text:
Extract App Data from Nandroid / CWM Backup
I use ClockworkMod Recovery, and Slimbean.
Recently, my slimbean started hanging at the loading screen and getting insanely hot. So I took a backup, and cleaned flashed AOKP rom. It's working fine so far. Initially, I tried to do a flash without clearing data. Then, a clean flash with "advanced restore"ing the data alone from the backup, but both resulted in the above-mentioned problem of hanging at boot screen.
Is there a way to extract the app-data from CWM backup and restore it manually? Or an app for this?

See if the answer here works: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/20738/restoring-messages-from-clockworkmod-backup I can't vouch for it, because I don't have CWM. Let us know if it worked. :)

@geffchang sounds like it might, but too expensive :(

It's a very good investment though. I use it for my back-ups. And it can also do several other things other than back-ups. :)

See also: View/mount Nandroid file on Android :)

In addition to the well-known Titanium Backup app (for which you must purchase the Pro key to unlock the CWM/TWRP nandroid backup support), there is another app now: Nandroid Manager, which according to its description can restore apps from nandroid backups even with the free version (there is a Pro key too, but it is required if you want to restore special data such as Wi-Fi access points, Bluetooth data, user dictionary and browser data). However, I did not try using this app.

Thanks, That looks interesting, I will try it out tonight.

Its quite slow, but it seems to be working. Have restored sms-calllogs, working on app data right now. Thanks again!

It worked for many apps, but notably apps that I had installed on internal SD card ( ~90% of games) dont seem to have been backed up.. that was dissapointing..

Nandroid manager did not work at all for me. (Backup was found, but was restorable). Titanium Pro worked for apps not moved via Link2SD.

Titanium Backup Pro can do that.

[✔] Restore individual apps+data from CWM backups!

Similar question.

That requires the $6.99 PRO key for TB.

It looks like there are several options, though I was hoping for something simple like "rename to .tar and open in 7-zip". Anyway, some options:

on the phone, install Nandroid Manager or Yaffs Explorer, or pay to install Titanium Backup Pro (which is a frequently recommended app anyway)
on a Linux computer, use unyaffs, or go to lots of trouble but get the yaffs fs mounted for real:

See also this very similar question.

Most of the answers have become a bit dated so here is an update: Nandroid Manager doesn't seem to be developed any more and doesn't work reliably with the latest versions of Android anymore. But it's worth a try. In my case, about half of my apps were successfully restored and for most of the ones where "restore app + data" failed, "restore data" alone worked (and you can just reinstall the app from the app store).
As regards Titanium Backup Pro, it is still updated but the "Restore from Nandroid" function doesn't seem to work too well either on Marshmallow. Over the past months, there have been multiple reports of it either not seeing the backup files at all or failing to read their contents. I guess it's not a priority for the developers to fix this.

I second this... I could not restore any of my apps with Titanium Backup on my new Oneplus Three (Coming from a Oneplus One)

Nandroid Manager doesn't even exist anymore. Any other options?


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Samsung Note 10.1 USB Ethernet
I'm trying to get USB Ethernet support on my tablet, which for some reason is apparently disabled even though 4.1.2 directly supports it. (My Note II can use it...)  I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to need to essentially write everything on my own.  I'd prefer to write an app that can be used by other 10.1 users, but right now I'm just trying to get it working at all on my own device.  (I'm using a BobJ Ethernet->USB Adapter) Here are my current setbacks:

USB Host seems to shut down randomly.  This is the most irritating part, because it means I have to restart the device to use USB at all, mass storage included.  What should I use to diagnose this?  I've tried three different USB-specific apps from Play, but none of them give me much information besides the obvious. (That the host is not working.)
Even when the host controller is running and can detect the adapter, 'netcfg eth0 dhcp/up' doesn't work, claiming no device detected.  Does this mean the adapter driver is missing completely?

How to make Ethernet work on Android over OTG?

Each vendor is able to customize Android to suite their whimsy.
I'm using a $250USD Toshiba Thrive (OS 4.0.3), a Curtis KLU MID704 (OS 4.1.1, and one of the Rockchip clones) a Polaroid branded PMID704 and a ZTE phone. Of all these, the Polaroid and Curtis have Ethernet support in the settings. I'm using a Radio Shack Belkin USB-to-Ethernet adapter, which is supported off-the-shelf by Android. (Only the Toshiba Thrive has a full size type-A USB jack. The others need adapters, NOT available at radioshack.) The Polaroid is "broken" in that the Ethernet doesn't work. You click on it in settings and it clicks but does nothing. The crappy $75USD Curtis works, it shows me my IP and MAC address in settings and I can set static IP parameters including IP Address, Gateway, NetMask, and 2 DNS servers.
However, the Android frameworks (in the Java(tm)-like language) are broken. The connection managers only support WiFi and Mobile Data. You can inquire about the Eth0 device but can't open a connection or do anything with it.
So basically, your mileage may vary from mfr to mfr, and tabbly to tabbly.
Good luck!
-dave

source: Stack Exchange

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

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Xperia V require root permissions every time
I have Xperia V 9.1.A.1.140 and I just rooted it using "Root Many Android" (see closer decription on XDA), and now I installed Titanium Backup and every time the app loads it requires permissions multiple times and every time I try to uninstall and app, why is that?
EDIT: And here is the solution - I also rooted it with motochopper (again described at XDA) which installs the SuperSU, and in now only asks the SuperSU for permissions only once and it's working fine now.

Boris, could you please give us some more details: 1) What is "this method"? (a few words on the tool used would be helpful; for full information one still can follow the link); 2) What kind of super-user app are you using (SuperSU, SuperUser by ChainDD, SuperUser by ClockworkMod/Koushik)? 3) On the popup, is there a box to make the grant permanent (usually labeled "remember") or something similar, and did you try that? 4) What do you mean by "try to uninstall and app" (maybe you meant "everytime I try to uninstall an app"?)?

actually I did it with another method from XDA http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2228613
with this it installs the SuperSU and then it only asks it for permissions only once, and it works fine now

Which means your problem is solved? In that case you might think about a) updating your question to make it easier understandable (as described in my previous comment) plus adding your solution with a few more details as well, or b) removing your question if a) is too much work :)

check it now, better?

Well: An answer is an answer, not part of the question :) You should post it below, where it says "Your answer", and then can accept it after the technical two-days delay, so it shows up as "solved issue" in searches. It would also help to name the methods instead of only calling them "this" and "this other", so people would not have to look behind links for basic information (see my edit ;).

ok, will answer it tommorow

So here is what I did:
First I tried Bin4ry method's from XDA
with the 3rd option, it installs Superuser, but its buggy and it doesn't remember the permissions.
So then I did it with Motochopper method from XDA
which installs SuperSU, and the root apps now require permissions from SuperSU just once, and it's working fine.
After that I safely deleted Superuser.

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CM10.1 now cannot record any inbound audio on phone calls
CM10.1 now cannot record any inbound audio on phone calls

I was running Jellybean stock on my i9300 and used Total Recall to record telephone calls, recording both inbound and outbound audio correctly. I have now flashed CM10.1 and tried Total Recall to record telephone calls and I can no longer call inbound conversation.
I have also tried Sanity, Call Recorder Demo and Digital Call Record. Whenever I change the source for each of these respective programs to MIC everything works - except of course I cannot clearly record the inbound audio (the voice of the person on the other end).
When testing this I was sure to uninstall the other recording applications as I understand that 2 or more recording applications may cause conflict.
Any ideas about what I should do?

The issue is related to, as far as I know, Cyanogenmod policies.. In some countries call recording is illegal and therefore CM team hasn't implemented this feature. It's really annoying because the issue applies to certain (but not all) regions of the world.
I do hope that CM developers will come up with some sort of hack in the future. For now I am using Auto Call Recorder (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appstar.callrecorder) and using Mic as a source. The volume of inbound audio is very low unless the mic is turned on during the call.
Call recording is the only feature I lack in CM...

Thanks for the response Juozas. At least I know it's a policy rather than a config error on my end.

Can you give link where CyanogenMod said they have reason for removing? Thats not a reason and that reason is false. Even if it would be illeagal to record, just adding code doesnt make CyanogenMod makers doing it. BTW originally Android can record so Samsung also isnt doing anything illeagal.

I have sort of successfully enabled call recording of both inbound and out bound using Callrecorder and ALSA. The problem I have is callrecorder crashes multiple times during the phone call and restarts another session.

I faced also same problem after update with CM 10 but as I updated with CM 12 so total recall call recorder is working again or should I say it's working amazingly. And it can record a phone call continuously.
Also one thing i must say that It can be possible because of total recall app updates too.
I got the latest version from here : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.killermobile.totalrecall

Your wording seems to be promotional. Are you affiliated to this product? I recall a user named "Sonal Chouhan" who also posted SPAM a month ago or so.


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Where are Android settings stored?
I have to set up 50+ plus phones for my company, and I am allowed to root the phones. Each phone needs to have the exact same WIFI SSID's / passwords, account / privacy settings, brightness, input methods, etc. Repeating the exact same manual setup 50 times seems a bit tedious..
Where are the phone settings stored? Can I simply adb push the settings to each device? The phones are Samsung Galaxy Pockets.

If all phones are of same brand/model/Os etc. you can configure one to your satisfaction and then take a Nandroid backup and restore it to all phones.

@Narayanan - I've considered that, but it seems there are no bootloaders / tools out that can make nandroid backups of Galaxy Pockets.

I found a webpage that helps user to install CWM recovery in S5300 a.k.a Galaxy Pocket. If I am correct, CMW had nandroid backup facility.

@Narayanan - Unfortunately the link on that page is broken. However, your link led me to finding this. Going to test now

Also keep in mind, if you root a device make sure to un-root it once you're done. Rooted device is not secure. For example if it has TWRP installed you can disable lockscreen protection easily.

