both are used to emulate an actual underlying filesystem (ext4 or f2fs) which is /data/media or (in case of Adoptable Storage) external SD card's 2nd partition. So if you want to do deleted file recovery, you need to do that on underlying actual filesystem. Just create a dump of block device. See How to recover a deleted file from /data partition?.

You can back up any filesystem by backing up individual files, e.g. in a tar archive. Assuming that you have a set of Linux command line utilities (e.g. a full BusyBox installation):
adb shell 'tar -cz /sdcard | uuencode sdcard.tar.gz' >sdcard.tar.gz.uu
uudecode sdcard.tar.gz.uu

The uuencode/uudecode step is necessary because adb corrupts binary files on output (it adds CR before every LF).
You can open the archive in any archive browser (except the one built into Windows, or at least older versions of Windows, because it only supports the zip format).
To restore:
adb shell 'cd /target/directory && tar -xz' <sdcard.tar.gz

I don't know if there's a lower-level tool to dump an sdcardfs filesystem. Since sdcardfs is a view of an underlying filesystem (i.e. a stackable filesystem), rather than a filesystem built on top of a storage device, there's nothing to dump. But the underlying filesystem is built on a storage device; if you dump that, you will get a full backup and you can access the sdcardfs part by using the sdcardfs driver on the backup and mounting it with the same parameters.
FUSE is pretty much irrelevant here. It's an implementation technique, not a description of the filesystem format.

I think OP is concerned about deleted data recovery, not backup/restore. “the underlying filesystem is built on a storage device; if you dump that, you will get a full backup and you can access the sdcardfs part by using the sdcardfs driver on the backup and mounting it with the same parameters.”. No. Dump of underlying filesystem is just ext4 or f2fs, it doesn't have any sdcardfs part.

@IrfanLatif Oh right, I hadn't caught on when I answered this, but indeed it seems that the question is about recovering a deleted file, and my answer doesn't help that. Regarding the part you quote — well, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

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


text:
Turning on Android device with motion detector (external device?)
Problem
I'm looking for a motion detector that can be set up to wake a rooted Android (4.3) tablet and turn the screen on when someone passes by it in a radius of maybe 2-3m.
Ideas
I'm definitely willing to get an external device for this and invest a (reasonable) amount of money, it would just have to be one that I can somehow connect to the tablet.
Are there maybe any proximity detectors from the home automation field with a decent detection quality (good angle and configurable distance) that can send Android push notifications?
I'm able to write some code from scratch if necessary, but I'm very clueless and unexperienced in the hardware field, so I wouldn't know how to hold a soldering iron, for example. ;)
Background
The idea here is to transform an old tablet into some kind of stationary dashboard screen, so I'm not particularly worried about battery wear (it's end-of-life now and will from now on be used with the power cable plugged in until it dies) or intense usage (unless we're talking about 100% CPU 24/7, which would probably kill it in a few days).
Previous research
I investigated a little bit whether this could be done with the existing sensors in the device and I believe that is not possible.
The problem with using the proximity sensor is that it really only returns whether something (assumed to be your ear while in a call) is right next to it (a few centimeteres away). But I'm looking for something in the 2-3m area.
The other idea would be the front-facing camera, but the problem seems to be that a) the camera in many devices automatically shuts off when the screen is off and b) only foreground apps can access the camera, but I want the tablet to show another app on detection.
I had a quick look regarding waking up the screen in response to push notifications and that doesn't seem too hard using the PowerManager API. Not sure how quickly the device would respond to a push when in deep sleep, but that's a secondary problem.

Why not use Bluetooth or NFC using a custom script? Have seen a similar proof-of-concept elsewhere, using bluetooth on PC, and a bluetooth device worn around neck, leave the PC desk and PC locks up, arrive back in vicinity of PC, PC unlocks itself.

@t0mm13b I don't really want to wear anything. This is intended as a permanent setup and I don't want to wear a BT device for the rest of my life. ;)
NFC would mean that this is no longer hands-free, which I would also prefer it to be. But keep them coming, that's the kind of creative ideas I was hoping for. :)

In apps there is the "home automation" and alarm control type of apps and hardware. That might be a way to get an infrared human detector sending info back to the device.

@Psycogeek Yeah, do you a decent motion sensor from the 'home automation' field?

I do not know of a specific one.

Wow! It is a new idea of utilizing an old device.

If you want to use the camera of your tablet for this purpose, there is an app in the Play Store called 'Background Video Recorder', which can run in the background even when the screen is turned off. Then you can use some automation scripts to access that camera view to achieve your goal.

Just to let you know I have some up with a simple solution it combines an app from the app store called Motion Detector by jastrzab: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.motion.detector
Then install a plugin called Turn Screen: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jastrzab.plugin.screen

Install both apps.
Open the Motion Detector app and turn on "Send" at the bottom of settings. Click on motion detector (at the top) and then scroll down to "camera" and select "front".
Open the Turn Screen app. click the only button to make it active.
Open android settings, Turn off the lock screen or select "none".
Change the sleep settings to time out in the desired time.
Turn off Daydream.
Open the app (or home screen) you want to have displayed on the screen when the tablet wakes, and you're all set! Wait for the screen to go to sleep and walk by or wave at your camera and it will wake it up.

Works great during the day or with the lights on. I'm currently working on an external PIR motion sensor that will allow the tablet to wake in darkness. Simple design so far just uses a cheap PIR sensor and a small led light mounted below the camera. When I walk by the PIR triggers the LED light allowing the camera to see, which triggers motion. Hoping to figure out how to eliminate the LED and just run the PIR directly into the tablet using the headphone jack or USB on the tablet. Suggestions welcomed.

Oh and don't forget to turn on the motion detector by clicking the blue circle on the top of the main page of the app (next to "motion Detector"). Enjoy

This worked great for me, thanks! Using android 4.4 kitkat

The link you provided to Google Drive is broken. :(

As mentioned by Dallas Partin here, there is a free app called Motion Detector. I've been using it for a while, and can tell you it will work with other apps in the foreground and with the screen locked. This will detect motion using the built-in camera, so it's free. Also, you don't have to root your device for this.
You said that you didn't know how to solder, but there is a very simple way of making your own external sensor for this. Out of two methods that I'm aware of, I've mentioned one below:
Method #1. Using built-in camera

Download Motion Detector.

Download Tasker.

Download AutoStart

Launch Tasker app and tap the three dots in the top right corner.

Tap Preferences → UI (at the top), uncheck Beginner Mode.

Exit out of that, and tap the Vars tab at the top.

Tap + and name it %DISPLAYSTATE.

Go to the Profiles tab, and tap + → select Event → Display → Display On.

Tap Back key/button. Tap New Task, name it Display On.

Tap + → Variables → Variable Set. Tap the pencil icon next to Name.

Tap %DISPLAYSTATE and where it says To, make it 1.

Repeat "step 11" except that change everything to Display Off and change where we put 1 to 0.

Go to the Scenes tab at the top.

Tap + and name it something.

Hold down and drag on the dashed line and make it the size of your screen.

Tap the gear icon in the upper left corner to go back.

Tap on Profiles, and create a new one by using the + button.

Tap on Event → System → Intent Received.

You can ignore everything except where it says Action. Here you need to enter org.jastrzab.move.ACTION_GLOBAL_BROADCAST (caps are important). If this doesn't work for you try the following instead org.motion.detector.ACTION_GLOBAL_BROADCAST.

Tap the gear icon (back) in the top left corner. It will pop up with a menu.

Tap New task and name it something.

Within that task, tap the + again and hit Scene → Show Scene.

Where it says Name, tap the magnifying glass icon (not the pencil) and tap on your scenes name.

Now where it says Display As, "Activity, Full Display, No Bar".

Scroll to the bottom and it will say if. Tap the pencil icon and select %DISPLAYSTATE.

Tap the button in the middle and change it to Equals. On the right box, type 0.

Tap + and do Task → Wait.

Change MS to somewhere between 25 to 100.

Tap + → Scene → Destroy Scene and hit the magnifying glass icon on Name. Select your scene.

Now go back to the main screen of Tasker app.

Go into the Motion Detector app, and make sure it is turned off. If not, tap the blue circle.

Go to the bottom and where it says Send, make sure it is On.

Go back to the top and tap the blue circle again to make it turn on.

Open Auto Start and make sure it says On.

Tap Add → Show all applications → Motion Detector.

Check "go to home screen after auto start" and change "start delay" to 5.

This has been working flawlessly for me!
Also, do note that in Motion Detector there are settings you can change when Motion Detector is off. One of the most important is Camera. If you are experiencing problems, please make sure that Camera is set to Front.
You did say you wanted an external sensor that could sense distance within 2-3cm, but if your fine settling for a farther sensing solution, this is very reliable and relatively easy to set up! But if you still have your heart set on a external sensor, I would be more than happy to give you some instructions for that as well!
Good luck, and I hope this helps you!

