text:
Importing photos finds all image files, not just camera pictures
When trying to import photos from my Galaxy S2 in Windows, it tries to import all image files on the phone (including application data), not just those in DCIM.
The system is Android 4.0.3. The phone is set to connect as a camera (but Windows Explorer can still see the full directory structure on the phone and SD card.)

Do the (unwanted) pictures also show up in your galery on the S2?

One more thing to please explain: What do you do to import your pictures (e.g. what program you are using)?

I don't see a question here... If you only want to import certain images, why not use software like Picasa which allows you to selectively import/review images of choice?

No, they don't show up in the gallery. It's all application data images, album cover files, etc.

I wonder the album covers do not show up in the galery: if there were a .nomedia in the music folder, it would be really strange... But then, I never had a device with ICS (still running Gingerbread), maybe something's changed...

Probable answer by guessing what you are doing: If all those unwanted pictures are also displayed in the galery, and you use some "media-importing-software" (as opposed to just copying files in explorer yourself):
This importing software is probably contacting your Android device's media server for "media of the type image", so it gets all images returned the media service knows about. No big help up to this, but: You can tell the media service to exclude directories from its library by placing an empty file named .nomedia there (the leading dot is essential in the file name!). As soon as the media scanner finds that file, the entire directory it resides in (including all subdirectories) is skipped. If there are any pictures, videos or sound files, they won't show up in the galery (but you still can access them via a file browser if you want), and the media service will not even know they exist. So the next time it is asked for "all media of type image", those files won't be mentioned.

I'm using the default Windows photo import functionality (I suppose that's where the problem lies); the nice thing about it is that it auto-rotates the photos to the correct orientation. It'd be hard to give that up. I'll see if other media importing software does the same thing.

Did you try to simply copy the images with the explorer? The auto-rotating is probably done by your image viewer rather by the importer -- that's a standard feature based on Exif tags most photo viewer can cope with.

That's what I ended up doing, ultimately. Thanks.

As of October 2014: See this, it offers a direct way to do just what we're looking for.
Nutshell:

Connect phone to computer
Swipe down from top of phone to get to settings (Samsung Note 3)
tap "Connected as..." and select "Camera (PTP)" to access photo folders.

(Alternatively, tap "Media Device (MTP)" to access all folders)
FINALLY!

Connect your device as MTP not PTP
Install and use Android File Transfer. Now you can see the file hierarchy on your Android device. (Not just images - all files). At least for Nexus devices. Haven't tried on Samsung.

(FYI iPhotos has been discontinued as of 4/2015)

I had the same problem, when transferring images from my Galaxy S2 to computer, using Windows Photo Gallery to import (default). Can't find any Settings on the phone to find the photo folders. Instead, open Explorer, locate the connected device (phone in this case), open the files for this, locate DCIM, open to Camera and the photos are displayed and can be copied to other files or edited from here.


text:
How to set password request for booting the smartphone?
How can I set the phone so it requests to unlock the screen before starting up?
Earlier I had to unlock the phone so it starts up but now it boots without unlocking (and I didn't change anything in this regard, at least deliberately). (I bought it as used so I don't know how it was activated).

See if this happens to be the problem with your device. https://blog.g3rt.nl/android-lollipop-encryption-user-interface-flaw.html

It seems that there was an issue described in the link provided by Firelord in the comment:

Don't get tempted by any app asking you to enable its Accessibility Service. It will change your encryption password to the Android default one allowing everyone to decrypt the "encrypted" data. The PIN you enter at powering on your device may not be used for encryption at all - without a warning given.
If you use encryption on your Android device, follow these steps now:

Open up the Accessibility settings menu.
If a Accessibility Service is listed there at the top, disable it.
Change your screen lock PIN/password/pattern whatever to reset the encryption password. Make sure to tick the "Require PIN to start device" option.

These three steps reactivate the password request for powering up on Android 8.0.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Deleting 'infinite' recursive directory
I created a new folder inside /sdcard/ and something went wrong with it since  other 600 sub-folders (one inside the other) were created as well.
I noticed the problem when trying to rename the 'main' folder, as it returned a  "folder not found" error.
I know the number of sub-folders because I checked the properties of the main folders. There are also 160 files which I did not place there and I haven't checked what they are.
My phone is rooted and for the operation I used the CM built-in file manager.
I've been trying deleting the folders both via UI and through the shell but nothing works. If I run
rm -r /sdcard/<myfolder>/

It returns "folder not empty".
I've also tried the
-rf

option but nothing changes.
Rebooting didn't solve the issue.
I hope it's not about a corrupted partition...
Any suggestions?

I think you tried -f and -r separately. You need to use both the switches together, ie rm -rf /sdcard/<yourfolder>/

@daltofury42 No, I tried -rf, I've just edited my post to make that clear.

Try adding a -v switch and post back any relevant outputs.

Can you give us the output of ls -l on /sdcard and grep that folder in it? Also, do you have a custom Recovery installed? In my case, my clockworkmod directory wasn't getting deleted because I suppose it's group and owner wasn't media_rw and gave me the error folder not empty. I booted into custom Recovery and nuked it for good.

@daltofury42 No relevant outputs. @Firelord: drwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r          2015-09-09 11:00 Tasks. Also yes, I've got TWRP installed. I think I'll try deleting the folders from there.

Successfully removed through the Recovery command line. Thanks!

Issue resolved by running rm -r from the Custom Recovery cmd.
I'll create the folder again and see if the problem reoccurs, hopefully it was just a 'random' glitch.
(I should probably mention that I use a nightly version of CM12.1, not a stable ROM).

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


text:
How to format an SD card directly inside Android?
How can I format an SD card directly inside Android?

These steps were using an HTC EVO with HTC Sense - your menu options may be different but should be similar.
There should be a "Format SD Card" in the phone "Settings".  Open "Settings", then go to "SD & Phone Storage", then you should see "Format SD Card".  If the option is grayed out then you may need to unmount your sd card first and then format the card.  Make sure you have backed up anything you want to save with a backup app or just by copying whatever files off your card onto a computer because this will erase everything on the card.
Hope this helps

Is this format safe? Does it remove also hidden partitions, if any?

I wouldn't describe any format as "safe", since it erases all the data, but it should format the card perfectly well.  I would expect it to remove all partitions as well, though I have never partitioned my card.

I've never formatted From Android's built-in method so I can't comment about the partitions - I've always formatted through a custom recovery (Amon RA) which gave me the option to set sizes for the partitions.

Go to Settings -> Storage -> Erase
 SD Card.

Screenshot - (Click to enlarge)

In Android 7 it can be done from the "Downloads" App"
It apparently can't be done from the Settings directly anymore.
You can open it either:

directly like any other app:

top left "three line" menu
"SD card"

through settings:

"Storage & memory"
"Tap for more details"
"SD card"

With either approach, you are now at the "SD card" view of "Downloads" and finally:

top right three dot options menu
Storage settings
Format

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

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

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


text:
Hebrew word suggestions on ICS
I have a Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich OS installed, and I write emails and text messages in Hebrew and English.
The English keyboard has as-you-type word suggestions that appear (in blue) bove the keys while typing.
The Hebrew keyboard does not have that feature (it only suggest to complete contact names). How do I add word suggestions to my device?

Are you using the stock keyboard, or a 3rd-party replacement?

Try using a 3rd-party keyboard replacement app.
I've previously used AnySoftKeyboard, and can confirm that it does show word suggestions on other languages.  For Hebrew you would need to install the corresponding language pack as well.


text:
How to get android device model number connected to a PC via USB?
How do I get the android phone model number from a Windows PC connected via USB, provided all the USB device drivers are installed properly? Is there anyway to get it via Android SDK?

I don't know how to get it by the adb command.
But you can get it programmably with the SDK. There is a class Build which have many information of the current running phone, such as you wanted model number can be got by the Build.MODEL.

hey, thanks for the pointer, found out the adb command:
adb shell cat /system/build.prop | grep "ro.product.model"

For anyone else stumbling across this old question, the above comment requires root.  On a non-rooted phone: adb shell getprop ro.product.model. Also of potential use is adb shell getprop ro.product.manufacturer. For a full list of properties, just adb shell getprop

#!/usr/bin/env -S bash
adb shell getprop ro.product.model

Citations

android.stackexchange.com/questions/20763/how-to-get-android-device-model-number-connected-to-a-pc-via-usb#comment314862_20770
stackoverflow.com/questions/5486694


text:
GTalk and phone with wrong time
I have a phone where I like to have the time a few minutes forward the right time. Now, when I chat with people through Google Talk, I got all message mixed up because the received messages arrive with the sender time. If the answer is faster than my forwarded minutes, it appears before my message.
Example:
Phone 1 time        Phone 2 time       Sender       Message time        Message
08:01               08:18              Phone 1      08:01               I'm fine
08:00               08:17              Phone 2      08:17               How are you?

Is there anything I can set up (beside the right phone time) to avoid this?

Unfortunately not, except perhaps a different chat application that can interface with Google Talk. Talk uses the timestamp of the sender to order the messages, using the assumption that cellphones on a cell network will have a consistently accurate clock. It is likely that a different chat application (such as IMO or Trillian) which interfaces with Google Chat will display these messages differently; I do not use multi-protocol chat applications, or change my clock, so I cannot confirm that this will solve your problem; I remain rather confident it will however.

Check the time zone you have set under Settings -> Date and time and make sure that it's correct. I had the same problem on my Samsung phone and this solution fixed it.


text:
Upload my own videos to Google Play?
Is it possible to sync my own video with Google Play Video (like in Google Play Music)?
I know that it's not possible on Google Books, I am wondering how about videos.
What will be a good alternative for syncing videos?

