text:
Switching from Google Japanese Input directly to Google Keyboard?
I have the following input methods enabled:

Google Keyboard, English (US)
Google Japanese Input, Japanese

I use both the Google Keyboard and Google Japanese Input depending on what I'm doing. Going from Google Keyboard to Google Japanese Input is trivial, I simply click the language button and it automatically switches. However I am running into an issue with switching back. Here is a screenshot of the keyboard in use:

There is a button on the bottom-left that switches between Japanese, numeric, and QWERTY. However the QWERTY is awkward to use and I would prefer to switch it to the Google Keyboard instead. I can accomplish this by holding the button down, but the "Input Options" doesn't list the Google Keyboard as an entry. Instead, I must choose "Select Input Method", then I can choose Google Keyboard.

While this is a minor inconvenience, the extra time certainly adds up especially when switching between various contacts in the same application, or when I need to use both Japanese/English when talking to the same person (such as translations, etc...).
Is there a way that I can have it automatically switch to the Google Keyboard when I hold down the button? If not, is there a keyboard that could offer this functionality?

AFAIK, this is impossible to do in KitKat and previous version. There is no globe (input method switch key) icon, and there is no setting related to it.
However, recent update added this feature, BUT it's only for Android 5.0 Lollipop (as of writing). From "What's New",

(Lollipop) Introduced input method switch key.

On Lollipop, there will be a globe icon on each type of keyboard:

12 Keys: On Japanese mode, to the left of 'わ'.
QWERTY: On Japanese mode, to the left of the spacebar
Godan keyboard: On Japanese mode, between 'O' and 'W'


text:
How to make a key act as acute and apostrophe? Dead keys problem
I want to make a keycharmap/keylayout for my Bluetooth keyboard on my Android phone. I want it to behave like a Dvorak-US-international keyboard. So I did all the web research needed but I'm still missing one thing. In my PC, the apostrophe key behaves as an acute key, if I press it once and then press a vowel, it writes the vowel with the acute (my native language is Spanish so I've become dependent on this "feature"), so I want this behavior in android.
In my PC:
APOSTROPHE A = á
APOSTROPHE O = ó
APOSTROPHE Shift+A = Á
APOSTROPHE APOSTROPHE = ´ (lonely acute)
APOSTROPHE SPACE = '
Shift+APOSTROPHE A = ä
Shift+APOSTROPHE Shift+A = Ä
Shift+APOSTROPHE Shift+APOSTROPHE = ¨ (umlaut)
Shift+APOSTROPHE SPACE = "

So I made a keycharmap that has this:
key APOSTROPHE {
    label:                              '\''
    base:                               '\u0301'
    shift:                              '\u0308'
}

(As specified in https://source.android.com/docs/core/interaction/input/key-character-map-files#behaviors)
But what I've got was this behavior:
APOSTROPHE APOSTROPHE = ´ (lonely acute)
APOSTROPHE SPACE = ´ (lonely acute)
Shift+APOSTROPHE Shift+APOSTROPHE = ¨ (umlaut)
Shift+APOSTROPHE SPACE = ¨ (umlaut)

As you can see I'm missing the quote and double quote and I'd really like to have them.
So, I tried something different:
key APOSTROPHE {
    label:                              '\''
    base:                               '\u030D'
    shift:                              '\u030E'
}

(Looking at Android source https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/master/core/java/android/view/KeyCharacterMap.java#233 and at unicode "combining character" in Wikipedia)
But didn't get what I wanted either. I saw that the character '\u030E' was comment-out on the source code ok, but I had to try. So the question is:
How do I get the behavior I want in Android? Can't it be done without modifying Android sources? Do I have to use key modifiers (ALT or CTRL) and stick with that?
(I'm using CyanogenMod 11-20140708 based on KitKat 4.4.4 on a LG Nexus 4 (mako))

Ok, this is not the answer, this is some kind of "workaround" that I don't like. It works but makes me memorize another super key combo.
# In the keycharmap I puted this:

# this is the default for this key
key GRAVE {
    label:                              '`'
    base:                               '`'
    shift:                              '~'
    alt:                                '\u0300'
    alt+shift:                          '\u0303'
}

key APOSTROPHE {
    label:                              '\''
    base:                               '\''
    shift:                              '"'
    alt:                                '\u0301'
    alt+shift:                          '\u0308'
}

And with that settings I get this results:
Alt+APOSTROPHE A = á
Alt+APOSTROPHE O = ó
Alt+APOSTROPHE Shift+A = Á
Alt+APOSTROPHE Alt+APOSTROPHE = ´ (lonely acute)
APOSTROPHE = '
Alt+Shift+APOSTROPHE A = ä
Alt+Shift+APOSTROPHE Shift+A = Ä
Alt+Shift+APOSTROPHE Alt+Shift+APOSTROPHE = ¨ (umlaut)
Shift+APOSTROPHE = "

Using Alt+Shift feels unnatural and I'd like to get the same behavior that I've got on my PC, but for now this works.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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

sort: votes


text:
No access to Android Market after loading Ice Cream Sandwich
I followed the instructions on the source.android.com website to download, build, and install Android OS v4.0.3 on a Nexus S. Everything seemed fine, I could take pictures, access WiFi to surf the web, etc. The problem is that there is no Market app and I have been unable to install anything via the Market over the web. The apps I had on the phone prior to loading ICS all show as "installed" on the website but they will not sync with the device. Any time I try to install a new app, everything seems to go ok and then it says the download will begin shortly but it never does. I have tried many different things described on posts such as resetting to factory defaults, clearing cache, etc but nothing works. Does anyone know how I can load the Market app or somehow download apps from the Market to manually install?

gapps do not come packaged with ROMs (or Android Source) due to licensing issues. For instance, when you usually flash a new mod (such as CyanogenMod), you flash the mod, then you flash the appropriate gapps zip file. See @eldarerathis's answer

If you built the image yourself then Google's proprietary apps would not have been included as they are not open source. The easiest way to get them is probably to just use the CyanogenMod9 gapps package, which can be downloaded here (top of the table). If you have a custom recovery image then you can simply install the .zip file from your recovery, otherwise you'll have to manually install each of the files in the .zip (they have a folder structure that mimics your device).
The reason why the web Market isn't working is because it tries to use C2DM to push the app to the device, but this requires the Market app to be installed on the device. You cannot download the .apk from the Market manually.

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


text:
What does debug.sf.hw in build.prop mean?
It is advised here and there to add debug.sf.hw=1 to build.prop.
They say that this "makes Android render GUI with GPU". This looks very suspicious because what does it debug then (and since when debug speeded up anything)?
So I'm just curious about what does this setting (property) actually means?

I believe what it stands for is "Debug SurfaceFlinger Hardware", and there's only one (that I know of) reference to it in the Android source code (in DisplayHardware.cpp):
// debug: disable h/w rendering
char property[PROPERTY_VALUE_MAX];
if (property_get("debug.sf.hw", property, NULL) > 0) {
    if (atoi(property) == 0) {
        ALOGW("H/W composition disabled");
        attribs[2] = EGL_CONFIG_CAVEAT;
        attribs[3] = EGL_SLOW_CONFIG;
    }
}

Or, in English terms, the system reads the value of the debug.sf.hw flag. If it has a value and that value is equal to zero it disables hardware compositing, otherwise it skips over that block of code.
I think there's something of a misconception in that the default should be to have hardware compositing enabled, but you can set debug.sf.hw=0 in order to disable it. So really it is a debug flag, but setting it to 1 (strictly speaking, any non-zero value) would explicitly cause compositing to remain enabled. As far as I know, though, the only time it should really have an impact is if the device's default value is 0 for whatever reason.


text:
Cameranext not saving pictures
I am using a non-rooted Oneplus One (cm12, all patches). I have to admit that I really dont use the camera very often, but on a family trip yesterday i noticed, the pictures i took  were not saved, except for two of them... Since it is impossible to recreate the pictures from our trip I am searching for any other alternative to get them back.
I found a bunch of topics on oneplus' support forums like this: https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/stock-camera-app-not-saving-pictures.286705/
Basically saying its not a bug, its a feature. While I think those answers are disputable at least, my question would be if there is any hope to restore the pictures (or at least parts of the album) from the cameras cache - which is about 60MB as I post this question.
Rooting the phone to get access to those cache files would not be a Problem if needed. Thanks for advice.