Thanks for your answer, I'll give this a try eventually! (But currently don't have time for this project, unfortunately.) I believe I read that whether the camera works in the background is device-specific, but I'll see if my device can do it.

Note that I didn't say I wanted a sensor that senses motion within "2-3cm", but rather I said "2-3m", i.e. when a person passes through the room the device is in.

note that I didn't say I wanted a sensor that senses motion within "2-3cm", but rather I said "2-3m" Ok, I was thinking that seemed a little close:)    I've read that most devices will work with the camera in the background, but yes, that does mean that not all will. If it doesn't work on your specific device and you still want a solution, making a external sensor is not that hard to do for under $10. However, this method is much simpler and more configurable. Good luck with this whenever you have time to work on it!

UPDATE: The intent package has been renamed to org.motion.detector.ACTION_GLOBAL_BROADCAST. See documentation here: http://programy.jastrzab.com/help.php?lng=en&app=org_motion_detector and discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/27bvf8/help_motion_detector_app/ci0s5or The above still works; just switch out the package name with the new one in this comment.

@AndréChristofferAndersen Good to know! Thank you for pointing that out; I'll add it to the answer to prevent confusion.

@DanielFord And thank you for the guide. It works. It's cool how I can walk past my fridge and my tablet lights up to greet me. Although I did simplify it somewhat. I set the screen to turn off after 10 minutes and Motion Detector to only send signals at most every 5 minutes. Then I removed the %DISPLAYSTATE mechanism, relying only on the screen flash to wake up the tablet without a condition. It doesn't bother me that it potentially flashes an extra screen while working on it. I seldom spend more than 5 minutes in front it anyway. Maybe I should add my method as an alternative answer.

@AndréChristofferAndersen That seems like a pretty good way of doing it! Personally the flash would bother me, however I'm sure for most applications that would be no big deal at all. One question though, you said "and Motion Detector to send signals at most every 5 minutes" I'm not sure I understand how that would work since it seems like your movement would only be detected every 5 minutes and ao you would only trigger it if you walked by exactly every 5 minutes:) Correct me if I'm wrong though!

@DanielFord As long as the display is set to be on for longer than the sensor cool down time it works out. The display stays on for 10 minutes, while the sensor is ready to fire another signal after 5 minutes. If I leave and come back after 2 minutes the display is still on and there is no scene flash. If I leave and come back after 7 minutes the monitor is still on and there is a subtle scene flashes. If I come back after 12 minutes the display is off and the scene flashes thus turning on the display. Never failed thus far. And the tasks I do on the tablet takes less then 5 minutes so np.

Thanks for taking the time to write this extensive guide. In point 12 you say "Repeat "step 11"..." shouldn't this be "Repeat step 8 to 11"?

Instead of creating a Scene you can download Secure Settings (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin&hl=en) which is a plugin for Tasker. Secure Settings has a Wake Device task built into it that you can then plug into the intent listed above.

I have been looking for a way to have the tablet screen on when I get close to the Tablet which is mounted on the wall to monitor my home. Just like the Nest thermostat. I recently purchased the Konnected alarm system board and the wifi module from Nate Clark  He suggested me to use www.ozerov.de/fully-kiosk-browser/ There is a small licence fee. It works well for the intended purpose. I am using Actiontiles integrated with my Smartthings. My tablet is wall mounted with continuous power supply.
           Nate Clark <nate@konnected.io>

I hate to say it guys but all I did was attach my feed from my PIR in the ceiling (which already controls leds in the shower) to my android. When someone comes in the power switches on the phone and bob's your uncle.

Using the device's Screen on when Power On/Off feature. Nice.

I don't know if this suits you but what about a power plug with a movement sensor? When it detects movement, the tablet will get the power connected and the screen will turn on. Plus with Tasker you can configure much more things to do when it detects movement.

The only affordable and reasonably accessible motion sensor I could find is the Belkin WeMo Motion.
Ian McCracken created an inofficial SDK for the WeMo called Ouimeaux (docs, PyPi).
My current plan is to write a tiny application running on a Raspberry Pi that uses Ouimeaux to respond to a signal from the WeMo Motion and send a push notification to the Android device. And then an even simpler Android app that responds to the push notification and wakes up the device and turns on the screen. (The latter might also be doable with Tasker instead.)
As a second step, the relevant parts of Ouimeaux could be rewritten in Java and then it would be possible to connect straight from the app to the WeMo, making the Raspberry Pi superfluous.
Improvement suggestions welcome, of course. In particular if you know an existing way to wake up an Android screen from a Python/shell script/otherwise trigger push notification. That sounds too trivial to require writing a new app.

If you disable the device lock, you can create a small application that takes input for action, and uses a Java ProcessBuilder to run an shell command for a key event, for instance 'shell input keyevent 26' (Power button press), that should in theory work. I'm currently running a shell command after a button press, to run the new 'screenrecord' feature in Android KitKat, in background for an app I'm creating so I can verify that running shell commands in this way works.

@Hrafn I didn't quite understand: what's the intention behind doing that?

You were asking for possible ways of waking the screen up. If you can get some kind of input, you can create a Java Process (as a part of an Android program that is running in the background) and make it run a power button click in the shell of the device. That should, if the device is configured to not lock, wake the screen up.

@Hrafn I see, but then you can just use the PowerManager API that I already linked to in the question. It only requires about four lines of code. Although one possibility would be to keep the device connected with a cable and just trigger the waking up via adb with something like Wakey Droid.

Sure. But to use the PowerManager API you need to manage the wake state your self (I think). So if you acquire a wakelock you'd want to send a power down signal after a certain time. With the keyevent call through a shell, you don't have to manage that, and can just let the system handle everything.

You might want to check out Wimoto. They are small, and cheap, bluetooth sensors that come in a few flavours (temperature, motion sensing, liquid detection etc). They say that there is an Android app incoming, and that there is going to be an SDK released in the near future for it.
Then again, if you want something more simple (and your tablet has a front facing camera) you could simply use an app. For example (just after a quick search so haven't used it) Camera Trigger.
Hope this helps.

Wimoto sounds like the kind of devices I was thinking of, but I couldn't find a motion sensor. Do they have one?

Camera Trigger has the same problems mentioned above, it doesn't work with the screen off or when having another app in the foreground.

Yeah, they call it the Wimoto Sentry. I've also come accross Twine that is also a micro sensor with a couple of features

You're right. I got confused because on Amazon it's (incorrectly, I guess) listed as a "Bluetooth Smart Water Sensor". Looks good, but apparently it's gonna be a few more months until we can get one.


text:
How can I install CyanogenMod on my HTC Magic?
How can I install CyanogenMod on my HTC Magic? Is there a tutorial or guide for this that I can follow?
Sorry guys..if you feel that I was asking a silly question..!
my intention was to have a brief summary about the dos and donts for getting cynogenmod in HTC phones...

You can find lots of guides and tutorials regarding this. Just a simple Google Search revealed this

There already is a guide for install on the CyanogenMod forums and a main page for the device which contains download links and other general info.

As of note, the HTC Magic only supports CyanogenMod 6. (Or earlier, which you don't really want.)


text:
Moto G WiFi reception severely affected by Bluetooth
I suspect this may just be a hardware fault that I have to live with or have repaired, but let's see...
My stock 1st-gen 16GB Moto G running 4.4.4 has been working flawlessly for almost a year. A few days ago, we had some WiFi interference issues in our house, which isn't unusual as it's a dense residential area.
I managed to resolve those, but noticed my phone still wouldn't connect. Using WiFi Analyzer (which is an invaluable app btw), I could see that it was detecting hardly any signal at all, while the same app on my Nexus 7, which was connecting fine, showed a good signal from both the access points in my house (not to mention various surrounding houses).
I thought there may just be an unresolved interference problem, but when I took the phone into my office the next day, I had the same problem there.
After a bit of Googling, I read that similar symptoms on Nexus phones could sometimes be worked around by putting the phone into Airplane Mode, then re-enabling the WiFi. Sure enough, that seemed to the trick for me too.
On further investigation, putting it into Airplane Mode, turning on the WiFi, and then turning on Bluetooth too, caused the WiFi to drop out almost immediately again. Here's an example of what I can see where I'm sitting right now, before and after enabling Bluetooth:

As it happens, in this case the WiFi stayed connected when I turned the Bluetooth off, as the one AP I could still see is the one I was connected to. But it would probably have disconnected soon afterwards.
Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? Is a factory reset likely to fix it, or is it really a hardware issue? I can live with it if it is, as I rarely use Bluetooth (and even more rarely do I need WiFi access at the same time), though I'd obviously be concerned about any knock-on effects further down the line.