As it turns out, there is no magic file or directory that contains all settings. They are stored in various places, and depends greatly on how the manufacturer decides to set things up. I primarily work with Samsung phones, so the information here will mostly be Samsung oriented. Also, note that all of the below requires root access. If anyone has anything to add / rectify, feel free to comment.
First off, I have found that "copying settings" is not always the best way to go. You can do nandroid backups and restores, which pretty much clones one phone to another. If you're technical enough, and you're using Samsung, then creating your own odin image might be an even better option as it doesn't rely on you or someone else having created nandroid / recovery support.
The Settings
General settings:
Settings are mostly stored in the /data subdirectory. If you're looking for something specific, start there.

Built-in apps:
Built-in apps tend to keep their settings in /data/data/com.android.* and /data/data/com.google.android.*For example:
Contacts: /data/data/com.android.contacts
Email accounts: /data/data/com.android.email
MMS: /data/data/com.android.mms
WiFi:
WiFi settings location depends on the manufacturer, but is generally predictable.
Samsung Galaxy Pocket, S2, S3: /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf
Samsung Tab: /data/wifi/bcm_supp.conf
HTC Desire: /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf
Dell Streak: /data/misc/wifi/wpa.conf
Oneplus 2, 3: /data/misc/wifi/networkHistory.txt
Keyboard configs:
I have had to disable hardware keys, reconfigure layouts, or alter general keyboard behaviour before. The exact file name tends to be different on every phone, but I've found the config files to always be in /system/usr/keylayout/. Be careful, as breaking those could render your phone unusable.
Misc:
Most miscellaneous settings like product information, boot sounds, and enabling / disabling the on-screen nav bar are stored in /system/build.prop. Breaking this config file could bootloop your device.
If I find more information, I'll add later.

another possible way to do that is through the ``content'' command, e.g.:
adb shell content query --uri content://settings/global
adb shell content insert --uri content://settings/global --bind name:s:preferred_network_mode1 --bind value:i:0

I'm not an expert in android technologies. So I'm not totally sure whether my answer is true or not. But, using Root Explorer, I discovered that some of the settings are stored in the following files:

/data/system/users/0/settings_system.xml
/data/system/users/0/settings_secure.xml

For example the screen brightness is stored in the file settings_system.xml. If you open this file using a text editor, you may come across the following line of code:
<setting id="2220" name="screen_brightness" value="66" package="com.android.settings" />

In the code above, the number "66" indicates the screen brightness. The higher the number, the brighter the screen.
I also discovered that the background image of your cell phone is stored in the following file path:

/data/system/users/0/wallpaper

My cell phone is Samsung SM-J7. Maybe my discovery may vary for other smart phones.

Most Android settings are found in /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db, which is an SQLite database which can easily manipulated by an SQLite browser. Android itself normally uses a protected SettingsProvider to manipulate those settings.
Sidenote: It seems that even though the settings have actually changed under the hood, the Settings GUI might not always seem to be up to date with the underlying reality. However, it is always the database that counts, and is provided to all the modules that are using them
Though, as stated previously, some settings can be stored as shared_prefs or in files-dir for individual apps etc. Also, some manufacturers used mod'ed versions of Android which may use settings stored on other places.
In later versions of Android, some settings seem to have moved to other places.


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Is there a USB driver for the alacatel onetouch 983?
I have purchased an alcatel one touch 983 running android 2.3.7 for development purposes. So it is critical that I can view logcat messages and connect to it from eclipse via USB. But so far I have failed to get the connection to work. I have installed something called "Qualcomm USB Host Driver version 2.0.6.7 for Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Win7" which I though was the right solution - but when I right click on "onetouch" in device manager and then tell the update wizard that my driver is in "E:\Alcatel USB driver\usb_host_driver_2.0.6.8\Win32\WinXP", it reports "The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software".

Have you checked with the Universal ADB driver?

Wow, that worked. I have no idea what the universal adb driver is, but it worked. Put it as an answer and I'll mark it correct.

Glad to read! I've made it an answer then :)

In case you cannot find a device-specific driver, it's worth trying the Universal ADB driver. It should work with most devices, so I'd even say this is the first one to try -- especially when having multiple devices, as this gets you rid of the need for multiple drivers.


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How to clean up related files from deleted apps?
AppCleaner will delete related files from the Mac when an application is dragged to the trash. How does one clean up remains of uninstalled apps on Android?

If you delete the app from the device, it will delete all associated files except those on the sd card. Ihe android system should keep everything pretty clean for you.

Please note that recommendations like Is there an app for X are off-topic here (see the FAQ for details). I took the freedom to re-phrase your question, so it no longer falls into this category :)

Always glad to help :) @John while that is generally true, there are exceptions. See my answer below. One very specific exception would be using pm uninstall -k, which would uninstall the app but keep its data. Another (more common) exception are app data saved to sdcard. Plus there might be rare cases where a clean uninstall failed or crashed.

You might want to take a look at SD Maid. This app requires root for full functionality. This "cleaning made" takes care for multiple remains: a "corpse finder" checks for what an uninstalled app might have left, the "system cleaner" scans the devices known directories with unnecessary files. You can check for the biggest files on your device to free up space, and even optimize and shrink bloated databases to speed up access and free space.
The app includes a file manager, and also allows you to search for files.

SD MAID Corpse Finder and System Cleaner (source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)
Edit: For more details and discussion, you might want to visit the app's thread at XDA :)


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How to make "Navigator" my default mapping app?
Right now if I click a maps link my phone asks if I want to open in

Dolphin
Google Maps (Standard/classic interface)
Web

I prefer using the Google "Navigation" application for its features, such as  voice guidance and input.
How do I get "Navigation" to appear in the list of available apps, or even better make it the default for any map link I click?

When it asks you to chose, isn't there a checkbox below the question labeled something like "always use this app for actions like this"? If so, simply check it, and then tap the entry for the app you always want to use. This makes it a "default application".

The navigation not showing in the list is a bigger problem. Is there a kind of "navigate to" button easily clickable in the Google Maps app after you opened it? I'd assume that is how Google wanted it to be done. What Google wants might not equal what you want though

Izzy the problem is Navigation isn't showing in the list of selectable apps.  There is an icon for it on my desktop, and I use it all the time.

Select Google Maps as default and then you only need to select Navigation to open Google Navigation.

Right. The extra step is required because Navigation answers to a different Intent.


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Which packages of Gapps can't be downloaded through the Play Store/marketplace?
I've seen that there are quite many different modular packages of the Gapps http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2397942 and I was wondering if I can install the nano and add the other Gapps one by one through the Play Store. Or if there by chance some Google apps that can't be retrieved with the Play Store?
I'd like to start with a very minimal set of apps if possible (and not to install Google Now).

The Open Gapps project has a comprehensive wiki on which packages have their corresponding Play Store entry, but AFAIK not all apps can be downloaded if they are not installed by Gapps in the first place (e.g. Google Camera). Might need to recheck some time later.

Yes, I'm pretty sure all of the other 'Google Apps' can be requested from the Play Store. I myself, also usually start the basis of a new ROM installation with the Nano-gapps package.
It removes a lot of the non-mandatory Google bloatware such as GoogleNow, PlayMusic (I use an alternative) and even Gmail (I have my Gmail emails come through the stock Email app to avoid duplication).

It seems like to be true based on my flashing experience here

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


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Unable to locate SDK when starting Droid Explorer
When I launch Droid Explorer, I get an error message that states Unable to locate the Android SDK tools, please reinstall the application.

I installed the Android SDK tools from the SDK Download Page.

Note: I am the lead developer of Droid Explorer. I am posting this question as I get a lot of bug reports for this issue. I am trying out using Android Enthusiasts as somewhat of a support Q&A for Droid Explorer. I will monitor any question tagged with droidexplorer.

In Windows, the Android Studio installer installs Studio in the Program Files Folder, however, the sdk ends up here:  C:\Users[username]\AppData\Local\Android\sdk

@bgmCoder DroidExplorer does not look for Android Studio, it looks for the SDK. If it is and it is able to find the path to it (stored in the registry) it will use that path. If it cannot find the path, the user needs to select the sdk location.

I see that - but most people in Windows will install the Android Studio and not realize that the sdk gets installed somewhere else.

I don't get why the command line sdk is not accepted, i don't want to download 2 gb of useless stuff just for the benefit of seeing my phone via adb on explorer

@Magnetic_dud You don't need 2gb of all the SDK. But there is more than just the base SDK that is needed because there are tools that are used. These tools are not installed with the base SDK.

Droid Explorer, at its root, depends heavily on the Android SDK. It communicates with your devices via ADB.
When Droid Explorer launches, it does some system checks to make sure the tools that it needs are accessible. These mainly include adb and aapt. There are some other tools that it uses, but these are the main ones that it needs to communicate.
There are 2 types of errors that can happen with the SDK not found:

Registry Error
If you see the following error message:
Unable to locate the SDK Version in 'HKLM\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DroidExplorer\InstallPath'. Try reinstalling the application.
When you first install Droid Explorer, it will ask you for the location of your Android SDK. This value is stored in the Registry.
32bit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DroidExplorer\InstallPath

64bit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\DroidExplorer\InstallPath

Under this location, you will see a value called SdkPath. This needs to be the location of the root of your Android SDK.

Make sure Droid Explorer is closed.
Open Registry Editor

WIN+R
Type regedit
Press Enter

Navigate to the location explained above
Set the value of SdkPath to be the path to your sdk: My location is d:\android\android-sdk\.
Close the Registry Editor.
Launch Droid Explorer

If you still are getting a registry SDK error after following these instructions, Ask a Question and add the droidexplorer tag.

File System Error
If you see the following error message:
Unable to locate the SDK tools. Try reinstalling the application.
This error usually happens when you install the Android SDK, but do not run the SDK Manager and add the required packages to the SDK.
As a rule of thumb, you should follow Step 1, at a minimum, for what packages should be added to the SDK.
Source

1. Get the latest SDK tools
As a minimum when setting up the Android
  SDK, you should download the latest tools and Android platform:

Open the Tools directory and select:

Android SDK Tools Android SDK
Platform-tools
Android SDK Build-tools (highest version)

Open the first Android X.X folder (the latest version) and select:

SDK Platform
A system image for the emulator, such as  ARM EABI v7a System Image

Your SDK Manager should look something like this:

If you still are getting a file system SDK error after following these instructions, Ask a Question and add the droidexplorer tag.