Right now it is not possible to sync through Play Video, however, you may soon be able to purchase movies from the market and have them stay in the cloud until needed.
You could try alternatives such as Box, or Dropbox, (there are many competitors in this file-locker space), they allows you to sync nearly anything across devices.
Google Video, at least on my Xoom, will pick up movies out of any folder without the .nomedia file in it.
(edited to remove falsehood of no Google Services allowing syncing :) )

And what if I have a video of my wedding and wanna upload? I guess I'm looking for an alternative, which is?

It is very possible to sync videos via Google's services.  Take a look at Google+ and Picasa.  I have all my personal videos (and photos) uploaded to Picasa Web Albums, and can access them via the Gallery app on my phone.  Google+ app allows me to auto-upload videos taken on the phone to my G+ account, which is the same place as the Picasa Albums.

IMHO they should have make it a unified service Music, Videos, Books, Podcasts (listen), all should be accessed and managed from one place. Whatcha think?

There has been talk/rumors about a Google offered File Locker service in the works - Google Drive

If you use Google+, you could install the Google+ app which can auto-upload videos and photos from your phone to your G+ account.
These photos and videos can also be accessed online via Picasa Web Albums which point to the same place as your Google+ photo albums.  On the phone these become visible in the built-in Gallery app, if you enable the Sync Google Photos and Sync Google+ options on your account via Settings -> Accounts & sync -> <your Google account>.  On the desktop you can use Google's own Picasa application to organize and sync your photos/videos between your PC and your Google account.

Can it also sync my DVDs from my computer to my device?

Copyright debate aside, it should be possible if you rip the DVDs into supported video formats.  However, Google's "cloud" storage that's in use by Google+ and Picasa is only free for the first 1 GB (some files don't count toward this limit.)  After that limit is reached, you'll need to upgrade to paid storage.  See this article for details: http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=39567


text:
my phone hit a pavement and 3g/4g stopped working. next step?
As I was cycling, my htc rezound fell on the pavement. The battery popped out.
There are few scratches but no visible damage.
I start the phone and it's fine as long as I don't use data.
Once I use data, the phone uses "1" may be it's ev-do. speedtest shows 129 kbps down rate.
I tried flashing and installing a leaked ICS. that didn't solve the problem.
I would think that the damage was because of the physical shock of hitting the ground (nothing broke). so is there a way to diagnose it? to check if 4g is still working?

Maybe contact the carrier, they may be able to do some test on the device to see if it is actually able to connect to the 4g network.

In the HTC Dream (G1) the UMTS radio (3G) is a separate board from the rest of the phone. While this is a Desire Z and I haven't had the opportunity to take one apart, it's probably very similar.
The 3G/4G daughterboard (or if it's connected, antenna) could have failed, cracked, disconnected or sustained damage in some other way. Software won't fix it. You have damaged hardware.

is it hard to buy a replacement or my only option is to ship it to htc?

I am not sure only because I don't know exactly what failed. I'd have to look at the Desire Z teardowns to know for sure.

http://tjworld.net/blog/htc-desire-z-tear-down Does not seem like there's a separate daughterboard. Ship the phone to HTC.

The antennas on the Rezound are built into the battery cover.  It could be as simple as a bad contact that could be repaired by replacing the battery cover.


text:
Reinstall TouchWiz Calendar
I've been trying to reinstall the TouchWiz calendar on my Sidekick 4G with no luck.
I got the calendar apk here, and put it on my sd card then moved it to system/app using RootExplorer, and once I clicked install I got the normal install prompts then a message that said "Application not installed".
How can I fix this? Do I need to reinstall a stock ROM?

You don't install system apps, they're automatically detected.  After you move it to /system/app/ just remount system as read-only and reboot.  If your ROM's not deodexed that may not work but that's a whole other can of worms.

Thanks, Matt! I set the system/app directory to r/o and made sure that the app had the same permissions as other apps and then reboot. There's no Calendar app showing up in my app drawer, so I'm guessing my ROM might not be deodexed?


text:
How do I update all my apps with the new Google Play Store?
I want to update my apps, but I can't find the option in the new play store. How can I do this?

On all my devices, if there are more than one app to be updated, I can see the Update <x> button above the apps list, in the header bar with the "Updates" text. This will update all apps that don't require manual updates.

How do I access that?

Open the Play Store, tap the Menu button (the three squares in the top right corner) or press the physical menu button, depending on your Android version, and select My Apps. This will list all your apps and those that need updates.


text:
Access root directory?
Assuming that I am not able to start up my phone due to a file that is missing on the file system. Would it be possible to get to my phone's root directory on my computer and to place the missing file?
Maybe by using fastboot?

No.
If you have a custom recovery that supports adb / root, you can boot into it and use adb to remount /system as read-write and push the missing file over.  But otherwise you don't have access to most of the phone.

THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!! I have managed to get the cmd-based recovery running. Now I can finnaly use adb to get the file which is missing to its place. The only problem is I am not sure there I could get the file i need.

@NitramRelisch I'd recommend looking over at XDA -- their Wildfire S subforum is a good place to start, specifically here.

okay, I'll try that, thx for ALL ur help!


text:
External Microphone in Headphone Jack?
There are some external stereo microphones for IOS that plug into the headphone jack rather than the dock connector. For instance, the IK Multimedia iRig MIC Cast.
They claim that they work on Android as well.
Well, they may work, but do they provide better sound quality than the internal phone microphone, turning it into a decent digital recorder for music, for example? (with the right software, of course).
My question isn't really whether those microphones are better quality than the internal microphones, as I assume they are. But does the headphone jack on Android phones (mine is the Galaxy S4) really provide the input capability for better quality sound, including in stereo?
Of course that jack can transfer sound in both directions, headset and microphone, as it is a phone. For output, the phone provides quality stereo music output to headphones, as modern phones are also music players. However, the microphones on phone stereo headsets are generally low quality monaural microphones only suitable for phone calls, usually not better than the internal microphone, might be worse.
So the question is--is the input function of that jack capable of providing quality stereo input, if one has a quality stereo microphone attached? (No matter how good quality the microphone is, if that jack really cannot transmit that quality sound, but reduces it to a very low resolution and frequency-reduced monaural sound, no point at all in attaching such a microphone.
Anyone know about the input capabilities of the headphone jacks on Android phones. (If it varies from phone to phone, then how about mine, the Galaxy S4?)

A standard, traditional headphone jack has 3 sections, for left, right (outputs), and ground.  The ones with the microphone added a 4th section, for monoaural input from the mic.  There's no way to get stereo input through a single connection.
As far as the quality goes, I don't really know, but I doubt that it is particularly high quality, as it was designed only for non-stereo voice.

I found this video on YouTube: Galaxy Samsung S4 External Mic for mobile phone.  and here is the mic quoted on eBay. I plan to test it soon. It seems the vendor has positive feedback.
It is noise-reducing microphone for the 3.5mm jack. I tried to check if the cited video has stereo sound. I believe it does, but I am not sure it did not come from some YouTube stereo enhancement, so I cannot claim it for the microphone. I plan to use it for lectures, so it should serve for the purpose well enough.

stereo is produced with mixing equipment or software you will be hard pressed to find a tru 2 channel mic because of feedback issues i have friends that make beats and record on a laptop mono input and they sound amazing your phone is no different other than the codecs that convert the analog to digital

Please set use commas and dots, your text is hard to understand.


text:
OPO Root Mac OS X- SuperSU Binary Not Installed
Wondering if anyone is able to help me. I've been trying to root my OPO, but unfortunately RootChecker keeps coming back that the root access hasn't been installed properly, and SuperSU says "There is no SU binary installed and SuperSU cannot install it. There is a problem ... You need to manually re-root...". I've been using a few guides, but have primarily been trying to root using terminal https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/like-a-boss-how-to-root-your-oneplus-one.58493/ and have also tried the One Toolkit made by Consistant at XDA.
Steps taken so far:
Unlocked bootloader (checked it is unlocked, code shown below)
(bootloader)    Device tampered: true
(bootloader)    Device unlocked: true
(bootloader)    Charger screen enabled: false
(bootloader)    Display panel:
OKAY [  0.006s]
finished. total time: 0.006s

Flashed TWRP custom recovery.
Flashed SuperSU.zip
I have also tried flashing SuperSU whilst booting TWRP through my mac (as in the guide).
Phone details:
CM 12.1-YOG4PAS1N0
Android v5.1.1
Any ideas? Thanks for your help.

This is rather odd. Few days ago when I installed 12.1 all I did to root was (my bootloader was already unlocked) boot into TWRP recovery (version was 2.8.6.0) -> flash the Beta SuperSU zip -> once successfully installed I booted into Android -> it showed Android is upgrading and that's it. Launched my SuperSU and it worked fine.

Yeah, the odd thing is that when I've booted back into Android, it spent a couple of minutes optimising the apps as you'd expect, but then it stated that the binary wasn't installed.


text:
Is there a way to move unmovable apps to the SD card in Android 6.0?
I recently updated to Android 6.0 and made my new 64GB SD card as adoptable storage. Unfortunately, as per here:

Apps can be placed on adopted storage media only when the developer has indicated support through the android:installLocation attribute.

This is problematic since I only have roughly 4GB of internal storage and some of these unmovable apps are quite large.
Without going into partitioning the SD card into 2 and using Link2SD/Apps2SD, is there a way to move these unmovable apps? My device is indeed rooted so that should hopefully help.
Edit: In reply to the user1871, and also I will add: I already put all those things on the SD card. Right now I have roughly 1 GB free in the internal storage. Also I do not want to uninstall anything. When I used DiskUsage to see what was using up a lot of the space, it was the data/app folder which contains a whole bunch of unmovable things such as base.apk, lib and oat folders.
These types of unmovable files is what concerns me since they will quickly add up and overtake my free 1 GB. I just want to find out a way I can move (or at least create symbolic links to those files after putting them into the SD card) without using Link2SD type apps. I'm leaving doing that as a last resort since formating an adopted SD Card will result in me having to factory reset my phone :(

You just need a free app to do this without root. Please note that this does not work for preinstalled apps (like Google Play Books, etc.)
App: APK Editor
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmail.heagoo.apkeditor&hl=en
Open the APK editor and choose 'Select APK from app'. Choose your app from the list that will appear and select 'Common Edit'. Change the 'Install Location' field to 'External Preferred'. Click Save and then Install. (you may have to uninstall it first.) You will now be able to use Settings/Apps or your preferred app manager to move the app to your SD Card.