This may be a bug with BLE, and in that case upgrading to 4.4.4 will probably solve the issue.

Sorry, should have said, have been on 4.4.4 for several months. Have added this info to the question.

@scottishwildcat This issue was reported along with the "Bluetooth share has stopped working" error, so I thought it was fixed in 4.4.4. I'm currently running cm11, 4.4.4 and not having this issue. Nevertheless, the "bad WiFi connectivity with Bluetooth enabled" has been reported lots of times on the Internet, so I doubt it's your device.

Interesting, thanks. I guess I'm just a bit suspicious because of how suddenly it started happening.


text:
Where are dialer's "All Contacts" coming from?
Stock Moto G running 4.4.2, initially set up using Motorola Migrate to transfer my data from an HTC Desire S.
I have Google, Skype, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts on my phone, and all the correct contact details from all those accounts are shown in the People app. Happy days.
The fun starts when I open the dialer, and select "All Contacts". Here I see all sorts of ancient contacts who did once exist on my previous phone(s), some of whom I may have called at some point but most of whom I never have. They don't exist in the People app, or in the Call History, or on my SIM card—indeed, if I tap one of them to look at their details, there's an "Add to My Contacts" button there.
Some of them are contacts that I used to have on my phone 1 or 2 phones ago and long since deleted, others appear to be old details for contacts that I have since updated or renamed.
Where have these ghosts come from, and how can I banish them?

Within settings of your phone there will be an option called accounts & sync you can sync or unsync the contacts of the app you need

That wasn't the problem, everything was syncing correctly. I've just figured it out though, see my answer below.

SOLVED: It appears these contacts were in the "Other contacts" on gmail.com. I'm not entirely sure how they got there or why there is no such group in the People app where I can see or edit them, but at least I can delete them now!

Seems that Gmail keeps a record of everybody you've ever talked to via email. My "other contacts" is full of crap as well...


text:
Unknown icon on my notification bar
A notification has started appearing on my Huawei Ascend Y300 that I do not recognize. I searched on Google but couldn't find what it means. My device is running Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean).
Here's a few images of the icon. It's the one to the far left in the first picture.

I cannot find any official documentation on this icon, but various sources across the Internet suggest that it means you have "Power Saving" mode enabled on your device. It looks like this is specific to Huawei's devices, and can be disabled in your settings.


text:
What are the advantages of Android apps being single threaded?
I read a statement on http://developer.android.com that said:

When an application is launched, the system creates a thread of execution for the application, called "main." This thread is very important because it is in charge of dispatching events to the appropriate user interface widgets, including drawing events. It is also the thread in which your application interacts with components from the Android UI toolkit. The system does not create a separate thread for each instance of a component. All components that run in the same process are instantiated in the UI thread, and system calls to each component are dispatched from that thread.

I just wanted to know why Android has opted for this single threaded model architecture and not gone for multi-threaded. What are the advantages that they are getting out of this?

As your question suggests a "more threads the better" philosophy: be aware that having more threads than cores carries an ever increasing performance penalty. So if you have a dual core phone/tablet(or PC) you only really want 2 threads that are actually doing significant work (and probably a third that is handling user interaction). Applications where everything has its own thread are generally painfully slow

Android apps aren't single-threaded. Although there's one main thread as described in the documentation you quoted, apps can start as many other threads as they need.
The advantage of all GUI interactions being on one thread is that the GUI code can be simpler, faster, and more predictable, because GUI state isn't being changed concurrently from different threads. It also makes thread-safety easier for app developers by providing a message queue, similar to those found in other OSes' GUI frameworks. The app author just needs to make sure all long operations are performed in background threads, sending messages back to the main thread to update the GUI, and that way the GUI remains responsive all the time.

My first "big app" when learning fell into this trap. A big database lookup on the same thread as the UI, so you can't interract at all or use a 'cancel' button as the GUI thread is tied up. It teaches you fast to use threads / asychronous tasks. "main" is usually the point of execution in programming and the initial or 'main' thread of an application like int main() in C or public static void main(String[] args) in Java and so on. It runs as the main bit of your appliction, as something has to be the starting point.

+1. NetworkOnMainThreadException just proves that an Android app supports (and sometime, needs) multiple threads to work functionally.

The Android docs are just saying the main thread should compute all UI related functions.  It's the job of the developer to create additional threads when getting data from local SQLite database or from the network, or even if you're creating a compute heavy custom View with alot of display logic.
For a really comprehensive look into Concurrency in Android and mutli-threading, check out
Asynchronous Android from Steve Liles
Awesome awesome book.


text:
Battery charging issue in Samsung Galaxy S3
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and it is charging very very slowly when plugged into my PC. I deleted all my images and some videos and some other stuff and the charging seemed to speed up.
Is battery charging is related to available memory? I didn't think it was.

Do you use your pc to charge?

@davidbaumann yup

It delivers only about 2.5 Watt which might be all used for standby, cell and wifi connection. You should use the charger.

Did you also delete applications?

@davidbaumann No. I deleted my Images and some videos... and then i show battery charging speed up little bit.

Why do you think the charging speed increased? Is it because it became full faster?

@geffchang i was not thinking. but it's true. when i deleted some images and some other stuff then charging speed little bit increase.

My guess would be that Media Scanner was scanning a lot of files. Hence, eating up CPU resources and battery. Now that you have lesser files, it's probably not working as hard. See if you have Media or android.process.media in System > Battery.
A rogue app or a corrupted file could be causing Media to work hard.
You could also try to clear the phone's cache to see if that helps. Boot into recovery mode, and clear cache partition.

i think you're right.

This is the due to the change in the supply current between the PC's USB port and the actual plugin charger you got with your device.
Current from USB port is less compared to that of the charger.
Hence time required to charge phone from PC usb port is more as that of charger

@Santoash ya got it. but when i deleted my images and some other stuff then charging speed little bit increase.

@MD the best way to compare the charging time is to put your phone in airplane mode and check.\n If results are same then there is some power hungry app that is killing your battery

I think it's the battery's problem, you should get a new battery. I bought one from RAVPower and problem solevd.


text:
Is Skype available for the Motorola Xoom?
Is Skype available for the Motorola Xoom?

Please, give some more details. A quick guess... If Skype is unavailable in Market, then probably you need to uncheck "Settings->Application->Fast boot" option.

I just want to use Skype on Motorola Xoom

I just want to help you. Could you please answer my questions above? I mean, provide some more details.

See alist of the various available Android Skype versions and where to get them from on this previous question http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/9664/can-i-install-skype-on-my-xperia note that because a lot of phone networks don't like Skype, it may be your network or country that stops you seeing it in the Market, not just your phone type.

I recently (two nights ago) installed Skype on my Xoom, and it appears to work fine, with chat, video, and audio calling available.
This was on the UK market, Wifi version (so no provider issues), stock 3.2.
This is the market item I have installed.


text:
Chromecast Beta Google I/O 2014
During Google I/O 2014, Google announced 'Android L' and a Chromecast update which will support 'Screen Mirroring'. This wasn't possible on earlier Android versions without rooting. The updates will be rolling out to users later this fall. However, they released an Android L Developer Preview for Nexus 5 and Nexus 7.
I own a Nexus 5 & Chromecast. I want to try this Screen Mirroring feature. I installed the Android L Developer Preview on my Nexus 5. Is there a beta release for Chromecast too? How can I start Screen Mirroring from my Nexus 5 (without rooting) to my Chromecast?

Screen mirroring to any Miracast device is already present in 4.4, so you don't need developer versions of anything. Find it in Settings → Display → Cast screen.

@DanHulme : I have been using Miracast for a while now. I wanted to mirror my phone's display using Chromecast, which I can, after the update starts rolling out for users. I wish to develop an app using this Chromecast feature. How can I start my development now?

Yesterday, Google released ChromeCast app v1.7, for selected devices running Android 4.4.1 and above. This enabled devices to use ScreenCast feature onto their ChromeCast.


text:
Is there any way to put a password to avoid someone from hard resetting my phone?
I have a Moto G, and I am very careful in protecting my data. I currently use CM Security App from the Google Play Store and it's very helpful in taking a photo to a person who tried unlocking my phone twice without success. Also I have locked my settings to avoid people from turning off my internet and GPS; in that way I will still able to track my phone via GPS. My phone is also locked to avoid people from uninstalling apps without my password. Additional, I had also disable USB debugging to stop someone from wiping my phone directly from a computer, but all this efforts will come down if the hard reset is enabled.
Is there any way to put a password to my boot settings to stop someone from making a hard reset to my phone? I already investigated, and encrypting my phone will not work for this.

No. Even if you could add such a restriction within Android, it would still be possible for an attacker to boot into recovery or into fastboot mode and reset the phone from there.