If the files got cached on sd card or internal storage, Android 5 + Never delete images fully..
Use a new photo recovery App like DiskDigger .. This will pull your images from any sector of the accessible storage devices without root.

I'll give diskdigger a try, thanks for the suggestion!

Note that this can only work if the pictures had been saved and then deleted. If they were never saved, there's nothing to restore from. Hence put some emphasis on the very first word of this answer: "IF". I've never heard a camera caches pictures it does not save – but there are at least slight chances the bug is working that way. Secondly, this will only work if those files were on the external SD card. For internal memory, you'd need to clone the partitions and use some forensic software against the clones (e.g. TestDisk).

DriveDigger found only the pictures that got saved normally. I think its like Izzy suggests, if the pictures dont get saved, there is nothing to restore from. Bad bug, those pictures can never be retaken... I'm gonna check twice now if a photo is saved.

P.S
All CYANOGEN MOD VERSIONS FROM VERSION 11 UPWARDS INCLUDE ROOT ACCESS AS PART OF THEIR PRIVACY GUARD FEATURE INSIDE PRIVACY IN SETTINGS...


text:
How can I get Reverse USB Tethering to work on my KitKat device? I've already got it running on my Jellybean device
FWIW Reverse USB tethering works great on my Jellybean device, lets assume it has the serial number 0123456789ABCDEF, here are the commands I use to get it running:
adb -s 0123456789ABCDEF shell su -c 'service call connectivity 33 i32 1'
sleep 5
sudo ifconfig usb0 10.42.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE
adb -s 0123456789ABCDEF shell su -c "ifconfig rndis0 10.42.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0"
adb -s 0123456789ABCDEF shell su -c "route add default gw 10.42.0.1 dev rndis0"

I run these commands on my Linux machine which the phone is connected to, and on my jellybean device the browser will load a website using data over USB.
Now I have a KitKat device, and I have a similar script, i use
"service call connectivity 34 i32 1"

on the first line as kitkat needs a slightly different command, so but even after all my commands run with no error messages, when I load up the browser on the phone I simply get 'page not found'
Is there a was to fix this? I've tried pinging google from the phone and the pings work, so I'm assuming this is a software issue?
Has anyone successfully managed to do this on KitKat? Thanks
EDIT: I've done some more tests, and I think it's a DNS issue. Pinging IP addresses works fine, but pinging hostnames gives 'ping: unknown host' on the kitkat device. Pinging hostnames works perfecly on the Jellybean device, I have them both hooked up the same Linux machine right now so the only difference here is the android versions.
I have a feeling there are some extra steps or commands I need to add to my script here, as I cannot even ping the name of my router from the Kitkat device, while I can ping the IP address with no problem.

After some trial and error seem to have managed to get it working, turns out it is a DNS issue. If anyone else has this issue then it turns out that you need some extra commands in order to get KitKat to work.
I added these on to the end of my script posted above and I can now ping google and get pings returned:
adb shell su -c 'ndc resolver setifdns rndis0 "" 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.1'
adb shell su -c 'ndc resolver setdefaultif rndis0'

Substitute 192.168.1.1 with the IP address of your router, it uses this address for DNS.
Now I'm going to try google DNS (8.8.8.8) and see if it still works, and also see if I can get it to play nice with my Jellybean device being hooked up to the same linux box.

Have you tried this?
 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1371345
It says it's compatible with lower than 5.0 android versions.

I can't use that software afraid as the machine I'm using to give my phone network access is running Debian Linux. Windows isn't an option here I'm afraid. I'll read the troubleshooting section as it may have some info which will help, hopefully it may have some info about setting the DNS server.


text:
Wi-Fi Connection Issues
Very recently the Wi-Fi Connection on my Verizon Galaxy S4 has decided to turn itself off at will. This issue is device specific as I have other devices that are not experiencing this problem. The device is Rooted. I have tried: setting a static Ip, resetting router, switching airplane mode on off, changing channels. None have worked. Next is a factory reset, which I do not want to do. So in summary, does anybody have any more tricks I can try to solve this?

Possibly there could be couple of reasons for this sought of behavior from your device..

Check if it happens only when any battery power saver app is switch on, as most of the inbuilt/third party battery saver apps have access to your device's WiFi functionality and they switch it off whenever there's a event triggering the app's pre-assigned/pre-programmed parameter telling the app about high usage of battery by device Wi-Fi transmission/reception.
Another Scenario which might make this happen is the low WiFi signal. Mostly all higher versions of Android OS have this inbuilt functionality to turn off the WiFi whenever available signals falls to a certain level. Some device manufacturers provide advanced setting under WiFi setting to enable this control of OS, while some keep this function as preassigned in OS disabling user. Look for WiFi Sleep Policy in your device settings and update the settings as per your requirement. You can also refer this tutorial to learn more about adjusting the Samsung Galaxy S-4 WiFi sleep policy settings.

Hope adjusting your device WiFi policy will will resolve your problem, incase if ever after the adjustment of WiFi settings, you still face any issues do revert back with exact situation, I'll try to look deeper into your case.


text:
USB-OTG vs portable Sdcard
I have been in the market for an Android tablet. I have found a few within most of my desired specs. Specifically the Nexus 7. This device lacks expandable storage, as do other similarly priced devices  My intent is to root the device and upgrade to 6.0.1. I prefer external storage for various ROMs and backups where they are safe from accidental wipe. My question would be is a USB-OTG system a comparable alternative?

First thing is to verify if the device you propose to buy has USB OTG support. Apart from verifying from OEM specs, do see this How can I determine if my device has USB Host Mode (OTG) support? and also the listing  of supported devices by Chainfire. Saw your edit about Nexus 7. This post confirms OTG support on Marshmallow
For your stated purpose of storing ROMs and backups it should work well. If you are using TWRP recovery , this thread may help, TWRP Using USB OTG to backup?

I have seen my friends  use it thus but haven't used it personally- all my devices had external SD to store

This is great news. The Nexus 7 is highly-rated, and the past and ongoing development is impressive. Thank you for your thorough answer.

Also, in the future I will be more thorough with my posting information.


text:
Disable "Upcoming Alarm" Notification (without disabling alarm)
I'm fairly new to the Android platform so hopefully this is a silly question, but since I've had my Pixel (Pixel 1, Android 8.0.0), it's been giving me notifications for alarms I set in the Clock app two hours prior to their occurrence (disregard actual time in the screenshot). Note that I do not want to delete the alarm, just this notification about it.
 .
I know this isn't a huge issue, but it's just more annoying notification clutter that I don't want. What's weird is, I've apparently found the settings to change this behavior - but the toggle is disabled and I can't modify it.

Is there another way to do this that I'm missing, or a way to enable that toggle?

What if you toggle the allow notifications to off. And anyway hope did you get to the second screen? Are you using Google clock, cuz i didn't find the notifications screen you're at.

@ A Bochur - that toggle controls the "allow notifications dot" setting which dictates if it shows the blue dot on the app icon if there's a notification (it took me a minute to notice the "dot" in there). I reached this screen by holding down the "upcoming alarm" notification and then selecting "all categories". I can provide a screenshot of that if it would be helpful.

(My bad, didn't see the dot.) Now, on my phone when i long press on the upcoming alarm notification, it bring up the default notifications settings asking if i wanna block notifications. Apparently on your phone it's different. Is it the same when you go to settings>apps>clock> notifications? If you're able to block it from there, the alarm will still sound but you will not have a notification about snoozing.

After spending an hour on the phone with Google tech support (don't know why I didn't think of this earlier) their representative was able to replicate the issue.
At this time there appears to be no way to disable this notification on a stock/unrooted Pixel. I'll update the answer if I get any further information.

