text:
AnkiDroid doesn't detect apkg file in the requested location
I have Android 4.1.1 and my AnkiDroid version is 2.3.2. I have downloaded a deck (.apkg file) and I would like to import it into AnkiDroid, which requires me to place the file into a specified folder /storage/sdcard0/AnkiDroid.
Oddly enough, the AnkiDroid folder didn't yet exist, so I went on and created it, paying attention to the proper 'CamelCase' in the name of the folder. I have copied the .apkg to this folder but I cannot import it because AnkiDroid cannot find the .apkg in that folder.
What is the problem? How to fix it?

You shouldn't have had to make that folder, it's not possible for it to not exist if you can use AnkiDroid. What value do you see under settings>AnkiDroid>Collection path? There should be a file called collection.anki2 in the AnkiDroid folder.

Strange, it should be seen in the Import dialog. Please fill a bug report at https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/issues thanks!
Meanwhile, you can use the second method for importing a .apk file:
https://ankidroid.org/docs/manual.html#_open_the_file_using_android
Just install any file explorer (like File Manager), and tap your .apkg file. It will open in AnkiDroid.

Hello i had the same problem before but now i know how to fix it.
All you need to do is to locate 'ankidroid' folder in your file system, not in storage folder but outside of storage folder then just copy the .apkg files there. No need to make new folder or whatsoever.


text:
"You must be a primary user to find this device" on Android Device Manager
Whenever I try to locate my new phone in the Android Device Manager, the following text is showed up:

Thing is, I am logged in as the primary Google account that my device uses. I also have the remote options in Google Settings > Security set to On, and the "Android Device Manager" checked in Settings > Security > Select Admins.
I don't really know what's going on, I've tried everything. Can someone help me? My phone is a Moto G2 XT1069, retail version.

Perhaps it's a different issue, but if you're using Lollipop, try deactivating the Guest account.

I hadn't seen your answer, sorry. It was a different issue, but it was solved exactly the same way as the link you've posted. Thank you!

Android Device Manager won't locate the device if it's currently not logged-in as the primary user. This applies to devices which support multi-user, including the default guest account on Android Lollipop.
Change the current user to your Google account on your device and try again.
In case it's still occurring on Android Lollipop, then try removing the guest account (refer to this question) and try again. It might be a bug related to guest mode.

Reference: Artem S. Lebedev's troubleshooting on Android Device Manager shows "No Active Devices" - Nexus 5 - Lollipop 5.1

Action: Switch to Guest Account in Lollipop interface.
  State: ADM says that you must be a primary user.

In case you have more than one google account on the same phone you should remove it.
for me and my Galaxy S8, the problem was having the Secure Folder enabled and inside it defined my Google Account too. I had to go to Secure Folder>Settings>Accounts and remove the Google Account.

I had this message while trying to locate my phone from the web interface. I do the message "You must be a primary user to find this device." with a link to Googles Timeline Maps feature.
Once I found my phone, and using the link provided by Anderson Linhares I was able to fix it by clearing data for the Google Play Store and Google Play Services.
I rebooted and opened the Play Store to sync back up. I got full functionality from the web interface afterwards. In my case, the rest of the instructions don't seem necessary.

Even though it wasn't the same problem, I solved this by following these steps:
Phone not appearing in Android Device Manager

It's good that you solved your problem, but could you at least mention what specific steps did you take? The link provides some suggestions, but not all suggestions seem to work, so providing the exact steps will help the future readers too.

source: Stack Exchange

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text:
Android apps won't connect over school WiFi
I have several apps that won't connect even though I connected to WiFi. Google Chrome and browser work fine, but other apps say can't connect to the server or needs an internet connection. When I'm at home, it works fine.

Most likely those apps want to connect to sites which are blocked by the school's firewall. Just a wild guess – but the most obvious possibility.

I'm in college and in my case, there is a proxy. This is common, and it's sometimes a good thing because it protects the people behind it. In this case, you may need to contact your network admin and ask how to access the network properly.
If the proxy has no authentication, it's just a little setup, but if not, you may need to use some app to get authenticated. If this is the case you can try ProxyDroid (it need root access) from here or PlayStore, or ProxyAuth from here on PlayStore.
Sorry if this is not the problem, but it was in my case.

It really depends on which apps you are talking about.
Your school may be blocking certain ports. Check with the app dev to see which ports they use. This may be available through an FAQ on their site (which may include additional hints).
Your school may also have some type of content filtering solution in place. At my institution, our content filtering service is often blocking perfectly legitimate content.
Lastly, check with your school's network administrator. If it's appropriate content, they'll probably be willing to help open it up for you.

My school uses a similar system, probably the same actually.  What I think it is, is either Deep Packet Inspection or your Firewall.
I am almost positive, all I know is that your school blocks the applications somehow (it could also just block the website or server the app uses).

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text:
Emoticon on keyboard support and Android version
I am wondering since what version Android emoticon have been added?

According to caniemoji.com

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean was the first release to include a built-in keyboard (iWnn IME), and Android 4.4 KitKat is the first to include a color emoji keyboard.
Versions of Android prior to 4.3 require the use of a third-party keyboard app to insert emoji, or can copy/paste emoji from the list of all emoji.

The answer depends on a variety of things, most importantly whether the vendor or manufacturer uses the Google keyboard or one of their own. Some apps, including Facebook and most manufacturer/vendor Messaging apps, have their own built-in emoticon support.
The default keyboard for Lollipop (5.0) on the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S5 has built-in emoticon support. If memory serves, Kitkat (4.4.2) did not.


text:
Reverse a wipe request for a stolen phone
My phone was stolen two days ago and magically found its way back to me today.  I had activated the wipe function for when the phone is turned on.  I'm being told that it hasn't been switched on yet, so I'd like to reverse the request to wipe the phone.
How would I do this?

Log in to Account, then turn off Find My Device. If it's done with Gmail, then log in with a Google account and turn off the feature. Samsung and iPhone have their own login page to turn off Find My Device.
The best way is to remove the SIM and turn off the internet and all connections. This will stop communication.
Turn on airplane mode on mobile. Then disable ADM under the security tab.
Try to take backup.

You have device management linked with your online account. Check the list of devices, remove the one you set up remote wipe.
Example: I can access mine on https://security.google.com/settings/security/activity after logging in with a Google account from a computer or other phone. Then on https://google.com/android/devicemanager, even if you set up an erase operation, the device should not appear anymore.


text:
How to root LG Optimus L3 E400 smartphone?
I want to root LG Optimus L3 E400 Smartphone. I followed the instructions on this webpage: http://www.rootlord.com/2013/02/root-lg-optimus-l3-e400-smartphone.html but nothing happens. It says on the site that after the process is complete, there should be an app in the app drawer called "Superuser" with a green icon, but it's not there.
This is the model that Google Play displays: Vip MK LGE LG-E400
This is the output I get from the application:
[*]
[*] LG Spectrum Root Exploit (Windows version)
[*] by Dan Rosenberg (@djrbliss)
[*]
[*] Before continuing, ensure USB debugging is enabled, that you
[*] have the latest LG drivers installed, and that your tablet
[*] is connected via USB.
[*]
[*] Press enter to root your phone...
Press any key to continue . . .
[*]
[*] Waiting for device...
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
[*] Device found.
link failed Permission denied
[*] Rebooting device...
[*] Waiting for device to reboot...
error: more than one device and emulator
error: device not found
[*] Rebooting device again...
error: device offline
[*] Waiting for device to reboot...
[*] Attempting persistence...
remount failed: Operation not permitted
failed to copy 'su' to '/system/bin/su`: Read-only file system
Unable to chmod /system/bin/su: No such file or directory
link failed Read-only file system
failed to copy 'busybox' to '/system/xbin/busybox': Read-only file system
Unable to chmod /system/xbin/busybox: No such file or directory
/system/xbin/busybox: not found
failed to copy 'Superuser.apk' to '/system/app/Superuser.apk': Read-only file system
[*] Cleaning up...
rm failed for /data.local.prop, No such file or directory
rm failed for /data/gpscfg/*, No such file or directory
Unable to chmod /data/: Operation not permitted
[*] Rebooting...
error: more than one device and emulator
[*] Exploit complete!
[*] Press any key to exit.
Press any key to continue . . .

Original screenshot of the output

Community bump prevention: this question was closed because the question seems to have been abandoned (the OP didn't have this device again and existing answers have not been voted on by anyone). If anyone can evaluate the existing answers, feel free to vote accordingly and reopen the question (or mod-flag the question requesting for reopening). For anyone else having the same issue, please post a new question and refer to this question as additional context.

These apps might help you root it without PC:

FramaRoot
KingRoot

Usage is simple: just press the button and it will root your device. On FramaRoot, you don't necessarily need an internet connection. KingRoot requires an internet connection.

Thanks 4 the tip, but that phone is gone :D
But I'll be most great full if U could give some tips on how to root LGK4 2017.
Anyway, thanks again

I tried using the same program and many others to root that phone and none of them worked, except for Key root Master MOD (this app is in Chinese but it still works as I have used it myself and successfully rooted my LG E400F).
Instructions:

Download the Key root Master MOD.
Sideload the APK
Click the second button Mulai Root and a popup will show
Click the button that says root and another popup will show a button in purple with 2 buttons (one red and one purple)
Click the purple button
Your phone should be rooted and have SuperSU installed
Optional: Use a root checker to check if you actually have root privileges

This was the only root method that worked for me, as all the other ones didn't work.


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Install APK from external_sd
I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure this out. I've read that you can copy an APK file to the SD card and use the browser to activate the installer to install it with this:
file:///sdcard/yourApp.apk
(from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4268803/android-how-to-install-apk-from-sd-card)
But, I cannot seem to get that to work with external_sd card. I've tried
file:///external_sd/yourApp.apk
I keep getting the following message:
"Data connectivity problem - The Web page contains an error."

Whats the message you are getting?  It also depends on how your sdcard is mounted.  Mine is mounted as 'sdcard' others are mounted as you mentioned 'external_sd'

If you have a Samsung phone, some of them have separate "internal" and "external" SD storage.  If it's on the external SD card, then you need this adress: file:///sdcard/external_sd/yourApp.apk

+1 I didn't know about the path being /sdcard/external_sd I thought it was just /external_sd

Yeah, Samsung is weird with their storage.