If you're trying to protect the confidentiality of your data (i.e. stop an attacker accessing it), then encrypting the phone is what's required for that. If you're trying to protect the integrity of your data (i.e. stop an attacker deleting it), then you can do that by backing it up to a secure location that there's no risk of losing.
If you're trying to stop someone deleting a tracking program or the like, then you're not protecting your data at all, you're trying to protect the phone itself. You can only do this with physical precautions, not software precautions, or by insuring against the loss.

I guess his goal is akin to self-destruct. :) If you could do what he wants then you could prevent a thief from getting any use out of your stolen phone. Don't think it can be done though.

Direct from TWRP website, copied word for word. I am posting this for reference and nothing else.

Password protecting TWRP (lockscreen)
've had people ask enough for a protected TWRP that I'm creating this page as a response so I don't have to retype. If you're seeing this page, you're probably asking, "Why doesn't TWRP offer password protection?" You want to lock down your device so that a would-be theif won't be able to wipe your device to get past your lockscreen and/or so they can't wipe away that cool app you bought from the Play Store that will let you track your stolen device via GPS. Well, here's the short answer:
Nothing trumps physical access to your device. If you've lost it, there's no way that TWRP can secure it.
For a longer answer, it's very easy for anyone with just a little bit of knowledge to get around any kind of security that TWRP might have. All they have to do is flash one of the other recoveries that's available that doesn't have password protection to get around it. Most, if not all devices have ways to flash recovery without needing to boot to either Android or recovery (usually via fastboot or download mode / Odin). Quite literally the only way to truly secure your device would be to render the USB port completely unusable which isn't an option for most newer devices that don't have removable batteries. Even then most devices could still be worked with via jtag though it's unlikely that a thief will go to the trouble of paying for a jtag service on a device that has a broken USB port. (Note: I am not recommending that you purposely damage your USB port as it will also likely make it very difficult to recover your device if anything ever goes wrong!)
I also don't want to offer a lockscreen / password protection because it offers such a superficial level of protection. Users rarely read and would skip over any disclaimers that we have that indicate that any protection that we displayed indicating that their device really isn't secure. If your device has fallen into someone else's hands, your best case scenario should be that you hope that they don't get your personal data. If you don't want someone getting your personal data, use Android's device encryption and a good lockscreen.


text:
Can I flash a Motorola Charm with a T-mobile update?
I recently bought a Motorola Charm with a Motoblur logo on it, but it doesn't appear to actually have Motoblur installed! There's no message widget, no Facebook update widget, no sign in for first use - nothing. Just a normal Android system. I am wondering what phone I actually have, and if I can update my phone with T-mobile's "Blur_Version.0.2.6005.MB502.T-Mobile.en.US" image.

Yes, you can, but in my experience it does not work well and you can't downgrade afterward. I'd recommend that you do NOT flash that T-Mobile updated ROM.


text:
Battery life issues on Xperia Z1 after Lollipop update
Since the update of my Xperia Z1 to Lollipop (5.0.2), my battery life is horrible! It takes a very long time to charge it to 100%, and I can only use my phone for a few hours.
How can I fix it ?

Check the Battery usage under Power Management in Settings. There you see list of apps showing how much power they have consumed up to then. Check which app is using more battery and uninstall it. If the app is a System app (like Android OS, Android SDK, etc) then you need to Factory Reset the phone to resolve such issues or if any H/W like Screen, WiFi, GPS, Radio etc are using much power then you may consider complaining about the issue in any service center.

Seems to be the standby. (Screen 17%, Standby 11% !!, OS 10%).

I would recommend a Factory reset if the issue is persistent. It must solve the problem.


text:
Can I restore a Titanium backup from an Incredible to a Captivate?
I had an HTC Incredible that I backed up with Titanium Backup Pro. I just got a Samsung Galaxy Captivate and wish to restore the backup, but when I go to restore, the app doesn't find the backup on the SD card. I went into the SD card and confirmed the backup is there.
Is it possible that I can't restore from an HTC phone to a Samsung one? If so, can I at least restore the apps on the SD card?
Any suggestions?

May be the app is not recognizing the location of the backup. Do the following and see if that works

Remove all the backup files from the new Samsung Captivate
Now, from Captivate do a Titanium backup, it will create a backup folder with backed up apps.
Then, copy all old backup files from HTC to that location.
Try titanium backup again, this might show all the backed up apps now.

Hope that works. Good luck :-)

Hossain is actually correct, but you don't need to go through that process to find the location.
The Captivate has internal SD storage separate from the main phone storage and the external SD card.  As such, the external SD card is mounted at /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/ rather than just /mnt/sdcard/.  So you just need to copy the TitaniumBackup folder from that first path to the second, since that is where Titanium is looking. Edit or, as Saiboogu notes below, you can change the directory used by TB.
When you move apps to SD they go on the external SD card, but almost everything else uses the internal SD.  You'll find that photos, downloaded files, and so on go there.

Rather than add a 3rd answer reiterating most of the same info, I'll just make a suggestion here - Instead of copying the backup to the internal (and risk loosing backups if the device is bricked or otherwise broken) you can go to Preferences in TB, and change the "Backup folder location" to the external SD. Recent versions of TB even have an autodetect option in the folder chooser. If I recall right you have to navigate up to the / file system before autodetect will search external storage.

@Saiboogu I meant "copy" in the "make a copy" sense, not the "move" sense. Having two copies in separate places is probably even safer than changing TB's folder setting :)

True, if you make the copy daily. Since I'm too lazy to do that, I just set TB to backup by default to my SD card, so in a worst-case scenario I can just pop the card into a new phone and be all set. :) Also and unrelated - how come it keeps dropping my reference to your name? Weird.

@Saiboogu Oh yeah, I just meant for the initial sync, I see what you mean now. I've softbricked my device a couple times and only lost the internal SD data once, but I guess once is enough :P.  Though lots of people have external SD problems with Samsungs as well. Anyways.  It drops my name because the post owner always gets notified and there are no other commenters, so it's redundant.

I've also had one softbrick that killed the internal SD, and like you said - once is enough. ;) Makes sense about the notifications too, thanks for the explanation.


text:
How can I set up a 6to4 tunnel (NAT traversal)?
I'd like to get IPv6 including NAT traversal on my Android phone. Root is available.
It is so easy to get a 6to4 tunnel on Linux.. Just install aiccu and then aiccu start. On Windows there is gogoClient which is also quite easy.
I tested IPv6config but my phone does not work out of the box and the author seems more interested in a proof of concept rather than supporting all phones. He does not reply to my e-mails, and after Googling this app it seems that I am the only one using it.
Are there any working ways to setup a 6to4 IPv6 tunnel on Android?

The title of this post says "6to4 (NAT traversal)". This is fundamentally impossible. It does not work on your standard Linux, let alone Android. The 6to4 protocol relies on having a public IPv4 address on the same machine you terminate the tunnel on.
Leaving that aside, it may be that you are simply using the word "6to4" when in fact you mean "IPv6 tunnelling". Other tools, such as AICCU or gogoc, utilise different protocols that encapsulate IPv6 within UDP within IPv4 to allow the NAT traversal to work. These do not use 6to4.
Your Android distribution must support the necessary kernel modules for tunnelling to work. You must have the sit module available for 6to4 (or the tun module for many VPN products, and so on and so forth) as well as the ability to add tunnels such as via ip tunnel add mode sit. It may be that you do not have that available.
I have a device (Motorola Milestone running CM7) that is supported by the IPv6Config app you mentioned above. The app does not appear to do anything phone-specific. I suspect that the fundamental problem is that simply having "root" on your phone is not enough — your Android must ship with the appropriate kernel modules.
You may need to run another distro (e.g. CyanogenMod instead of a rooted stock Android) that includes the proper support to allow such tunnelling to work.

Digging out an old post but it might be helpful for others:
I just wrote a small app called Androiccu that is available in the Google Play Store:
This app allows an easy way to download aiccu (and a complete version of ip, both not ported to Android by me), configure it and finally run it. Of course your phone must be rooted and must have the tun kernel module. There is an app called tun.ko that can help you add the tun kernel module if it is not present.
It's still in an early development stage but have fun testing it and reporting failure or success.
Cheers.


text:
Moto X app screen suddenly scrolls vertically
My Moto X, for as long as I've had it, has had the classic panes of apps in the all apps section (where you can just swipe horizontally to browse through the apps).
However, now I have a vertical sliding system with the four recently used apps at the top of the screen.
Is there any way to get back to the old way that stock android had been displaying all apps?

Moto X (2014) by default uses Google Now Launcher as the default launcher.
The Google quicksearchbox was recently updated to give a peek into upcoming Android 6.0 Marshmallow app drawer layout which has vertical scrolling for apps and widgets.
So Uninstalling the updates for app named Google with package-name com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox  (either in Play-store or in App settings) should bring back the old feature.
User reviews dated 24th, 25th September on Google play-store gave me insight on this that the app named Google caused this behavior.