Well, this is a late response but I just ran across this as I am having the same problem. Thank to jszpila here for posting Google's response so I didn't have to waste any more time trying to get rid of the "upcoming alarm" notification.
As a work-around, I changed the sound for the "upcoming alarm" notification to "None". The notification still comes up but it is unobtrusive.

I managed to do it by setting an alarm and waiting for the notification to come up. Long press and go to more settings. Weirdly, as you said, it's already disabled, but if you tap on the bottom line with the disabled setting, you get a new menu and then select notification priority (the top option) and select "low priority".

Alas, this doesn't actually disable the alarm; it just makes it less obtrusive.  Other things that pass along the notifications (like Microsoft Band) will pass along the pre-alarm alarms.  (I can selectively disable the Clock app from being allowed to send notifications to the Microsoft Band...but presumably that disables the actual alarms too, and not just the stupid pre-alarm alarms.)

This is from a Mate 20 Pro with Android 9, and Google Clock app version 6.2.
It is now possible to disable the annoying notification.
For me, it was SO annoying, because I use a Garmin smartwatch that vibrates when a notification arrives, and it ended up waking me up 2 hours earlier!

Sorry for the screenshots' language, it's in Italian which is my native language, but I hope that they can help.

I have Android 9 on the Pixel 3XL. I have the same issue with smartwatch waking me up 2 hrs early.   My settings for the Clock app look entirely different. Could you state exactly which setting you changed to disable the advance notification?

In Italian, it is "Orologio" -> "Prossime sveglie" -> "Consenti notifiche" -> Off. Screenshots show each page, one after the other, until the setting is set to Off.
Last screenshot shows the EMUI version.

A long press 'upcoming alarms' will bring up another screen where you can customize the 'upcoming alarms' notification category.

But it says "Notifications from this app can't be turned off".  And I found no way on that other screen to turn them off.

This one worked on Pixel 2 with Android 10!

There is a function called "alarm skip" that lets you dismiss/turn off an alarm two hours before it rings.  I hadn't realized that I had turned it on, but I was missing alarms because of that notification (and dismissing it turns the alarm off).  I turned off Alarm Skip in settings, and things should work better now. Sharing in case someone else needs this.
(ETA: I'm on an LG V35 ThinQ so I don't think my phone is completely stock Android, but perhaps looking for some variation of this function will help you find the setting to turn it off?)

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. The OP is trying to disable the alarm notification, not skip the alarm.

While not really addressing the original question, this answer would help me if it works (I've yet to test it)

Note: the question was specifically talking about the Google Clock app. Meanwhile, manufacturers may also customize their stock apps, thus this answer may only apply to LG's stock clock app.

Install AutoNotification which can be flexibly configured to block almost any notification.
Install the app.

Make sure the Upcoming Alarm notification is active (set an alarm for a few minutes time if not)
Open AutoNotification
Choose Notification Blocking in the Standalone Features section.
Touch the +
When asked for help setting up the block filter, Press Yes
If you have more than one notification active, it will ask you which one to use - tap on Clock: Upcoming Alarm.
Choose Title when asked about about Title or Text.
Press OK if it tells you about Partial Blocking.
The Filter setup screen should already be pre-populated with the right information, on my phone it looks like this:

Press OK and you're done - the Upcoming alarm notification should disappear.

Not entirely sure, as I use a modified 7.1.2, but I got the impression you could disable individual, or at least app-wide notifications, by swiping to the side and tapping the settings button.
Also, in MM / N there's a menu somewhere in the notifications settings that let's you block notifications from an app, I know that for sure.  As I said before, I don't use Oreo, though if I found a ROM for my device that did, I would.
Let me know if this works, or if it doesn't.

@N 3 V 3 R A H T yeah, that's what gets me to the screen displayed in the second screenshot. The issue being that the toggle that would control that functionality is both on and disabled by default, so I can't change it.

Do you have power notifications enabled, or is that a Resurrection Remix only feature?  If not, go into notifications > the settings wheel in the right corner > Power Notification Controls and turn it on, assuming you have it.  If so, go to notifications > Clock, click on the A symbol under "importance", and set the bar next to it to the farthest left.
Again, keep in mind that I'm using a custom Nougat ROM, and that this might not exist on stock Oreo.

I would also suggest rooting and flashing a custom ROM anyways, it adds a ton of functionality to your device, especially if you like insane customization like me.  You can also do a lot more in terms of blocking things, and removing unnecessary system apps.

Rooting: https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel/how-to/guide-root-android-o-dev-preview-1-pixel-t3591548
I have to go, let me know what you've figured out, and tell me if I've helped at all.

I'm not totally against rooting but I've had trouble caused by carrier updates in the past, and it really seems like overkill for this situation. I'll do some reading on it, though.

Disabling notifications stopped the 2-hour-early reminder for me without affecting the alarms themselves.

Did you intend to reply to this answer? If not, consider mentioning how you disabled the notifications so that others can benefit more easily from your solution. :-)

I've found a partial answer, after going to
https://support.google.com/android/answer/9079661?hl=en#contact=1
selecting the Samsung helpsite, and chatting with Pete.
He instructed me to go to Settings > Accessibility. At the top of the list was something that said "Using 2 functions". I was able to turn off the upcoming notification of notifications in Timely there.
The Timely timer still doesn't have any sound. (I've added "The Clock" to my list of apps to have a timer that rings.) Nudnik works, but it still doesn't unlock my screen. And I still haven't figured out how to turn off the damned bubbles that are cluttering up my screen.
But avoiding 25-minute advance notifications of notifications is progress, at least.

Note: the question was specifically talking about the Google Clock app. Thus, this answer may not apply to that app, but only to the mentioned apps on this particular answer.

Evidently this is possible now with newer version of Android. I just wish they made the distinction between having the notification be available to see, but not "wake" the screen at 120 minutes and 30 minutes before the alarm.
I'd still like to see the upcoming alarm if I wake the screen manually, I just don't want it waking my screen twice on its own.
Disabling "Upcoming alarms" means everything goes away. Oh well.

https://www.androidsage.com/2018/08/09/how-to-enable-system-ui-settings-on-any-android-device/
Install a System UI Tuner launcher, then go to Status Bar.  Scroll down to Alarm and turn off.  Now the Alarm icon will be hidden from the status bar.

This may hide the alarm icon on the status bar, but not preventing the notification itself.

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


text:
PDF Presentation (Beamer LaTeX / Adobe Acrobat Reader) on Android tablet
I have just received my Nexus 10 - my first Android tablet!
I bought the tablet partly for giving presentations. My presentations are created by using the LaTeX package "beamer", which produces PDF files. Acrobat Reader (on PC) has a presentation mode that works perfectly well for all purposes, but I have trouble finding this functionality in the Android version.
There is a full-page display functionality in Adobe's app, but it has some animation for the page transitions. This means that "revealing" of new content (which is implemented by having successive slides that are identical except for the parts that are being revealed) will not work. This is one of the main functionalities that I want in my PDF presentations, and I seem to be unable to find any setting that would turn off the animation.
I have tried searching and the results I got were either about general PDF viewers or PowerPoint (etc) presentation apps. Rather than trying all the different PDF/presentation apps there are, I was hoping that someone might already be using their tablet in this manner, and would be able to help me out.
I have also tried ezPDF reader, but I did not find any presentation-style display at all. So my question is this:
Is there any way to do Beamer PDF presentation on Android tablets conveniently?
(3rd-party app is accepted, and ideally it should work with standard bluetooth presentation devices)

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! Please note that recommendations like Is there an app for X are off-topic here (see the FAQ for details). For where your question might fit better, you might want to look into Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions?

I think this question is fine for this site. There is a well-defined problem to be solved. However, @mathstribble, you should probably [edit] out your request for "best app". "Best" is subjective, of course, and such requests tend to simply attract little more than links to responders' favorite apps.

Thanks - I have edited the question, and also added a tag for Adobe Reader (in case there is a functionality in the app that I missed).