This is the correct answer, so simple, does not even require root. But it's not well known.

Correction! This works to install, but WhatsApp (for eg) seems to detect it as a tampered version and refuses to work.

Play Store link is dead :(

Open the APK editor
Choose 'Select APK from app'. Choose your app from the list that will appear
Select 'Common Edit'
Change the 'Install Location' field to 'External Preferred'
Click Save (Working.... )
(you may have to uninstall it first.) Remove app and then Install again.
You will now be able to use Settings/Apps or your preferred app manager to move the app to your SD Card.

Apps like Link2SD/Apps2SD can be falsely miss interpreted, apps once installed can have extra data moved to the sd card but a main portion of the app like the launcher will need to remain on the internal storage. there for a app cant be 100% on the sd card. you can set apps to auto install on the sd card but they still need a part on the internal. id suggest move any media pics,videos,music ect on the sd. uninstall any unneeded apps

Are you sure what you describe also applies to Link2SD? AFAIK Link2SD moves the entire app to the "special partition" and just creates a symlink in the original place. Same for Apps2SD (not to be confused with App2SD, for which what you wrote is valid).


text:
Peripheral mode is off
I can't pair my activity tracker (Mi band 2, xiaomi) with my tablet/app (Android 5.1 ).
According to BLE Scanner app: no nearby BLE devices, 'peripheral mode not supported in your device'
When I open the app (Mi fit) : discoverable is off
How do I fix it?
Note: I got the tablet for free and there's no name or brand, only "rockship 791"

Does Mi fit connect to the Mi band? If not try to install an older version, I found that while trying to configure smart unlock, as with newer version of the app I could not find the device on an HTC one M8


text:
Is CyanogenMod available in several languages?
Vanilla Android works in so many languages (including mine). What about Cyanogen? Are there language packs? I have not found any on official site, but maybe anything unofficial?
And if there is/isn't any, then

Is the translation device-specific?
Will some parts of system, that come from original (vanilla) Android work in my local language?

CyanogenMod ROMs are multilingual and you can select the language the first time your phone boots or in System settings-->Language & input-->Language(ICS 4.0.4) at any time.
I can say it supports all languages in the world from The far East to South America including right to left languages like Farsi.

All officially supported languages are listed on their changelog: https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_vendor_cyanogen/blob/gingerbread/CHANGELOG.mkdn


text:
Use image file as camera
I need to use an image file instead of a camera for Android apps that want you to use a camera app to take a photo (for example, Google Drive scanner). I don't need to use apps that use the camera directly, such as WhatsApp.
The question was edited so it matches the answers. See edit history to see the actual question.

For emulating built-in in-app camera: Creating 'fake' microphone and camera inputs on an Android mobile, How to emulate camera input in Android? (To activate WhatsApp Web)

There are 3rd-party "fake camera" apps that will let you to choose an image instead, such as:

Image2Camera (free)
Fake Camera by New Horizon Apps (free)
Fake Camera - donate version by Vaclav Balak (paid)

Note that you need to have the image inside the (emulator) device storage first for these apps to be useful.
Also, since these apps are not really a camera app, opening the apps directly won't be really useful (other than, perhaps, to read the instruction for app usage). Instead, when you want to take a picture from an app, these apps will be selectable as "camera" app instead, then you can select the image on the device.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with any of these apps.

I'm sorry, I'm just not understanding this. How can this be beneficial. I know you know your stuff, you provide excellent answers. Can you give me a decent link on reading more about this?

@HasH_BrowN basically, when an app requests the user to provide an image, Android by default doesn't provide a way to select both from gallery and camera; only 1 source can be used. The general solution is to provide a menu to choose the source (implemented manually by the developer). This makes a problem when an app only requests to take a picture from the camera; you may have a better picture stored in the device, or can't take a photo now. The only solution is to make the "fake camera" work as a "gallery".

Also, in this specific case, OP is using Android emulator; the camera would work if OP had a webcam. Similar benefits are for device which doesn't have hardware camera while using an app that needs it (ideally Play Store will prevent this app to be installed in such devices, provided if the developers specify it, but either way for apps from 3rd-party market, there's no checking and it can be installed either way)

Thank you. That makes total sense an I now see that could be really useful under various situations. Thank for the summary


text:
Look at motion pictures without Google Photos
Google Camera can take "motion pictures", pictures in which a quick video is taken with the photo.
I'd like to be able to look at them from my phone without using Google Photos. How do I do so?

Related: How do I view google's motion photos on my windows PC?

Thanks for sharing the related question! I've edited it to remove the last part about how they're formatted, just so it's clear it's a different question


text:
SyncMe Failed to connect to computer, isConnected failed: ECONNREFUSED (Connection refused)
I have a new router (RT-N18U), and a new HDD, set it up to work with SyncMe Wireless. It all worked pretty well, I synced my phone ok. Then I synced my wife's phone as well. It started ok, 50% of her stuff went up to the HDD, but then it stopped. I cannot make it work since then on her phone OR my phone either. Both fail.
My system:

The router (see above)
A Computer with XP
HDD is connected to the router, not to the computer
2 phones, both SGS3, with Android

My errors:
When it first crashed, the error was this:

Error: Failed to delete file \E\124609.jpg_(!).(!)_tmp.
  Computer error: Sharing violation

(I am not sure what E is)
Later on, the error changed, this is what I see now pretty much all the time:

Error: Failed to connect to computer , failed to connect to
  RT-N18U/192.168.1.1 (port 139) after 4000ms: isConnected failed:
  ECONNREFUSED (Connection refused)

If I try to search for computers, I cannot find any, I did get something like this at one point:

Error: Computer was not found on the network

I am not really good with network and such, so I am not sure what might have gone wrong, after it initially worked fine.
The Computer Name in the SyncMe Wireless setup is the name of the router, not sure that is good.
The User, that I registered the Computer under SyncMe Wireless's settings, I was not sure what user to add there, so I initially added the username and password for my router.
What I think might be wrong (was right but it "broke") and I might need help with:

the sharing of the HDD folder (I am not sure how to share it)
the user that I connect to the router with from the phones (where to create that user?) instead of the router admin user
hope that the (XP) computer doesn't have to be online for sync

I don't recall settings on XP but sure had to refer help of app and get it running.  I do recall computer had to be on line.  Don't use the app anymore because it would halt copying at  things like long file names. Some of  my  class notes voice recordings had topics covered in file name for easy reference and app/windows not ok with  that.  If  you fix  the problem, you had to restart copying the entire folder(hope app fixed that now)   Gave up and manually back up now. This was backing up to laptop not external drive

Looks like the settings were fine.
I even had that Samba thing set up right.
I turned that Samba on-off from the router, then I removed the "Computer" from SyncMe, re-added, and it worked.
The error actually happened again, later on, with the "could not delete + sharing violation". Then I did the above steps again, and it worked.
I didn't have long filenames or anything weird like that, but I had a lot of files to back up (first time sync)
I am curious if this error will persist later on, when I will have a lot less files to sync.
It currently works fine.


text:
Can a factory reset really fix proximity sensor problem?
The screen on my Alcatel Idol 3 goes black when making or answering a call. This suggests that the proximity sensor may be bad. The Phone Tester app indicates that the proximity sensor reports "near" all the time. A customer support rep had be do a reset (edit: wipe system cache) on my phone (not factory reset). This did not resolve the problem. He then suggested doing a factory reset and get back with him to submit a warranty claim if that didn't work. What are the chances that a factory reset will resolve this problem?

Next to zero... But if you are going to request an RMA for it, you should do it just in case. Proximity Sensor issues are generally a hardware problem, a factory reset will only correct it if somehow the stored thresholds for the sensor got corrupted which is highly unlikely since this is stored in a privileged system file. If you are rooted, you may be able to modify these thresholds manually, but this will void your warranty and only has a 50/50 chance of working at best. It is generally best to get the device repaired/replaced under warranty if that is an option.

There is 50/50 chance that it will work. You can perform factory reset if it doesn't "fix" sensor than it's hardware problem and need to be repaired/replaced

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Are firmware updates secure?
Now that mobiles are being used for payment systems, I'm more concerned about the security on my Android device.
I would rather not be the first to be vulnerable to some malicious code that happened to get slipped into the firmware update that the carrier is installing on my Android mobile.
I'm presuming they occasionally are sending fixes/patches over the air (OTA) without me having to give approval before they are installed -- perhaps I'm wrong on that though.
Are firmware updates secure and I'm just being paranoid?  Is there any way to block new firmware updates from getting installed right away when everyone else's is?

To detect tampering, firmware updates are signed and (if you're using the recovery program that shipped with the phone) the signature is verified before install.  After a mandatory confirmation from you that the installation should start, after a reboot, the recovery program will first verify this signature and only then install the new firmware.
Note that you will always get a prompt for a ROM update. Besides allaying security concerns and giving you a bit more control over the proceedings, this gives you the opportunity to:

Make sure the battery is charged or that the phone is plugged into the mains.
Back up any data you fear may be lost should the upgrade go wrong.
Do a bit of research into the improvements in this firmware version, and decide whether it is worth your time.

So yes, firmware updates are secure and even if you are concerned, an update to the actual OS will not be installed without your confirmation.