That launcher shows last updated in August 2014. I wouldn't call it recent, unless there is something I'm failing to see here.

Actually the app named Google which acts as backbone for the launcher was updated yesterday that made the app drawer layout vertical


text:
Should I reset my phone and how do I back up my phone's data?
I've got a new Telstra Smart-Touch Next Generation and I logged on to my G-mail account so I could use the calender and other apps. After a while I realised that my credit was being eaten up bit by bit, a few cents an hour I think. I thought it must be my G-mail and I tried to log out but didn't know how. So, I went to my G-mail account on my Mac and deleted it. Now my phone says that I've entered an incorrect password and wants me to type it in, and most importantly my credit is still being used up and I don't know what to do. I was thinking that maybe I should reset my phone but I don't want to lose my contacts, messages and apps.
Should I reset my phone? Can I backup my phone's data beforehand if I do this?

What do you mean by Credit?

@roxan Credited money on a pre-paid plan.  Airtime, SMS, and data use it up as they are used unless you have a plan.

If the account is the one you used to set up the phone, then you probably will have to do a factory reset to remove it. There is a similar question related to this here, and there is a question regarding how to backup your phone here. If it is not the one you used when setting up the phone, then you can try going into Settings->Accounts and Sync and tapping on the account. There will be a Remove Account button on the bottom of the screen that you can use to try to delete the account from your device.
That being said, you might not really need to do a factory reset if you're just trying to avoid the data charges that you're incurring from your Gmail account. Instead, try going into Settings->Accounts and Sync and unchecking the options Enable Background Data and Auto-sync. If you want to be absolutely sure that you aren't using up data when you don't want to, then you could also go into Settings->Wireless and Networks->Mobile Networks (or somewhere similar if your settings are not exactly the same) and uncheck the option for mobile data. You would then simply need to turn it back on anytime you want to access the Internet.

In addition to what eldarerathis said, you can go into Settings -> Accounts and sync and just turn off syncing for your Gmail account.  I would suspect, however, that other apps are using data since Gmail shouldn't be using anything after you closed the account.  In that case you should turn off sync as eldarerathis said or perhaps uninstall the troublesome apps.  An app like My Data Manager can help you figure out who the culprits are.

As far as backing up your phone's data, Titanium Backup is definitely the best solution I've found for carrying data between phone resets.  Requires root, like most backup apps.


text:
Can 4G be used on a 3G phone if 4G bands are supported?
I have a 3G phone but it supports the 4G band (1800 MHz) which is available in my area. Is there any way I can enable my phone to support 4G?
I went to *#*#4636#*#*, and there is an LTE option, but I cannot select it. Each time I select it, the option changes to WCDMA Only or WCDMA Preferred.

Is your phone called the Micromax a350 Canvas Knight? If so, I'm sorry, but your phone DOESN'T support 4G, according to the specs sheet found on gsmarena.
Don't be excited to see the LTE in the *#*#4636#*#* options, because that menu lists all the possible bands there is, although your phone might not support all or some of them.
The maximum you can connect to is 3G, you therefore can't use the 4G in your area. The limitation is not software-related. It is hardware-related. The hardware component responsible for supporting 4G band isn't in your phone.


text:
Reinstall OS on GT-S5830i
Is it possible to re-install the OS (Android 2.3.6) on to my GT-S5830i?
If yes, how can I get that done?

You need to get yourself a fitting ROM (aka device-firmware, see also rom tag-wiki, Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?), and then flash it to your device (instructions are usually provided where the ROM is provided).

Why do you want to reinstall the OS? Have you replaced it with a custom ROM?

@DanHulme, perhaps the OP had an OTA update to ICS or something, and they wish to revert to an older version? Otherwise, it does seem strange to be asking how to revert (they already figured out how to install a custom ROM).

@StephenSchrauger I can make guesses too, but I think it's worth checking whether the OP genuinely needs to reinstall the OS. People from a Windows background sometimes think they should do that when they really just need to factory-reset.

For no particular reason, my phone becomes unresponsive. This has happened couple of times in the last 4-5 days and the only way I could bring it back to life is by removing and putting back the battery (nothing else works). I did try upgrading the firmware to the latest version but that has not worked. Is a factory reset an alternative? What all data will be erased if I do so? Thanks for the tips

A factory-reset is supposed to help here, yes. And you also assumed correctly that it would delete all your data (except that on SDCard), so you would need a good backup before -- for the stuff you want to keep, that is.

Ok, and 'data' would mean the contacts saved in the phone as well right?

Yes.you can reinstall the OS.
There's a low level flash tool called heimdall (or Odin) that can be used to reinstall the firmware or install aftermarket firmware onto the Galaxy Ace.

Ah, http://sammobile.com has original firnware images...

you can do that in Kies, by updating to factory version from the update menu


text:
How to Install Android OS on mobile
I bought Android phone called KUBAO  (Chinese phones model)
Its says that it has Android Version 4.1.1
But its in Chinese Language in menu & when I change it to English language then its shows some items only in English version.
Now I need to install fresh Android copy on my mobile.
[ I mean like format PC and install linux or windows on my PC :) ]
I heard some words like root phone is it mean format phone.?
Please send me a link to download Android OS also if i'm following incorrect link.
I used this link for download Android OS
I have USB cable and SD card for use with phone, but haven't got an application like PC Suite. I downloaded MOBOROBO which I can use as a file explorer, but it doesn't have the permissions to create or edit files in Phone memory.
Here is a picture of the phone:

Please help me to sort out this issue. I use Google but I got only results for install android OS on PC :-) so I think here is the best place to resolve me problem

Firstly, this is a XY problem: You don't need to install Android, but you want your language problem fixed. I've adjusted your tags accordingly -- just follow the "faq" link on "languages", and find on the top: How do I add a new language?. If you really want to install Android anew, please check Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?.

"Rooting" does not mean formatting your phone.  "Rooting" means getting access to functions on your phone that normally only your carrier or manufacturer has access to.

It sounds like you don't actually want to format and reinstall Android on your phone, all you really want to do is reverse all of the changes that you've made and set it back to how it was when you first got the phone.
Android is set up differently from Windows so that you should never need to format it and reinstall the OS. There are two halves to the storage, there is the System partition where the Android Operating System is installed that is read-only, and there is a separate User partition which is where all of your settings, changes, apps and data are stored. This is why your file explorer can't edit files in the Phone Memory, it's for safety to stop you breaking your phone and to stop you ever needing to reinstall the OS. All that you actually need to do is wipe your User settings.
A "factory reset" is how you clear off all your changes, settings, apps and data and get things back to how they were when you first bought the phone (make sure that you back up your data first. In the Settings app you should find a menu option called Backup & reset, if you go into there you should find an option called Factory data reset this will do the reset back to defaults for you.
For more on what terms like root and reset mean, please see this previous question: What is the difference between: Rooting, Jailbreak, ROM, Mod, etc.?

You can't install Android like Windows or Linux - every handset is a little bit different due to hardware and carrier changes.  You could call technical support for your phone to find out how to change the language (easy option), or find a ROM to install that has what you want (much harder option).


text:
Google apps losing connection to the servers when on mobile data
I'm struggling with a weird connection problem I have with Google Maps 6.14.1 (#6140011) on the Galaxy Nexus (running Android 4.1.2/CM10).
The problem comes with the following symptoms when on mobile data:

The app stops loading additional tiles from the network that haven't previously been cached (while displaying cached ones without any problems).
The app no longer synchronizes starred places.
Whenever trying to calculate transit directions, it gets stuck on the "Getting transit directions" progress dialog (there is no error message, the dialog just stays there forever).
When trying to find a location (any search query), it gets stuck on the "Searching for: X" progress dialog (there is no error message, the dialog just stays there forever).
When switching to navigation, it gets stuck on the "Getting driving directions" progress dialog.

Things I've tried:

Rebooting: has no effect whatsoever.
Switching to wi-fi. Then everything works. This might make it sound like my network provider (a T-Mobile US MVNO) is blocking Google Maps traffic, but read on!
Tethering my tablet (CM9) to the phone: Google Maps works fine on the tablet, leading me to the conclusion that it's not the network blocking certain kind of data. However, when putting the SIM card directly into the same tablet, it again doesn't work.
Stopping the process, then clearing all data: this fixes this issue "for a while" (a few minutes to a few hours). I haven't yet figured out what causes the problem state to come back. It could be a fixed amount of time, it could be the first switch from mobile data to wi-fi and back, I don't know. UPDATE: I've had it happen 5mins after a 'clear data' with wi-fi all the time disabled, so the next connection to wi-fi does not seem to be the trigger.
Connect ddms: Getting transit directions does not cause any warnings or errors to be logged.
Reinstalling Google Maps: same as 'clear data', it helps for a few minutes.