I could not find a "pure" presentation mode in Aldiko, Acroread 11.7.1,
APV, MuPDF, PDFViewer and several others I tried.
I finally settled with Perfect Viewer and its Perfect Viewer PDF plugin.
Extensive (excessive?!) customisation options, and you can:

Disable transitions
Drastically simplify what touch actions are allowed (simple tap on left/right part of screen, disable menu in the center, enable pinch zoom, add long-tap to reset zoom, ...).

Thanks - this is fantastic, indeed, "perfect". You can turn off the menu button at the top as well. It took me a while to figure out how to use the Kensington "PresentAir" presenter that I have with the app: When the presenter is connected, Android seems to regard it as a keyboard, and disables the on-screen keyboard. The app, however, requires the presenter to be connected to autodetect the key in question, but also requires a "description" in order to save the hardware button. But switching keyboards turns off the app!

... However, it turns out that pressing the "stop" button on the remote registers as a "b". So I was able to enter a description of "b", save the command, turn off the remote, and then edit the description using the on-screen keyboard. A bit awkward, but that is more the remote's / Android's problem (and it may be that I was being silly in not finding anywhere to turn on both the on-screen keyboard and remote). Now that this is configured, the app seems to do absolutely everything that I want from it. Wonderful solution!

I had the same problem and had to try out a bunch of apps. In addition to what  you were looking for, I was also interested in the possibility to add comments during the presentation using the s-pen of my galaxy note. All the apps listed below support full page view, so there are in principle an options for presentations.
Moon Reader Pro
This is an excellent ebook reader. You have to pay for the full version, since the free version wont support pdf display. You can select full-page mode. By default there is no transition effect. You can also annotate while viewing. The pdf quality is very good and I have not seen any lags. Tons of options.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreaderp
Aldiko Book Reader
Also a very good ebook reader that supports pdfs. Very much the same as the Moon reader, but it wont allow annotations. Also Moon reader has more options. The main advantage is that this reader is free. So try this one out first.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aldiko.android
Acrobat Reader FoxIt and FoxIT Mobile PDF lit
Both viewers are fast and allow annotations, but you cannot turn off the page transitions. Very annoying for presentations. Both apps are free.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.reader
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foxit.mobile.pdf.lite
PDF Viewer
This viewer was first slow, but one can change the options such that it performs okay. It has no page transitions, but it wont allow you to annotate. Free.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=the.pdfviewer3

Thanks - I actually tried Aldiko before, but either missed the option of turning off page transitions, or this has been added since then. In any case, it's very helpful - perfect!

Thanks again for the suggestions - I think sneumann's new answer (Perfect Viewer) now provides a perfect answer to my query, hence I have changed this to be the accepted answer, so as to make it easier for others to find. Thanks for understanding!

Try XODO.
I found this question because I was looking for exactly this.  Since the question was asked, some new apps are available, so I thought I'd share one that definitely works (it has an option to disable animations).  It also seems to have nice annotation tools.  Good enough to use in a classroom I'm thinking.

Since there haven't been any responses, I'll record the solution that I have come up with so far, in case anyone else is interested. It is not quite perfect yet, so further answers / comments are certainly appreciated.

APV PDF Viewer has options that allow you to disable the visible zoom buttons, lock the horizontal scroll, increase the distance between pages, and bind the Up/Down and Left/Right keys to page up/down.

Setting these options, position the page in the middle of the screen. Touching the screen right or left will forward a page, but if you are not careful, it will still lead to moving the page around. However, if you use a bluetooth remote (as I do) to forward the page, this isn't a problem and it works pretty well.

ezPDF Reader does not seem to work for what I had in mind, as it does not seem to have an option that shows a 4x3 slide in full (with black borders on the sides). On the other hand, it should be possible to compose the beamer slides in 16x9-mode, and then I think there are enough options to make this feasible. I haven't tested this yet, as I haven't yet spent any time on thinking what the best layout is for 16x9 slides. In the long run, this seems likely to be the best option.

I am interested in doing exactly the same thing (show Beamer slides on my tablet). The closest solution I've found is Radaee PDF...BEFORE the latest update (that is, version 4.2.2 works fairly well; the new update, not at all).  I'd be interested to know of any other solutions you've found.  What you suggest what APV PDF doesn't work for me (the pages get misaligned, no matter how I position it).

hi i was reading for the solution of this problem, and i found about adobe reader X for android, in this version of adobe exist an option that allows user view the pdf in presentation mode, here i leave an extract of the information i found from this link
Fit-to-Screen viewing mode
For those users who like to look at PDF documents one page at a time, Reader X introduces a new “Fit-to-Screen” viewing mode in addition to the earlier Continuous Scroll mode.  This mode is especially useful if you’re reading presentations.  Use the “View Mode” menu option to switch to this mode.
While in Fit to Screen mode, you can navigate across pages in two ways:
1 Tap on the ‘hot zones’ near the left and right of the screen to take you to the previous or next page respectively,
2 Swipe the screen horizontally towards the left or right to navigate to the next or previous page respectively."

Is this different from the functionality that I mention in my original question? In that functionality, unfortunately there is an animation for the page transition, which makes it unsuitable for beamer presentations with 'reveals'. I have not found an option to turn this off.

Write on PDF by Samsung meets all the requirements very well.

Interesting. I haven't tried presenting from a phone / tablet for a while, but out of interest - does this only run on Samsung devices?


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How to access the calculator history on AOSP Android KitKat?
The native calculator app on Android 4.4 has a "Clear history" option, but I have no clue on how to see this history.

I've tried swipe movements, clicked on every possible button, and even held down the menu button as described here, but I could not make the on-screen keyboard show up.
Has anybody had more luck trying this?

What phone do you have? My Nexus 7 running 4.4.2 has a stock calculator app that looks nothing like that and doesn't have a menu button.

There is currently no way of accessing the history without a device that has a scrollwheel. For some reason, Google didn't implement any UI or touch screen functions with the history, and therefore the only way to access it is to scroll down with a scrollwheel. There's a bug report here.
There's an improved calculator app from CyanogenMod called CyanogenMod Calculator, which has a history. (The link should work but is untested since Google Play throws an SSL certificate error on my current connection)

Thank you, I will try this app later. It's a shame that Google did not fixed this yet after so long...

Alternatively, you can use external keyboard with arrow keys (taken from the bug report), although it's surely inconvenient for general purpose.

Try using the volume buttons to scroll through the history.
I'm using Fairphone on stock Android 4.2.2.

I have a Galaxy Note(1) running 4.1.2, and to access the calculator history I just click the little triangle/arrow at the top of the on-screen keypad.

The two bars at the middle top of the
top #'s shows the history. Just tap on them.

How about a screenshot which would speak for itself? :)

Based on the bug report mentioned on onik's answer, it's impossible to do that on stock Kitkat calculator. Perhaps you're having different calculator app?


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How to Install marshmallow update on Swipe elite plus ?
I have swipe elite plus mobile with android lollipop 5.0.2 and I want to install android marshmallow how should I do that?

You could start by reading our updates tag-wiki and then following up to How do I update the OS on my device? and other related questions linked there.

It seems like that device didn't get marshmallow update (yet?). But you can check if there is updates avilable for your device bu built in software updater.

there is no update from manufacturer.. please suggest me how to install custom rom and which is suitable for my phone

There will be no marshmallow update from manufacturer nor there is custom rom.
So don't hope sale your mobile and get new one

My first reflex would be to check CyanogenMod. Since your device is no longer supported by the manufacturer, you need a custom Android to be able to update.
So your device is Swipe Elite Plus. It is no longer produced by Swipe. Swipe owns FreedomOS, and it can be installed on Elite devices. It looks like the Swipe devices are exclusive to India.

We have our eyes on the future, and aim to put India among the top 10 nations in the world. It will be our strategic vision and innovative solutions that will bring leading new tablet technologies to the nation. And soon, to the world.