Extra information about how Droid Explorer looks for these tools:
It will look in 3 places for each tool that it needs to use.

[SdkPath]/tools/
[SdkPath]/platform-tools/
[SdkPath]/build-tools/[latest-version]/

Older versions of Droid explorer looked in [SdkPath]/platforms/[latest-version]/tools/ but this path is no longer valid in the SDK.

In Windows, the Android Studio Setup Wizard installed the sdk to this directoy: C:\Users[username]\AppData\Local\Android\sdk  and this was acceptable to Droid Explorer.  But I had to run the Android Wizard first.

For me, DroidExplorer crashes every time I run it.  I have to reboot the computer before I can run it again.  The registry includes the sdkpath key and the correct value.  And the sdk manager includes the tools above.

@bgmCoder can you open an issue on http://de.codeplex.com and include the log information from C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\DroidExplorer\logs


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How do you prevent Google Music from importing all .mp3 files on the device?
I'd like to have several audiobooks and/or podcasts on my Nexus 7, but every time I put any MP3 files onto the device, even if I make my own folder for it or some such, Google Music detects them and then adds them to its list of files.
This is a problem, because I'd love to be able to use the "Shuffle All" feature, but then it ends up shuffling in chapters from the Audiobook. I don't want it to do that at all.
Any advice?

You could try putting a .nomedia file in the folder containing the mp3's - this will stop Google Music seing the tracks.

The "put a .nomedia file into the folder" hint is not working any more. All files will be scanned by the media scanner (except the folder itself begins with  "."). Reason: The media scanner is used by MTP, which needs all files (and only spares ".xxx" files)

@ce4 are you sure about that? I'm using a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7 running Android 4.2, and the .nomedia trick has been keeping me sane since the Nexus One. What version of Android are you running?

Not quite. But Google Music and many others (e.g. the Gallery) use the media scanner which does not omit folders that contain a .nomedia any more.

I put .nomedia in the folder and ALSO renamed the folder to be ".audiobooks" instead of just "audiobooks". When I rebooted the device, the audiobook was gone from google music's list. So, one or the other of those things does work. Which means a mod should close the question I guess? I'm not sure how it works if the answer was in the comments and not as an answer.

@Lokathor You might answer your own question with how you solved your issue. Two days later, you can accept your own answer. This way people see the problem has a working solution -- which is much better than simply closing a question :)

this works on my one plus mobile...but there should be permanent solution

Well despite the comments about a .nomedia file not working in the newest version, on my fully updated Nexus 7 (as of April 2013) using a .nomedia file prevents the audiobook files from being scanned and listed in Google Music.
Some extremely simplistic testing seems to indicate that a single .nomedia file at the top of a directory tree is enough to prevent all sub-directories from being scanned. In the case I talked about in my question, a .nomedia file within the "audiobooks/" directory would prevent all books from being scanned, even if each book was a collection of .mp3 files within its own directory.

Is there a convenient way to create this file without the aid of a computer?

In a file browser app, such as ES File Explorer, you can create the file easily. It just has to be called ".nomedia" as the filename, you don't need to put any special contents in the file or anything like that.

It seems to work on my Android 5.1.1 TV. I killed the music app, deleted the music app's data and had to reboot . Not sure if I needed to delete the music app's data or not but I did that first, it wasn't enough, so I did it again and rebooted and that worked.

Adding .nomedia to the top level of a directory has worked for me, but also had to flip the source from  "On device" to "All music". I am using Android 5.0.1 on an nVidia Shield Tablet.

I just added the .nomedia to the root, switched from "On Device" to "All Music" then back to "Downloaded Only" and it works.

I noticed that when I added .nomedia to my Podcasts folder (which I didn't want showing up in my Google "Play Music" app, it only disappeared once I changed the source from "On device" to "All music" and back again. Now it's working as described above. My Podcasts have been removed from my music player, but still show up in my Podcast player.

Utilizing .nomedia (using ES File Explorer to simply create a file called .nomedia like Lokathor), all of my ringtones, podcasts, and notification sounds disappeared from Google Play Music. I'm using 5.1 on an HTC M7. (8/4/15)

Running Lollipop on a Note 3, I added .nomedia and restarted the phone, and it did NOT clean up.  Then I flipped off Downloaded-only, and flipped it back, and "shuffle all" still was not cleaned up.  I then restarted the phone again, and it was finally cleaned up.


text:
How to disable duplicate calendar notifications?
My stock Nexus 4 (4.2.2) is giving me multiple calendar notifications every day.  It gives me one notification which is a reminder for a specific upcoming event, and it gives me a second notification which is sort of a general roll-up of upcoming events.
Here's an example of the two notifications:

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)
I rely heavily on the reminder notifications, but I find the rollup to be useless for me.  I've verified that both are coming from the Calendars app by long-pressing on the notifications and clicking on App Info.
How do I disable the second "roll-up" calendar notification?

When you click on the "roll-up" calendar notification what app opens?

Do you really have "Feed dog" as a calendar event!? :)

@ZnewmaN When I click on the roll-up, I get a dialog filling most of the screen called "Calendar notifications" with a scrollable list of upcoming events.  When I click on the reminder, I go directly to the specific event in the calendar app.

@w3d My dog has no opposable thumbs so he has trouble entering these reminders into his own phone.

@emmby can you post a screenshot of the screen that you get when you click on the rollup notification?

The roll-up dialog looks like this: http://cl.ly/image/0N021u0Z0Z3r

I can confirm that this is normal behaviour for the default (blue) Google Calendar on the Nexus 4 - just the 1 app. Having tried a few tests of my own...

The multiple "roll-up" events appear to be events for which you have already received a notification, but have not explicitly acknowledged or "dismissed" it - in which case the notification remains in the notification area and forms this group when the next notification occurs.
In the screenshot above, a notification has just occurred for "Test3", while notifications have already occurred for "Test1" and "Test2", but I did not acknowledge/dismiss them. I could, for instance, tap on the "roll-up" and dismiss "Test2" - it will then be removed from the notification area.
The only way to stop this roll-up of events is to either:

Dismiss the notification as it occurs.
Don't set a notification for these events.

Instead of turning off notifications for events just disable pop-up notifications in the Calendar app (which are what's being queued in the roll-up mentioned by @emmby) here: Settings > General > Notifications and Reminders > Pop-up notification.

I already have Pop-up notification disabled (which I believe is the default option) and I get the same roll-up of notifications. However, the Pop-up notification is different... you get an obtrusive pop-up when the notification occurs and you seem to get no option but to acknowledge/dismiss it, at which point it is removed automatically from the notification area. So, in fact, enabling pop-up notifications would prevent the roll-up, since you are forced to acknowledge them.

There are likely two calendar apps on your system. Stock Android includes an app and Google provides one as well, which might be preinstalled on your device, or you may have downloaded it without realizing it. They both look very similar (which is probably why you thought they were the same when you held on them for the App Info screen). Check in your app drawer. The stock Android calendar is a green calendar icon, and the Google one is blue. Then disable notifications for one of them.
You can always click on the roll-up notifications and when that app opens, go into the settings and disable notifications. Then go to your app drawer and check both icons (both are labeled calendar) see which app has notifications disabled. Once you determine what app it is, if it is the Google Calendar, you could just uninstall it, or if it is the built-in one, you can disable it via Settings -> Apps -> All -> Calendar -> Disable.

An easy check for your theory would be: follow one of the notifications, and disable notifications for the app turning up as source. Wait for the next event and see if both notifications are gone, or one remained :)

I also have a stock Nexus 4 (4.2.2) and I only have a blue Google Calendar - there is no (stock) green calendar. The same for my ICS tablet (both the same version). AFAIK the blue Google Calendar in the Play Store is (or at least is now) the stock Android Calendar. If I ever had the green stock calendar on my tablet it has been automatically replaced with the blue one (via the Play Store).

Long-pressing on the notification should give you a link to "App Info", which will at least tell you which app is raising which notification.

Apparently Google replaced the stock Android calendar app (the green icon), with their proprietary calendar app (the blue icon). They did the same with the browser and put on Chrome. The Google calendar app and Chrome are not part of AOSP, but apparently, Google replaces the stock ones with their versions on newer builds.

i verified using App Info that both notifications are coming from the same app.  Calendar version 201212060

I was experiencing similar behaviour on my Galaxy S3. Been bugging me for months and I finally overcame inertia, found this question, and confirmed there were indeed two apps showing notifications. Google Calendar, which I want, and S Planner, which I don't. Turned it's notifications off and no I just get one. Much better!

If you are using the BLUE Google calendar and want to stop getting 2 notifications do as I do:
I went into the Stock Android Calendar (Pink) & in Settings checked the Play Notification Sound Box, picked my Notification Sound & then UNCHECKED every other box for these settings.
Then I went to the BLUE Google Calendar & General Settings. In Notifications & Reminders I checked the Notifications Box, picked my sound so that it is the Same one as the Stock Calendar one I chose earlier & decided to check the box to vibrate & I checked Pop-up Box.
Then I UNCHECKED the the MAIN Notifications Box leaving the other boxes checked but greyed out.
If you leave the MAIN Notification Box checked as well you will get 2 pop-ups!

If you use the calendar app that I do (which I believe is the stock Android calendar app that has a pink icon),

Click the icon to open the app,
Click settings
Then mine has a "Set Alerts & Notifications" where I can select from 3 options: (1) Alert, (2) Status Bar Notification, or (3) Off.

I use the stock calendar which uses my Google calendar and I also use Nudnik reminders app. So all three of those apps have settings for notifications that I have to consider.
Hope this helps!

So to complete your answer: You obviously have turned off notifications and alerts in all calendar apps, and have Nudnik Calendar Reminders deal with them, correct? That would match what I did, just that I've used Calendar Event Reminder (CER).