Potentially related problems:

Gmail doesn't load any images. Other than that Gmail works perfectly, including background syncing e-mails on mobile data. This problem also occurs when on wi-fi.
Goggles always says "Network error" and "Authentication failed" (again, it works fine while on wi-fi).
Google Now reports "Requested content '…' cannot be accessed. Access is not allowed for this user agent."
In GMaps -> Settings -> About -> Network, I see the following error "Error - Bad HTTP response code: 403 for 62,71,72 class java.io.IOException". I can't get any additional information for this however. It might be weeks old, as I see this even while everything works perfectly fine.
Some things in the Facebook app work (notifications are shown), but some just lead to a "cannot find secure connection" error message (navigating to an individual post).
Other apps using the WebView control in some cases do not show content properly. (NewsRob for example can synchronize just fine, but when trying to switch to the web view of an article that was not previously cached, it shows an error message similar to the one of Google Now above.)

Further notes:

The mobile network indicator is blue/green during all of this (indicating a working connection to the Google servers) and everything else seems to work perfectly.
This has happened on various builds, including the CM10 final, installed from a factory reset.

This turned out to actually be a network provider problem (in my case: SimpleMobile in the US) and the fix is incredibly simple: remove the proxy server from the APN and everything works.
The final hint I needed was the Google Now error message, googling that took me to this thread on xda-developers.
I have no explanation for why 'clear data' fixed the issue for a few minutes and why this didn't occur when tethering the tablet through the phone (maybe a cached server connection somehow?). It does however explain why the problem occured again when putting the SIM card into the tablet (the APN comes with the problematic proxy as a preset), and that should have tipped me off, I guess.

I had this same problem on my Galaxy S4 on the H2O network (an AT&T MVNO). Their website says to set a proxy server in the APN settings, but after deleting the proxy my apps are now working on mobile data.


text:
How to change Android's primary Google account
During the "in-app purchase" I am unable to switch the Google account I would like to use for "in-app purchase".
Currently, in order to change the primary Google account on Android operating system, we have the following ways:

Perform factory reset on our devices.
Remove other Google accounts, leave only one Google account.

If we perform factory reset, we will lose all data that we have not backed up or unable to do backup. And, we have to re-install the applications that we need to use.
If we choose to remove other Google accounts from our systems and leave only one Google account, if there are applications installed from Google Play Store by using the Google account that we want to remove from our systems, then we will not be able to remove the account from the system unless we remove those applications. However, sometimes we may forgot which account we used to install an application from Google Play Store.
My question is that is there any other way to switch between the accounts?

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4955/how-to-change-the-account-for-android-market/4995#4995


text:
unlinking android mobile from google play store
I have 2 android mobiles and now I'm not using one of them.Is it possible to unlink the mobile which I'm not using from the Google play store?

It is not possible to completely unlink devices listed under on the Google Play website. However, if you'd prefer to hide or remove a device from view, you can do so:

Visit play.google.com/settings
Untick the checkbox next to the device(s) you wish to hide

Source

I would preform a factory reset. This will erase the Google account from the phone and it will erase all of your user data. This way if it gets lost/stolen or you want to give it away it is good to go!
To do a factory reset it is basically the same for all devices:

Settings Menu --> Privacy --> Factory Reset --> Confirm...

Half good to go: unless you safe-erase it, content might still be restored. Besides, the question was not to reset the phone -- which even after that would still be listed in "My Devices" on Google Play, so that would not solve the issue.


text:
How can I get an old version of YouTube application for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2?
How can I get an old version of the YouTube application for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2? The new update is slow and poor display.

you can try appzapk.com youtube old version

If the YouTube app came with the phone (ie is a system app), you can uninstall all updates to it. Go to the application settings page for YouTube to find the button to uninstall updates. This will roll back the app to the version that existed when the phone/rom was brand new.
On the other hand, if it isn't a system app, you'll have to go online to find an old version. And you will have to first uninstall the current version, which will remove any preferences or settings you have set.
There is no way in the current Play Store to choose the version of an app you want. The Play Store decides what version you get (usually the most recent, or the most recent available for your device/OS), and you decide if you want to install the update or not.


text:
Can I connect my Android mini PC to my Laptop as a monitor ? How?
I am buying a new Android Mini PC : http://uae.souq.com/ae-en/mk802-iv-rk3188-quad-core-cortex-a9-android-wifi-mini-pc-4995376/i/
How can I connect my Android Mini PC to my Laptop ? My Laptop only has a VGA Port.
Any Help would be appreciated.

"... as a monitor"?

ya as a monitor. mean to say, people install it with a tv but I want to run it with my laptop is it possible ?

possible duplicate of Is it possible to use an Android device as a second monitor?

I don't think it's a duplicate. Similar, sure, but I think there are enough differences here for them to be separate questions.

@Aditya: What kind of output does the Android mini PC have? It looks like HDMI. If so, all you'd need is an HDMI-to-VGA converter.

Does not make sense! an output of video signals from Android Mini PC to your laptop (which is also output as well!)

In short, no. You could install a VNC server, which would let you use a VNC client on your laptop to connect to the "mini PC" over Wi-Fi, and use the laptop's keyboard, mouse, and screen to control the "mini PC", but there are two caveats. First, you'd need to be able to use the mini PC directly (with a TV or monitor) to be able to install and set up the VNC server; second, you'll probably find that using VNC is not as smooth as using it directly, especially for video-intensive applications like video calling and gaming. Some games may not work at all.
To use the device properly, you'll need a monitor or TV with an HDMI input, or a monitor or TV with some other input (such as DVI) with an adaptor. You can also buy adaptors that have an HDMI input and connect to a PC with USB to make the PC act as a monitor, but they're relatively expensive. Either way, you'll need extra hardware to use this "mini PC".

I have a CRT 1024 x 768 Resolution Monitor with VGA Cable.

will that VGA work with the Mini-PC ?

Maybe. I've had mixed results with HDMI-to-VGA adaptors and Android tablets. Some tablets support it, some don't.


text:
Problem viewing SD card contents while connected to PC
I have a problem while connecting my Samsung Galaxy Y Duos to my computer using a USB cable. My mobile displays "NO memory card. YOU cannot view Your photos, music etc"
I do actually have the memory card in the mobile. What can I do about this?

Did you try another SD card on your phone and did you try reading your current card from somewhere else? (Maybe a card-reader connected to a PC or another device compatible with SD cards?)

Actually I dont have an External sd card..my phone memory is 3GB .i cant access the photos stored in that memory space –

While the phone is connected as a USB mass storage device, it's giving the PC sole access to the SD card. The phone can't access the card at the same time because of how the USB mass storage protocol works. That's why newer Android phones use MTP instead: a different protocol that lets the phone and the PC access the SD card at the same time.
To keep the SD card available on the phone while it's connected to a PC, change the USB connection settings so that the phone is not acting as a USB mass storage device. I don't know exactly how the settings work on that phone, but if you click on the Connected to PC (or similar) notification it should take you to the appropriate settings page. There you can switch to MTP if your phone supports it, or to Charge only if it doesn't.

It's often found in Settings in the "network" section as USB Connection Mode. But be aware that not all devices/Android versions support MTP; in any case you can switch to "Charge Only" to avoid your SDCard being unmounted from the device.

Actually I dont have an External sd card..my phone memory is 3GB .i cant access the photos stored in that memory space


text:
I deleted Google Settings App
I deleted the Google Settings App on my Xperia and now I can't use Play Store anymore. The reason I did this in the first place is that I was trying to update my whatsapp but insufficient storage error kept occurring so I thought I would delete those applications I don't use. Now that I know I shouldn't have deleted this one in particular, how can I get things back to the they they were?
Thanks

Flash the Gapps. Now i dont know what you device is so i can help with the tutorials and links so. Please put the device so that i can help you further.

Restore the backup you certainly made before? (rhetorical hint/reminder to create one next time :)

 Google app is supposed to be built into system/app I wonder how you managed to uninstall it, unless you have root access.  Anyways! What you can do is Download the stock firmware image for your device from the vendor's site and flash it in your device! All the things will be reverted back to default and normal !!
 I don't know which Xperia you're using with Android ICS so I won't be able to provide you with links and tuts. Good Luck!!


text:
Low level Android kernel hacking
Where can I find information regarding low level kernel hacking on Android? For example, I'd like to know how the device boots and follow the execution path from that point. Where exactly is the code that runs after I press the power button?

http://www.androidenea.com/2009/06/android-boot-process-from-power-on.html (This link contains the parts where you can intervene / add your own functionality) The rough flow is Power On > Bootloader > Kernel > Init Process > System Server > Boot Complete Here's another link on the topic with references: http://elinux.org/Android_Booting

@RossC Perhaps you'd like to make that comment into an answer.