In order to have something custom developed by someone, that someone must be able to get that device. By being limited to India, it greatly reduces the chances of the device being supported by someone else when the manufacturer will drop it. In short, while it is a good device in itself, it's a bad idea to get one.
Official CyanogenMod is not available for the Swipe Elite Plus. Official TWRP is not available for the Swipe Elite Plus. However, there might be unofficial ports.
The best place for finding unofficial stuff is indubitably XDA-Developers. However, there are only one topic about the Elite Swipe Plus. You can look there, but I didn't find anything.
Your last resort now is to look at these posts :
How do I update Android on my device?
Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

where is the link for cynogenMod for swipe elite plus

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


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What is this screen and how do I get rid of it?
Today my pixel 2 randomly decided to show this screen after I log in.

Where did it come from and how do I eliminate the extra step before being able to access my phone?

It might be from touch pal keyboard.You can now turn this latest intrusive Touchpal off via 'settings' > 'look and feel' > 'lucky locker. Or look in touch pla keyboard settings

Do you refer to the lower part of the screen, the upper part, or all of it? Installed anything lately – especially any app related to "battery optimization"? Taking a closer look at the upper-right corner: @Abochur seems to have hit the nail. A search for "Lucky Locker" turns up tons of cry on "Stop Lucky Locker, TouchPal!"

I guess it's UC Browser..

That's the sort of thing you get from an app that comes with ads. Check what apps you've recently installed and force close the offending app to remove the screen.

What does that have to do with VPN? It's an ad that could come from your favorite torch app or your latest game as well.

Just an example of an app you might install - I used that example since I've had a similar thing from a VPN app.

Maybe just make that "an app that comes with ads"? Otherwise it always looks as if VPN apps would be especially affected by this, which definitely is not the case. Black sheep are everywhere. And in the OP's case, I'd say that black sheep is identified, and not a VPN ;)


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Install Android-x86 on USB drive
I am live booting the Asus laptop version of Android-x86 4.0 on my Acer Laptop from my USB Pendrive. Everything is working fine, however I want to install the OS on the USB drive instead of live booting it. The USB drive is 16GB in size.
I want to live boot the system and then install on the same drive without using any other drives. If possible, later on, I would want to mount some part of the USB drive as the SD Card. How can I do this?

I am struggling to understand what you are asking?

and what part you are not understanding?

btw..problem resolved.

The solution is pretty simple, far more easier than I anticipated:

Partition your USB drive/SDCard, into two partitions, using this EaseUS Partition Master, which is what I used.
Partition layout needs to be one with 1GB of space with FAT32 filesystem, that is for the installer.
Remaining partition of type ext3 (Linux partition).

The installer, when live-booting from the USB Drive/SDCard, will show the just-created partition on the USB/SDCard, just select that partition to install on it and its done.


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Cannot update Android
I have a ZTE Citrine LTE II from TracFone. I'm running Android 5.1.1. I can't seem to update Android to the latest version. Clicking "Software Update" near the bottom doesn't work (images are too large)
Following some guides tells me to click on "About Phone" and then look for a software thingamajig at the top...

Is there any way to update a non-rootable TracFone?

With most Android phones it is down to the manufacturer to push updates to the phones.
I had a quick Google and it seems your phone's latest Android release is 5.1.1. Unless your manufacturer pushes another update you're pretty much stuck with that version I'm afraid.


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How do some apps get past ad blocking?
I'm already using LBE Privacy Guard, AdAway and Droidwall to strictly control ads and app permissions. (All of them require root to run).
Droidwall has a whitelist where only apps that actually fetch data from the internet are allowed. (Games, system apps etc are blocked)
However I find some apps that are able to show ads even when they're not on the whitelist in Droidwall. How do they do it? Are they relying on some separate core system component to do this?
My solution is to click on the ad and instantly hit 'stop' on the browser window that pops up, then adding the ad host to my hosts file.
I'd prefer a permanent solution, so that only apps requiring the internet are able to get through.
(Given a choice, I'd prefer a time bound full version or a feature restricted demo version to any form of adware, be it on Android or the desktop).
What Android system component do I block to completely disable in app ads?

How do you know the ads aren't bundled with the app?

If the app is not allowed to connect to the net and is still displaying ads, then it must be relying on something else that's not blocked by the firewall.

One example: QR Droid. It scans QR codes, and does not need internet access to function so I've not granted it access via Droid wall. Still it managed to show ads.

That's why I'm asking how you know they're not bundled with the app.  Ads can be contained inside the app and don't need to be downloaded.  "What Android system component do I block to completely disable in app ads?" assume that there is something external, but there doesn't need to be anything external.

But it's one thing if they're static ads, they're not. Every time I open it, there's a different bunch of ads. So mustn't they be getting downloaded?

If you run a network monitor like Wireshark, you should be able to tell if the app is doing any net access.

And if the app concerned has a payed pro version, buying that would probably get you rid of those ads. Think ybout how much time you take to investigate this issue -- and if this wouldn't be worth the few bucks the pro may cost ;)

I have purchased several apps already, what about apps that have no pro version, i.e. are entirely ad supported, and there's no equivalent? For me it's not the ads alone, the fact that it consumes battery power and network bandwidth to fetch an ugly banner on an already small screen which I'm never going to click except by accident. That is why I said I prefer an unlockable time or feature restricted demo to adware.

It's been 5 10 years since I asked this, and I've finally found a solution for rooted phones.
Google Play Services is the culprit.
You need an app that can disable individual sub-components of other apps. I use DisableService (it's no longer available) App Manager, so I'll use it as an example, you'll have to follow similar steps with other such apps.

Select Google Play Services from the list of apps, set the filter to show system apps if needed.
Look for and disable the following components - AdRequestBrokerService, AdvertisingNotificationService, AdvertisingIdService, AnalyticsService and AnalyticsUploadIntentService.

That's it. Other apps send requests to these services to display ads, and turning them off has no adverse effect on them.

Had similar problem disabled network access to Google Play Services. Ads gone after that. System seems to be working fine though.

If your phone is rooted, Install "Avast mobile security" and enable firewall. you can block internet access to any installed app. Its not about blocking ads. Its about blocking internet access. And its free.

He is doing the same but with other programs.

At least read my question fully before replying!

@Rex Sir... I've just mentioned how to completely block an app from accessing internet based on my experience.. and it was also a part of your question....

My question relates to apps that get past both hosts file and firewall, since I already have a firewall! And obviously my phone is rooted if I'm using both of these!


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Why is root access required for a custom ROM?
I'd like to be clear, and as my question indicates, I'm very ignorant of mobile devices in general so my apologies if this is common knowledge.
Say I want to install a custom ROM onto a device, then it would appear I need root access. I'm able to find out from every web page on how I can root a device, but I'm unable to find how why I need to root a device. I understand that rooting a device simply gives me root access on the device, but why is this needed? If I connect the phone to a PC then doesn't that give me access to the entire file system of the device? If so, then why can't I just overwrite the relevant parts of the FS with whatever ROM I want?
Also, why would rooting and using a custom ROM cause a device to be bricked? Couldn't I just overwrite the ROM that was causing the issue with the original one (that I'd thought on to back up! ;)).

If I connect the phone to a PC then doesn't that give me access to the entire file system of the device? - By default, no, it doesn't. It gives you access to a very specific portion of the filesystem (the "external" storage).

Here and Here

@t0mm13b None of those questions answer the WHY part. Guess I'll go ahead and put something here.