Thanks, I also didnt realize that you needed "sdcard" before "external_sd". Another thing that I just ran into - You can type in the following: file:///mnt/external_sd/yourApp.apk. That seems to work for me!

Yep, it's aliased.

Try downloading a file explorer like ES File Explorer, find the apk and select it.  Android should prompt to install from there.
The selected answer you are referring to says to download Astro - which is another file manager. I'm not sure about the default Android browser though.


text:
Not all images showing up in gallery
Some photos do not show up in the gallery app. I can find those particular shots trough the camera app for some reason, and using a file-browser I can find them too. But they will not show up in the gallery.
I found this topic about thumbnail problems. I did what the answer suggested, although it was not exactly the same problem. Sadly it didn't help.
Another topic talks about latency. I don't think "use a quicker phone" is a solution (desire-z is quick enough), and we're talking about a different problem: I have pictures from yesterday not shown, but from today are in there, so the scanner has been running.
Why don't all my photos show in the gallery?
edit: the images do not seem any different. They are all saved in
/mnt/sdcard/DCIM/100MEDIA

called
IMAG0402  //visible
IMAG0403  //invis
IMAG0404  //invis
IMAG0405  //invis
IMAG0406  //visible

(I checked this trough ASTRO browser)

I assume the missing ones are stored in the same place as ones that show up, and are named similarly?

yes, i'll add an example with filesnames

simple check - make sure how device connecting mode - is it like a camera or media mode. In media mode you could do file operations(cut,copy) properly

Try deleting the /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails folder and rebooting your phone.  You may need to clear data for Media Storage and possibly the Gallery app/anything related as well.

That did help for the old pictures, but it doesn't for some new shots. That might be the latency one of the other questions talks about, so I'll give it a moment :)

it DID fix my picasaweb problem by the way. 0_o    http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7013/picasa-in-gallery-not-linked-cant-open-picasa-folders/7092#7092

Yeah, I think it's more Android OS latency than device slowness.  It doesn't seem to scan for new media files very well.  The camera should really trigger something to add the new photo to Android's "scanned media" list, or something like that.

But how long is latency? It's been over an hour, and although al the deleting and rebooting has made the older shots come up, but my testshot is still gone (over an hour). That's something else than latency maybe?

Yeah I think it's just bad terminology.  I think the OS hasn't scanned for media since you took that photo, and so it only "knows about" the older photos.  One thing you could try is going to Settings -> SD card and phone storage and hitting Unmount SD card, then immediately re-mounting it.  The re-mount should trigger a media scan.

Hmm. Now it did show up, but somewhere random, so I couldn't find it at first. But it should have scanned, I mean, I can understand slowness, but an hour must be something else. The scan must be triggered allready. This morning I had some not show up, but newer ones that did. Anyway, this answer looks like the best I'll get :)

@Nanne: though I don't know about the specifics of media scanner, I doubt that the media scanning is triggered at fixed time intervals, it is more likely to be triggered when a possibly relevant file are added to SD card (e.g. if you download something, etc).

SDrescan is small and easy to use.
If you happen to have a custom ROM with dev tools installed, use that:
Launch "Dev Tools" => Media Provider => Scan SDcard
Both ways hide the manual steps from you and you can't delete stuff by mistake this way.

For me, it was enough to just open /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails folder using Astro File Manager. I scrolled down and up through all files within this folder and I've seen system showing message "Creating thumbnails". Once I returned to Gallery, even without restarting phone, all camera pictures and videos displayed properly.
You could also try opening a few of the photos in the DCIM folder using Astro in order to trigger a refresh.

Hmm, doesn't seem to work for me. Wouldn't that 'creating thumbnails' be for the thumbnails-of-the-thumbnails that astro needs, not the thumbnails self (the files allready in that directory, that are thumbs of your photos?)

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text:
How do I turn off the cellular radio without disabling bluetooth?
I have an old Motorola Droid that is no longer subscribed on any Verizon service. I still use it for things like web browsing, ebooks, and along with some wireless stereo headphones, music. I've already turned off 3G data usage (EVDO) by disabling the Enable data option under Mobile network settings. However, when I turn off the cell radio (CDMA), bluetooth is also disabled. I first observed this problem on the stock Android 2.2 firmware. Now my phone is rooted, running on an Android 2.2 based firmware (CyanogenMod 6).
Why disable the cellular radio?
Simply put, I want to turn it off because I don't use it. Moreover, it uses battery life and cpu time (even if relatively small amounts):

I've tried two different methods of disabling the cellular radio, but both ended up doing the same thing:

Turning on Airplane mode, then re-enabling Wi-Fi. This has the expected consequence of also disabling bluetooth.
Using the Phone Info menu by dialing *#*#INFO#*#* (4636) and pressing Turn off radio. This actually just turns on Airplane mode:

As you can see, even though Wi-Fi does stay on, Airplane mode disables bluetooth. The headphones won't sync until I turn off Airplane mode, which of course turns the cell radio back on.
In both cases Airplane mode is enabled, so bluetooth gets disabled. But now that the device is rooted, I should be able to disable the cellular radio without using Airplane mode at all. How can I do that?

Check out this guy's post on XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11370203&postcount=2
This might be considered a risky solution, but if you aren't using the 3G connection at all and you're careful to simply rename the .apk's he references you might just disable the cell radio without needing to use Airplane Mode.
In case the link doesn't work, he suggests using Root Explorer to rename phone.apk to phone.apk.bak and telephony.apk to telephony.apk.bak thus disabling these two packages.  You have to reboot your phone to finalize the changes.  If it doesn't work, you should remove the .bak from each file name and they should be available again.
At OP's request, a summary of his findings:

Phone.apk is the Dialer app, which
  is responsible for the cell radio.
  PhoneTelephony.apk turns out to be
  just the Dialer storage, which we
  can kill just to save more memory.
  AndroidOS immediately restarts
  Dialer when it is closed, so
  renaming it will cause problems. But
  after a battery-yank-reboot,
  everything is ok. It also gets rid of
  the annoying Activate your phone
  dialog that comes up on every boot.
  btw, the dialpad still comes up after
  getting rid of Dialer :-)

Good news: this seems to work! Bad news: renaming Phone.apk crashes the phone app and causes an endless error message loop: "The process com.android.phone has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again." with two options, Force close and Report. Had to pull the battery to reboot, although kicking myself for not trying the Report option.  I used the Terminal app, instead of Root Explorer. The CM wiki mentions these should not be removed even in a barebones setup. But everything seems to be working as expected. Cell radio is off!

Additional notes: the other app was TelephonyProvider.apk, which was the Dialer storage. Phone.apk was the Dialer app, which after disabling turns off the cellular radio. A more elegant solution would be to modify init so that the apps are never started, wouldn't you agree? I'll give you the bounty on this, but Stack Exchanges says I have to wait 21 more hours. If you (or anyone) can explain how to do that, I will gladly award another +50 bounty. :-)

Well then I'd try to rename just phone.apk back to it's original file name, and leave telephony.apk.bak disabled.  I'm not exactly sure why the guy I linked to at XDA suggested changing phone.apk, but the file names suggest to me that telephony.apk should be what everything else is dependent upon.  Also, I'm pretty sure they say that over at CM's site because they expect people to be using their phones to make and receive phone calls and text messages, but since you don't care about those functions this should be fine.  I'm glad this worked for you!

@briankb - I was once recommended Autostarts for a different objective, but perhaps it will work for you in this case?  I never downloaded it so I don't know what it's capable of, but it purports to allow you to view and block any app that runs on any given intent or during boot.

Thanks, I'll look into that. For future reader's benefit, do you mind editing my conclusions into your answer? Phone.apk is the Dialer app, which is responsible for the cell radio. PhoneTelephony.apk turns out to be just the Dialer storage, which we can kill just to save more memory. AndroidOS immediately restarts Dialer when it is closed, so renaming it will cause problems. But after a battery-yank-reboot, everything is ok. It also gets rid of the annoying Activate your phone dialog that comes up on every boot. btw, the dialpad still comes up after getting rid of Dialer :-)

Cool workaround.

@briankb - I'm glad we found a way to do this as I plan on doing the exact same thing with my Droid once I use my last New Every Two later this year and it will be handy to extend my battery a bit.

Actually, the *#*#INFO#*#* (4636) method DOES work.  While the control is greyed out under wireless settings, the taskbar icon still shows BT connectivity and I have tested and confirmed that BT is still active on my og Droid.

I've confirmed this on a Samsung Galaxy Tab running CyanogenMod. Bluetooth and WiFi continue to work and "Cell standby" does not show up on the battery usage stats.
(Thanks for this, btw! Cell standby has been responsible for a significant amount of battery drain on my development devices.)

Note: this is not a 'sticky' setting; it will reset after you reboot your phone.

Perfect solution. Non-invasive and easy to change back and forth.

Make sure Airplane mode is off.
Hold the power button for a second or two, and click Data Network Mode in the menu that pops up (it should say ON, and will turn to OFF).

If you don't have this option, uncheck Packet Data or Data enabled under Settings -> Wireless and Network -> Mobile network

Turn off WiFi.
Turn on Bluetooth.
Done!

After doing this the cellular signal strength icon on the notification bar is still active. When I deactivate cell radio through the Phone Info menu, or when the phone is in Airplane mode, that icon shows an (X) symbol to indicate that it is disabled. btw I've had Data enabled unchecked since I last did a hard reset, and the battery usage still shows the cell radio using battery life.

Oh, I assumed you just wanted data off.  I guess you're trying to save as much battery as possible then?  Well it should be possible to do this, since the WL1271 bluetooth chip is not really related to the cell radio (though it's also the WiFi chip).  If Motorola's made it work this way I don't know how to get around it.  Maybe if you installed CyanogenMOD.

Yeah I guess we'll find out. I'm set on doing just that :)

-1 For purely "technical" reason: Answer does not actually answer the question (all cellural activity disabled, not just data). Please add an indication to the answer that it only answers the question partly.

@IlariKajaste briankb's first comment is sufficient, I think.


text:
Marshmallow Heads-up Notifications Gone?
My Galaxy S6 edge recently updated to Android 6.0.1.
Before, when I would get a message from Whatsapp, it would show the message at the top of my screen (Lollipop called it Heads-up notification). Now, only the icon shows up at the top of the screen and I have to pull down the screen in order to see who its from.
It's really irritating! Please help me get that feature back or advise me how to return to Lollipop. Many thanks.