This link contains the parts where you can intervene / add your own functionality
The rough flow is Power On > Bootloader > Kernel > Init Process > System Server > Boot Complete
At the bootloader stage, the following is run:
A. The first boot loader stage will detect and set up external RAM.
B. Once external RAM is available and the system is ready the to run
   something more significant the first stage will load the main boot
   loader and place it in external RAM.
C. The second stage of the boot loader is the first major program
   that will run. This may contain code to set up file systems,
   additional memory, network support and other things. On a mobile
   phone it may also be responsible for loading code for the modem CPU
   and setting up low level memory protections and security options.
D. Once the boot loader is done with any special tasks it will look
   for a Linux kernel to boot. It will load this from the boot media (or
   some other source depending on system configuration) and place it in
   the RAM. It will also place some boot parameters in memory for the
   kernel to read when it starts up.
E. Once the boot loader is done it will perform a jump to the Linux
   kernel, usually some decompression routine, and the kernel assumes
   system responsibility.
Here's another link (more on the Linux side) on the topic with references: eLinux website answer
This comment stood out to me:

In general it is quite tricky to create a boot loader for an existing
  phone since they often come with tailor made boot loaders from the
  manufacturer. To add to the difficulty they also have security
  features that aim to prevent you from downloading your own bootloader.
  However, if you have an open platform you need an initial bootloader
  stage and a main bootloader able to start and/or flash software to the
  device. For the main bootloader you probably want to check out u-boot,
  http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot. The initial bootloader stage needed to
  start u-boot need to be aware of the boot-protocol in the hardware
  requiring some documentation or reverse engineering in order to create
  or download a suitable one. To sum things up reprogramming of existing
  phones is often more work than its worth unless you are really
  interested in which case there are a lot of forums dedicated to that
  sort of thing.

A Chinese brand unlocked b/l android 11 that used high end h/w but did a shoddy job with their OS . There's no TWRP or root solution available so I can rid the stock of Chinaware which reboots the phone every few mins. Magisk attempt bootloops. KernelSU -it wont part with source .Apatch I tried out but since  CONFIG_KALLSYMS_ALL is not set, &  patched boot set it , it ,  will not boot. I dunno what my opts are. There is another exact same h/w specs phone save so minor camera differences. What If I flash that entire ROM to this ? b/l unlocked can another ROM b/l  fit & load its Kern


text:
Replacement for ability to "send tab to remote device" as removed from Firefox 29
Firefox 29 removed the ability to "send tab to remote device".
Namely, you could send a share intent from any other app (select "share", select "Firefox", select any other Firefox Sync device you want to send the tab to) and a few seconds to minutes later it would appear e.g. in your desktop Firefox as a new tab.
That was my main use of Firefox on Android. How do I get exactly that back?
That is, I want send tabs from an Android share intent to Firefox on the desktop! Not the other way (I do have FoxToPhone, but hardly ever use it).
It should be a one-click operation, I don't want to copy/paste URLs, I don't even need a target device selection (although I would be okay with the two-click operation required in Firefox 28), because I always want to send to the same device.
This should work even when the Android device is offline (plane), in which case the tabs should simply be queued and sent when the network comes back (that's exactly what Firefox 28 did).
The use case is everything I spot on mobile (from emails, interesting stuff while browsing, reading articles on Pocket, etc.) but that maybe doesn't work on mobile (Flash), requires more screen estate or just requires some kind of action from me, which I don't want to perform on mobile.

According to the Mozilla Firefox release notes, they have completely removed the "Send tab to remote device" feature.
You can use Pushbullet. It's an Android app that helps you to view Android notifications on the PC. And you can also push files, pages, URLs from the Android app to the PC.
TODO:
1. Install the Pushbullet App on your phone.
2. Install the Pushbullet extension in your browser (supports Chrome and Firefox).

Awesome, just what I was looking for! And Pushbullet actually supports Firefox, too! (I submitted an edit to your answer to clarify that.)

Offline functionality isn't perfect. There's a notification with an error message appearing which you have to keep around and then manually trigger a retry when network is back. You can't remove the notification, or the push will be lost. But I love some of the other features.

I'm not aware that Pushbullet also supports Mozilla. Because I used it in chrome. Thanks for the clarification.

Sorry for the trouble this is causing you. We initially removed the feature because we didn't know how well it was being used and the UX around it seemed confusing. We intended to improve the feature and release it again soon.
That said, with feedback like yours, and many others, we are reconsidering the decision and will try to get a version of the feature back in Firefox as soon as possible.
You can track some of the discussion here:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1002628

Thanks for commenting here. I have to second what Tom Lowenthal said there: it's never end user-friendly to remove a feature 'temporarily', which you anyway intend to bring back. If you don't plan to get rid of the feature in the long term, then don't 'disable' it, fix it first.

Besides, I wish you were linking to your Bugzilla bugs in your release notes. I also spent an hour or two today, trying to figure out what happened to this, and I couldn't find the issue for one reason or another. That would certainly also help: to communicate the changes you're making, rather than just having a "oh, we removed X. good luck!" line in your release notes.

If it's removed, why does my Firefox for Android still have the little paper airplane I can share to, still pop up my computer name, and still say "Your tab was sent!" when I send it? But it never shows up. Both my firefoxes are up to date. It didn't stop working till I enabled the new Firefox Sync.

@Noumenon Firefox restored the feature and it's working again for me. Your issue seems unrelated to the (temporary) removal of the feature in Firefox 29, so you should probably open a separate question with more information on the specific issue you are having.

@hheimbuerger Opened the new question at http://superuser.com/questions/965773/firefox-for-android-send-to-device-stopped-arriving-at-firefox-on-my-laptop


text:
Nexus S: slow, jerky web browser scrolling in ICS (compared to Gingerbread)
My Nexus S was OTA-upgraded yesterday to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 from 2.3 (Gingerbread), and I'm still finding my way around.  One problem I've noticed has been web browser performance, particularly scrolling.
When I load Google News and scroll it up and down with my finger, or when I swipe fast enough that it has enough momentum to continue scrolling for a while, scrolling is very jerky instead of smooth like Gingerbread was.
Is this a known problem, and if so is there a fix planned or a workaround I can use?  This sounds like a trivial display problem but it actually makes the browser difficult to use for reading and scanning pages.

For what it's worth, Google News on my Galaxy Nexus is smooth like butter, no matter what speed I scrolled at. It might be that the Nexus S processor is a little underpowered for the new browser. Have you tried any other browsers?


text:
I got "Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and may not work properly" on a brand new Nexus 5X. What should I do?
Through Project Fi of Google, I ordered and got a brand new Nexus 5X with Android 6.0 on it.  The first time it powered up, it said
Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and may not work properly.

Although I can still use the phone, every time I restart or turn on the phone, the above message will show for a few seconds.
What can be done?

Unlocked bootloader = yellow triangle warning; modified system/kernel = red triangle warning.
As long as the device functions fine you shouldn't worry much; however if restoring is what you need, then flash a factory image then relock bootloader. Do turn on "OEM unlocking" in Developer options after that, so that you have a chance to recover in case anything happens.

after spending close to an hour with the customer service and wiping every thing out, the same corrupt message still showed every time. But, it asked me to install "updates", which upgraded without me knowing to Android 7.0, and the corrupt message went away after that. Now I have to spend time reinstall all the apps and configure everything. If they had told me upgrading to Android 7.0 would make the message go away, then I might do it without wiping out the phone's data. But then, shipping a brand new phone to customers with a corrupt message... what in the world is that


text:
Does the Google Play store always show an app's update date and version consistently?
I thought the update date and version should be consistent. But the note of the update of Pokemon Go says version 0.45, updated Nov 6, 2016, but if I go to Google Play store, it says updated Nov 6, but version 0.43?
What I mean is, shouldn't it have the updated date of earlier date, and version 0.43, OR showing BOTH the newer updated date and version 0.45? (update date and version number consistent with each other).
Screenshot on Google Play website:

Related and probably duplicate http://android.stackexchange.com/q/155018/131553

I don't think it is a duplicate

I also want sure so didn't Mark it duplicate but the solution may help


text:
Do I have to download the movie again, if I rented it and it expired?
Once a movie I have rented from the AppStore has expired, and I wish to rent it again, do I have to download it again? Or can I just pay the additional charge and keep watching the file that's already on my device?