Ok, so I have the option whether or not I can install a binary with a signature that ensures it truly is from someone (LG, or the carrier?)
That will at least keep me from being the first to discover a problem.
My phone has Metro PCS branded apps and content on it.  Does that mean Metro PCS's staff created the firmware image, or is the firmware coming from only the manufacturer (LG, in my instance)?

Yes.  You will always have the option to install an update when its available for your phone. If you don't do anything funny (like unlock your boot loader) you will be installing an update directly from your phone company, so long as the existing firmware is from your phone company.  I make that distinction because some phones like the Nexus One, Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus get their updates directly from Google.

I'm going to equivocally state then that I don't trust a binary from my mobile company.  Blah.  When will 100% open source come to mobile?

Actually, they are legally obligated to release the majority of the source code within short order (read: before the end of time :p). Also, you may want to check out xda-developers to see if your bootloader can be unlocked. If this is possible, with enough patience you should be able to write your own version of Android or patch in whatever fixes you feel are important. Note that it will never be 100% open source as it's actually illegal to allow some components in a phone (like its radios) to be programmed to do certain things. These parts are usually provided by manufacturers in binary form.

The updates won't be installed automatically. The system will only notify you that the update is available. You can download and install them at your convenience.


text:
How to stop display turn on and consuming battery power, when using Headphones remote control or volume button?
I don't know if this depends on the music player (I'm using mort player music) or standby screen (I have widgetlocker app as lockscreen), I don't see any options in these apps to change this. In Android 2.3.4 (rooted) I have set turn off Display after 30 sec.
When I jump to next/forward song via remote control button of my headset, every time the display turns on for 30 sec. For the volume buttons the same.
Is there a way to stop this behaviour and save battery power. E.g. only turn on screen when pushing HOME or POWER button when in standby? Any apps like tasker able to manage this?

I believe it depends upon the music player app. Have you tried using another music player?
In my case, I didn't encounter this issue. I have used Samsung Galaxy 3 with several music players including stock player and also with a Bluetooth headset.
I think the app itself is the cause for this, which is causing screen wake-up on next/previous, and in my opinion is a poor implementation.
I don't know of any apps which allow to change the screen on behavior like this. It may be available in Cyanogen-mod perhaps.


text:
What does it mean when I select to 'clear data'?
If I look at the options to manage an application and select to clear data, what data is specifically being cleared? Is there a way to find out?

All the data stored by the app in the folder /data/data/app_name/ will be cleared. You cant specify which data to clear. The app would be like when it was installed or updated.

What data is stored in the data/data/app_name directory?

usually settings and other app data. For example in a browser data such as history, saved passwords, cache, preferences, etc.

Is there an easy way to access the data or do I need to install developer tools? Also is the data encrypted or stored in plain text?

@PeanutsMonkey: You need root to read the data. Whether or not it's in plaintext is entirely up to the app developer, just like with any other piece of software.


text:
Apps list on Galaxy Tab 10.1
On the Galaxy Tab 10.1, is there a way to see a list (not grid) of all apps, or to search for an app by typing other than via the main Google search widget?

You can see a list of all apps in Settings -> Apps (or Applications) and then select the All tab to see factory-installed apps in addition to downloaded apps.


text:
Can I route a call via SIP based on a phone number?
My Android 4.0.4 phone supports SIP. However, the options when to use the "Internet calling" are very limited: "For all calls", "Only for Internet calls", "Ask for each call".
I would like to use Internet (SIP) calls for all calls outside of my area code (e.g. all international and long-distance calls should go via SIP, and local calls should go via my regular voice account).
Is there any application, patch or tweak that can help me with that? My phone is rooted.

"Find me an app that does X" questions are generally not on-topic here. (Please review the [FAQ].)

Csipsimple indeed does the job if you want to use it as your SIP client. If you prefer the built-in SIP client, try the Advanced Dialer app.

You can do that with a program called CSipSimple.  It let's you customize not only whether certain calls are routed, through a Sip provider, but which Sip provider as well.  With CSipSimple, the filters are based on regular expressions so there's a lot of flexibility.

Sipdroid has routing capabilities while also providing basic bluetooth headset support which CSipSimple still lacks.
I've been able to set it up so that calls with certain prefixes go through device's GSM voice link and all the rest go via SIP. This has had a bonus of blocking short "premium" numbers, which proliferate in European GSM networks and are designed to take advantage of careless cell phone users.
https://code.google.com/p/sipdroid/
BTW, both Sipdroid and CSipSimple are opensource projects, so if you need some really advanced routing it is not impossible to code the required logic directly into the app.


text:
Is there a way to select multiple files in Astro File Manager
I want to delete multiple files with astro file manager. Is there a way to select many files at once? (like holding ctrl+click in windows)

Press the "Multi" button and then select the files/folders you want, as explained on their help site:

To select multiple files in ASTRO you simply click the "Multi" button.
  Then, you choose the files or folders you would like to work with (you
  will know they are selected because the names will turn orange.  If
  you want to copy or move files, go to the location you want those
  files and press the Copy or Move buttons.  If you want to delete,
  simply press the delete button and they will be removed.

Yes, there is. Tap the "multi" button in the tool bar at the top.


text:
Does ADB push and pull work on non-rooted phones?
I just discovered about the command adb push and adb pull which supposedly lets people push and pull data from within the internal memory. Now my question is, can this be used on non-rooted phones? For example, i want to change the default camera shutter sound found on /system/media/audio/camera/, can I use adb to push and pull the audio files? And also, is this an act of rooting that could void my warranty? The main reason why I'm holding back on rooting was because I still had a full year before my warranty runs out.


text:
Access phone contacts by PC without USB debugging in android
My little sister entered my phone screen pattern incorrectly. My phone went to a screen that needs my Google account and password. When I enter them, it says that they are invalid. I am sure that they are correct (also I can't enable internet in that screen). I searched about it a lot and realized that this is a bug in android. I am prevented from unlocking my phone.
I can factory reset my device, but my contact list is important and I don't have any back up of it. Is there anyway to access it? Here are two solutions that may help to solve this problem.

I can access my device storage by connecting a USB cable. There are some windows apps that can access to contact list by USB like adb or Wondershare MobileGo, but they need USB debbugging to have been enabled. On my device, it is off and I can't toggle it because my phone is locked.

2.can i root my device in this state and after that solve my problem?

I can make a back up from my device. It made a .backup file on my phone storage. Is there any windows app that can extract data like "contact list" from that .backup file?

If you can't enable Internet and Google credentials are considered incorrect by the system and if you don't have a custom recovery and if ADB is not enabled and the device in unrooted (assuming) too then positive chances are less to none. My point, did you have Google Contacts sync enabled before the device locked out? Google will restore your contacts after a reset. // That .backup point, are you using some Chinese phone? I've one such  phone whose stock recovery allows creating a .backup file, though I never bothered to extract anything from it.

In case the device is rooted, you may be in luck: Can not unlock my Android device as have no internet connection? Anyhow, tell us which device is it and is it under warranty?

tank you.my phone is chinese. but my google contacts is not sync.cant i use the usb mass storage to access my contacts list?

USB mass storage provides clients like PC explicit  access to external SD card. That's all it does. Anyhow, what about my other points raised in my earlier comment?

none of them work for me.but about the .backup file.i can factory reset my phone and after that restore to my previous account using that file.but after that i return back to that first screen that wants username and pass


text:
How does rooting work?
Or, how do I root my device without a rooter?
Rooting instructions for Android devices that I have seen are typically of the following form:

Download Gingerbreak.apk
Run Gingerbreak, click “root device”
Observe that Superuser.apk has been magically installed, possibly along with busybox and other things, and enjoy your rooty goodness.

What I am wanting to know is this: how does the rooting actually happen? What does Gingerbreak do?
I understand the end result of rooting:

su is present and working
Superuser.apk is installed and controls access to su
Various utilities are present, provided by BusyBox (optional?)

I also think I understand the basic idea of how Gingerbreak gets started — it exploits some local privilege escalation vulnerability and uses its new-found powers to deploy Superuser and whatever else is necessary.
So, unless I am wrong in some of the understanding I laid out above, the core of thing I want to know is what the root installer does to deploy and activate Superuser. It seems that just putting Superuser.apk in the right place wouldn't be enough — how does it get allowed root access? How does it get hooked up to moderate that access for other applications?
What does Gingerbreak do post-exploit to enable and secure root access?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/236/what-does-to-root-a-phone-mean

After much digging, I finally figured it out. I was wrong about where the magic is - it is not in the installer script; all that has to do is put the su and Superuser.apk binaries in the right place and set their permissions. So it really is as simple as dropping files in place and setting permissions. No magic wiring.
The magic happens in the su binary (see the source and also this question). I was (incorrectly) thinking that su was a standard su, and that things were somehow wired up to moderate access to that binary through Superuser.apk.
Wrong. What actually happens is far simpler: Superuser provides a custom implementation of su that authenticates access through Superuser and its authorized application database.
So the process of rooting is as simple as @Sparx said. The deployed software contains the magic.

I think this misses one important thing: the su is itself not magic at all, the only magic about it is that the OS treats it specially. All it has to do is return "OK" or "Not OK" when asked by the OS whether to allow a particular application to elevate permissions. If it's missing, or always returns "Not OK" then normal apps can never get root. So rooting is basically the process of placing an su binary that can sometimes return "OK", into the protected location on a system which isn't supposed to allow this to be done.

all that has to do is put the su and Superuser.apk binaries in the right place and set their permissions as if this would be easy without an exploit, the exploit is the magic.

@Alex Not quite. I was specifically trying to figure out what a rooter does post-exploit. In this case, because I had root access via ADB, so I didn't want to needlessly run an exploit.