The update never removed Heads Up notifications. You just have to select which apps have the permission to display them.
Go into Settings -> Sound & notification -> App notifications to pull up a list of apps.
Once you select Whatsapp in your case, there will be an "Allow Peeking" checkbox, as so:

(source: staticworld.net)
Just tick that back on, and you'll get those notifications.

If WhatsApp doesn't respect those settings, there is an alternative:

You can download a Fully Customizable Heads-up for WhatsApp from Play Store, which works with the latest WhatsApp update.

Hope this helps!

HI, i have done that but still only the icon comes up at the top and doesnt display the name ect with it!

@Suzie added an alternative! Hope it works!


text:
Is the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime S82OL capable of wifi tethering, if so, how?
I want to make a wifi hotspot because there is no internet access where I live. I rooted the phone using kingroot.
I started searching for a good app to use and figured I'd start with FoxFi which seemed to have a decent reputation. Got it installed, tryed to start it up and it tells me within 30 seconds to "turn on my mobile hotspot function" on my phone.
Since my particular model doesn't have that standard, after searching I came across a workaround by downloading a hotspot toggle widget. Tryed again, FoxFi seemed to be satisfied with that widget being used in place of an OEM toggle.
Attempted to connect to the new wifi hotspot using my pc and it would not identify the network, thus resulting in no internet connection. So I figured there was a problem with FoxFi and my phone and must've tried at least 10 other wifi hotspot apps both with root and without with good reviews. Still, to no avail has any one worked, most just crashed, another had the same issue as foxfi.
I'd greatly appreciate any help, I have been trying to figure this out for the last 10 hours and am at a loss. If it matters, it's a straight talk phone running off of a verizon network, but I do believe that is the only option for this particular model of the samsung galaxy core prime, being the S82OL version.

Ouch, a wall of text. Please consider an [edit] applying some formatting, inserting some line breaks at least at the proper places. That will dramatically increase chances anybody will even bother to read your question (not to speak of answers).

is your device 'career locked'? Because Wifi tether is available in almost 99% of android phones.http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_core_prime-6716.php

This might Help http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/86677/getting-confused-by-rooting-and-enabling-wifi-tethering?rq=1

As @Avinash had commented, WiFi Tethering is available on all phones, including mine, which is also a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime (but has a different Model Number).
Were you able to at least connect to your hotspot, by your PC, even without a Network Connection (Internet Access)?
If so, then you would have to enable your "Mobile Data" or "Data Connection" to be able to connect to the internet.

It appears to me, a non-cellphone enthusiast, that Straight Talk (Walmart) requires a Hot Spot plan purchase in order to use my phone as a hot spot.
My phone is a Samsung Core Prime, version 4.4.4.
Thanks, Walmart.


text:
Android mobile internet not working
On my phone I'm not able to access the internet. I have signal and data coverage. I still can't browse. But as soon as Mobile Hotspot is turned on, other devices can connect to the Internet and my device can connect to the Internet. It's a strange issue but it occurs often for me.
Is this an Android issue, a cell carrier issue, or a device issue? Thanks

i have same issue with my lenovo yoga tab 3 (android 6.0.1) tablet. did you find any solution?

Follow these instructions:

Try a reboot and check the option in Phone Settings.
Check if data roaming option is enabled.
Mostly, access point settings are provided by the ISP. Still, crosscheck them.
(Click image to enlarge)

Following is the code to access detailed information about your phone and its network:
*#*#4636#*#*

I tried this but still its not working. Note the same device internet can be accessed through wifi hotspot from other devices.

Okay, open play store and download a new browser like Opera Mini.

Clearing the Proxy/Port settings of active Access point name solved for me. see this QA:
Mobile Data only working when used as hotspot


text:
Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 Dropped phone now it won't power on or charge
I have a Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 (SPH-L710) worked fine until I dropped it. After I picked it up the phone shut off, I tried removing/reinserting the battery, it would go to the Samsung logo, vibrate, and shut off. Power switch doesn't seem to work.
I tried plugging the charger in and it does nothing. I remove the battery and plug in the charger and the red light comes on, but when I reinstall battery it goes off.
I have tried removing battery, holding down power switch for 1 minute, then reinstalling battery. Does the same thing, vibrate, Samsung logo, off. I tried removing battery and when reinstalling it hold down the home key and volume+ key and it will say loading recovery, but then screen black.
The repair store where I live said it needed a new LCD Display and Digitizer??? I shouldn't be able to see the Samsung logo screen, Correct? I need to power on phone to remove some file and photos. Can this be done?
Any help is appreciated, thanks.

That's a very weird situation. You would assume it's a hardware problem... which it probably is, but it's possible the filesystem could've corrupted when the phone lost power after hitting the ground.
I would try inspecting/replacing hardware first (only if you're experienced), just reseating all the ribbon cables, maybe lightly clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol to remove oxidation (again, only if you're experienced).
The very next thing I would do, is download the "stock SPH-L710 firmware/ROM image" file off XDA-Developers and use the instructions/downloads provided there to flash the image in download mode via Samsung's Odin program. They make it sound like it will wipe all your data, but from my experience (I have a Galaxy Note 2 -Verizon which I bricked), it will not wipe your data as long as you flash the correct image, same Android version (likely 4.1.2 or 4.3). If you don't know, and you know you have updated the device regularly, I would try to find the latest version available.
If you want more details on either of the solutions, I'll edit my answer to provide more details/articles.
Hope this helps,


text:
Can the Phone Repair Service access my 2FA, Google Account passwords, SMS, Photos, etc
I recently took my phone to a mobile repair service (unofficial, 3rd party). The phone had fallen into water and had severe water damage - it was non-functional, I was not able to turn it back on and so far the service has not been able to get it to turn on.
I have a mild suspicion they might be doing something shady. So I started thinking - what sensitive data could they possibly be able to access?
The phone model is OnePlus. It's locked with fingerprint, and pattern, which I did NOT give to them. Also, the phone did NOT have full disk encryption, unless there's some kind of default one.
Edit: Phone model comes with Android 6 out of the box, but 90% sure it was upgraded to Android 9.
Also, SIM card was removed, I did NOT give it to them.
I'm mostly concerned about:

2FA - AFAIK these are encrypted and impossible to access without unlocking the phone.
Google Account passwords (the ones that are auto-saved by Chrome) - I'd assume these are also encrypted, hopefully, someone can confirm that.
Photos - since disk encryption was NOT enabled, I'd assume these are freely accessible if you take out the data drive and put it into some special device that's able to read the data?
SMS ???
app data - notes (Evernote), FB messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram ???
cache/temp data ???
anything else ???

Any info/input would be greatly appreciated!

As long as you don't use an eSIM you can always remove the SIM card before giving your phone to an repair service (no SIM means no SMS reception). Android devices that come with Google services pre-installed have to be encrypted by default since about Android 8.

Forgot to mention - SIM was also removed, I did NOT give it to them. It was an older device, it had Android 6 out of the box, but it was updated to Android 9. Does that mean I had full disk encryption enabled by default?

Then I don't know. Some devices came pre-encyrpted starting with Android 6 but it was not enforced by Google at that time (Google thought about this but later postponed it to a later Android version). For the encryption enforcement the initial Android version is relevant, not the updated.

My only real question here is the bootloader unlocked? If it is, then they can access everything on your device... If it is not and they do not have the security credentials, it is possible without encryption, but extremely unlikely as it would require physical connection the eMMC chip which most repair shops do not have access to. If the bootloader is unlocked, it cannot be done without wiping the devices, so you should be good.

The bootloader is NOT unlocked. Thanks!


text:
Custom Timezones in Android
Is it possible to set the timezone of an android device (either a physical device or and emulator) to a timezone that doesn't actually exist (for instance, GMT+00:03 or GMT-500:00)?  I tried reading the docs, and it seems like the data type supports that in theory, but I have no idea how you'd actually do that in practice, or if there's some reason it's impossible that I'm missing.

Not without using/creating a Custom ROM
So the link you provided is for Android app developers who need to create custom timezone for their usage within Android Apps. Other apps wouldn't be affected by any internal time/date calculation or settings done in that manner.
You can set an emulator's timezone on startup:
Android Emulator command line options

-timezone timezone
Set the timezone for the virtual device to timezone, instead of the host timezone
By default, the emulator uses the timezone of your development computer. Use this option to specify a different timezone or if the automatic detection isn't working correctly. The timezone value must be in zoneinfo format, which is area/location or area/subarea/location. For example:

America/Los_Angeles
Europe/Paris
America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires

The specified timezone must be in the zoneinfo database.

But you are limited to the existing timezone in the zoneinfo database (also known as tzdata).
Date/Time/Timezone rules are complicated so the Android Open Source Project has a section on Time Zone Updates.
What this means is that the complexity of time zone management is 'centralized' into tzdata and tzlookup.xml files. As tzdata database is used by many other systems and maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority organization, the mechanism by which you can modify the file is off-topic as it is not Android specific.


text:
Android app installed (with wrong package name) as system app but not visible in system partition
System app Google Calculator update fails, but that's not the funny thing.
History
I was on crDroid 7.8 (Android 11) with Google Calculator app installed in system through FlameGApps.
Then I got the crDroid 7.10 update which switched FlameGApps with its own built-in GApps. So I re-flashed FlameGApps.
The Funny Thing
The now installed Google Calculator (whose actual package name is com.google.android.calculator) on my app drawer has package name com.android.calculator2 (which is the package name for the AOSP calculator app).
EDIT: When I try installing com.google.android.calculator, it says App already installed and update succeeds.
EDIT: But, Play Store shows app isn't installed, and the installation fails only through Play Store.
What I tried
I've used a combination of find and grep on the Android terminal (with root) to hunt down all files having the name calculator. there exists no such file (or directory), yet the app (with the wrong package name) is installed.
The apps directory should be located in the /system partition.
I'm sure /system was mounted (read-only but mounted).
I've used SD Maid to hunt down app corpses. Again, there were no corpses of the calculator app.
I do not understand what's going on.

What does pm list packages -f | grep calculator show?

package:/data/app/~~L3_R9d-u3Egb0Y-58H_dLA==/com.android.calculator2-SuxybzjlUcjzT1_sP4Z-Ag==/base.apk=com.android.calculator2

So com.google.android.calculator doesn't seem to be installed. Try installing it using adb install -r --user 0 and share the exact error message it throws.