Short answer:
For security and warranty reasons.
Detailed answer:
This is mostly a precaution taken by most (not all!) device manufacturers to save them from too many service requests from "playing kiddies" (and the sort of people who want to try everything, even if they are not understanding anything). So those manufacturers took special actions to avoid "custom ROMs" (or, more precisely, any ROMs not provided by themselves) to be flashed.
As t0mm13b already pointed out in his comments above, by default you do not get physical access to your devices file system simply by connecting it via USB. Depending on device, Android version, and some more criteria, you get only to see parts. This might be the entire SD card (physical, in UMS mode), or even only "logical" access to parts of it via MTP. Some more privileged access can be gained via ADB when enabling USB Debug -- but with a stock ROM, in none of these cases you gain full access.
Now how are updates accomplished then? One very common practice is the use of a special ZIP file (update.zip). This is placed on the SD card, which is inserted into the device, and the device is booted into a special mode (recovery), where the update.zip can be applied from. BUT: the device checks the integrity of that update.zip -- it must be signed with the manufacturers key. For obvious reasons, that key is not freely available -- so no custom ROM can be installed this way on such a stock system.
All these things can be circumvented only with super-user access to the device -- which means: you must root it.
So that's for the WHY part -- while not handling the HOW part of rooting. Exactly as you asked for :)

Update for even more details
As Liam pointed out in his comment that using fastboot would be a method to flash Custom ROMs without the pre-condition of having the device rooted, I did a little more research to find out about this. I will continue looking into this, but still already wanted to add my first results here.
Up to a certain point, Liam is right with this: It seems not only valid to Samsung devices (as I assumed first), but some other devices (not all) also support this method, without root being involved (aside from the fact that most Custom ROMs will ship rooted, of course -- so you will have root available after installing them). However, there are devices which seem to require root even for fastboot flash (see e.g. TheUnlockr concerning the Iconia A100, quote: You must have rooted your device before doing this procedure. -- and yes, they use fastboot flash recovery recovery.img afterwards).
However, even if fastboot works for your unrooted device, there is one crucial point to consider:

To Flash a ROM for your Android device with fastboot you must have an unlocked bootloader or an engineering bootloader

(Flashing Guide - Android - XDA-Developers)
Which means: If your bootloader is locked, you need to unlock it first, which will wipe (factory-reset) your device. So all data will be gone for good this way -- while with root you could have done a complete backup (Nandroid, Titanium Backup) before this step. However, starting with Android 4.0, this is no longer a real problem -- as you can do a full backup via ADB (see: Full Backup of non-rooted devices)

Summary:
There are devices requiring to be rooted before you can flash a Custom ROM. If your device falls into this category, the reasons for Why is root access required to flash a Custom ROM are those mentioned above.
However: There are also devices which can be flashed using fastboot without being rooted before. If your device falls into that category, the question Why is root access required to flash a Custom ROM becomes invalid (the answer not, as ex falso quodlibet sequitur ("from false can follow anything") you can draw any conclusion from a wrong premise :)
That is: IF rooting is required, the above is WHY.

You don't actually need root to install a custom ROM on most devices ;)

@LiamW As my question states - I'm very ignorant with mobile OSes, and Izzy has 13.3k reputation which indicates he knows a thing of two more about this than myself; as such, I assume his answer is fully correct as I don't know anything to the contrary; also his answer was also the highest voted (again indicating it's technically correct). Nevertheless if you believe his answer to be incorrect, feel free to update your answer and if the votes swing I'll change the accepted answer.

@LiamW You mean "on most Samsung devices". I never saw a device you could flash a custom ROM without rooting, sorry, and I saw some devices. Well, I kept away from plastic bombers... XD So technically, your last comment is incorrect :D

Its a chicken and egg... you need root to be able to flash a custom ROM and in order to flash a custom ROM, you generally need an unlocked boot-loader with a rooted recovery environment... and a rooted recovery environment such as CWM/TWRP....catch-22!

@t0mm13b just mentioned the "custom recovery". This is what works around the "signature" problem -- so one can flas an update.zip even when it's not signed with the manufacturers key -- so this is one more detail in the queue. I just don't see the "chicken-and-egg": root -> unlock -> CWM -> Custom ROM. No loop detected.

@LiamW It's hardly prejudice and you're quite right - high reputation doesn't always mean a valid answer, however considering I asked a question which I had no way of testing the answer I also rely on the community and their votes to find an acceptable answer. As I said, feel free to expand your answer which disproves the answer provided by Izzy and assuming the community agree, I'll happily make yours the accepted answer. :)

@R4D4 An accepted answer should be the one that helps you the most.  If you're not in a position to fully evaluate the answer then it's perfectly OK to not accept one.  Accepting the highest answer just because it's the highest, or the one from someone with high rep, is definitely frowned upon.  At the end of the day though it is your decision, no one should tell you differently.

Exactly -- peace again :) We decided, until proven otherwise, we both are correct -- depending on the circumstances (such as the hardware/manufacturer in question). I will dig into the fastboot topic again, and update my question later. May take a couple of days, as I'm quite busy at the moment (see chat for reasons ;)

@MatthewRead Can't agree more with your statement, however measuring "help" is difficult when I'm asking for an explanation. I don't generally accept answers based on rep or number of votes, but in this case I would. I have nothing to test the answers are correct, nor will I be in a position to fully understand the answers for quite a long time. Saying that, when the time comes when I can appreciate both answers, then I'd happily revise the accepted answer.

@Izzy Just to be clear, when you say I may be given access to the entire SD card through UMS mode, I'm assuming you mean the external SD card that may or may not be present rather than the internal memory holding the file system?

Correct -- I was just referring to the real card (which can be physically removed), not the internal one. And of course that's only true if the device supports UMS (which was usually the case before Android 4.0 if the device supported such a card).

You generally don't need to root the phone to install the custom ROM, you have to root the phone to install a mechanism to install the custom ROM (such as a custom recovery image).
Some phones have unlockable bootloaders - you can flash boot and system.img files via the bootloader without the need to root.
You can also flash a custom recovery image using fastboot without being rooted.
You would need to install a custom recovery as the stock recovery checks that the update zip is signed - and most custom ROM zips are not signed.
You might need to root to install a custom recovery image if your device doesn't support fastboot, but generally you don't need to - it just comes with the image you install.
Samsung devices have download mode - no need to be rooted to use that, you just need ODIN.

If I connect the phone to a PC then doesn't that give me access to the
  entire file system of the device? If so, then why can't I just
  overwrite the relevant parts of the FS with whatever ROM I want?

No, it doesn't. It gives you read only access, so you can't overwrite files in the /system directory. Root can be used to make /system read-writeable.

"You generally don't need to root the phone to install the custom ROM, you have to root the phone to install a mechanism to install the custom ROM (such as a custom recovery image)." surely boils down to you do need root to go from having stock off-the-shelf OS to a custom ROM?

@GAThrawn Nope. You can flash a custom recovery using fastboot. You don't need to root to access fastboot (and sometimes you need to use fastboot to access root)

Many non-Samsung devices do not have unlockable bootloaders (especially older ones), though, so you can't flash a custom recovery without first exploiting the bootloader somehow or installing the recovery some other way (ROM Manager/Goo Manager). Often this does involve rooting, although that might not always be the case. I think that's what @GAThrawn and others are trying to get at. More manufacturers have started to move to offering a bootloader unlocking tool, but many still have not. Motorola devices, for example, are notoriously hard to get custom ROMs on compared to others.


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google play services constantly crashing
My sister's got cyangonmod 11 to have android kitkat on here sony Xperia P.
At first it was smooth but now she's facing constant crashing of google play services app.
I've seen these links before :
Google Play Services crashing constantly
Cyanogenmod: Google Play Services keeps crashing after update
Google Play Services and Play Store crashing
The error message I get in the logs is different from the first question, I tried to install google play services from apkmirror as suggested by the second answer, I tried to install versions 10.2.98 and 10.5.53, the version needs to be 030 as suggested by apkmirror and I'm sure about this.
Reinstalling google play services from apkmirror and clearing data does solve the problem at first but the next day or so it comes back.
The output of adb logcat *:F is this :

F/libc    (25812): Fatal signal 7 (SIGBUS) at 0x00000000 (code=128), thread 26060 (pool-48-thread-)
F/ActivityManager( 2121): Service ServiceRecord{431644d8 u0 com.google.android.gms/com.google.android.location.reporting.service.ReportingAndroidService} in process ProcessRecord{42556cf025812:com.google.android.gms.persistent/u0a23} not same as in map: null
F/libc    (26063): Fatal signal 7 (SIGBUS) at 0x00000000 (code=128), thread 26135 (pool-45-thread-)
F/ActivityManager( 2121): Service ServiceRecord{43304570 u0 com.google.android.gms/.phenotype.service.PhenotypeService} in process ProcessRecord{4295d810 26063:com.google.android.gms.persistent/u0a23} not same as in map: null
F/ActivityManager( 2121): Service ServiceRecord{431afc48 u0 com.google.android.gms/com.google.android.location.reporting.service.ReportingAndroidService} in process ProcessRecord{4295d81026063:com.google.android.gms.persistent/u0a23} not same as in map: null

I'm sure those are the crashes because that's where I say the crash message.
I don't understand that not same as in map : null thing , could you tell what does it means ? and how do we solve this issue ?
My sister also tried the suggestion in this site :  https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/found-a-fix-for-google-play-services-crashing-constantly.312830/ which didn't work.
If you need the full output of adb logcat or maybe adb logcat *:E I'll be happy to add them, the phone is also rooted and TWRP recovery is installed just so you know.