@RomanSt not quite right, it simply has the setuid bit which allows it to run as root even though the user that invoked it is not

What the APK and exploit do (usually) is as follows:

The APK puts the right files in the right place to run the exploit
The APK runs the exploit
The exploit attempts to attain root access
If it succeeds, the exploit remounts /system as read-write and runs the installer script
The installer script attempts to install the su binary and superuser APK, and reboots

As an example, this page details how the rageagainstthecage exploit attempts to gain elevated privileges.

Thanks. I think this narrows my real question further - what exactly does the installer script do? Or where can I find a copy of one to read? Most of the docs I see are very opaque — “download this APK, it works” with a link to some random file sharing site.

su allows elevation of privileges in Unix-like environments (what Android is based on). When the su binary is installed, apps/scripts can then use the su and sudo commands to run and access parts of the file system that are normally restricted for ordinary users. In essence, that is why one roots a phone - to be able to gain access to "restricted" parts of the system and to be able to carry out commands that an ordinary user is disallowed to perform.


text:
How to install Google Music on a non-US phone?
I am trying to install Google Music on my phone from outside the US. After using Market Enabler Play Store correctly displays and even downloads the app, but then aborts with "this app cannot be installed in your country". It still doesn't work after rebooting my phone. Is there any way around this?

I had no trouble getting it myself, but that was a while ago.  Have you tried using a US proxy or sideloading the app?  Another option would be to switch to data or Wi-Fi for the download, whichever you weren't using, to see if it's just the particular network that the Play Store has a problem with.

Any idea which of the direct download links is legit? I don't recognize the sites, and I don't want malware.

@ripper234 Android Police uploads to the sites, it doesn't post unverified links from other sources.

Both links in that article are now 404 (removed due to copyright)

Please reopen my question - it is not an exact dup. I'm not asking about the technical "how to", but just where can I find a trusted apk. This question does not contain this information.

@ripper234 This answer contains a link to a post with an .apk that I trust. We don't handle questions that only ask for shopping help or links, so this "how to" is the closest you'll get. And this isn't the place to discuss your other question.

I know that this has been marked as answered, but I wish to add this:
Most apps like that tell which country your from from your locale setting. This can be changed from the settings menu, or using the app locale switcher.

Seriously? What about those who live in a "foreign" (relative to them) country but still want to use their phone in the mother tongue?

Where in the Setings menu? (For Samsung S2 with Android 4.0.3)

I am not 100% sure but I believe that the Play Store determines the country with help of the SIM card.


text:
What audio file formats does Android support?
What audio file formats does Android (ICS in particular) support? If this depends on the device, how can I find out?

The Supported Media Formats page of the Android SDK documentation (under the "Core Media Formats" subsection) outlines all of the formats that vanilla Android supports. Audio codecs specifically noted are:

AAC LC/LTP
HE-ACCv1
HE-ACCv2
AMR-NB
AMR-WB
FLAC
MP3
MIDI
Vorbis
PCM/WAVE

As the documentation also notes, manufacturers can provided decoders for additional media formats, meaning that this can potentially vary by device a bit. I'm not aware of any simple way to determine which extra formats are supported by a device aside from simply copying a sample over and attempting to play it with the stock music player.
Similarly, specific apps can potentially provide software decoding for additional codecs. MX Player provides codecs in the Play Store, for example.

The MOTODEV Site has the internal specs for every Motorola Android device. If you scroll to the "Media" section, you'll see the list of supported formats. Usually it's the Core Media Formats plus any extras.
For example, the RAZR...
http://developer.motorola.com/products/razr_maxx_xt910/


text:
answering machine app on Galaxy Note
I want to install an answering machine app on Galaxy Note, didn't find anything interesting in Google. What do you recommend? Or is there such a feature on the phone itself, in settings or somewhere?
Something with a recorded message saying "I'm not available now, please leave your message or phone number".

I found two questions quite similar to mine asked, but they didn't get any satisfying answers.

What's wrong with using your carrier's answering service?

Are you looking for voicemail providers? Like youmail or google voice? Or something different?

@Chahk: It doesn't have any.

@AlexB: If those two do what I want, then it'd be okay.

Google Voice should do what you want if you're in the US.  On my phone I can go to Settings -> Call settings -> Voicemail and set it as the "Voicemail service" (you'll need the Google Voice app to do this).
There might be other apps to hook into this voicemail service setting but I can't find any at the moment.


text:
Exchange Calendar Sync can't edit turns reminders on
I have synced my Galaxy S II with exchange 2010 server. It has imported all my calendar events as expected, however it has set a reminder on all of the events. For example, in Outlook I have public holidays in my calendar with no reminder, however on my phone these are imported with an Alarm "On Time". Since these are all day events, the alarm goes off at midnight.
Does anyone know a way way to fix this problem?

This problem was resolved by upgrading to Ice Cream Sandwich


text:
Sony XPeria Arc: How force DNS resolution with a specific host?
I've made my website and it can be accessed only through specific domain name.
http://my.specific.domain.name.
And of course, you have to change your /etc/hosts configuration and add
my.specific.domain.name 192.222.222.222

to make it look to the right IP.
Any idea how to do this on a Sony XPeria Arc?


text:
How to switch Input Method / keyboard?
I recently upgraded my Galaxy S2 from Android 2.x to 4.0.3.
I had, and still have, two keyboards installed & enabled - MultiLing Keyboard, and Swype.
In my previous ROM, long-pressing an input field let me switch keyboards. This method now stopped working, and the only way I found to switch them is via the setup menu.
Has the method to switch inputs changed in ICS?

Once you've activated an input field, you should see a keyboard icon in your notification area. Drag the notification bar down and tap on the notification saying Select input method and you should get the menu.
If this doesn't work, it's due to Samsung's modifications. At least the vanilla ICS has this option.

Thanks. I would never have searched there ... too bad they removed the hold-to-switch method.

In all of my HTC phones, press & hold in the input area (text area) will show a "Input Method" prompt for switching IME.


text:
Popups, dialogs, notifications, toasts: what's the difference?
I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with an unwanted pop-up message, and the person who's trying to help asked what kind of pop-up it is. It's just a message on the screen, what difference does it make? And how do I tell what kind it is?

It's really been a while, but Android added more pop-up types like snackbars and banners. Since this question looks canonical, is it okay to expand this Q&A?

@AndrewT. Sure! This could be a community wiki if you like; I only made it to help when people ask things like "a message came up, what app sent it?"

Android has different ways for apps to give you information or get your attention, and they all have different names. App developers need to know the differences, and when to use each one, so they can code the correct behaviour in their apps. Even as an end user, if you want to troubleshoot a problem, find which app is giving you messages, or describe some behaviour (for example, when reporting a bug to a developer), it saves you time and confusion if you can call each thing by its correct name.
Notifications

Notifications are the most common feedback mechanism on Android. They look like icons in the top-left of the screen (the notification bar). On Honeycomb and ICS tablets, they instead show up in the system bar, in the bottom-right next to the clock.

In Jellybean and above, once you've expanded the notification drawer (like in the screenshot), you can long-tap a notification to get a menu with one item, App info. Clicking this item tells you which app is responsible for the notification. You can also stop this app showing any further notifications from that screen.
Some apps create notifications to advertise things at you. This is now (since September 2013) banned under Google Play's rules, so you should report as malicious any apps that do this, from the app's page in the Play Store app.
Often your phone will play a sound or will vibrate with a notification, but not always: it's up to the app which created it.
Toasts

A toast is a small message that shows up in its own box near the bottom of the screen, and disappears on its own after a few seconds. It's usually a response to an action you've just performed, but in fact a toast can come from any app, not just the one in the foreground. A toast can't interact with you (you can't click on it or type into it), so there's no need to worry about it "stealing focus" like on a PC. There's no indication of which app created the toast.
Dialogs

A window that appears, with buttons you can click or a list of options to choose from, is called a dialog box, or dialog for short. (It's spelt the American way even in British English.) They almost always relate to the foreground app. Strictly speaking, from a developer's point of view a "dialog" is any non-fullscreen activity window, but they're usually used for simple confirmations or choices, like in the screenshot.
Interstitials
In the marketing world, an interstitial is a page or screen that comes in between two others. They're commonly used to show large-format ads in ad-supported apps and games: you click a button in the app, and an interstitial shows for a few seconds before you get to the next screen.
Summary
Next time you want to discuss or troubleshoot some kind of message that pops up on the screen, you'll know what to call it, and you can make it easier for others to help you.


text:
does SDK disk images of APIs for windows and mac differ?
I have started developing on a windows machine, I use the ADT with Eclipse, my SDK is updated with all the possible Android APIs, ie, (1.6-4.4). The windows machine is pretty slow so lately I got a Mac (Mavericks), so I am confused between ADT for mac and windows.
Is the APIs updated with the SDK work with mac(can i copy and paste the version images to mac sdk from the windows sdk)? or should I update the SDK (APIs) for mac?
thank you for any suggestion!

Some parts of the SDK are the same between Windows, Linux, and Mac, and some are not.
The developer tools, such as adb, fastboot, and hprof, are native binaries so they're different for each OS. The emulator too is different for each OS.
The Android system images for the emulator are the same between the different host OSes, so you don't need to download these again.
The android.jar files containing the Android framework library itself are also the same between the different host OSes. It has to be this way because the JAR files are compiled into your app.
If you're not sure what to update, it's probably best to just start a fresh installation of ADT. That way you're sure to end up with a working version, and there's no risk of failing to update something you should have, or mimatched versions. It might seem that you're wasting time by downloading some of the same things again, but at least you'll be able to trust your tools. If you try and Frankenstein your installation to save downloading, then even if you manage to do it right, you'll suspect it's broken every time you have an unusual bug, and you'll waste more time in the long run.