I also had duplicate reminders on my phone (and watch) and tried out a few suggestions here. I indeed had 2 calendars in my app drawer - Google Calendar (blue) and the other (blue-green) was actually part of Boxer, which I use for multiple mail accounts. I turned off everything I could find in Boxer and now back to only one notification per event.  Why would Boxer add this to their app with notifications turned ON is anyone's guess.  If this even provides help to one person, I'm happy to have helped.


text:
How to set default action handler permanently?
I've set defaults apps for many actions like sending email, opening PDFs, opening webpages etc. But, when I install or update an app which could handle that action, this default is cleared (even if default app is updated).
Nobody has problem with this because they can tick default checkbox on next action. My problem: I use Tasker to automate high amount of actions. And, due to this default removals (after automatic update), my tasks are stuck at Choose App pop-up. Tasks need to be completed in time. So, I face many real-world problems due to this.
What should I do to preserve defaults after automatic app update. Please, don't answer You can't or Turn off Automatic Update.

I'm afraid Richard is right here. I just checked with the Tasker API in the hope it would provide its own solution (as I'm affected by the same issue, just not that hard). Though Tasker can react on "Package Updated" (and even gets to know which package), there's no action to handle "default apps". And I'm not aware of any system setting like "do not reset default app on update". Maybe some programmer develops a little tool to care for "forced app defaults", listening to the package_updated intent, and simply sets all defined defaults again...

AFAIK, defaults on Android is not preserved if apps that use the intent are changed.
Workaround:
Use intent to launch the application or its activity screen.
intent is comparatively reliable though it may be changed when app is updated.
Take sending email as an example

Install Intent Intercept (Google Play)
Clear the defaults of email client
Choose "Intent Intercept" in Share menu when sending email
Copy intent details of your desired application activity
Open Tasker to "Create Task": Misc > Send Intent
Edit the parameters (Usually fill in the Action and Extra is enough)

Ref: http://tasker.dinglisch.net/userguide/en/intents.html
P.S. Some famous companies even provide you the intent details on their developer website, such as Evernote.

That app is open source, also available here: http://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=intent%20intercept&fdid=uk.co.ashtonbrsc.android.intentintercept


text:
How can I enable keybord Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-i9300 Android version 4.1.1
I can't find the keyboard in my Samsung Galaxy S3. I only found "Google Voice Typing":
In Settings → Language and Input → Keyboards and Input methods I have only Google Voice Typing.
What's wrong with my device? How can I fix that?

While it sounds strange that there should be no keyboard present, and as trivial as it might sound: Simply installing an alternative keyboard from the playstore should fix that. Take e.g. Hacker's Keyboard, which is a very flexible one, and well rated (I'm using it myself on my tablets). Simply install it, and its settings should turn up at the place you've described. Optionally, add the dictionaries for the languages you like to have them (see the keyboard's playstore page, some are directly linked to the app).
Do it from a PC/Laptop
As you currently have no keyboard available on your device, it might be difficult/impossible to use the playstore app on the device itself to install the above. You can still install it:

on your laptop/pc, open a web browser and go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketworkstation.pckeyboard
log in with the credentials of the Google account you use on your device
click the "Install" button, accept the permissions for the app (they are OK)
the keyboard will be pushed to your device

Once the installation has finished (you can see this in your device's notification area), you can go to the described place (Settings → Language and Input → Keyboards and Input methods) and make the new keyboard the default input method. With that final step, you problem should be solved.
No Google-Account configured on the device?
In this case, installation via the web interface cannot work either, as the app-to-be-installed cannot be pushed to the device. Still, there is something you can do:

On your PC/Laptop:

Visit the Hacker's keyboard project's download page and download the .apk file to your computer
if you don't have any file manager on your Android device:

You will need the Android SDK installed, or at least a "Mini variant" (the adb/adb.exe binary and, on Windows, its helper .dll files -- check the adb tag and its wiki for details, and see QtADB for a simple, user-friendly variant working on Windows, Mac and Linux)
When on Windows: Make sure you have the drivers for your Android device installed

On your Android-device:

Enable unknown-sources to activate side-loading (Settings→Security: Check "Unknown Sources")
if you don't have a file-manager app on your Android device: Enable adb debugging (Settings→Development: Check USB-Debugging)

Connect your Android device with your PC/Laptop via USB cable
to install your .apk...

if you have a file-manager app on your Android device:

simply copy the .apk to your device as you usually copy files there
use your file-manager app to navigate to the .apk
"tapp" the .apk file's entry. After asking your confirmation, the app will be installed. Skip all below -- you're done.

if you don't have a file-manager app on your device: use pm install via the ADB command-line to install the .apk on your Android device (see XDA-Developers for more details on this -- usually it should be adb pm install /path/to/download/*.apk, replace the /path/to/download part with the full directory name of where you saved the .apk to).

thx,  but i can't access to playstore  with this s-voice , may should i install the new Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

Jaidi, you can visit the playstore with your browser from your pc/laptop, log in with your Google account's credentials, visit the keyboards page, and push the "Install" button. It then gets installed to your device automatically -- and as soon as it is, you can select it at the described place to be used as default input method.

i do it this but must connect to my device with my G mail and i can't with the s-voice !!!

Oh -- do you mean there is no Google account configured on the device? I will update my answer again with possibilities left in that case.

thx a lot :)  i add the hacker keyboard and it work good  but i have question  why  when i reset my device i only get the s-voice.

When you reset your device, the keyboard will be gone again, yes. But bookmarking this question, you can always restore it. Now you've got a working keyboard again, I also recommend to create an account, visit the playstore, and install the app again (so you don't miss any updates). As this answer solved your issue, it would also be nice if you "accept" it (hit the checkmark next to it) -- so it shows up as solution.


text:
Installing Jelly Bean on Ice Cream Sandwich tablet
I just bought this China-made tablet, Ainol Novo Flame, and it has Ice Cream Sandwich installed on it.
Is there anyway to install Jelly Bean? I Googled some and couldn't find a good source. Do you know any? thanks
I hope this is the right place to ask. I'm new to android overall.

I'd recommend checking Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

Well I also happen to have a flame and I upgraded it to 4.2 Jellybean by following this LINK It is based on AOKP. Works well on the flame, and brings the much needed multi-user profile for family use. Hope it helps

This is the latest Official Ainol Novo 7 Fire JellyBean firmware (using the latest Android version 4.2.2):
Google Translation maybe required.

I read somewhere Flame and fire are identically have same hardware but a bit different software. do you think it could cause a problem?

@ePezhman To be on the safe side I would ask that at http://www.slatedroid.com/, a website very much into custom ROMs for alternative chinese tablets

@ePezhman I know that they give different names to the same tablet in different markets, should be identical, but just in case, always better to be safe.

Trust me it is the SAME. I have one and I know it. I also use the firmware interchangeably with no noticeable downsides. It is probably just a mistranslation from the distributors part, because you know its chinese.

@ePezhman Your welcome, hope that you enjoy it :)


text:
How do I run two programs at once in split-screen?
I have a Nexus 10. I want to split screen to do two things at the same time. Is that possible in Android? 3rd-party apps are acceptable too.

I don't think it can be done yet. The only thing that is close to it is small apps that run as overlay on the currently running apps.

As of this writing, only a few Android devices offer multi-window functionality out-of-the-box.  Samsung built this feature into 4.1.2 OS version for several of their Android tablets (Galaxy Note 10.1 and Galaxy Note 2, for example.)
There are some major drawbacks to this. First, it's a proprietary Samsung feature that only comes with their TouchWiz overlay, and therefore is not compatible with "vanilla" Android OS. Second, apps must be specifically written to support this feature.

While I don't believe that there are currently any window managers available for Android devices (except where some manufacturers, like Samsung may build this in) there are some other options that may work for you, depending what you're after, by optionally floating some other apps or features over or alongside your current app.

There are some third party Android web browsers that can "float" a window over your current window, and can be dismissed or brought to the front very easily: OverSkreen (formerly known as AirBrowser), or Floating Browser Flux
There are some small utilities like two calculators or Terminals that can also be floated over your current window.
Quickdesk is an app that can put a floating toolbar over other apps, giving you quick access to other apps.
If you're finding the keyboard is getting in the way, and you'd rather it floated over other apps, then you may find some of this question's answers helpful: How can I “split” the virtual keyboard when typing on a large display in landscape mode?
Although it needs custom written widgets/apps, you may also find that the Chameleon Launcher can do what you want as it specialises in arranging tiled windows of information/apps alongside each other (website).

Sideload Xposed Framework and install the XMultiWindow module.

Open the XMultiWindow app from your app drawer to get started. Tap
  Sidebar Settings in the app, tap Sidebar App Settings, and use the Add
  button to add the apps you want to multitask with here. The apps you
  add to this list will appear in the sidebar so you can open them in
  split-screen mode.
Tap the Open Sidebar option in the XMultiWindow app to launch the
  sidebar, and then swipe in from the left side of your screen. The
  sidebar will appear at the left side of your screen above other
  running apps — it functions like a floating app.
To open an app in split-screen mode, long-press the app’s shortcut
  icon in the sidebar and tap Add to up Workspace or Add to down
  Workspace. If your screen is oriented horizontally, you’ll see the Add
  to left Workspace and Add to right Workspace options instead.
When you’ve opened the apps you want to use, swipe down from the top
  of the screen to open the notification shade and tap the Sidebar
  Running notification. This closes the sidebar, freeing up your screen
  space. You can always swipe in from the left again if you want to view
  the sidebar and open another app.
You’ll then be able to use both apps alongside each other. Here we’re
  watching a video while browsing the web — the kind of powerful
  multitasking that’s still impossible on most tablets and mobile
  operating systems today!