Just some raw guesses: "map" might refer to the Google Services Map (kind of a list of available services), which seems not to know about the one that wants to start (null). And: as all that GoogleService stuff usually needs to be a system app, have you installed it as such?

@Izzy yes I have it installed as such

@Izzy I've got to admit though that I had removed it using System apps remover, I recoverd it and cleared google play services data, will report back if that solves the issue :)

Ah! That could indeed be the culprit. OTOH, I found that kind of installation (just using the .apk from APKMirror) reported unstable more than once. Usually, one flashes the entire GApps zip file. Or uses something better and less privacy-intrusive, like microG :)

@Izzy I did flash GApps zip file, I just resorted to apkmirror because I thought it needs reinstallation or update

If it needs an update, it usually takes care for that itself (more often than you'd like sometimes). And folks wanting the very latest immediately (not waiting for it to update itself) often reported trouble thereafter :) So did making it a system app again show any good results meanwhile?

@Izzy it did but since the problem sometimes comes back xD I'll still wait before posting an answer

The problem solved, previously we had used System app remover to remove some system apps we thought we don't need, we removed google maps, as Izzy guessed google play services was looking for it without finding it ending in a constant crash.
When we restored back google maps app , cleared data no more crashes since then and the phone became faster and more responsive too :) .


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Bring HTC Wildfire back to the original rom
I am an HTC Wildfire user. I have successfully installed CyanogenMod 7.2 on my device, but after over a year of use I want to bring it back to the original HTC rom, if possibile. In order to do that I have tried to follow a few tutorials that promised to do just that. Needless to say they all failed.
My HTC has mounted HBoot 0.80.007 and it is in S-On state and, maybe I am wrong, but I figured I should update the HBoot to 1.01.001 at least and in order to do that I need to acquire the S-Off. So I tried to download the Revolutionary utility but I had no luck in providing my Wildfire serial number.
As a result I am clueless about what to do. Can anyone please illustrate what I need to do to bring my device back to the original rom?

In one of my attempts to I was trying to upgrade the hboot from 0.80.0007 to 1.01 and luckily flashing the device with RUU_Buzz_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.22.405.1_Radio_13.55.55.24H_3.35.20.10_release_160191_signed.exe it also brought my Wildfire to the stock rom.


text:
Install custom Android version on a foreign phone
I'm sorry if this has already been answered or is obvious, I'm not experienced with Android. I recently got a new Android phone from ZTE, but it turns out that it was made for the local market (China) and as such most apps are in Chinese, and Google Play Store and Services are not installed (I tried manually installing from the .apk several times and the app either did not install or did not launch). I'm wondering, can I just wipe the phone and just install another Android version on it, one that would let me install GP Store?
If it matters, my phone is the ZTE Axon 7.

Installing Play Store and other Google Apps requires functionality not give to ordinary use apps thus these apps need to be installed in the system partition.
However, the system partition is inaccessible to unmodified phones without root (admin) permissions. Also installing Play Store requires to perform some modifications to the system which cannot be done when Android is running (regardless of Android version). Thus these tasks are done by a special mode known as the recovery mode. The default recovery mode shipped with the phones are designed to prevent modifications to the system and thus the Android Modding community has created custom versions like (CWM, TWRP, Philz, etc).

First you need to configure you computer to connect to you phone via ADB (Android Debug Bridge).
Download ADB and Fastboot drivers (Windows | Mac) and install it on your computer. This will also install the drivers.
Then you need to install a custom recovery:

Download TWRP recovery for your device here.
On your device, go into Settings -> About and find the Build Number and tap on it 7 times to enable developer settings. Press back and go into Developer Options and enable USB debugging.
From your computer, open a command prompt in the folder you specified when installing the drivers and type: adb devices. You should see an entry like: <Sl. No.>    device.Note that you might see a prompt on your phone asking for permission, if so, accept it.
Type: adb reboot bootloader. Your phone will switch on and will be in the fastboot mode.
Your device needs to be unlocked before it can flash custom images. To unlock your device type: fastboot oem unlock.
Rename the file you downloaded in Step 1 to twrp.img and copy it to the folder you specified when installing the drivers and then type fastboot flash recovery twrp.img followed by fastboot reboot.

Now to install Play Store:

Download Google Apps from here after selecting ARM64, 6.0.1 and pico (I assume you are on the stock ROM).
Store it on your phone in an easily accessible location and type: adb reboot recovery on your computer.
Let the recovery start and when presented with the options press Install.
Navigate to the location where you save the file in Step 2, select it, and swipe across the slider to confirm.
After it is done press Wipe Dalvik cache followed by Reboot System.

That's all you need for Play Store.

Is this TWRP known working with the Chinese variant of the phone? Just asking.

Well, the hardware is the same so it should work.

I tried this, but at the fastboot oem unlock stage, the cmd prompt says it's an unknown command. What am I doing wrong?

I'll get back to you in a couple of days.

Is everything working upto that? Are you on Win or Linux?

EDIT: Just skip that step, I've fixed the answer


text:
Add calendar event from QR-encoded vcard
Is there any way to BOTH

decode QR codes for vcard-format calendar events without mangling the dates, AND
add them to the calendar (ICS or newer) when recognized?

So far, using QR codes generated from two different sites (http://qrickit.com/qrickit_apps/qrickit_qrcode_creator_vcal.php and http://blog.qr4.nl/QR-Code-Calendar-Event.aspx), I've tried three apps. Two of them (QuickMark Lite and QR Barcode Scanner) misinterpreted the dates, and the one that got the dates right (AT&T Code Scanner) didn't know what to do with it after decoding (all it could do was decode it, and display it lamely in a text window).

Please note that according to our [FAQ] questions like "Is there an app for X" are off-topic. I re-phrased your question so it won't get closed due to that fact (guess you could live with a solution not involving any app if there were one ;)

Most barcode readers can recognize addresses. For calendar entries, this might vary; but give QR Droid a try, which promises not only to read, but also create them: contacts, bookmarks, apps, geo-locations, events, and even SMS can be encoded as well as decoded. Also 2D barcodes (on products) should be supported.

Flawless solution. QR Droid worked perfectly & painlessly on the first try with the same QR codes that the two apps I tried yesterday choked on. :-)


text:
Galaxy fit stuck at boot screen
My galaxy fit became unresponsive after the phone memory got full, so I removed the battery and replaced it back. Now my phone is stuck on the booting screen, it just shows the glowing samsung text and then reboots.
I have also tried to to remove the sd card and reboot but it does not help

Have you tried clearing the userdata?

how do I do that?

I'll post as an answer when I get to my computer, hang on.

I wouldn't start with that, though -- you would lose all your data (if Liam is talking about a "full clear" aka "factory reset"). You could try booting into "safe mode" and free some space instead. If that's what Liam has in mind: Yepp, good start. Walk through your apps' list and clear all their caches. Of course this depends on the fact you can at least get it booting completely into safe mode...

@Izzy how do I boot into safe mode ?