It was a success, no error. Installing failed only thru play store.

As that seems to solve the issue: mind making it an answer, @IrfanLatif?

I still couldn't understand why the app had the wrong package name. I think it's a bug in Android.

@OogleGlu you can self answer the question for the benefit of future visitors.


text:
How to enable USB Debugging in Android if forgotten pattern for screen-unlock?
I want to use some third party software to clear my device's screen unlock pattern which I forgot. They require USB debugging enabled but I don't have it enabled in my Android.
How do I turn on USB Debugging through Recovery mode, or Fastboot?

As it turns out, this again seems to be an XY problem. Instead of trying to get your supposed solution working (enabling USB debugging), your question should have included that you've locked yourself out and forgot the PIN. Completely different issue, covered e.g. in our locked-out tag-wiki. Please start reading there. If you cannot fix your issue with those hints, ask a new specific question including what you've tried, where you're stuck, your device and Android version. Good luck!

Isn't this question basically "how can I hack an android phone"?

Details for that can be found in our usb-debugging tag-wiki (where I've just added them):

By default, USB debugging is disabled with stock ROMs (some custom ROMs however have it enabled by default). To toggle it on or off, you can find the corresponding switch in Settings › Development – a section originally hidden with Android 4.2 and up. You can make this section visible by going to Settings › About device and "hammering" the entry telling your ROM's build version until a toast-message congratulates you for having become a developer.

If your issue is however that you cannot boot up your device normally, and thus cannot reach the settings section described above, please take a look at the following questions:

How to backup broken screen phone when USB debugging IS NOT enabled?
Broken screen while debug mode was disabled. How can I re-enable adb?

tnx . but i know this . for example i forgot the pattern of my devices . i can issuse this whit 3rd softwere like shuami or whit adb command . but both of them need usb debugging for remove pattern without remove files . if that is turn off , my problem is Shine . must to enable it .how ?

That's why you should include as much details as needed with your question. How should anyone expect that? OK, I did – which is why I linked those two questions (please follow the links).

Based on OP's clarification done in the comments below Izzy's answer, I propose the following solution if one's device is locked out and ADB is not enabled under Settings.
Note that this method is tested on Stock Android 4.2.1 and Stock CM 12.0 (Android 5.0) , both devices having custom Recovery (ADB always enabled as default) . If your Stock Recovery allows ADB  shell access then you may also consider this solution.
Instructions

You should try your pattern-cracking software (or whatsoever the genre it has) from inside the Stock Recovery to see whether it works with the former's environment (ADB shell available there or not).
Since I would never try step 1., I would do the following:
For Jellybean 4.2.1:

Boot into Recovery and mount Data partition.
Open a shell on PC and type:
adb pull /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config ~/

Repace ~/ with home directory of your OS.
Open that file in a text editor and you would possibly see mtp written there. Change it to mtp,adb.
Note that sometimes Android doesn't understand the text file changes if the line terminator is "DOS Terminators"  which Notepad would probably do on Windows (mine is Linux so no issue here).
In that case, I would suggest not using adb pull but doing:
adb shell
echo 'mtp,adb' > /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config

You may verify that the echo command overwrote the file by using:
adb pull /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config ~/

and seeing the file's content in some text editor.
Unmount Data and reboot into Android OS. USB Debugging would probably be enabled.

For Lollipop 5.0:
JB 4.2.1 users can also follow this method if the previous one didn't work for them.

Boot into Recovery and mount Data partition.
Repeat step 2 and 3 used in JB 4.2.1 method.
We need to tweak some parameters in settings.db. Type:
adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db ~/

Back it up at some other location too, and open the file in an SQLITE editor. I'm running Linux and DB Browser for SQLite works well. It's also available for Windows OS/OSX.
In the global table, change the value for:

adb_enabled to 1
development_settings_enabled to 1

Check that verifier_verify_adb_installs is set to 1 in the global table.
Check that as default, in the secure table:

adb_notify is 1
adb_port is -1

These checks in step 6 and 7 are not necessary but should be done so that troubleshooting becomes rather easy if the solution doesn't work for you.
Save the changes in settings.db and copy it back into Android by typing:
adb shell
rm /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
exit
adb push ~/settings.db /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/

That delete (rm) command is not necessary since adb push should overwrite the file, but I executed it for my peace of mind.
Unmount Data and reboot into Android OS. ADB probably would be enabled.

This is how it actually worked out when tested on my devices.
Source: Not really a source but got a hint from a comment under this answer.

And I think that pattern (through file editing) can be cleared in this way without turning on the USB debugging in Android. Don't know how though!

If adb isn't working (which I think is what this question is regarding), how do you use adb to pull/push files?

@PaulG: The setting about USB debugging that you see in Developer options, all it does is run or stop the adbd daemon in the Android OS. When you're outside the Android OS, the settings in the environment you're booted into governs whether adbd should be running or not. // A custom recovery is a different environment and TWRP and CWM  runs adbd per their default settings. That's what I noted in the second paragraph of the answer that a custom recovery is needed. // Let me know if you're still unclear at some point.

Do note that question doesn't say adb is not working, but that USB debugging is not enabled in the Android OS. Those are two different things.

Thanks guys. I was trying to avoid asking a new question as I had a similar quirk where I couldn't boot the device past the bootloader (and so couldn't enable usb debugging). All resolved now

@Firelord I have cwm recovery..I have mounted data but still getting device not found error

I'm trying to get this working but for Nougat 7.1 instead and I can't find anywhere within the data folder the settings.db file. Any idea where else this setting is now?

@alfetopito the concept of settings.db was removed since Android 6.0. The tables in that database can now be found in /data/system/users/0/. The files have the naming scheme settings_*.xml.

Once I boot into recovery, how exactly would I mount the Data partition? I'm on KitKat by the way.

@TheBitByte Sorry for the late response. // You need to be booted into a custom recovery. TWRP has Mount option in Menu and I believe other custom recoveries such as Philz Touch also have it.


text:
Can i delete old WhatsApp database backup without affecting the chat?
WhatsApp data is taking around 700 mb of internal storage which excludes media. If I delete all the database backup except for the latest one, will my all previous chats get deleted? I don't want to delete any of my chat

No, your chats will NOT be deleted.
Deleting old backups would not delete all your chats but only the ones which you deleted before last backup was created and hence are not in latest backup. So you can keep the latest one without any fear of losing what is important to you.

Like it is said already, the chat is not touched by all these backups. You can delete them without any harm.
The thing is, it won't help you nothing to delete these. WhatsApp will rebuild them day after day till they all are back. You cannot change this backup behaviour of WhatsApp. The only thing to get the backups smaller is to delete your chats and delete the WhatsApp data. Then not restore the existing backup when WhatsApp started first time after data-deletion. But who wants this?
EDIT 2017-04-05: I wrote a little Task in Tasker (need root for it!) which deletes all these old backups each night. This saves me some 100 MB of space :)
I use the Action "Run Shell" with a "rm" command with wildcard.
Works :)


text:
No Users settings on my Samsung Galaxy tablet running on Android 4.4.2
On my Samsung Galaxy tablet running on Android 4.4.2, I don't see any way to manage multiple users on this device.
From what I can find, there is suppose to be a Users settings menu item, but it's not there.
What's the possible reason, and how to fix it?

If it's not there, then either your ROM is messed up somehow, or the menu item is hidden extremely well, or Samsung chose not to include the Users functionality in your ROM, period.
There is a way to force your device to display the Users setting screen; working or not. You just need to launch the Users activity in com.android.settings. One way to do that is by installing Nova Launcher, adding the Activities widget to the homescreen, and choosing that activity from the list.
If that still doesn't work, then your device really does not include the Users functionality (which is surprising, as it's a tablet).


text:
Google+ Auto Backup does not upload older photos. How to reset?
I began to use Google+ Auto Backup for the photos, and I silly used the full quality option. So when I run out of space, I decided to switch back to standard quality, so not to use the allocated space.
Problem is, the already uploaded photos didn't switch to the standard quality and kept on occupying space. So I deleted them and tried to start over the back up with the standard quality. But it's only uploading new photos and I cannot find the way to make it upload the older photos in standard quality. How to solve it?

Did you try running "back up all" from the auto backup settings page on your device?

Yes, I've tried it, but it begins from where it finished, it doesn't start over and I don't know how to make it start over...

You could also try using the desktop app with your phone connected via USB.

Problem solved!
For anyone experiencing the same problem, just go and reset the G+ app from your smartphone, as the moderator of the G+ help community suggested here https://plus.google.com/100019569307292537451/posts/WFA457VbJRA
It worked for me :)
Good luck!


text:
Did "restrict background data" *per-app* just disappear in Android 4.2.2 update?
Just noticed this now on Android 4.2.2, I'm pretty sure the option to restrict background data per app was there a few days ago.
Now I can't stop the Play Store from using up my data. There is now a global "restrict data access" but it doesn't seem to apply to some apps - like the Play Store.
EDIT: weird, now they're back again. I think the only thing I did was log out (via about:debug, then Setting -> Debug -> Reset prelogin, the last one)

The option is "Restrict Background Data" and you can access it on Settings -> Power Saving, after choosing a proper power saving mode.
To stop Google Play from hogging your data, open the Google Play app settings and look at the "Auto-update apps" option. There is a possibility to only update when connected to an wifi network.

the per-app Restrict Background Data is in Data Usage, after you touch on an app, at the bottom. The global option is on the menu button of Data Usage. I don't have Settings -> Power Saving, so I think we have different versions (mine is 4.2.2). Anyway, it came back (see my edit), so this is just FYI.


text:
Flickr is always opened after unlocking the screen on Note 4 running Lollipop
Recently I have updated my mobile phone to latest firmware (3G Hutchson). All went fine, but there is one annoying thing happens almost every time I'm unlocking my phone. For some reason it's trying to load some Flickr page, every time the same: http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/71393709@N06/7854822950
I'm not sure which application is causing it, but previously everything was fine and I have not installed any new app since update.
Is there a way to find out which app is causing it, as I'm not a Flickr user and not planing to download that app?