Tested on a Samsung Note 10.1 (SM-P605) with Android 4.3 i found some apps which are supporting multi window, e.g:

My Files (*)
stock Video Player
MX Player
stock email app
Gmail
stock Webbrowser (*)
Chrome
Gallery
Contacts
Phone
Google maps
Polaris Office 5
WhatsApp
Facebook
Watch now
Chat on (*)
Google Play Store

But there are really very few apps capable to run with multiple instances (from the above list only those which are marked with (*)).
So, you can for example open My Files twice (left & right of upper & lower half screen)

Unfortunally, Polaris Office 5 (pdf viewer) isn't capable to run twice. So if you want to view 2 pdf docs side by side, it seems that you have to install a 2nd pdf viewer app (see here).


text:
Can I install an app directly to my SD card?
I'm trying to install a large application (EA games' Scrabble free), but I have insufficient space on my phone, so I can't complete the installation. I have plenty of space on my SD card though, but I don't see any option to install the app directly there without passing through the phone. What can I do about this?

Check this my answer here: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/154122/168013 it may help your case

You are out of luck sorry!
The only way to do so, is to install to internal space on Phone, then:

Tap on Settings
Tap on Applications
Then tap on Manage Applications
Scroll down looking for the appropriate game, then tap on it
Finally, tap on Move to SD Card...

You will have to free up space temporarily in order to do this.

Yes. And to tablets, too :) Only work-around I can think of (but not sure whether it really works, as I haven't tried): If you can get hold of the .apk, you could copy that to the sd card (so the playstore doesn't need to download it and keep a copy in /data/local) and install from there. In combination, you could also set your preferred install location to the card. Having root, you could try moving /data/local to the card (replacing it by a symlink).

There is no such option that applies for all apps.You still have to go through your internal memory.
As far as I know rooted phones also don't offer this functionality.
But some apps will allow you to do that on newer phones. App developers can say in their app that it is best (preferred) to save the app on an SD card. But in the case they say that, it's in the hands of the phone if it listens to it or not. So even though some apps will allow you to install it straight on your SD, some phones will still install it on your internal memory.
Though the last part is not an answer to your question, I thought it may be interesting to know


text:
Encryt a single user, not the whole device
My android is multi-user. It is crazy to encrypt the entire device. How do I encrypt just a single user's account?
More specifically, the only thing I am trying to protect is my gmail account.
I know it should be possible, as I have such a feature on my Debian Gnu/Linux laptop. It would however require integration with the login manager.

Afraid not. We're talking about "device encryption" here, which – as the name suggests – encrypts the "device" (in this context, the "storage device"). All users have their data on the same storage device – so either you encrypt it or not.
While it's not possible to "encrypt a single user", there are possibilities to encrypt selected files and directories, which might be an acceptable alternative for you.

While this is technically a valid answer to the question, as originally stated. My experience is that these answers are not only useless, but often wrong.

Thanks for the flowers, @richard – but put that way, there won't be any answer. So why are you asking? ;) There is no way to "encrypt just a single user's account". Is that more useful to you? As for the "often wrong": Please prove, not just accuse :)

In Linux, encrypting user data usually involves just using an encrypted partition/container for the user's /home directory. All user data is stored there so the user is reasonably safe. In Android, all user data is stored on the same partition, the /data partition. The user data for apps goes into /data/user/(userid), the emulated external storage into /data/media. The binary files for apps are shared between users and are located in /data/app and /data/lib. In other words: user data can be all over the place.
Theoretically, you could create a partition for each user's data and emulated external storage, encrypt that and set up the mounting points/symbolic links so that all encryption is done transparently.
However, this would require some serious changes to the file system and probably to the ROM and kernel itself as well because the system must have the /data/user/x directories mounted at boot time. I've never heard of a (custom) ROM that does this, so if you want all your user data to be encrypted you'll have to program it yourself.
If your device has a lot of custom ROMs you might be able to download and modify an existing ROM with some boot scripts. This would probably be a lot of work though.


text:
permanently decrypt my android
I have encrypted my android.
I now have these problems:

I want to switch on and login:
The system boots, I the primary user, type my password, the system boots, I type my password (This is a pain).
Another user wants to switch on and login: System boots, they track me down, I type my password, system boots, they login.
We don't shutdown: A bad person finds the device and steals my data, because it is not encrypted.

So now I with to undo the encryption. How do I do this?

Device: Hudl2.
Android Version: 4.4.2.

For the third point, that "bad person" still needs a password to unlock the screen. For the remaining part, we'll need at least to know what Android version that (a bit uncomon) device is running.

Added version. @izzy if it where true that the “bad person” would need the password to unlock the screen, to be able to get to the data, then we would not need to encrypt the device. We are assuming that the “bad person” is not playing by the rules. Maybe they open the device and look at the ram direct. Maybe something else.

To "open the device and look at the [storage] direct" (usually with a JTAG device), they need to shut down the device first. Doing so, they'd need to decrypt again. To access it via ADB, they need to unlock the device and "authorize" their computer.

@Izzy If I just pulled the battery, connected a JTAG, and poked around in RAM. I could probably find something. Maybe even the encryption key (Password). You would be surprised how long DRAM can remember stuff with no power, and I would only have to drop the power for less than a second.

I don't doubt that, given enough effort, everything can be "cracked". Question is whether it's worth that effort – for the average user it is not. But let's stop that discussion (this is not a forum, and you don't want the encryption anyway). For Kitkat (which you stated your device is running), turning encryption off entirely should be possible. I have not done that (didn't encrypt in the first place), but AFAIK the process involves a factory-reset. Have to leave the answer for someone else.

See: Ways to remove android device encryption, and also check other answered encryption questions.


text:
Missing storage on Tesco Hudl 2
I have a Tesco Hudl 2 running Android 4.4.2. I have 9GB of total storage. But little free, despite not using much.
It shows a few GB in-use and 0.5GB free. The usage bar shows 80% available, but the table shows 581MB available. I used to have many apps installed, now there are fewer apps, and no room for more.
Total space 9.12GB
    Avalable 581MB
    Apps 1.58GB
    Pictures 12.46MB
    Audio 496kb,
    Downloads 35.61MB,
    Cached data 59.51MB
    Misc 113MB

That is less than 2GB in-use, and 9GB - 2GB = 7GB ≠ 0.5GB
I have no idea what has happened to the rest of the memory. Can you tell me how to fix, or diagnose?
Note: I have read insufficient-memory wiki.

It has 16GB of internal storage, and according to various websites I should only see about 9GB of this. The storage tool shows about 9GB of total storage.
As requested, I ran Diskinfo & DiskUsage. DiskUsage shows System data of 6782 MiB, this appears to be the problem, but what is system data, and why so much?
Diskinfo:
--------------------------
 Internal Storage (MMC)
--------------------------
 * Cache [mmcblk0p11] (/cache) [ext4]
   Used: 87.6 MB, Free: 1.4 GB, Total space: 1.5 GB
 * System [mmcblk0p13] (/system) [ext4]
   Used: 1.3 GB, Free: 761 MB, Total space: 2 GB
 * Data [mmcblk0p15] (/data) [ext4]
   Used: 8.8 GB, Free: 582 MB, Total space: 9.4 GB
--------------------------
 SD Card
--------------------------
 * SD card [mmcblk1p1] (/mnt/media_rw/sdcard1, /storage/sdcard1) [vfat]
   Used: 253 MB, Free: 29.5 GB, Total space: 29.7 GB
--------------------------
 Memory
--------------------------
 * RAM
   Used: 1018 MB, Free: 862 MB, Total space: 1.8 GB

DiskUsage:
Storage card: 9342 MiB
    apps: 1245 Mib
        …
    media: 734 Mib
        …
    System data: 6782 Mib
    Free space: 581 Mib

I can not workout how to do a screenshot, but it is saying that /data is 8.8GB used / 9.4GB. It does no show detail like du it gives overview like fdisk + df. I can now see why the total is not 16GB (as advertised), but still have no idea what the 8.8GB is being used for.

Related: My space used and free space doesn't add up / Something is secretly eating up internal memory and I need help finding it / 3GB of internal storage is lost

I've got the same situation on my HUDL2.
8Gb of space lost in a black whole.
I did a web search and found one page where a user had the same problem. They had eventually rooted their HUDL2 and found this file "/data/IntelCPHS.log" taking up the missing space.
It's in the /data directory so it's protected and all I can do is list the size with a terminal emulator. It also doesn't show up in disk utilities because of the protected directory it is in.
I did a "ls -l /data/IntelCPHS.log" and found it was taking up nearly 8Gb.
Without rooting all I could do was a factory reset to remove it.
The only thing I've found that causes the file to grow is the All4 app. If I don't view anything with that the IntelCPHS.log stays nice and small.So not a solution but maybe a workaround.

I eventually fixed it by performing a system reset. So all data lost. Except what I copied off onto other devices.


text:
App to send commands over telnet?
I have a home appliance which I would like to control over TCP/IP - telnet - protocol. Do I need to design and program my own app for that or is there a shorter way to success? Some "universal remote control" with controls and buttons that I could bind to specific telnet commands to a pre-configured IP address?
I have some generic Android on the phone (it should work on my Android 9 and any number of versions that other household members have) and on the other side is an AV receiver with some proprietary software that understands commands sent over telnet (no SSH on that one). Since it's all on the home network, security is of a lesser concern.

Telnet is insecure, consider ssh. ssh also has more powers. And can you update the question, to tell us what you have (operating system) at each end of the connection.

Telnet is a simple protocol. You mostly just text over a TCP socket. So you need to open a TCP socket, then send lines of text to the device. I would prototype in python (on my desktop/laptop), then move it to termux (a Gnu/Linux environment (app), for android), then add a button (using the termux button extension). Then (maybe) write a native app.


text:
Warning bar in "Settings - Data usage" disappeared. A bug?
First, I'm currently using Android 6.0 on a Nexus 5, although this issue was already present when I was using Android 5.0.
Now I'll explain what I mean by "not seeing the warning bar". Regularly, the Settings > Data usage screen looks like this.