The list of folders that you can share between Linux & Windows file system as they are the same files for Android SDK are below. You can just copy & paste these folders between any OS you use:
add-ons,
docs,
extras,
ndk-bundle,
platforms,
skins,
sources,
system-images,
tools
Apparently, you will need to download the below folders i.e. SDK Tools differently for each OS, as they are platform dependent tools which rely upon OS like Linux, Windows & Mac OS differently:
build-tools,
platform-tools
These two folders don't eat up much of a download bandwidth. So you can easily download it as per the OS you are working on.
I have tested and tried this successfully so far and all worked well with full support. This will save a lot of disk space as well as download bandwidth & time for sure!

I know its a late reply but here is the answer.
Some parts of the SDK are same except the SDK manager AVD manager ADB etc.
all the system images jar are common
Remember Java is a platform independent language.
In real life, I use the same SDK library for Windows, Mac and Linux.
The files are kind of intact for Windows and Linux. But for mac, you have to download some other files too.
And ya, you don't have to copy-paste. Just share via a network.  That the best so that both copies will be same. download New version of android in Linux will reflect that in Windows.
I use the same SDK for:

Android Studio Windows
Android Studio Linux
Android Studio Mac
Xamarin Studio in Windows
Visual Studio in Windows (Xamarin development)
Xamarin Studio in Mac

All works cool. Only thing is you have to give write access for both Linux and Mac users.
Thank you!
Please comment for any doubts.

the avd does not link up can you tell me how to perform it

you need separate avd because the executable extensions are different. just simple download all missing stuffs.


text:
How to choose micro USB cable for my device?
The plug sure looks like any old micro USB plug.  Will another cable (like the one from my digital camera) work to charge the battery, or do I need one specifically designed for my phone (incredible)

I took the liberty of editing the title, to make the search device independent, while my solution specifically uses your device as an example. Thanks

Any Micro USB cable that has the capability of charging your phone does excactly that.
I found a link on USB powering. The source is from 2005 but the issue remains the same.
Some cables do charge your device due to a sufficient power flow through the cable while others don't.

That's not answering the question you are just saying that if it does then it does.  Any piece of string that has the capability of charging your phone does exactly that.  I'm not aware of any string that has the capability but if it had the capability then it would have that capability. Profound, yes, I know.  Not all cables are capable of charging a phone.

That's true, but you should look in the cable's description whether the cable is capable of charging or not since your phone already has the charging contacts built into the USB socket.

I have used three different cables that came with other devices and they have all worked just fine.  But yes, not every cable will be fully wired to support power flow/charging.

Edit:  Proof of theory is in testing it, so the reults are right on top to encourage making an informed decision while shopping for USB charging cables.
Of late, I noticed that my Huawei Honor 6 device was charging slower and decided to replace USB charging cable. I bought these Tronsmart cables at a price comparable with budget cables. These are 20 AWG thickness for charging (provide best charging) 28 AWG for data (thinner thickness doesn't affect data transfer speeds). Picture below from product

Performance: I have two devices Samsung Note 2 and Huawei Honor 6 both with OEM chargers and OEM cables (nearly a year old). Charging current as measured using OEM cables and Tronsmart cables is very encouraging

Samsung Note 2 with OEM cable -  1100 mA, with Tronsmart cable - 1900 mA
Huawei Honor 6 with OEM cable -  550 mA, with Tronsmart cable - 1750 mA

Caution: Please make sure you don't end up buying CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum Cables) instead of Copper cables. Former are comparatively brittle and have lower conductivity compared to Copper conductors

Standards

USB standard 3.0 in   lays down standards of 10 W: 5 V, 2 A  for smartphones and tablets
Battery Charging Revision 1.2 lays down " standard for establishing the proper way to charge a battery from a USB port "
American Wire Gauge (AWG) is a reference for thickness of cables. In this system, larger numbers indicate thinner wires. USB specification above makes reference to AWG numbers of 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28,

These standards are to ensure that appropriate Voltage and Current are available to the device being charged and selection of  right USB cable is based on these to deliver right amount of Power to charge

This is applicable for all Android phones- OP's device is taken as an example ( see Notes at end )
All USB cables are NOT the same when it comes to charging
Selection of USB cables depends on:

Device it is meant to charge
Length of cable
Thickness of cable in AWG ( externally, they may look the same but what matters is the electrical conductor thickness internally ). USB cables of standard make are marked showing the thickness, for example,
28AWG/2C and 24AWG/2C or 28AWG/1P + 24AWG/2C

This means

The first code is normally the specification of the data signal pair, which is normally 28AWG. "2C" means 2 conductors, and "1P" or "1Pr" means 1 pair. "2C" and "1P" are basically the same.
The important part is the second code, which is the specification of the power distribution pair (relevant to the solution here)

Before we get into details of how to select based on these factors, a quick recap of  basic electrify would help:
Ohm's Law  Current = Voltage divided by Resistance

Resistance = Length  of cable divided by Area of cable (ignoring resistivity)

Power = Voltage multiplied by Current

What do those equations mean?
Current carrying capacity depends on resistance, for the same Voltage.
Resistance is inversely proportional to the area of the wire ( Less area = Thinner Wire = More Resistance = Less Current )
Resistance is directly proportional to length (Longer cable = More resistance and vice versa )
Power in turn is therefore dependent on length and thickness of cable (affecting resistance) and Voltage
In a nut shell, quoting from USB Cable Resistance: Why your phone/tablet might be charging slow

if you are going to replace your cable with an aftermarket cable, it would be best to see if you can find a cable with the thickest possible conductors for the power. If that isn’t possible, stick with short (to very short) lengths, as that always works.

Power (Voltage times Current), thickness, short lengths are qualitative and need to be in numbers to choose the right cable. For this you need to know, firstly, Power-  Refers to the charger rating of your device .  Your device as mentioned is "incredible" and  Charger for HTC Droid Incredible shows it to be rated for 1A
Next, is Voltage- For a 5V output, the USB specification demands that the voltage remains within 5% (i.e. an acceptable voltage drop of 0.25V). Some vendors provide a slightly higher Voltage rating

.... some vendors have realized the issue (of Voltage drop ) and decided to push the output voltage up to 5.1v or 5.2v, which is still within USB specification but allows for an extra 0.1-0.2v voltage drop. This is a potentially nice feature as it means the requirements on the cables are slightly relaxed (i.e. maybe even 0.7v voltage drop is tolerable).

Choosing the right cable
You know the Power and Voltage , only thing left is to know the thickness and length of USB cable. For that refer to the tables (choose under the current rating of table With Contact Resistance, which is real life, without contact resistance is to give the effect of cable alone) and look for maximum cable length / thickness combinations by choosing "non red" color (green or yellow) which tell you that you can safely choose, as indicated by arrows:

24 AWG cable upto 2 metres in length
26 AWG cable upto 1 metres in length

Google for this cable specs (normally cables are commonly sold as 24/28 AWG ,in  which case select maximum 1 meter length ) and buy from a reputed vendor. Done!!
Notes

You can calculate the voltage drop using Ohm's law yourself. Tables are for convenience. Helpful pointers on using the tables :

If the exact rating of your charger is  not available, say 1.35 A, select the next higher rating or work it out issuing Ohm's law
Green color in table indicates, that the values are compliant to USB standard.
Yellow While yellow-zone figures are not going to be strictly compliant with the USB -0.25V maximum drop, it may still be sufficient for a full charge as many devices can accept somewhat more loss of voltage without detriment to charging
Red Non compliant to standards. Don't use
For lower current rating upto 1.5 A, selection of yellow zone lengths may still be sufficient for a full charge as many devices can accept somewhat more loss of voltage without detriment to charging. For higher currents (more than 1.5V), you need to be more conservative, so you should choose towards the green.

For Tablet users: you need to choose what falls in "green" zone only, since Voltage drop sensitivity is higher. See this as an example Google Nexus 7 Charging
I am in no way affiliated with the source and I believe it to be credible given the detailed logic presented and relates well with other sources which recommend short cables, without proper justification. It is an educative read for those inclined to get into technical details

A very well informed answer, +1, hope full the person asking the question can make sense of it all

The picture say Voltage drop at 1000mA and 2000mA what is it? how you read that? did you crop the image for the 2000mA table? I mean my charger say 1500mA so I guess can get green area at 2 meters for my Tablet?

Sorry, that was a cut paste problem. Tables are linked in answer and again here for the source 2. As pointed out in the answer if your rating is not covered in the tables, you can either work out yourself using Ohm's law or  select the next higher rating for tables, which is 2000mA

I use 2 metre cables for my three devices all rated at 5V 2A and it works fine (two of them are capable of fast charging and no problem with them either)

I'd say it depends on the cable, but you have a fair chance to get your phoned charged.
I've tested HTC Hero with 3 types of USB cable (universal, bought with my pocket hdd and bough with my dvd-drive), 2 types of a GPS charger and one type of a GPS car charger. All worked well. :)

My un-technical answer is no.  I have a microUSB AC Adapter for a bluetooth headset that charges my headset just fine but won't charge my phone for some reason.  I also have a retractable miniUSB cable to connect to the computer with and it is fine for data but it also fails to charge my phone.

That is not an issue with the cable, its an issue with the power source. Some power sources(usb ports or wall worts) will not supply sufficient power for some devices.

No, it is an issue with the cable.  I know the difference between powered and unpowered usb ports and the ones in question were all powered and worked fine to charge my phone through the stock cable that came with my phone.  I'm pretty certain it was the slim retractable cable that failed because I tried it on 3 different computers. Data' yes; power, no. Also your comment does not take into account the ac charger I mentioned.