I had the same issue, my unlock setup was with the fingerprint reader and the lock screen had live wallpaper of the current weather. At the bottom of that is the "flickr" ad which links to the corresponding photo on Flickr. If you touch that with your finger somehow before swiping your print, it will open when you unlock your phone.
Two choices I found: Stop using the fingerprint reader or change the live wallpaper on the lock screen.


text:
Hide WiFi status icon on CM 12
I don't want to anyone to see the connected WiFi symbol on my phone status bar, can you please help me?
I have Galaxy Note II with CyanogenMod 12.1.

You may install Xposed framework and then some xposed module to customise status bar. The module Xblast tools may work. Check for the option to hide the WiFi icon. (If such exact option is not present, you may try to change its color to fully transparent.)


text:
Locking individual files on micro sd card
I have Galaxy S2 running on android 4.0.3. I have a number of photos, videos, pdf and word files stored on the micro sd card.
I am just wondering if there is a way to password protect individual files.
Many thanks

As t0mm13b already described, on a FAT system it's not as easy as setting some file permissions. But what you easily can do is use encryption on single files or entire directories.
One of these ways is to use encrypted containers. You can think of them like password protected ZIP files -- only that you can access them transparently from any app, once you've opened them. An example would be EDS, which uses containers in the popular TrueCrypt format. Using this, you can even copy your containers to your workstation, and access them there: TrueCrypt is available across platforms, so e.g. on Linux, MacOS, BSD, Windows...
If you don't care about using the encrypted "stuff" on your workstation, DroidCrypt is another popular alternative, coming with a nice user interface.
As you explicitly asked for "single files", a last alternative to mention is FileLocker, which lets you lock files separately. It also encrypts them -- but to be able to read them again, you must "unlock" each file separately.

If you are looking for more alternatives: There are lots of encryption apps available on the playstore. Some of them can handle single files only, some files and directories. Some even encrypt entire "volumes" (i.e. the entire "disk"). Many of them require root -- the two I picked here should not.

Short answer:
Maybe.
Long answer:
The SDCard is formatted with the legacy MSDOS FAT16 filesystem, which enables compatibility for the most part, largely majority with the Windows platform, not to mention Linux and others. It is for that reason, there is absolutely zero mechanism within that filesystem from a security standpoint. That is the trade-off with legacy filesystem and interchangeability with different desktop systems.
However, the alternative may be, is to format the SDCard to use one of the variety of Linux only filesystems where you can put permissions on each directory to prevent it from being browsable. Notably, ext3fs or ext4fs (Extended Filesystem 3rd and 4th edition respectively). That you might get away with but could induce side effects with the stock Android applications such as Gallery, Music Player.
The one thing that springs to mind, albeit from a technical view-point, would be, to have a Android service running in the background that is monitoring file access to those files in question and the service could trigger a rudimentary dialog box prompting for the password based on the list of files the service can monitor based on your choosing.
A bit of quick google-fu yielded this hit on this app that might be the very thing you're looking for.

With VeryAndroid File Protector, you can pick files and folders on
  your android phone or computer to protect with password.

Actually, that is what I have mentioned above! Well, reading the reviews, some disgruntled people felt they were cheated out of it, its free for 48 hours and having to pay a premium price - 19.95 accordingly to the review!


text:
why don't events added to Samsung Galaxy S3 get shown in my Google calendar?
When I try to add events to my phone it tells me that Google calendar cannot sync with Samsung Kies. Use My calendar to sync with Kies.
When I tick My Calendar, and create an event, it does not sync with Google calendar.How do I get my phone to sync with my Google calendar?
When I add events to Google calendar, they do get shown on my phone.

Not sure this if this exactly what you mean but if memory serves from when I ran the stock samsung rom on my SGS2 the Samsung calendar is separate.
When you create events you need to select the calendar you want to create them in.  Obviously, you should pick the google one rather than the 'my calendar' one.
I think you can also set the default calendar after you hit the menu button when you go into your calendar.
If it's strictly a sync problem rather than a problem with adding events you can try clearing the calendar data in your system settings > apps then re-sync your accounts.  Note: take care if you do this, google calendar events are stored in the cloud but if others are stored only locally on your phone you might lose them.
Hope that helps.


text:
How can I change file permissions on Jelly Bean?
My rooted Galaxy Nexus is on Jelly Bean (4.1.1) with a super user application. I want to install sinhala font into the phone, and for that I've tried to copy the font file (droidfallbackcens.ttf) to the font folder in my phone using the root explorer app. But it says that I have only read permissions on my phone.
I have googled this issue and tried several methods (most of those methods were about ICS), but I haven't been able to change file permissions to get "read write execute", can anyone help me with this?

You may need to remount your file system to enable write. I'm not sure how that's done with Root Explorer, but from the Terminal it looks something like:
mount -o rw,remount /partition/name/

You can get the partition name by typing mount without any parameters.

If you are using the Speed Software Root Explorer application then you might be holding your phone wrong! -guffaws
No really! When I hold the phone in portrait view I can't get access to the little button in the interface that puts that directory into R/W mode (Read/Write):

Hold your phone in landscape view when you navigate to that folder. When you get there you will see the little button to 'Mount R/W':

Remember to turn it back to 'Mount R/O' (Read/Only)
If this doesn't fix your issue then I will wonder if you actually have root access. Just saying...
Good luck (:


text:
What is a good guide that shows new Android users how to properly backup and Flash a new ROM?
I've had my Samsung Captivate for almost a year now, It's my first smartphone, and I've just recently decided to root it. Being new to root and not having the greatest understanding of the Android system or the Linux/Unix system I still want to install CyanogenMod.
Does anyone know a good guide for someone like me? It doesn't have to be CyanogenMod specific.

Good choice of phone. I've had mine two years now, and I love it. I'd recommend flashing the latest nightly of CM9, as ICS has a lot of improvements and excellent battery life.

CyanogenMod has a good overview with many devices and a full update guide per device (Captivate as example here). Here is an explanation of commonly used terminology (fastboot, adb…).
There are some differences between manufacturers/brands:

Google: very easy, with standard tools (adb, fastboot)
Sony: rather easy, all standard tools + special tool (flashtool by androxyde), locked bootloader that needs an unlock code from website (not possible for all branded phones)
Motorola: rather hard to mod, locked bootloaders
Samsung: rather easy, unlocked bootloaders (except for some branded phones)

I appreciated the presentation video of ROM Manager, the best known app to backup a phone and install a new ROM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=psmI8KmBNeY

I have not seen the video, but I agree that ROM Manager is the easiest way to install CyanogenMod.


text:
What are the /firmware and /efs partitions on Samsung devices
This is specifically the Galaxy s3.  Out of curiosity what are these partitions exactly.  Are they part of the android OS or something lower level than that? If I were to delete everything in these partitions will I brick the phone even after a complete factory restore from "Download mode"? If these are not in fact android partitions why do some ROMs flash them?  What is the difference between /firmware and /efs and are these flashed with most ROMS?
I've been googling the partition structure of my device and these things are not clear. Please help me clear them up :)

According to this linky here this is what it has to say

What is EFS? It is a place that stores your Android smartphone
  important data like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth MAC address and IMEI
  (nv_data.bin).

After reading the above linky, it would be prudent to make a backup of that partition otherwise well and truly hosed! :)
As for /firmware I am guessing that is where the original stock firmware goes into when updating via the official route a lá Kies.
If anyone has a better insight feel free to comment, and I will gladly amend this accordingly :)

I read that link before posting here.  I do not have an IMEI as I use a CDMA phone.  There are a lot of "nv items" I can edit through a tool called QXDM however I'm not sure if they are reading from the same EFS partition.  Is this partition completely separate of the Android OS and actually a separate NVRAM chip that holds radio information?

There's some partitions that are "best left alone" even though I can understand your curiousity! :) That partition - actually do this - enter this from adb shell, enter mount, does it show up in the list, if not, they are "hidden" from Android OS itself. :) TIL - CDMA does not have an IMEI... never knew that! Hah! Learnt something there! :)

CDMA phones use ESNs instead. The concept is pretty much equivalent, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if the /efs partition will have your ESN on a CDMA device.

/firmware
Modem's firmware mount point .Store the firmware of the modem same as the  modem.bin in the odin tar.md5 flasheable firmware. I see it in Fat16
/efs
Stores the wifi and Bluetooth  mac adress, some network data , IMEI data (In some samsung phones, not in all models).


text:
How can I establish an AD-HOC Wi-Fi connection on my tablet?
I'm not an expert in this kind of subject. I'm reading that I need to root my tablet.
What does root mean? All the instructions are really difficult.
How can I make this AD-HOC Wi-Fi connection in my Sony S tablet?
I'm running Android 4.0

Could you add some information on the other device involved? Especially, what OS is it running?

To answer your first question: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/236/what-does-to-root-a-phone-mean For your implied second question, see: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1184/how-do-i-root-my-device

There is also this: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/16657/does-any-version-of-android-support-ad-hoc-connections

There are two other Q&As here which might help you (in fact, there are several more, but most of them -- as you wrote -- are a bit "techy" or, as you put it, "really difficult"):

Does any version of Android support ad-hoc connections? could be used ith the second device involved is running Windows, and seems not to involve rooting your device
Connect android phones through adhoc wifi network is just "slightly techy", but requires root, and the Android SDK on a computer

If rooting your device is no problem for you, the second approach should be possible also without the SDK -- if you have a terminal emulator such as Android Terminal Emulator installed on your Android device. You could then execute the commands quoted there within the terminal emulator, but probably need to prefix them with the su command (to have them run by root):
su ifconfig wlan0 up
su iwconfig mode auto;iwconfig wlan0 essid "your SSID" channel 11 mode auto
su ifconfig wlan0 10.0.0.x netmask 255.255.255.0

As explained,

your SSID should be replaced with the name of your Adhoc network, and 10.0.0.x is a different IP you give each device.

I didn't test/verify that, but from my Linux knowledge, it sounds quite reasonable. Drawback is, you would need to execute those commands each time you need to establish the ad-hoc connection -- but here some other app could kick in, once you verified the steps are working. One I found is Script Manager - SManager -- but there were some easier ones I just cannot remember at the moment. If this is an acceptable approach to you, I can update my answer and add a few more tools to compensate.
EDIT:
Here's the one I had in mind to make the script-running easier: Scripter


text:
Application doesn't get installed : insufficient storage available
I have around 50MB of internal storage left and some 1.7 GB of external storage left in my phone. But when I try to download and install any application from google android store,I get a message insufficient storage and the application though downloaded doesn't get installed. Why is this ? Earlier it worked fine from the same store.
For instance yesterday when I tried to install whats app I got the same message. What can I do about this ?