You can visibly see the warning bar, and that it is set to 4.7 GB.
Now, the Settings > Data usage screen on my device looks like this:

As you can see, there is no warning bar, and also no greenish graph that shows my recent cellular data usage.
How it happened, you ask? Well, it's a (more than a-) little silly. Usually, to change the warning bar, you hold on to it by pressing it, and then you slide up or down to increase or decrease the warning limit. I got a little bored I guess, pressed the warning bar, and started to continually raise it, as I was interested in the upper limit that Google enables. I took some time, but After getting to between 1.0E8 and 1.0E9 (it was hard to tell, since that number was rapidly increasing on my screen), it went back to 0, and started increasing from 0 again.
I was satisfied with my discovery, and wanted to try to stop the warning bar as close as possible before it resets to 0. After a few attempts where I came closer to achieving my goal, I accidentally lifted up my finger a bit while I was increasing the warning bar's limit. At 'normal' limits, nothing happens, and you can continue changing the limit afterwards. But when I lifted my finger up, my limit was in the range of tens of millions of GB. And when I lifted it in the middle of continually increasing the warning bar, the bar just disappeared, and with it, the graph.
My guess is that the bar was set so high, so the amounts of cellular data I use are insignificant compared to it, and that's way no graph is shown. But why can't I see the warning bar?
Anyway, this happened a few months ago, when my Android version was 5.0. I searched on this issue, but haven't found anyone else that encountered my problem. Also, before posting this question, I tried to reenact my scenario on another friend's Nexus 5 (running Android 5.1.1), to maybe gain more information about what happened on my device. A minute of experimenting later, his warning bar vanished too.
Any idea how can I resurrect the warning bar? (preferably without rooting the device or another 'drastic measure')

Expected dialogue: former friend (to you) "Thanks for that!" ;-)

This is an interesting question. Sounds like an AOSP bug.

Not sure with the Nexus 5, But on my Note 4, Settings > App Manager, Swipe to all. Then scroll till you find Settings and/or Settings Storage and clear data on them. It might reset all your settings but might reset the data limit screen for ya. That is if you don't mind resetting up all your settings. Worth a shot at least I guess.

Repro'd on Nexus 5, Lollipop 5.1.1. It's definitely an AOSP bug. The reason why the graph is not displayed, I believe it's because the scale is too small due to the data limit. I have tried clearing data for Settings, but it didn't do anything. I couldn't clear the Settings Storage data even though I'm rooted (it's disabled).

@AndrewT. Ahh well was worth a shot.

I have a fix, but it's for rooted device only. I'm not sure if there's a solution without rooting (hopefully there is...). Anyway, it seems this bug is not yet reported on AOSP Issue Tracker. Would you mind to post it there also, and get back to us after that?

Thanks @AndrewT. I posted the bug on the Issue Tracker: #178481.

This is indeed a bug, or possibly, an overlook by Google, since the possibility for this bug to happen is very small. The bug occurs when you set the data limit above 700,000,000 GB (or 700 petabyte).
Note: This solution needs root access since it modifies a system file directly.

Open file manager that can browse internal storage (e.g. ES File Explorer)
Browse to /data/system/
Open netpolicy.xml as text file
Find <network-policy> entry which has an attribute of warningBytes="<very_large_number>" (in my case, it's warningBytes="775911474387222528")
Edit the value to reasonable number (e.g. 1000000 for 1MB, this is for temporary value)
Save and close the file
Restart the device (important)
If you don't restart the device, opening "Data usage" will reset and overwrite the file with previous buggy value, thus you have to do it from beginning
Open "Data usage", and the data limit bar should come back

Update: this issue has been mitigated on Android 6.0.1. The maximum warning/limit bar is set to 1TB.

Clamp large data usage values.
Without clamping, they can wrap around to negative values and cause
all sorts of havok.  1TB ought to be enough for anyone: that's 3Mbps
for a solid month.


text:
Mp3s open in Google play after tapping always, have already reset all app preferences. What now?
Thanks for not scrolling by after the first half. This happens in Firefox, irrespective of which site used. The first time it offered the choice of downloading using play or downloads. Naturally I clicked the app I'd be opening it in. Now it just opens the file. After resetting the app preferences three time and closing both promhams after resetting and before trying again. With no obvious solution in Firefox settings. I'm out. Do any of you have any suggestions? Have a nice day.

In the Firefox address bar, enter about:config.
search for download.preferred.
After the search had filtered some items, You will see a preference named browser.download.preferred.audio/mpeg whose value is probably com.google.android.music.
Tap the Reset button at the lower right corner of this preference.

Future tip:
To see preferences you modified yourself, enter about:support, and check under Important Modified Preferences.


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Open an app on startup/after booting
I need to force a selected application to start up each time my Android-based device is (re)started.
Is there anything I can use (configuration setting, external application etc.) to accomplish this task? Or is this kind of behavior limited to home screen managers only?

Most Android OEMs do not provide a built-in auto-start manager. However, Android allows apps to listen to the system's BOOT_COMPLETED event to do something, including running other apps.
Example of using general automation apps:
Tasker (paid app):

Create a Profile: Event - System - Device Boot
Create a Task with Action: App - Launch App - (Select the app)
Note: Tasker also recommends adding Task - Wait for around 5 seconds first before doing other tasks to ensure that the system is ready after booting.
Link the Profile to the Task

MacroDroid (free for 5 macros, pro version available)

Add Macro - Enter macro name
Triggers: Devices Events - Device Boot
Actions: Applications - Launch Application - Select Application - (Select the app)

Otherwise, there are 3rd-party apps made specifically for this purpose. Some keywords that might help:

Startup manager: Google Play Store
Autostart: Google Play Store
Autorun: Google Play Store

Surely there has to be somewhere in the system that sets what apps start when. Download another app can't be the answer to every question.

@AuntJemima unfortunately, no. Unlike other OSes which has system-level settings (e.g. Windows 10), Android apps rely on a system event to indicate that the Android OS has finished booting (android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED), and then apps can try to run themselves after this to simulate the startup on other OSes. If the developer doesn't add this to their app, then it will never run on startup. However, since apps can also run other apps, these "startup" apps listen to that event and run other apps.


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How to flash TAB 900 Android Tablet
I have Sunstech TAB 900 tablet, and it ships with Android 4.0. I want to install Android Lollipop on it.
I have tried to use "apply update from external storage", but it gives me "E: Short write of /tmp/sideload/package.zip (No space left on device)" error, even if I have 1GB available. and Lollipop needs only 800MB.
I also tried to install CWM, but the device is not supported, also tried the fastboot method but again it can't detect my device, and there is no drivers provided by the company, but adb detects it.
So, is there any way to install Lollipop, or it's a dead end?

There has to be a custom recovery for your device first that will allow you to do a backup of your current stock ROM. Second Lollipop has to be released for your tablet. There could be a custom recovery for the Sunstech TAB 900 from TWRP. Look into it. Go to the Play Store or do a search for custom recovs for your device.

I see, so it can't run on all devices! Thanks for the informations man!


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Prevent apps being uninstalled
My kids love playing with my Android. However, they don't always understand what they are doing, and occasionally I find that they have deleted some of my apps (strangely, never the ones they play).
Is there any app that can make uninstall more difficult, or make access to the apps menu more difficult (e.g. require a password)?

I think that your question is covering the same ground as this previous one about locking the Application Settings menu http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7117/i-want-to-password-lock-my-applications-settings-but-no-other-settings if you want something more general to lock certain apps, see my answer below

Install Smart App Protector with its helper app (for enhanced reliability). Make sure to make it device administrator. Then, lock Package Installer and Play Store using it (lock down other market apps too). With one tap, the app can lock all apps which could uninstall it. The app facilitates this for its own security, but its solution of your question.
And, I can bet... after that your kids can't uninstall an app without developer level expertise.
Update:
After your comment, looks like your app launcher is capable of uninstalling apps directly like Play Store. So, lock your Launcher too. From your screenshot, its Samsung TouchWhiz launcher having package name tw.launcher. Lock this package with Smart App Protector. But, it'd lock your app drawer too.
If you don't want to lock your app drawer, best way is to switch your Home Launcher app & lock Package Installer, Play Store etc. Done!
Alternate launcher apps have more features as well as memory efficiency. So, its better in all other aspects. If you don't want to spend money, I'd recommend you Go Launcher EX. If you can spend money for this, I'd recommend you ADW Launcher EX.

This is the essentially the same as GAThrawn's and it fails exactly the same way

@Shahar Not exactly same.. I've targeted Package Installer. Can you tell me how exactly it fails?

Looks like you are saying it without trying.. One thing, I want to clear: As long as your device is open for installation, you can't disable uninstallation natively. Locking is the only way!

I don't know what it looks like. I installed your app, locked the Package Installer and Play Store. Then I went to the menu and deleted applications with nothing stopping me from doing it.

@Shahar Menu? What type of menu? Can you elaborate your steps? I am now getting feeling that you're talking about removing icons from homescreen..

This menu link. When I press the menu button on the bottom left, the application items shown have a little minus sign on them, and pressing them deletes them from the phone.

@Shahar Tapping that minus sign should redirect to package installer for uninstallation. But, if its uninstalling directly, see my answer update..

Yes, it's uninstalling directly. In Smart App Protector, I don't the option to lock packages, only applications.

@Shahar That's the same thing in this aspect. Its a system app.. Look for Launcher or TwLauncher name. The name generally contains Launcher word..

Finally found it, and it works. I'm fine with locking the app drawer. Thanks for your help and patience.

let us continue this discussion in chat

What does "make it device administrator" in your first paragraph mean? I'm looking at info on an app (Android 4.3) and see buttons to Force stop, uninstall and clear data, but nothing about being admin or not. Thanks!

@DarrenCook Go to Device Administrators from Settings ~> Security..

There are quite a few apps in the Market which will lock certain apps behind a password, a search in the Market for "applock" should find most of them.
I haven't actually used any, so can't give you a recommendation, but these should allow you to lock the Market and Settings apps behind a PIN number, to keep your kids out of them.

From what I can see, the applock apps prevent unauthorized running of the applications. This is not what I'm looking for. I want to prevent my kids from uninstalling applications, not running them.

@Shahar if you set the app to lock the Market app and the Settings app, then your kids shouldn't be able to uninstall any apps, no need to lock anything else if you don't want to.