This probably depends on. If you just "recharge" within your rental window, the file is still on the device, and you probably don't have to download it again. However, once the rental period is expired, the Google Play Movies & TV App will delete the file on its next execution (see this thread on the DroidRZR forum), as it has "expired". Without this purge function, you could run out of space whith useless files occupying your disk, so I'd consider this normal behaviour.
This means: Re-rental after the rental window has expired will most likely make a re-download necessary -- while when still within your rental video, the app should simply keep the file (at least theoretically -- not sure whether the expiration date is somehow coded into the file name).


text:
Can I transfer my Thunderbird Lightning Calendar from home computer to my Android phone
I use Thunderbird with the Lightning extension on my home computer for email and calendar. Is there a way of transferring just the calendar to my Android phone? It would be so useful when away from home so I can make appointments. The only way to do it now is to print the page or remember!

If you use Google calendar, you can

Export the calendar from lightning as an .ics file
Import that .ics file into Google Calendar

Missed and important step.  To avoid having to do that going forward (ie, automatic syncing), after you import the .ics file you can also add your Google calendar to Lightning, make it the default calendar, and then delete the local only calendar.  This will ensure that all future TBird calendar events go on your Google calendar, which will then be pulled down by your phone calendar app as well.

Google calendar doesn't just accept any ics from any guy. I tried one from banana soft and it stops with Error at line 11: String index out of range: 5. Line 11 is 11 TZOFFSETFROM:0100 (line 4 is 4 PRODID:-//Apple Computer\, Inc//iCal 3.0//EN).

@ott: that's obviously a bug; please report it to Google.


text:
In which directory are Android updates downloaded?
I want to download and install a system update for my Android HTC Desire.
The download was successful but during installation it stopped. In the ClockworkMod console I can see the error "signature verification failed".
I wanted now to try to toggle signature verification in the ClockworkMod menu off and give it another try but unfortunately I cannot find the update file (ClockworkMod menu proposes /sdcard/update.zip but this file cannot be found).
Do you know where the updates are downloaded or any other hint to help me update my system?
(I used ClockworkMod v2.5.0.7 for rooting my system)

You cannot install an over-the-air (OTA) update from the manufacturer or carrier if you have ClockworkMod Recovery installed, even if you disable the signature verification.  You will need to return to the stock recovery console and stock ROM (if you are currently running a custom ROM) first, and then go to Menu -> Settings -> About -> System Updates and re-start the update process.  Keep in mind that you will lose root once the OTA is installed, and you'll have to re-root your phone all over again.
Alternatively, you can see if there is a custom ROM available for your phone that is based on the same Android version as the OTA, such as CyanogenMod.  I'd start at XDA-Developers forums for your phone.
In either case, it's very likely that you will need to wipe your device's internal memory also (which erases all of your installed apps and settings,) so don't forget to backup what you want to keep.


text:
LG Optimus Slider for tethering Kindle Fire
I have rooted my LG Optimus Slider, and have downloaded several apps for tethering, however, none of them seems to be working with my Kindle Fire. I have read somewhere that the Kindle Fire does not accept ad-hoc signals from hotspots, which is what most of the tethering apps have. Is there a way to convert this signal to a format Kindle Fire will accept? Or, is there an app out there somewhere that would work better?

Unfortunately, it's possible your device's wifi chip or kernel doesn't support broadcasting in infrastructure mode (but I don't know anything about the Optimus Slider, so I couldn't say myself). Is the Fire rooted, or do you plan on rooting it? Might be possible that way.

This worked well for me aswell, but not real smooth.
Choosing the Optimus S from the "Change Device Profile" makes the HotSpot visible and works fine on the Kindle. There is an error associated with the app when the hotspot is started with this profile that is annoying at the worst. It appears this profile is attempting to start the built in OS Hotspot app which fails as we knew it would. In doing all that, it all works out.....
Thanks for the heads up. Will be pinging a few developers for a cleaner solution since the combo does work, just not very well with avail hotspot apps/tools.
Until then, FREE is still going to get a donation for providing me with "A" option.  ;)

I was able to figure it out. :)
after getting my phone rooted, I found this link:
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/downloads/detail?name=wifi_tether_v3_1-pre113.apk&can=2&q=label%3AExperimental
All you have to do is download that code in the link into your phone. It takes you to an app, and you install it. This is an experimental (beta) version of the app, which uses infrastructure wifi -the updated version uses ad hoc.
The beta version works great, and now I can get a great signal on my kindle fire from my phone, without having to root my kindle.


text:
why do I have to move my apps manually to the SD card to free up space?
If the internal memory is so precious why doesn't Android move the apps to the SD card automatically.  I just don't get the logic of searching through the All Apps list one by one to get a couple of apps that are only installed on the internal memory and then move them to the SD card.
In my opinion is a rather lazy memory management that relies on user intervention to free up space for important OS operations.

You're asking us to read the minds of the Android developers?

I can only speculate, as this is something that can really only be answered by an Android engineer, but off the top of my head I can think of a few reasons they might have decided on this:

It's less confusing for end users, since I certainly wouldn't expect apps to magically show up on my SD card after I install them (especially for users coming from versions of Android prior to 2.2, when this feature didn't exist yet).
It allows the user to manage their storage however they see fit, which can be relevant in some cases since you can't access SD apps when your external storage is unmounted. Maybe I don't want some apps on my SD card because I always want to access them, but Android has no way of inferring this, really. Otherwise you might unexpectedly be unable to use an app you wanted because you didn't know it was on the external storage.
Many apps can't be installed to the SD card, so how do you handle a situation where you want to install an app that must be on internal storage but it won't fit? Do you arbitrarily bump another app onto the SD card instead? What if that's not what the user wants (like above)? It could get a little sticky.
Some apps, confusingly, allow you to move them to your external storage despite the fact that it breaks certain features. Pandora, notably, could be moved to external storage even though it breaks the widget (I don't know if it still allows this). How do you handle that situation? Do you forcibly move it anyway, possibly breaking the user's widget?

Agreed. Android is more oriented towards user control than, say, iOS. Android managing this automatically would not be something I would expect or appreciate :P

Talking about confusing users, what about a completely new user who is using a smartphone for the first time and after downloading a good dozen applications he receives a message telling him he's getting out of space.  His first reaction could be buying a bigger flash card, to his surprise it doesn't change a thing, then he has to refer to documentation or take the phone back to the shop where they will explain that he will have to do the clean up himself only to find out that despite that 32GB flash card he still receives that message after downloading around 30 apps. Android should take care

With the default 150MB of free storage in my internal memory, I would expect the OS to infer that I will need to use the GBs I bought to store apps, otherwise you are restricted to just few dozen apps. What I mean is, nobody really expected that an Android phone would operate in the real world with out a flash card of at least 4GB. If that is so, why not providing automatic features to move things on a need basis.  I don't know you but unmounting storage in my phone would happen only if I open the back compartment and take the battery out, how often I do it, well a couple of times per year.

I think that what the "user" really wants is for its phone to work without worrying about moving apps between the internal and external memory.  By the way internal or external, in the practice for average users is just the same thing since the external one is not going to be unmounted unless you want to upgrade it.  I don't see my self switching off the phone swapping flash cards just to access a new set of apps.  I'd rather buy a bigger card and fit everything inside.

@rcb: Your storage gets unmounted if you plug your device into a computer to transfer files (excepting 3.0+ which uses MTP). I do this frequently, so yes, I do unmount my SD card a lot. Again, all I'm doing is speculating. If you're looking for an authoritative answer then you'll have to ask Google.

Well, thanks for your comment and sorry for the ranting, but I had the hope that my frustration with the phone was due to lack of understanding of how the memory management was supposed to work.  As you said, it is probably the wrong place.

I just discovered I was barking to the wrong tree, it is not the OS fault is a wrong choice for hardware design (obviously driven by economic factors).  Since the Operating System is taking most of the 512 or 570MB of my phone's internal memory I'm left with the dribbling of moving apps from the phone to the SD Card.  I just checked other manufacturers' phones and they come with 1-16GB of internal memory or even more! (Samsung's Galaxy S II), SD card is effectively just an external/supplementary storage.
With more internal memory available there is no need to move application anymore.
Thanks for your comments.


text:
Galaxy S2 launcher repeatedly crashes and reboots phone following software update 20/12/2011
I updated the phones software using its own software update menu option.  As part of the update process, the phone rebooted automatically.  After that, the phone just keeps rebooting itself.  As soon as the media scanner finishes scanning, the phone reboots.  the cycle is about 20-30 seconds.  During these repeated reboots I saw once an error message saying the launcher has crashed.  Since the phone keeps rebooting, I can't open a menu or do anything with it.  It does not connect to the PC as the reboot cycle is way too short.
How can I recover from this mess?  Anyone can help me?  Thank you so much.
Is there any way to backup the data from the phone?  Is there a 'safe-mode'?
My galaxy s2 uses official software, and was updated to latest software a month ago.  I checked and found there is a new update for me, so I started the process but it turned out to be a disaster.

You can try removing the SD card and see if the problem lies there. Just as an option.

Can you take it into a local store for your carrier? If you haven't done any rooting/flashing, they should fix it.