Please check Something is secretly eating up my tablet memory and I need help finding it which discusses this issue.

possible duplicate of "Insufficient storage" when trying to install anything on htc thunderbolt

I have had this in the past and been able to fix it by rebooting the device

restarting the device ? I have done it many times

While not directly answering your question the Apps2SD app might be helpful here, not just to move apps from internal memory but for it's feature to clear the cache of all apps in one go. If you have installed a lot then it can be a bit of a chore to go into each and choose Clear Cache. This app allows you to do them all in one hit.

same kind of a situation happened to my SMASUNG GALAXY S2 and i could solve it by following the below steps

Open the phone app and switch to keypad.
Dial *#9900#
On the screen that appears, click on the button labelled "Delete
dumpstate/logcat"

thank you..


text:
Where are Android app settings stored?
If I uninstall apps/services on an unrooted Android device via the ADB shell (e.g. by doing pm uninstall), where is this information stored?
Note that I'm not referring to settings within individual apps, but to their installation state.
I've read that uninstalling apps without root privileges will only remove those apps from normal user space through modifications to a configuration file (/data/system/packages.xml), but the app files physically remain on the device to allow reinstallation. If this is true, is packages.xml encrypted (being located in the encrypted /data folder) or can its contents be modified even without root access?
Motivation: Access to /data seems to require root privileges. If you soft-brick an unrooted Android device by accidentally uninstalling critical system apps (and hence modifying packages.xml) resulting in a boot loop, is there any practical way of restoring packages.xml to its stock configuration? Examples may include Samsung Knox or TEEGRIS services.
UPDATE: To clarify, the goal is not to wipe the device as suggested in the comments (this can be done any time from the recovery mode menu), but to find out whether or not the boot loop is caused by a persistent misconfiguration of a file residing in a secured area (persistent meaning that it cannot be reset by flashing e.g. the HOME_CSC firmware file without wiping the entire device and losing all data). Also, the device is not rooted.
NOTE: There is an interesting comment below the answer to
Can system apps be enabled/disabled directly from the filesystem? :
"It is also safe to simply remove the package-restrictions.xml file — a new 'clean' file will be recreated on next reboot." – ccpizza Oct 3, 2021 at 16:43
As far as I understand, Android 9.0 switched from Full-Disk Encryption (FDE) to File-Based Encryption (FBE), which means that encryption is done on a file-by-file basis by default.
Is it possible to delete package-restrictions.xml (instead of modifying its content in order to restore individual app settings) from an unrooted device?

I shouldn't be here but gosh this is too confusing for me to even answer, sorry. Try to rewipe or format, it is in your device recovery firmware. It's easier if you have Clockworkmods or TWRP Recovery on your phone, but some phones don't make it easy for you to put those recovery firmwares on them. Put the iso rom on an sd card and insert it in your phone because you bricked your phone, that was the major f-u-c-k-up, now you have to wipe your device, some will wipe sd cards to so wipe the phone before you put the sd card in. I wish I knew more like you did with devices. I used ODIN to flash...

The file is encrypted and can't be changed other than by a running OS on the phone. But even if it would be not encrypted this would not help you because if the bootloader is locked you can only boot something that is signed by Samsung. So how would you modify the content? I don't think you can use Odin to partially manipulate the user data partition so the only way would be to desolder the flash chip, attach it to a system where you could communicate with the flash chip (I don't think something like this would be cheap). And then re-solder the chip which is again an extremely difficult task.

Does this answer your question? Cannot log in after disabling Android package from TWRP or with ADB

@Ethanmiller Sorry, but your comment is completely incoherent and unintelligible. I think the question is crystal-clear. What do you find confusing? Also, you're throwing together "Clockworkmods", "TWRP Recovery", "ISO ROM", "SD CARD", "wipe your device"...it's a complete mess to be honest. Could you try to formulate a coherent solution or at least explain what you are trying to achieve? Please note: The objective here is not to wipe the device (I can do that any time from the recovery mode)

@alecxs Please read the question. The device is not rooted, therefore the suggested solution is not applicable (or is it?)

If you have an answer in mind, please post it for reference/further discussion. The answer that you've linked concerns only disabling of apps, not uninstalling. pm disable and pm uninstall are assumed to have different behavior


text:
Will flashing the stock firmware using HOME_CSC instead of CSC restore all app settings?
Will flashing the stock firmware using HOME_CSC instead of CSC restore all app settings, specifically the encrypted configuration file /data/system/packages.xml?
Motivation: If an unrooted Android device is soft-bricked by accidentally uninstalling critical system apps from user space (and hence modifying packages.xml), is there any practical way of restoring the secured packages.xml file to the stock version without wiping all data?
UPDATE: There is some additional confusion. It seems unclear what exactly pm uninstall from the ADB shell does, i.e. which files get modified (see here and here). Is it packages.xml or package-restrictions.xml or both?

Devices I know have one user data partition. Flashing this partition is equivalent to performing a factory reset.

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

Does this answer your question? What is the difference between Samsung 4 files(Repairing firmware) and Single firmware file for flashing?

@alecxs Again, very informative, but not sure it actually answers my question (which refers to the installed/uninstalled/disabled state of apps)

Cleaned up comments - however, the answer remains the same as the linked solution does not apply here.


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Three different APK file sizes for the same version/build app?
I'm getting three different APK file sizes for supposedly the same version/build app:

Version
1
from Evozi: 22.485.694 bytes

Version
2
from Apkpure: 22.766.408 bytes

Version 3 from Aptoide:
18.641.648 bytes

Why?
Which file is the original one and which two are fakes? Could you please confirm that the Evozi downloader is trying to "slip" you a APK version (here: 2.7.2) different from the Google Play store link that you provided (here: 2.7.3) or that both Apkpure and Aptoide are claiming publishing more recent publishing dates (here: 08-09-2021 and 14-09-2021) than the original (06-09-2021)? Why is this happening?
UPDATE 1: As per request, I've extracted all APKs. The results are even more concerning:

Version 1 from Evozi: 957 Files, 51 Folders, 24.757.075 bytes

Version 2 from Apkpure: 819 Files, 21 Folders, 25.118.159 bytes

Version 3 from Aptoide: 4319 Files, 101 Folders, 31.704.315 bytes

...4319 files?!
UPDATE 2: As suggested, I used apksigner to take a look at the certificates inside the APKs:
Version 1 from Evozi: 957 Files, 51 Folders, 24.757.075 bytes
C:\Users\...\Desktop>java -jar apksigner.jar verify --verbose --print-certs com.starfinanz.mobile.android.dkbpushtan_30044_apps.evozi.com.apk
Verifies
Verified using v1 scheme (JAR signing): true
Verified using v2 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v2): true
Verified using v3 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v3): false
Verified using v4 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v4): false
Verified for SourceStamp: false
Number of signers: 1
Signer #1 certificate DN: CN=Niels Mathea, OU=IT Betrieb Bank, O=DKB Service GmbH, L=Potsdam, ST=Brandenburg, C=DE
Signer #1 certificate SHA-256 digest: e5067dca4553173a1dd76352a8287b293960119689244ac58d0552703efe4268
Signer #1 certificate SHA-1 digest: b4199718eaa0e676755af77419fb59abf7fece00
Signer #1 certificate MD5 digest: 0a566744818c6fb89f4c900a1502cf1c
Signer #1 key algorithm: RSA
Signer #1 key size (bits): 2048
Signer #1 public key SHA-256 digest: d878ba65ddcd7bbd0d9fd284f0bc61762c7ecb83ecb6c58c8c138939fb661f7f
Signer #1 public key SHA-1 digest: dbf739ed124f07181b3cdd1867bdd0eb63da3d71
Signer #1 public key MD5 digest: 94fcb9a87a8ec48eed706456a93ab0cd
WARNING: META-INF/androidx.customview_customview.version not protected by signature. Unauthorized modifications to this JAR entry will not be detected. Delete or move the entry outside of META-INF/.
[...]

Version 2 from Apkpure: 819 Files, 21 Folders, 25.118.159 bytes
C:\Users\...\Desktop>java -jar apksigner.jar verify --verbose --print-certs "DKB TAN2go_v2.7.3_apkpure.com.apk"
Verifies
Verified using v1 scheme (JAR signing): true
Verified using v2 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v2): true
Verified using v3 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v3): false
Verified using v4 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v4): false
Verified for SourceStamp: false
Number of signers: 1
Signer #1 certificate DN: CN=Niels Mathea, OU=IT Betrieb Bank, O=DKB Service GmbH, L=Potsdam, ST=Brandenburg, C=DE
Signer #1 certificate SHA-256 digest: e5067dca4553173a1dd76352a8287b293960119689244ac58d0552703efe4268
Signer #1 certificate SHA-1 digest: b4199718eaa0e676755af77419fb59abf7fece00
Signer #1 certificate MD5 digest: 0a566744818c6fb89f4c900a1502cf1c
Signer #1 key algorithm: RSA
Signer #1 key size (bits): 2048
Signer #1 public key SHA-256 digest: d878ba65ddcd7bbd0d9fd284f0bc61762c7ecb83ecb6c58c8c138939fb661f7f
Signer #1 public key SHA-1 digest: dbf739ed124f07181b3cdd1867bdd0eb63da3d71
Signer #1 public key MD5 digest: 94fcb9a87a8ec48eed706456a93ab0cd
WARNING: META-INF/androidx.customview_customview.version not protected by signature. Unauthorized modifications to this JAR entry will not be detected. Delete or move the entry outside of META-INF/.
[...]