I tried a couple of these apps, but even after locking the Market and Settings apps, I was able to both enter the menu and uninstall applications, with no lock screen shown in the process.


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Samsung Galaxy S3 Internal Storage Issues?
My Samsung Galaxy S3 has a range of strange problems.  I'm running CM11 but they started well before I moved away from Stock.  I rommed my phone in hopes of fixing them, assuming it was software related.
Issues in order of appearance:

While recording videos with the camera, the picture will often lock up momentarily, then come good.  This same stutter is then visible in the recorded video.  Shooting video direct to an external SD did not fix this
When pressing the stop button to end a video recording, the camera interface locks up for up to a couple of minutes before I then see the slide out thumbnail to indicate that the video was saved to my storage.  It seems the longer the video, the longer I wait.  10 seconds can take up to 30 seconds.  Other times it can just be instant.
App store updates or installs fail occasionally for no apparent reason, but work on retry.
Screen suddenly goes blank, but the phone is still responsive.  If I press the home or power button I get illumination on my buttons, as it does when responding to touch on the lockscreen.  I've left my phone for up to 15 minutes to see if it comes good but sadly only a battery-pull does the trick.
Dialog box appears while receiving a call to say the Contacts has crashed.

I've been trying to find a way to scan for file system errors on my internal storage using fsck, but I can't seem to find exactly what I'm after. Surely there is a way to do a humble "check disk" on an Android device?

Using a terminal app, you can directly call the relevant binaries (note that on Linux/Unix systems, there is no chkdsk – but it's named fsck, "fs" standing for "file system"). In user-mode you should be able to test integrity; in order to repair anything you probably need root powers. // I agree that sounds like file system errors or bad blocks; but with the external SD card affected as well, it might rather be a defective controler. If you still have warranty, I'd hurry up giving the device to service while you can.

Thanks for the response, I've tried to get my head around using fsck but I don't know which version I should run.  My phone has e2fsck,
fsck.exfat,
fsck.f2fs and fsck_msdos.  I presume I need to use e2fsck based on some sites I've read, but either way have no idea which partition to run it against, as I'm not familiar with the structure of the Android filesystem.  Any help would be awesome!

Also the warranty option is long expired by about 2 years now.  I should have returned it when I first saw the issue, but it was so rare at that stage I just assumed it was a software bug that would be fixed in an update.

As I wrote in my comment on the question, I rather think it's a defect in the controller – which is nothing you can fix yourself. Still, you might wish to at least check things. So I'll try to explain:
Preparation
To do all that manually, some pre-conditions must be met. You will need:

a terminal app. Terminal Emulator for Android would be a good choice: open-source, and available on Google Play as well as on F-Droid and on Aptoide.
alternatively: ADB to access the command-line of your Android device directly from your computer via USB. Much more comfortable, as you have a real keyboard and a big screen. If you want to go this way, see Is there a minimal installation of ADB?
optionally: root-access will definitely prove helpful, as this would also allow you to repair things.

Step 1: Find your "drives"
In a first "operative step", you need to evaluate what partitions there are, and which file-system each of them uses. Open your terminal (or run adb shell) to get to the command-line, and invoke the mount command. For what to expect, let me steal a screenshot from this post:

Example output of the mount command (click image for larger variant)
Now, not all entries are relevant to you. Check Android Folder Hierarchy to pick those you're interested in. For your case, the one holding /data/data will be of special interest. The example screenshot has it in the line with /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc.0/by-name/userdata, and we see it is using Android Folder Hierarchy as file system – more specifically: EXT4.
You might also wish to check other partitions, but make sure to stick to those with "real file systems" – and skip things like rootfs, tmpfs, sysfs, cgroup, etc. Basically, all those partitions you're interested in will most likely use either some extfs, or (for the SDCard) some FAT.
Step 2: Check the "drives"
Now that we know what we have, we can pick the matching tool. Our example uses ExtFS, so we need some fsck for that. As you assumed, from your collection e2fsck would seem the closest match here (though, if there's something specific to ext4, I'd check that first in the given example). Most parts of the different ExtFS versions are somehow backward-compatible – at least when it comes to "basic checks": EXT3 is, in easy terms, just EXT2 with a journal added – drop that journal, and you're back to EXT2.
Now how to run the check? Again, we already have answers for that – see e.g. How to check filesystem (/sdcard) for errors?, which gives us (for a read-only check run doing no repairs)
e2fsck -n /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc.0/by-name/userdata

If that finds errors, and you have root access to your device, you can replace -n ("no, don't do anything") by -y ("yes, please repair all issues you find if you can"). This might report (and optionally fix) some "bad blocks" which may have caused your issues – though the OS should attempt that itself on startup (boot). With root-access, however, it might interactively prompt you for things it didn't dare to repair automatically, so you might have a chance to improve your situation.

Thanks for taking the time to provide this excellent explanation.  Sorry it took so long to accept.  The issue is definitely in the controller, and my phone has degraded even further since this post.  I guess it's time to look for a new phone.

Agreed. With the device being out of warranty (which I assume it is in your case), a new device indeed might be cheaper than a repair.


text:
I deleted all the contents from my device and CWM does not allow me to install anything
I have ClockworkMod Recovery v5.8.3.4 installed on my Android device, I am afraid I deleted all the contents of my device and I cannot access Android.
When I enter the main menu, I see the "reboot system now", "install zip from sdcard", etc. options, but CWM cannot find any zip file with a custom ROM. If I select "reboot system now", I go back to the CWM main menu.
Can I update CWM? Can I install another ROM manager?

What device is it?

Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101

Try switching to TWRP from CWM has been out of development for a very long time. The TWRP is an older version it is still newer then the CWM your using. It also looks like it might be an issue with CWM.       https://dl.twrp.me/tf101/

Yes you can.
Download the things you want to flash on a computer, then connect your phone (booted into CWM) to it and use adb push to send the files to your phone. You can flash them with CWM.


text:
How to change the default action for when phone is plugged in to a computer?
When I plugged in my phone to my computer for the first time it gave me a list of options to choose for what to do when it is plugged in. I tapped one of the choices and then mistakenly tapped "Always" instead of "Just Once." I want to choose a different action, but how do I reset it to give me the choices again?
(And yes, I tried going into Settings>Apps>Reset app preferences, but no luck.)
I am running Android 6.0.1, unrooted.

When plugged into computer:

Pull down notification bar
Click on the USB connection notification
Choose either MTP (Recommend for daily use) or Camera mode

Done, you device will still charge, and now you are able to tansfer files between devices
Side Note: You are also able to use USB tethering(Under mobile hotspots settings) when connected to share your phone intenet data.

In sufficiently old versions of android this does not work. As USB connection notification does not show up if you pressed on "always". The solution is to use dev options to change it. once it has been changed once in dev options it will show up again and you can switch it with the "just once" selector

Go to Settings > Developer Options.

Once you enter developer options. Switch to ON.

Scroll down to Networking. You will find  Select USB configuration. Select what you want to do with your USB when connected.

If you don't see the Developer option, then you can get it by the following steps:

Go to Settings

Scroll all the way down and tap on ‘About phone.’

Now scroll down again and you’ll see an entry labelled ‘Build number.’ Keep on tapping till you see a prompt that says ‘You are now a developer!’

For the USB configuration, the common case is to select either MTP or PTP for a PC to be able to detect the Android device.


text:
How to use speech-to-text offline?
When online
When I am connected to Wi-Fi, I am able to say "Okay Google" from any screen and it will automatically start a voice search for me and look up whatever I say. I am also able to manually start a voice search by tapping the microphone button at the top of my homescreen on the right side of the Google search bar, and my phone will search for anything I say. Lastly, when I am using the on-screen keyboard to type I can hit the small microphone button in the corner and speak whatever I want to type (which it will instantly change to text, but I have to hit the "x" with my finger to make it stop).
When offline
When I go offline (not connected to Wi-Fi or data), however, things start getting weird. I can bring down the white pull-down menu for voice search by saying "Okay Google," but after I am finished talking it will stay stuck loading on "Recognizing" for a while, until finally it will say "Can't Reach Google at the moment" (see image 2).
After messing around with things for a while, I finally got it so that when I am offline and hit the microphone button on the keyboard, I can speak my sentence and then after an absurdly long wait it will translate it into text (I don't know if this is normal or just my phone).
What I've tried/what my specs are
I have a Moto-X (second gen.). My OS is fully updated (as far as I'm aware – Android 5.1.1), and I have the most recent version of the Google app (version 5.7), the most recent Google Now Launcher app (version 1.3.large), and the most recent version of the Google+ app in case that matters (version 6.9).
In my Settings>Language & input>Google Keyboard, it is set to "English (US)."
Settings>Language & input>Google voice typing, it is set to "Automatic" and inside that the "Languages" is set to "Default language: English (US)."
Settings>Language & input>Google voice typing>Offline speech recognition, I have "English (US)" installed.
My Question
Why do the Google offline voice commands not work when I am offline and how do I make it work?
*Answers as to why the keyboard text-to-type takes forever when offline are appreciated to but they're not my main concern for this question. Thanks! :)

Screenshots - Click to enlarge
EDIT: As of October 2016, I got a new phone (the Moto G4 Plus) and it has the exact same problem. All the symptoms are identical and I cannot use the voice commands unless I have Internet connection, and the offline voice-to-text is really slow (still not my main concern). It has the most recent version of Marshmallow (Android 6) installed.
EDIT 2: Occurs on Android 7 now as well. But I found out it was the Google App, not the phone or OS specifically. (see answer below)

Maybe I don't understand the question but are you trying to use the Google app by speaking to it whilst offline? If so, what are you trying to achieve by doing this as you will not be able to search the Internet. I believe that Google is possibly in the process of making certain commands work whilst offline but I'm pretty sure that this hasn't rolled out yet.

I was hoping to use it for things such as opening apps or setting a timer or other phone-side actions that don't require internet with my voice.