For what it's worth, I purchased a generic MicroUSB cable on Amazon for like $2, which was advertised as being for BlackBerry users, and it works just fine on my Incredible. I use it as my charger at the office.


text:
Android apps keep crashing with android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDiskIOException
Starting yesterday, my Galaxy s2 device running Cyanogenmod 9 started to crash with android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDiskIOException exception for every running app. Does it means that my phone is dead or I can fix it?
I was using an old cyanogenmod nightly on the device, and updated to cyanogenmod 9 rc1 after the problem started just in case, and it didn't helped me at all.

Did you try a factory reset?

@MatthewRead I prefer not to do a factory reset as I do have some data on the device. I've formatted the Cache and Dalvik Cache from the recovery, though.

Report it to Cyanogenmod team. :)

Have you checked your free disk space?

I encountered exactly the same problem as yours on my Galaxy S2 with CM9 earlier this week.
I figured out it might be the problem that the internal USB storage had some error on it.
Unfortunately, formate Dalvik Cache and Cache won't fix the problem.
You can try to mount your phone onto your computer and try to fix the error using some disk check utilities, which I tried but phone freezes after mount as USB.
At last I fix the problem by doing a hard reset. So I suggest you start from trying mount your phone to your computer and do some quick backup first.
If you cannot even copy out your files, it is the problem of internal USB storage with some logical errors.

It's probably too late to help the original poster, but I had this exact same problem for the past 24 hours or so on my HTC Incredible with Cyanogenmod 7.1.0. I was consistently getting SQLiteDiskIOException errors every time I tried to start an application, including even the keyboard and crash reporters.
After stopping and uninstalling all sorts of applications, I finally happened to clear the Twitter client data through Manage Applications. It immediately solved the problem. I'm not sure if it's Twitter itself, or if clearing the data managed to tweak something else.
Anyway, something for someone to try if they run across this error. I was one step away from reinstalling the OS from scratch.


text:
Why do charging rates differ for similar spec USB power adaptors?
I've been experimenting with using USB power adaptors other than the one supplied with the Android tablet and I'm struggling to understand why adaptors of a similar spec to the original are charging at much lower rates.
Could anyone help shed some light on what's going on?
Tablet: Acer Iconia B1-750
Measurement App: Ampere charging meter app from Braintree https://goo.gl/SQNiQb
Adapter           |              |
Manufacturer      | Output Spec  | Charging Rate
================================================
Liteon              5.2V  1.35A   250mA        (original adaptor)
Delta Electronics   5.35V 2A      30mA
NewLink             5.0V  2.1A    20mA
NewLink             5.0V  1A      20mA

All measurements were taken using the same USB lead
The adaptors were all plugged (successively) into the same wall
socket.
The rate readings were taken after a minute or so of plugging in to allow the
charging rate to settle.
All the readings were taken within a few minutes, with the tablet battery level at about 50%
Each adaptor was unplugged and replugged a few times to check for consistency of readings.
All adaptors are single port

So, can anyone help me understand why the first three, similarly spec'd chargers aren't charging at the same rate?

User manual of your device does not offer any clue, but Acer community forums highlight the feature of original charger to do fast charging by delivering more current, which probably the other chargers don't have
From Acer Iconia won't charge, see reply of Acebillsey

The charger that came with should have been a 5.35V 2A charger with internal settings that tell the tablet that it's a fast charger. When it's plugged in the tablet goes into fast charge mode and will charge even if you are using it. A standard USB port or USB charger will provide 0.5A and the tablet will only do the slow charge mode.

Again from Iconia One 7 (B1-750) not charging, same person says

There are two styles of chargers. The stock one provides more juice than is allowed by the USB spec and they get around that by putting a special load between the data pins, so the tablet can see that the high power charger is installed and go into full charging mode. When that load isn't there the tablet will not draw more than spec (500mA) and typically the charge is just maintained

This fits in with your readings and probably is the reason, since there is no cause otherwise. Googling didn't help in getting fast charge details in original charger or OEM charging circuit to confirm this
Edit: Overview of USB Charging gives a high level view of modifications needed to force a charger to charge at higher rate

Great info - thanks. Looking more into 'fast charging', I found this  apcmag.com/android-usb-charging-secrets.htm. It looks the trick will be to make sure the D+/D- signature of the high power (i.e. > 0.5A) charger is the same as the one expected by the tablet. I'll look into if there's a way of finding out the signatures of the chargers and tablet.

I suspect it is CDP implementation detailed here, going by special load between data pins, as mentioned in second quote. Some Samsung charges employ similar method

This search has several methods for making chargers faster. I would recommend m-instructable as a good resource (first on list). Component sourcing may be an issue unless you are into it or know someone who can help. I had built a different circuit from their instructions and found them to be precise

you may like to update your findings , to help others too


text:
How to determine maximum capacity of a battery in mAh? - received fake battery
Is it an increasable value ? I think its not.
I just bought an extended 3890 mAh battery for my Galaxy S4 GT I9500. The original Samsung battery is 2600 mAh.
This is my second purchase from a different seller, after discovering that the 1st was a fraud.
In Android tools, the new battery capacities say 2600 mAh only as maximum capacity.
I complained to the seller, and he suggests to do full charge cycles, re-calibration. However, that did not increase the capacity.
The seller is trying to prove that calibration can increase the capacity of the battery he has sold me to 3890 mAh as advertised. However, this doesn't look like it's gonna happen.
Most trusted tools for Android, CPUZ, 3CToolbox also say that the capacity is 2600 mAh only.

So you bought another one, from the same company that sold you a fake in the first place?  My guess is you got screwed again.  I would try and recoup your money and go for OEM battery instead of trying to buy a cheap aftermarket product.

@New-To-IT, no, bought from a different seller, edited the question. It was my second purchase of an extended battery. This extended battery concept looks doubtful to me now

Not sure saying "duh" to the person trying to help is the smartest thing, but since I'm not a child, I won't take offense.  Again, I'd say you got duped again!  Buy OEM, don't go cheap on batteries.

Probably related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/92585/how-to-calibrate-a-new-nexus-5-battery-thats-higher-capacity-than-original/ (also read the comment on the answer)

Battery calibration is a myth and definitely will not help you in any way. For details see my answer Bought a new battery. Do I need to calibrate it
3C Toolbox (and maybe other apps, not sure though ) read the battery information from the ROM files and not from the battery you have. This I learnt when I sought a clarification from the developer, when the app was showing battery capacity as 4000 mAh whereas the battery is 3100 mAh (Huawei Honor 6). To quote from 3C Toolbox developer mail

In Android, one can get the stock hard-coded battery capacity from battery profiles, an hidden API in Android. That’s the one of the 2 sources the app uses.
The other source is in the kernel, usually under /sys/devices/power_supply/battery/charge_full_design (On my device path is different). To know the path on your device, from 3C Toolbox, tap request support from Help and support menu. An email will be generated to the developer having information about your device, including battery_info.txt. This file amongst other things specifies the path of second source

When you change your battery and replace with an extended battery, the ROM information is not updated. To adjust the capacity of the battery manually (from Battery Manager → Tap the 4 small square icon → Adjust Capacity or use Configuration Wizard). This change is for this app usage only
How to measure actual capacity using 3C Toolbox  Your concern is on verifying the actual capacity ( which was mine too). This can be done by using the current sensor of your device. If your device doesn't have a current sensor, it derives from voltage sensor and may be less accurate (Edit (in 2020) , in recent Android versions most devices are required to have a current sensor, so you needn't bother checking if your device has a current sensor or not - they have it as a rule).
Here is the relevant portion of reply from the developer that should help you.

So in the end the only fully reliable way to verify capacity would be to pin the battery to an external meter. Less reliable is to use the current sensor when available and using my app you can get the actual capacity derived from actual measures of the sensor. For that the best is to use a 1 minute monitoring while charging, as sensors are often updated every minute using an average value (for the past minute). Sensors often provide very accurate results.

See snapshot below highlighted portion shows charge in 28 minutes.
(Battery Manager →Markers →  Choose plug state chargers→ Tap on the notification and set up monitoring settings)
Discharge your battery to say 10% and charge fully-you will know your battery capacity using this method

Hardware Measurement: If you want to rig up a testing circuit, this would help you How to measure capacity of a Lithium-ion battery or Li-Ion Battery capacity tester (Lithium power tester

Edit:  Neither does OEM description of the phone or apps like CPU-Z,  Hardware Info tell you whether your device has a current sensor  . You will need to spend time in searching if it has a current sensor. It is better to avoid that search, since we are looking at approximate capacity to determine if it is a fake. Hence, in 3C Toolbox settings, you could
set
Battery Manager →Markers →  Choose plug state chargers→ Tap on the notification and set up : Record all the time (on); mA retrieval method (automatic, if your device is not listed), Recording Interval -every minute while charging (accurate mAh calculation)

Edit:  For more details , please see Where are the battery capacity files located


text:
How does S Pen (Samsung) show cursor on screen?
I would like to know how does samsung android os show the pen cursor when I took the pen out and point over screen without touching the screen? It is a miracle for me. I cannot find any sources.

Break it down-How does the S pen work? offers a nice explanation along with a link to video too

S pen pulls power from the device wirelessly

Electromagnetic field that provides power to the pen can also be used to calculate its position relative to the screen. This, along with information from the S Pen button and the nib on the end are what is used to determine what the user it doing with the S Pen.

Pressure sensitivity is built in the stylus
To summarize

An electromagnetic field is generated from a circuit behind the screen. The S Pen picks this up and uses it to power itself and figure out its position relative to the screen. It sends this, along with information from the S Pen button and the nib at the end, back to the Note.

Edit: Video in linked post makes it clear ascend easy to understand


text:
Monitor activites of an app and see what it is sending over the internet
Few months ago, I installed an automation app called MacroDroid, but after few days I uninstalled it. Now today, when I was checking apps in /system/app I stumbled upon an app called MacroDroidSystemHelper (com.arlosoft.macrodroid.helper)
I had granted the MacroDroid superuser access when I was using it so it may have made the app that I found today a system app.
I tried to launch it but it doesn't have an interface.
While checking its permission I came to know that it has the connectivity permission, hence, I have to find out what data it is sending to internet. How can I monitor its activities?
(Click image to enlarge)

Can you mention that app's version? I've v1.2 installed and it doesn't ask for network connectivity permission, but only "write settings", write secure settings and near field communications (NFC).