Version 3 from Aptoide: 777 Files, 21 Folders, 25.059.540 bytes
C:\Users\EPI-SMLM\Desktop>java -jar apksigner.jar verify --verbose --print-certs  com-starfinanz-mobile-android-dkbpushtan-30049-59302957-c297d2d2df90587173f6f8b78fce939d.apk
Verifies
Verified using v1 scheme (JAR signing): true
Verified using v2 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v2): true
Verified using v3 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v3): false
Verified using v4 scheme (APK Signature Scheme v4): false
Verified for SourceStamp: false
Number of signers: 1
Signer #1 certificate DN: CN=Niels Mathea, OU=IT Betrieb Bank, O=DKB Service GmbH, L=Potsdam, ST=Brandenburg, C=DE
Signer #1 certificate SHA-256 digest: e5067dca4553173a1dd76352a8287b293960119689244ac58d0552703efe4268
Signer #1 certificate SHA-1 digest: b4199718eaa0e676755af77419fb59abf7fece00
Signer #1 certificate MD5 digest: 0a566744818c6fb89f4c900a1502cf1c
Signer #1 key algorithm: RSA
Signer #1 key size (bits): 2048
Signer #1 public key SHA-256 digest: d878ba65ddcd7bbd0d9fd284f0bc61762c7ecb83ecb6c58c8c138939fb661f7f
Signer #1 public key SHA-1 digest: dbf739ed124f07181b3cdd1867bdd0eb63da3d71
Signer #1 public key MD5 digest: 94fcb9a87a8ec48eed706456a93ab0cd
WARNING: META-INF/androidx.customview_customview.version not protected by signature. Unauthorized modifications to this JAR entry will not be detected. Delete or move the entry outside of META-INF/.
[...]

There is a long list of warnings coming with each APK. Also, as indicated in the comments, Aptoide provided the wrong APK - file size and number of contained files/folders have been updated.
Anyone know what to make of this output?

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

If you have multiple APK files from different untrusted sources it is wise to question their authenticity. You already performed the basic steps for doing so, especially checking their cryptographic signatures using apksigner is the most important one.
From the apksigner output the most important part is the certificate SHA-256 digest. APKs that have the same certificate SHA-256 hash are guaranteed to come from the same developer (assuming the keys has not ben lost/stolen, or the developer has sold the project to a different developer).
In your case the versions from Evozi and Apkpure have the same hash but the one from Aptoide is totally different, even the certificate DN is totally different. The reason for that I will explain at the end of this answer, first focus on Evozi and Apkpure.
Evozi and Apkpure
You know that both versions come from the same developer, but the authenticity of that developer is still unknown. As there is no directory where you can look-up Android developer certificate hashes we have to improvise.
So we end up for the certificate SHA-256 and SHA-1 hash (SHA-1 is no longer the best for security but it still costs several thousand dollar and a lot of time to break it) on popular search engines like Google. If you do so you will find plenty of entries for the SHA-1 hash that all belong to download site or threads about the DKB app. And the posts are not all new but go back e.g. to 2017, so the chance is high that both APKs from Evozi and Apkpure are genuine.
But then the question remains why are they different?
You have to know that there are several reasons why they are different.
Different internal version?
Android apps have two version numbers: the versionName (a string with arbitrary content) that is displayed to the user and one internal versionCode number that is a plain integer number which is increasing at least by one with every new version (no commas, dots, and so on are allowed). To check the internal versionCode we  have to look into the decoded AndroidManifest.xml of each APK. On a PC I prefer Jadx for doing so.
Evozi version:
android:versionCode="30044" android:versionName="2.7.2"

ApkPure version:
android:versionCode="30049" android:versionName="2.7.3"

As you can see both APKs have a different internal and external version as both version values are different.
A lot APK download sites to not gather APK files on their own, instead they rely on user uploads. Also APK files don't contain a release date, therefore those site use the upload date to them as date they display. So the date shown on Evozi and ApkPure is usually days or even weeks after the official release date.
But it would have been possible that only versionCode differs and versionName stays the same. In such a case there would be two possibilities:

Multiple versions had been released without changing the public version number, e.g. because there was a minor bug that had been fixed in the newer version, and the developer decided that this change was too small for a new version number.

The Android eco system is very fragmented. Different Android versions and Android hardware with very different hardware is used (e.g. screen size and density). Originally Android APKs were designed to include everything for every hardware configuration but that increased the app size and consumed storage and internet traffic that was partially unnecessary. So Google introduced multiple features to address that problem. Starting from the possibility to provide different APKs for different device types or model up to the newest system that the developer uploads an app bundle and Google generates the final APK file(s) individually for each device model.

Aptoide
Aptoide in difference to other sites which provides APK files for download is not a download site, instead it is an App store. This means the download they provide on their web site are not the app you have searched for. Instead it is the Aptoide app store app. This explains the different signature, certificate DN and the totally different content of the downloaded APK file.
But the Aptoide APK file you have downloaded is not just the general store app, it is a special version that contains the meta data of the app you wanted to download. Once you have installed this Aptoide app store app an dialog opens and asks if you want to download and install the linked "DKB-TAN2go" app.


text:
Lollipop (sony experia Z3 compact) - disable mobile data notification
I just recently upgraded to lollipop. One thing that is annoying, is with notifications.
Most of the time I have mobile data disabled, because in most places I can connect to wifi (when I need mobile net, I just simply enable it through settings).
But now every time I turn my screen on I see mobile data notification and when I unlock it also in upper left of the screen. I don't see a way to disable it.
Is there a way to do that? Cause I really don't need that (I could really disable all notifications in main screen (that new one, before unlocking).
Update OK so managed to disable notifications on lock (in sound & notification - "when device is locked", choosing to not show any notifications). But mobile data notification in upper left corner is still up there all the time..

Still would like to know a solution to your original answer. Neither hiding all notifications on lock screen nor regularly clearing all notifications is a real solution for me :/

There's a thread over at XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/xposed-module-xposed-dtn-disabler-t2404404 containing an xposed module to disable this notification, but it also has some alternative, will provide feedback once tested.

Well there was a button near notification (when I hover it over) (like a stairs icon or something). Pressing it cleared notification and now it is not appearing, so I hope it wont show it again :).

That's a "clear all notifications" actually. Not sure if it really solves the core issue, but indeed it's a workaround to remove that notification at a time.


text:
Regionwide vs Region maps
Question regarding Osmand+ application. Will I miss something in case I download regionwide maps and don't download region maps. As far as I understood regionwide maps should cover all regions. I'm right?

Regarding Osmand application. Bassically it is based on OSM, so question in general is regarding OSM maps

There is no difference, except that region maps are based on administrative divisions
Source

Geographic Regions
Data on the download server is organised by region. The /openstreetmap directory contains files that have a whole continent's data in them, and for some continents there are subdirectories in which you find individual files for various countries. Some countries again have their own subdirectories with data for administrative subdivisions. For Germany, all "Bundesländer" are available as separate files, and for England we have many individual counties.


text:
TWRP boot loop on Z00T
The last LineageOS OTA caused a TWRP boot loop.
I can get to fastboot with the volume keys.
I can use ./adb shell briefly before reboot.
./fastboot erase cache
./fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.1.1-0-Z00T.img

did not resolve the issue.
What can be done to get this device booted?

On Ubuntu 18.04
sudo apt install android-sdk-platform-tools-common fastboot
fastboot continue

Got me back to LineageOS.
It also seems to have fixed TWRP.


text:
reboot needed to refresh MTP list?
using Terminal Emulator I created a file;
cd /storage/emulated/0/Downloaded
echo test > test.txt

Then using Android File Transfer I can see files in the same dir but not the test file. ls -l indicated it's not a chown chmod issue;
-rw-rw---- root    sdcard_r      3323 2016-02-22 15:15 other.txt
-rw-rw---- root    sdcard_r         5 2016-02-22 15:15 test.txt

sync, repluging, killing the client, and changing to PTP then back to MTP did not help but a reboot did so what's up with that?

While I do not have an answer for this strange behaviour (which I'm experiencing as well), I can say that a whole reboot may be skipped. In most cases, in fact, renaming the file you wish to transfer will make it visible on your PC as well. Additionally, if you wish to embark in the journey of installing adb on a Mac, you'll find that:
adb pull "android_file_path" "path_to_copy_the_file_to"

will be able to copy the desired file to your computer, regardless of it being visible on Android File Transfer or not.


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How to make a 'Captive Portal' on my mobile hotspot?
Some Wi-Fi networks such as those you find in coffee shops, when connected to, automatically redirect you to a web page where you will need to do something (enter credentials, accept terms of service, etc) in order to access the internet.
Is the same possible with an Android hotspot?

I thing it will be posible with new RFC, We just need to add an option to the DHCP handshake, Im looking how to acomplish this either by rooting the device, creating an APP and extend the Wifi-thretening functionallity or changing some DHCP config file for Android 11+ devices follow my work on this here: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/247548/how-to-run-captive-portal-server-on-android-device-using-hotspot-softap-and-dhcp

Myles Bartlett's answer might be correct in a few respects: This is no simple job! Creating a captive portal on a mobile hotspot would require more than just an app. It would require a backend system to manage user authentication and access control. One possible approach would be to implement a RADIUS server, which is a networking protocol that provides centralized authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) management for users who connect to a network.
To create a captive portal, you would need to configure your mobile hotspot to redirect all traffic to a web page that prompts users to authenticate themselves. Once the user enters their credentials, the backend system would use RADIUS to authenticate the user and allow or deny access to the network.
However, implementing a RADIUS server on a mobile device can be complex, and it may require root access. It might be easier to use an existing captive portal solution or consider using enterprise/prosumer wireless access points from a vendor like Ubiquiti Networks, which offers built-in captive portal functionality.

I've made a script that works alongside Irfan Latif's CLI-based AP. I've made some minor modifications to their script, so here's the final result which works in Android 12 (LineageOS 19)(SELinux: Enforcing):
#!/system/bin/sh

# SCRIPT SOURCE: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/215514
# SEE ALSO: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/202335

set -e
#set -x

# this scripts creates a hotspot network

[ "$(id -u)" = 0 ] || { echo 'Not running as root!' >&2; exit 1; }

# Add /vendor/bin/hw to path. That’s where hostapd is in LineageOS 19.0
export PATH=$PATH:/vendor/bin/hw

# check required binaries are on PATH
for bin in iw ip iptables hostapd dnsmasq
do
    ! which $bin >/dev/null || continue
    echo "$bin not found." >&2
    exit 1
done

####################
# define variables #
####################
source /data/data/com.termux/files/home/customAP/config.sh

##########################
# start / stop tethering #
##########################
STOP()
(
    echo 'Cleaning up. Feel free to ignore any errors in this stage..'