Also solutions suggested in link in above referring to  https://productforums.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/websearch/0orlGW-CjOI/discussion  various app versions . See also comments pertaining to Motox posted by micber67. See this for app settings recommended by Google https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2839743?hl=en

@beeshyams I followed your path and turned on the "Personal Results," but didn't see any visible change. I tried using the "Turn on Wi-Fi" voice command that it suggests, but it still "can't reach Google at the moment" (I even told it to turn on the Wi-Fi a couple times when already online to get it used to my voice). However, when attempting this, I did manage to get this screen again.

That's bad. Can you try reversing to earlier versions as some people have successfully done as mentioned in Google link? As you can see, this is a problem for lot of people and there is no "single solution". Since I don't have the device, can only suggest what had worked for some

I'm not sure on how to "reverse" my phone to a previous version (wouldn't my phone need to be rooted?), but I read through the entire thread you linked to and I didn't see anyone posting any Moto X phone versions that worked? Also, they seemed to be concerned with not being able to activate "Okay Google" from the lockscreen, not from when the Wi-Fi is turned off.

Okay, over a year later I have finally figured out what is going on. My carrier apparently uses "MQTT protocol," which means they need the Cellular Data option on to send texts (however, they have their own app set up to make sure that sending texts doesn't count toward your monthly data allotment).
The problem is that when the Cellular Data option is turned on, the Google app thinks that it should have Internet connection even when it doesn't. In my case, I don't pay for any data but I have to keep the "Cellular Data" option always on, as previously mentioned. But this makes the Google app not recognize that the phone is offline, and so internally it doesn't switch over to its "offline mode" and that's why the Offline Commands don't work and it doesn't recognize speech. I tried turning off my Cellular Data (while not connected to wifi) and the offline features worked as expected.
This means that I am not able to use Google's offline features, though, unless I turn off Cellular Data. And when I turn that off I won't be able to receive texts. So I can't have both :(

There are two apps involved in this case. First one is Voice-To-Text engine app. Other one is Google app.
The app you start by hitting the mic on keyboard is the former one. It normally relies on Internet to work, however, can be made to work offline too. I can't explain the reason of the long wait though. Maybe it tries to connect to internet first and then, when it fails, it switches back to working offline method.
The app that you start by saying Ok Google is the latter one in this case. It also uses Voice-To-Text engine in the background, however, it uses the input it receives from your microphone, directly to start a Google search. Which is impossible to perform when offline, and therefore, it fails.

So I can't even use "Okay Google" commands to open apps or other local actions that don't require Wi-Fi?

This may be available (probably only for US English). Have a look at this article: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/google-now-gets-offline-voice-command-support-for-some-functions-report-745940

I knew it! I've seen that image shown in the article that says "Offline voice tips," which is what inspired this question. That article was from last September, so the feature should definitely be on all updated phones now. How do I use it instead of getting the "can't reach Google at the moment" message?

Google offline voice commands limited to 10 actions http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/09/28/the-google-android-app-now-supports-limited-voice-commands-for-offline-use/


text:
Moto G5 plus, not vibrating on incoming calls
I have Moto G5 Plus, with Android Version 8.1.0. This issue is related to vibration feature. My phone has stopped vibrating when I receive incoming calls. The phone vibrates properly when there is a SMS message. I have also checked the settings under Settings -> Sounds. The option "Also vibrate for calls" is turned on already. I have also restarted the phone several times, but the problem remains the same. Could anyone help me understand why the Vibration is not working for incoming calls when the vibration is working for SMS. I justed edited to mention that the key press is also not working. Vibration is also working when I shake the phone to switch on the torch light.
(DND not enabled)
Edit
I have observed one more behaviour. There are two ways, incoming calls are shown. Sometimes I see a box at the top with accept and decline square buttons. In this case I do not hear vibration. Sometimes, I see a full screen with a circle button at the bottom which I have to drag up to receive the call. In this case, I hear vibration just once at the beginning and then no vibration. So I am really confused as why does box appears sometimes and why circle button at the top and why vibration does not happen in the first case.


text:
Razer Phone 2 showing wrong size for the SD card and performance of the card is not ok
I have the following setup:

Razer Phone 2 (Android Phone)
Samsung EVO 128 GB SD card SDXC class 10 (Yellow one)
SD Card formatted as internal storage from the Razer phone

After using the phone for couple of months the performance of the phone started to get effected. The I checked and found that the SD card was sowing 256 GB but the card is actually 128 GB.

I have double checked the card physically and it is a 128 GB card.
Now how do I reformat the SD card so that it is corrected (found a video on how to do that) and then copy my data back to the card so that it works as before. The card is encrypted so the copied data will not make sense. But as long as it works after I copy back that will do.
I do not have another card where I can clone this card. I plan to copy to my windows machine, format and then copy-back the content of the card.
Any suggestion on the steps/measures I have to take to have the card corrected and retain the data?

Ideally, you'd want to decrypt the data first, then copy it off for re-formatting. I'm not sure if Samsung's Tizen OS supports formatting the external SD card in recovery or not, otherwise, it can be reformatted via fastboot, though I'm unsure if Samsung's Tizen OS allows formatting the external SD via fastboot on a bootloader locked device. There are Android apps that can format, however you'll want to do research and only install one that's been reviewed by a major 3rd party (Android Authority, CNET, TechSpot, etc.), else it can be formatted on a PC.

Its not a Samsung phone tho.

I misread the first and second bullets =] Disregarding the Samsung mention, all the information would still apply (the only meaningful difference is the RAZER uses Android, whereas Samsung uses a highly customized version called Tizen and implements a different security feature called Knox, neither of which are relevant to your issue)

@JW0914 I am sorry but why do you mention Tizen OS here? It is never mentioned in the question. The question is only about Android.


text:
Back up/restore /data on a device with forced encryption and no TWRP support
Back in the days before forced encryption, I was able to back up my entire filesystem (or rather, the /data partition, including all non-system apps and app-private storage) using TWRP and restore it. I even migrated my data from one phone to another using this method.
Nowadays, modern devices have their data partition encrypted by default. The one in question is a Fairphone 4, which has no official TWRP support yet (and the unofficial one to date does not support access to an encrypted /data partition) – so no way to simply back up the data partition from TWRP, and I am looking for a replacement.
Environment constraints and requirements:

Must back up and restore the entire /data filesystem transparently, without changing or even looking at the data – including user apps, app data (system and user); internal shared storage is optional
Device runs LineageOS and is rooted with Magisk
Must work without Google services
Backup must be stored on the device itself (internal storage, SD card or external USB storage), a Linux PC via USB or a server under my control
Any extra software needed for this (recovery, backup tools, server software) must be FOSS

Any options?

"TWRP does not support that" - huh? maybe not on your 10 yrs old Nexus S because they simply forgot, but TWRP works fine even on FBE + metadata encryption. btw ever heard about Migrate? ;)

@alecxs the old Nexus S (btw, how did you know I had one?) and the OnePlus One did not encrypt their data partitions, so that was never an issue until I got the FairPhone 4. I didn’t get to try out TWRP on the FP4 as they don’t seem to support it. Great to hear that TWRP can decrypt /data, but that won’t help me until my device is supported.

As for Migrate, it seems it works in a manner similar to Seedvault, NeoBackup and others: it backs up apps with settings, data and APK (the latter only for user apps), not on the filesystem level as TWRP does.

...and here’s where I got the TWRP info from: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/twrp-for-fairphone-4/79634 Issue is that TWRP doesn’t officially support the FP4 yet, and the unofficial builds so far can’t decrypt the FP4’s /data – things look different on fully supported devices.

guess they are working on it. fstab looks like FBEv2 metadata encryption

Not a complete answer yet (better ones are encouraged), but here are some pointers.

LineageOS 19 and up includes Seedvault, which claims to restore apps and settings, and some report it even works for transferring data to another phone. It is also available as a standalone app. It can back up to internal storage, USB storage or cloud storage (which can be self-hosted). I am not sure, though, how selective it is about the data it backs up, so the first requirement may not be fulfilled.

On a rooted device, you can install an SSH server such as SimpleSSHD. In order to get full access, the SSH server must support root mode – SimpleSSHD allows this by setting the su binary as the login shell. You can then access the entire device via SFTP, mount it on a PC and run the tools of your choice on it. Caveat – I found SFTP to be about an order of magnitude slower than MTP (~500 kB/s vs. ~5M/s), thus a full backup takes long. You’ll want to limit your backup to what has actually changed. One way to do that is to mirror files with Unison – that way only the first backup (and full restores) will take long. As the data will not be compressed, you will need the equivalent of your phone’s storage in available space somewhere.

I have encountered the same problem recently, so here's how I extracted the data from the running Android system.
First, make sure as few apps as possible are running (because any open database might be incorrectly backed up).
If adb root is available (on LineageOS this is in System → Developer options → Rooted debugging), then, from a Linux PC connected to the phone by a USB cord and with USB debugging enabled you can run something like:
adb root
adb tar -C / --exclude data/media -cf - data > data_nomedia.tar
adb tar -C / -cf - data/media > data_media.tar
adb tar -C / -cf - system > system.tar
# (repeat for each desired directory)
adb unroot

— and so on, one for each directory you wish to back up.  (The above commands assume you wish to separate /data from /data/media as the latter is generally more transportable, but YMMV.)  The resulting tar files will be unencrypted and uncompressed, so it is your responsibility to do one or the other if you so wish.
I must warn, however, that bluntly extracting one of these tar files on a new device is unlikely to work.  But they can be precious to extract or back up specific data files or SQLite databases.  Be aware that permissions (especially user/group names) are likely to differ on a new device.
If adb root is not available, but su works, something like the following might work instead:
adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555
adb shell
# On phone:
su
cd /
tar -cf - somedir | (sleep 3 ; nc -l -p 5555)
# In a different terminal on the computer, within 3 seconds:
nc 127.0.0.1 5555 > somedir.tar
# (Interrupt the latter when the tar command on the phone side is finished)

(Do not copy or use these commands unless you fully understand what they do and what they are for.)