You may have some luck finding out some of the data that it can access by using XPrivacy.  XPrivacy can tell you what data/permissions it is trying to access, thus you would get a rough estimation of what it may be sending.  You can restrict that app from connecting to internet, should you find a need to.

It appears that MacroDroid now (I've v3.10.1) doesn't go with the approach of installing helper file inside /system as default option. Instead, it now uses it as a backup approach and only when you're having an issue with GPS/NFC. If you've that file inside /system then either it was installed when you were using a version older than v3.10.1  or you deliberately chose to fall back to older technique via its settings.
The latest version of that helper file is 1.2 and following are the permissions mentioned in its manifest:

android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS - Allows an application to read or write the system settings.
android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS - Allows an application to read or write the secure system settings. Not for use by third-party applications.
android.permission.NFC - Allows applications to perform I/O operations over NFC.

In order to connect to network, it must ask the permission android.permission.INTERNET - not present in the manifest. So you can be rest assured that the app, on its own, won't be able to send any data.
That said, given the nature of the title, you don't need to monitor activities of an app (no benefits) if your goal is to find out what data it is accessing or is sending. You can use XPrivacy in this case. It requires Xposed Framework. XPrivacy can notify you when the app tries to access a privacy sensitive permission. That would give a rough estimation of the extent of data app may be accessing.  You can use a firewall to restrict app's access to internet and get notified whenever the app tries to access network.
Still, in order to see the data the app is sending, you would have to capture it or sniff it at least. Answers for Capturing mobile phone traffic on wireshark
 and Monitor network activity in Android Phones may prove to be helpful. (I've not tried any of the solutions there.)


text:
What are the other "home" screens called?
On my Samsung Galaxy SIII when I get past the lock screen there are several "home" screens, each indicated by a clickable dash, and one of these (the second one on my device) has a home icon in place of the dash and can also be accessed by two (if an app is open) or one (if no app is open) clicks of the home button. Of course one can also swipe left and right from one screen to another (or use the dashes area as a scrollbar).
Now my question: if I were to write about these "home screens" differentiating between the "main home screen" and the other "secondary home screens", so as to differentiate between these two kinds of "home screen", is this the corrrct terminology or would I call these two different kind of screens something else?
Note: I am also but not exclusively asking this question with accessibility (TalkBack) in mind. Haven't figured out how to pass from one of these screens to the next with TalkBack enabled. (when an app is closed and the launcher is shown, no matter which page, TalkBack says "home screen").

Well, from the comment below it seems like they are all pages. TalkBack seems to call any of them home screen.

@JackMaddington: see my edit.

I guess there's no standard term announced by Google, though I'd tend to say "page" for its similar behaviour of ViewPager (from developer POV)

The Linux Fvwm window manager also had something called FvwmPager.

From source code of Launcher3 in Android 6.0.1 r16:

The workspace is a wide area with a wallpaper and a finite number of pages. Each page contains a number of icons, folders or widgets the user can interact with.

Honestly, this is the first time I heard the term workspace in context of a launcher for Android, but if you want a standard term, there you have it.
The page with home icon is referred as default page and the page currently displayed to the user is called current page. This is what I understood from this line in the source code of the said launcher.
Edit: After checking the sample of Home app in Android 6.0.1 r16 (they are using a very old sample for developers), I noticed this line inter alia and I conclude that each page can be referred to as home screen and you can reference another page by calling it previous, succeeding, or preceding home screen or by using the numbers available through scroll, such as home screen 3.

In general, you would call all other screens as pages, while the default screen that appears when you tap the home button as home screen as Firelord's answer also suggests
Samsung seems to think otherwise ! On page 39 of user manual downloaded from https://www.att.com/support_static_files/manuals/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III.pdf, it says

Your phone comes with seven home screens. You can arrange them in any preference you want

It makes sense to stick with generally understood terminology and use default home screen and pages


text:
Google app displaying temperature in Fahrenheit
When I use widget for voice search and say 'weather' I get the results, but it is shown in Fahrenheit, even though,in settings it is chosen to show in Celsius.
Any solution?

Pull down from one of the Os in the Google logo in the Google now app

This problem apparently is due to the device language selection.
If English (US) is chosen, Google defaults to temperature units used in US (Fahrenheit)
This is remedied by switching over to English (UK), where temperature units are in Celsius
Source: Accepted answer on Android wear,How do I change temperature units in Android wear weather app?

This will have the side affect of breaking movie titles in the Google TV app.  Only English US shows English titles and proper thumbnails.  I was using English (CA).

This isn't a solution at all. Temperature units aren't the only difference between English US and English UK.

The other answer on this question didn't work for me. My phone was already on English (UK) and changing it to US and back did not help.
Instead what fixed it for me was:

Open the Google app.
Scroll down to the Weather card.
Press the menu button on that card.
Press "Change temperature units to °F".
Press the menu again.
Press "Change temperature units to °C".

This worked for me! Even with English (US) settings.

Double click the At a glance banner (the temperature), an app will pop up where you can change the setting at the upper left corner

Long-tap on the home screen and go to "Select Widgets". Under Google, select the "At a Glance" widget and drag it to the home screen.
For me, this changed the unit from F to C instantly.

I don't know why this was downvoted. This actually did the trick for me as well, where nothing else was working. I added the widget again, and it changed it to Celsius for both of them, after which you can remove the duplicate widget.

Touch the little red 'F' to the upper right of the days temperature (that's in big black bold numbers) next to the big numbers at the upper right.
There is a little blue 'C' for Celsius then a slash and a little red 'F' for Fahrenheit, and it will switch back to Fahrenheit or Celcius by touching either one of those little letters.

If you use Android, just ask Google Assistant to change it from F to C permanently. It works for me. Google Assistant will say "I will remember your preference".

authors: سعد عبد القادر


text:
Cannot add google account (It is not in the list of available account)
I bought the tablets from China, and if I want to add Google account (from Settings.Account.AddAccount) ther is no google account in the list.. There is only
Corporate
IMAP
POP3
tablet:
x-302 of Dragon
h701
Android 4.4.2
kernel 3 April 67
Build ALPS.KK1.MP1.V2.11
and on tablet are no applications from Google (NO "Gmail", "Account Manager Google" and "Google Services Framework")
It looks as if not installed (or forbidden) Google applications from the producer.

Obviously the tablet wasn't certified with Google by the manufacturer, so you've got to flash the Google Apps yourself if you want them. Or you use this big chance given to you (a Google free device), and install an open-source alternative like miroG :)

Thanks for comment. It is not for my needed but my company so i need stay with google. Can you post your comment as a answer so than i can mark it as answered?

There you go :) I've included some additional details and references.

Manufacturers must certify their devices with Google in order to have the Google Apps pre-installed1. Obviously that wasn't done for your device. So you have to either install GApps manually (follow the previous link for details) – or use the chance a "Google free" device gives you and install an open source alternative like miroG.

1: See e.g. here; the term for this agreement is MADA (Mobile Application Distribution Agreement)

Izzy has already answered this, but adding this piece of information, so that you could authoritatively quote to your company
PDF at this link List of all devices supported by Google Play
can be quoted after verifying if you can query with additional information on your device . Search based on details provided by you shows, it isn't registered


text:
Android definition of charge cycle?
Battery life is measured in number of charge-discharge cycles. Charge Cycle wiki says

Apple Inc. clarifies that a charge cycle means using all the battery's capacity, but not necessarily by full charge and discharge; e.g., using half the charge of a fully charged battery, charging it, and then using the same amount of charge again count as a single charge cycle"

This definition seems to be Apple oriented. My question is
Does Android follow the same definition or is there a different definition ?
Asking since I have both an iPad and Android (Samsung Galaxy) and was wondering if battery life is measured similarly or differently.

Plenty of references in our charging tag-wiki (especially check the "Handling" and "Maintenance" sections there).

AFAIK I know there isn't any Android specific definition (would welcome corrections from others). Having said that, industry seems to treat this metric differently.
Wikipedia  definition implies 100% discharge to count as one cycle, where as industry seems to treat 80% discharge to count as one cycle per sources below

 Battery Definitions & Terminology defines (emphasis added)

Cycle Life:  The capacity of a rechargeable cell or battery changes over its life. The definition of the battery life or cycle life of a battery is number of cycles that a cell or battery can be charged and discharged under specific conditions, before the available capacity falls to a specific performance criteria - normally 80% of the rated capacity

What Constitutes a Discharge Cycle? section , says (emphasis added)

A discharge/charge cycle is commonly understood as the full discharge of a charged battery with subsequent recharge, but this is not always the case. Batteries are seldom fully discharged, and manufacturers often use the 80 percent depth-of-discharge (DoD) formula to rate a battery. This means that only 80 percent of the available energy is delivered and 20 percent remains in reserve. Cycling a battery at less than full discharge increases service life, and manufacturers argue that this is closer to a field representation than a full cycle because batteries are commonly recharged with some spare capacity left.
There is no standard definition as to what constitutes a discharge cycle (....)

To  summarise, Wikipedia definition seems academic while industry   treats it  practically
(Aside, Charge Cycle Counter, which measures battery charge cycles follows Wikipedia definition )

Why I  presume Android follows industry definition

Apart from the two reasons mentioned above for 80%  discharge to be measured as one cycle (namely, real life charging and better battery life ), I suspect that battery manufactures would prefer this as it boosts battery life cycle count by 20% compared to Apple/Wikipedia definition.