    # don't print error messages
    #exec >/dev/null 2>&1

    # hope there are no other instances of same daemons
    pkill -15 hostapd
    # Do not kill wpa_supplicant to avoid WifiSelfRecovery from disabling wifi
    #pkill -15 wpa_supplicant
    pkill -15 dnsmasq
    # remove RPDB rule and iptables rule
    ip rule del lookup main
    iptables -D INPUT -i $AP_INTERFACE -p udp -m udp --dport 67 -j ACCEPT
    # delete AP interface
    #ip link show
    iw dev $AP_INTERFACE del
    #ip link show
    rm -rf $DIR
    echo "Cleanup done."
)

if [ "$1" = stop ]
then
    STOP || true
    exit
elif [ "$1" != start ]
then
    echo 'Usage:' >&2
    printf '\t%s\n' "$(basename "$0") start|stop" >&2
    exit 1
fi

################
# basic checks #
################
if ! iw phy | grep -A10 'Supported interface modes:' | grep -q '\*[ ]*AP'
then
    echo 'AP mode not supported.' >&2
    exit 1
fi

if ! iw dev $WIFI_INTERFACE link | grep -q '^Not connected'
then
    echo 'First disconnect form Wi-Fi.' >&2
    exit 1
fi

##########################
# stop running instances #
##########################
STOP || true

#####################################
# create virtual wireless interface #
#####################################
if ! iw dev $WIFI_INTERFACE interface add $AP_INTERFACE type __ap
then
    echo "Couldn't create AP interface." >&2
    exit 1
fi

#####################################
# configure newly created interface #
#####################################
echo 'Configuring network...'

# activate the interface and add IP
ip link set up dev $AP_INTERFACE
ip addr add ${IP}/24 broadcast ${SUBNET}.255 dev $AP_INTERFACE

# Android doesn't look up into main table by default
ip rule add lookup main

#######################
# access point daemon #
#######################
# create configuration file
mkdir -p "$DIR"
cat <<-EOF >$DIR/hostapd.conf

logger_syslog=1
logger_syslog_level=0

logger_stdout=-1
logger_stdout_level=0

country_code=AR

# network name
ssid=$SSID
# passphrase to use for protected access
wpa_passphrase=$PASSCODE

# network interface to listen on
interface=$AP_INTERFACE
# wi-fi driver
driver=nl80211

# set operation mode, 'g' for 2.4GHz band
hw_mode=g
# WLAN frequency channel to use
channel=9

#Win10 compatibility stuff
ieee8021x=0
eap_server=0
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0

# Security
wpa=2
# key management protocol; use pre-share key
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

#Win10 compatibility stuff
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

EOF

#Show condiguration
#echo '========================================='
#echo 'Using this hostapd.conf configuration file:'
#cat $DIR/hostapd.conf
#echo '========================================='

echo 'Starting hostapd...'
hostapd -B $DIR/hostapd.conf

################################################
# run a dhcp server to assign IP's dynamically #
################################################
# create configuration file
cat <<-EOF >$DIR/dnsmasq.conf
    # we dont want DNS server, only DHCP
    port=0

    # nameservers to be sent to clients
    dhcp-option=6,1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1

    # range of IPs to make available to wlan devices and when to renew IP
    dhcp-range=$IP,${SUBNET}.254,24h
    # where to save leases
    dhcp-leasefile=$DIR/dnsmasq.leases

    # respond to requests from a different IP broadcast subnet
    dhcp-authoritative
    # don't look for any hosts file and resolv file
    no-hosts
    no-resolv

EOF

# open listening port
iptables -I INPUT -i $AP_INTERFACE -p udp -m udp --dport 67 -j ACCEPT

#echo "dnsmasq config:"
#cat $DIR/dnsmasq.conf

echo 'Starting DHCP server...'
dnsmasq --pid-file -C $DIR/dnsmasq.conf </dev/null

echo "All Done!"

If you're having issues with the AP starting up feel free to uncomment some of my left-over debugging commands.
Also note that most times it takes a couple of minutes (2mins) until Windows 10 actually detects the AP and allows you to connect to it.
For more information about that script, checkout the links at the beginning.
The contents of config.sh:
SSID=MyAP                           # set this to your desired string (avoid spaces and non-ascii characters)
PASSCODE=foobarfoobar               # set this to your desired string (8 to 63 characters)
WIFI_INTERFACE=wlan0                # set this according to your device (check with 'lshw' or 'ip link show')
AP_INTERFACE=${WIFI_INTERFACE}-AP
#AP_INTERFACE=p2p0
DIR=/data/local/tmp/$AP_INTERFACE
SUBNET=192.168.43
IP=${SUBNET}.1

Now, this is the script I made. Run it as root to enable the traffic redirection. Note that running it with "sudo" doesn't work.
# ./captive_portal.sh start

#!/system/bin/sh

source /data/data/com.termux/files/home/customAP/config.sh

# IP the traffic will be redirected to
REDIRECT_IP=192.168.43.1

STOP()(
echo "Stopping dnsmasq..."
pkill -15 dnsmasq

echo "Restoring previous dnsmasq config..."
mv $DIR/dnsmasq.conf.bak $DIR/dnsmasq.conf

echo "Removing phishing redirect iptables rules..."
iptables -t nat -D PREROUTING -i wlan0-AP -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080
iptables -t nat -D PREROUTING -i wlan0-AP -p udp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080
iptables -t nat -D PREROUTING -i wlan0-AP -p tcp -j DNAT --to-destination $REDIRECT_IP

echo "Starting dnsmasq..."
dnsmasq --pid-file -C $DIR/dnsmasq.conf </dev/null

echo "Done."
)

if [ "$1" = "stop" ]
then
    STOP || true
    exit
elif [ "$1" != "start" ]
then
    echo 'Usage:' >&2
    printf '\t%s\n' "$(basename "$0") start|stop" >&2
    exit 1
fi

echo "Stopping dnsmasq..."
pkill -15 dnsmasq

echo "Setting up iptables rules..."
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i wlan0-AP -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i wlan0-AP -p udp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i wlan0-AP -p tcp -j DNAT --to-destination $REDIRECT_IP

# Backup the dnsmasq config
cp $DIR/dnsmasq.conf $DIR/dnsmasq.conf.bak

# Overwrite the config
rm  $DIR/dnsmasq.conf
cat <<-EOF >$DIR/dnsmasq.conf

    # nameservers to be sent to clients
    dhcp-option=6,$IP,$IP

    # range of IPs to make available to wlan devices and when to renew IP
    dhcp-range=$IP,${SUBNET}.254,24h
    # where to save leases
    dhcp-leasefile=$DIR/dnsmasq.leases

    # respond to requests from a different IP broadcast subnet
    dhcp-authoritative
    # don't look for any hosts file and resolv file
    no-hosts
    no-resolv

    # Reply to all queries with my IP
    address=/#/$REDIRECT_IP

EOF

echo "Starting dnsmasq..."
dnsmasq --pid-file -C $DIR/dnsmasq.conf </dev/null

echo "Done."

Then you just start a web server in the IP 192.168.43.1 and you're done!
python -m http.server 8080 --bind 192.168.43.1

Note that this doesn't do any authentication. The script above only does the traffic redirection. You'll have to implement authentication yourself, probably through nginx, PHP and iptables.

It says iw not found, and the binary is not anywhere on my system

For me iw is in /system/bin/iw

You might be able to, if you wrote an app for it.  I'm not sure if the APIs are available though, and whether it would require root or not as I don't develop for Android.  As far as I know, there is no way to do it on stock Android.
EDIT: Android's Native Development Kit could make porting such software easier, however I do not know if one can manage the network in the correct way (the closest most apps can get without root is the VpnService API)
You would need to implement RADIUS or similar.  Trust me, it is complicated even on platforms FreeRADIUS supports.  You might want to just get some enterprise/prosumer wireless access points and use those (Ubiquiti Networks are good ones to look at)

RADIUS is not required for this task.

Most captive portal implementations use RADIUS (at least from my research)


text:
What is this S icon on my android?

I have a S4 android, I have gone through the list of apps (both running and total) but nothing appears to match up. Can anyone please identify this icon?

It's a notification from an app, and it looks like a Samsung logo. I think you should find the corresponding notification on your notification panel.

"Samsung account: A notification about your Samsung account has arrived."
Taken from http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/skp/faq/1046097


text:
Factory reset Sony Xperia J with forgotten pattern code
My friend asked me if it's still possible to factory reset his Sony Xperia J phone in any way when the pattern code was entered 20 times and it locked itself. The only way to do it right now is to enter the answer to the question, but he doesn't even remember it. The second one's validating through a Google account, but he doesn't remember his credentials.
I tried the volume up/down/both + power button, didn't seem to work, the menu won't show up. I tried flashing it, but it's locked and when I tried to unlock it, writing the code in the emergency dialer didn't do anything too. Additionally, other codes didn't look like working too. No menus showed up.
Is it possible to factory reset this phone? I don't care about data loss, I've already taken both SIM and SD cards out where all the information was.

need to ask the obvious question... have you tried booting into recovery? Power off your device.
Boot in recovery mode by pressing and holding Volume Up and Power Button at the same time.

Use fastboot to wipe user data.
Here's how :

Enter into fastboot mode by:

first power off your phone.
Press volume down key and while pressing it connect your phone to pc. The blue light will turn on.

Now try these commands( I assume you have fastboot files ) :
fastboot wipe userdata
fastboot erase userdata  # alternative

It should probably work.
If it stays on waiting for device, you're probably missing the drivers.

You can do this:

Download an app called "PC Companion" (Link)
Install and run it.
Select the option "Support Zone New!" then click "Start"
Wait for the program to install an add-on
Select "Phone / Tablet Software Update" and click "Start"
Select "Repair my phone / tablet"
Follow the Instruction
Chose your phone model
Connect your phone to your PC and wait.

DONE!

You can reset the phone without needing your PC or any other software:

Turn the phone off
Long press Power up and Volume up keys for a couple of seconds. It should start booting.
When booted you should see a menu, use the volume keys to navigate to Restore factory settings.
Use the Power button to select.
When it asks you to confirm navigate to yes and press the power button again.
The phone should reboot and start formatting.

Firstly, Sony Xperia J doesn't have stock recovery. You need to flash a new one. Try TWRP or CWM from the XDA Developers site.
If the phone's rooted, you can try ADB. But for ADB, you should need the ADB debugging option enabled on the phone.
Write those commands in the ADB shell of your PC.
adb devices
adb shell
cd data/system
su
rm *.key

OR
On TWRP, mount the system, use file manager, navigate to /data/system,
remove all files ending with .key.
Done. You got your phone unlocked.