Liam already included that with his answer. The "key combination" to enter safe mode differs between devices and Android versions (see e.g. the Youtube video How To Enable Safe Mode On Android). For the Fit, XDA says "Middle button + Power button" for 2.3 Gingerbread.

How to boot into safe mode:
Note: Not all devices support safe mode
While your device is booting up, hold down the Home button. This should be done right after the screen starts up, before the boot animation does, and should be held until the device fully boots. Once done, you should see the words 'Safe Mode' in the bottom left corner.
How to Factory Reset/Clear Userdata
If booting into safe mode didn't work, or your device is still boot looping after removing some of the apps that are using the greatest memory, you will have to erase your data.
You should be able to access stock recovery by holding down the Volume UP button, the Home Buton and the Power button until the device finishes booting into recovery mode. From here you can use the volume keys to navigate to the wipe userdata option, and press the power button to select it. Once done, press the back key to go to the main menu and select to reboot the device now.
This will erase all userdata on the device!
If it still doesn't work?
If it still doesn't work after following these steps, then you will have to take it to a repair center, sorry!

I eventually had to do a factory reset, but home+power button was required to enter factory reset mode


text:
Blank screenshots on Android tablet
I use ddms to take screenshots of my phone and it works fine, but when I try to do the same with my tablet I just get a black image. The phone is a Samsung Intercept running Android 2.2; the tablet is a ViewSonic gTablet with Cyanogenmod 7. I found a forum post that mentions that Tegra devices (like the gTablet) don't use fb0, so normal screenshots don't work, but it also claims that screenshots taken through adb connections work and they don't for me -- I get the same black image. Is that the reason ddms doesn't work on my tablet? Is there a workaround that will let me take screenshots?

I believe I have one of these device (mine is branded as something else but the US brand is the ViewSonic gTablet). I cannot recall if I have tried to do a screenshot with DDMS or not. I don't know why the forums you read would say adb would work becuase ADB uses the same method as DDMS.
I will try my device when I get home from work today, in the mean time, I have read that these apps should work with the device.
All of these are paid apps, they may have a free/lite version but I dont know if they will work for your issue.
Screenshot ER - Requires Root
Screen Shot It - Requires Root
No Root Screen Shot It - NO ROOT REQUIRED (but I am not sure if this works)


text:
How do I set the correct time zone on my Nexus 4?
I just purchased a Nexus 4.
I'm perplexed, however, in that it thinks that I am in the Central timezone when I'm actually in the Eastern timezone.
The Clock application that came with the phone has a "Home Timezone" option. This only puts a secondary clock on the clock app when I'm outside of my Home Timezone, which is always the case, because the phone thinks I'm on the Central timezone.
How do I set my phone to the correct timezone?

It should be under your system settings (the Settings "app"), in the "Date & Time" subsection (which is near the bottom). Uncheck the "Automatic time zone" option and then select the correct one manually:

Right on! My sim card was not a micro sim, so I'm currently running without a network-provided time zone. Thanks for the help!

You can also follow the advice in How do I change the time zone (which is disabled) in Honeycomb on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1? which is to use free application Timezone Changer. There is also Timezone Fixer, which updates timezone files (needs ROOT access).


text:
My screen got broken, how to see on the computer what I'm doing in my device?
My Android device screen got broken and I can't see what I'm doing. That's the only wrong thing with my device, the rest is apparently working OK. Is there any way to send my device screen to my computer?
I don't want to work blindly anymore!

You don't have to continue working blindly, you can use Droid@Screen: it shows the screen of a real or emulated Android device on a computer running Windows, Mac OS or Linux.

Droid@Screen is a stand-alone Java Swing GUI application that shows the screen of an Android device on a computer. Its author says that its typical usage is showing an app demo or during training, but it also fits your case.
In order to use it, you need the following to be installed in your computer:

Java 6 (at least)
Android SDK, installed and configured.
Environment variable ANDROID_HOME (or ANDROID_SDK_HOME) pointing to the Android SDK installation directory. (Optional)
USB driver for the target Android device installed.

Note: USB Debugging must be enabled on your device. (Thanks @JasonC for the heads up)
I have been using it with my Galaxy Nexus and I must say that despite a little lag between what happens in the phone and what is displayed in the computer screen (2-4 s), it does what it says. You don't even need to be rooted for that!
You can download it from the author's site, where you also can watch a complete video and text instructions about its installation and usage.

You have to enable USB debugging for it to work, which means its useless if debugging was disabled when you broke your screen, because the Android folks failed to make the connection that everything you'd want to do with a broken screen requires a working screen to change that one setting.

It is possible to enable developer mode and usb debugging via connecting a USB keyboard with adapter to the phone and sending a carefully planned set of keystrokes. Plan that set of keystrokes with an a phone of the same manufacturer and OS version. For example, down, down, ENTER will get you to the app chooser menu. Use arrow keys to navigate.

If your device has an HDMIport, you can connect that to a display with HDMI port. There are programs, like Droid@Screen, as Dan said, that can cast the device's video output to a PC over the USB connection.

I improved the wording of your answer a bit, Daniel. Hope you don't mind


text:
Does USB tethering degrade droid batteries?
I want to know if tethering with my Xperia Neo V via USB will affect the battery capacity in any negative manner other than the usual.

No. There's no relation between those two things.
If you connect your phone via the USB it gets charged. It doesn't matter if you don't use the USB connection at all or transfer files or tether your data connection or do any other stuff while it's connected.
The charging circuit doesn't even know that it's connected via USB and that there's data flowing. It just happily charges the phone with the power supplied via USB.
Side note:
The battery (LiIon) degrades over time, if you use it or not. There are however differences in the speed of degradation, depending on usage, storage temperature and charging state (best is around 60-70% charged as far as I know). This is however the usual degradation which you asked not to factor in. And this degradation definitely doesn't change if you tether or not.

I think the phone does not actually charge even if seems to be charging. That is the reason they ask you to have more than 50% battery before you update via USB. Isn't it?

I disagree. Of course does it charge, USB provides 500mA (USB3 and some ports even more). That 50% limit has no reason to exist at all. My old xperia even runs without battery, including the ability to upgrade

just some thoughts. :)

Thanks for the info I was just worried that the constant charge and discharge when tethering might degrade the battery other than anything usual

The charging circuit will stop charging and the phone will be powered over USB (if it doesn't draw more than 500mA), so the battery should ideally be idle as soon as it's charged (i.e. no current flow).

All batteries have some recharging cycle. If you repeatedly use USB that means you are charging repeatedly. This reduces battery life by consuming recharge cycle early.
And contrary to manufactures demand to have 50% battery for updating the software, you can updated it even with 5% if it lasts until your software update is complete. I've done it in my Sony W8. In Sony W8 I've updated in just 10% of battery, even though Sony is worst performer in battery.

yeah it would certainly shorten your battery's life. Every battery has a maximum number of charge-discharge cycles. So when the phone is tethered via USB, battery is charging.
The more FREQUENTLY you charge your battery, the more you shorten its life.  This applies not only to tethering/data transfer, but also to the habit of many of charging phones for a short duration, then again discharging it , then again charging it.
This drastically reduces the battery's lifespan.
The best habit is , Charge the phone to 100% . Then use it till its down to 15-20%. This is the best time when you should plug in your device. Mind that discharging to 0% also has adverse effects on backup of a battery.
So IMO Bluetooth tethering is the best solution for 3G speeds.. It is available since ICS . If you want to utilize full 4G speeds, prefer WiFi tethering. While tethering, when the phone's battery comes down below 20% , consider charging it. It's always handy to carry a spare battery with your Droid.

Any external reference for your claim/statement?

My phone's help section says "Charge your phone often. This will not affect the lifespan of the battery."


text:
Will trying to flash an unofficial update with stock recovery harm my device?
I have an Android tablet, the DigiLand DL718M, with a stock recovery that can do slightly more than expected. It isn't much, but I have high hopes that it will support flashing SuperSu using the recovery. My question is, if I try to flash it to test it out and it turns out that my stock recovery cannot install custom updates, will it damage my firmware or something like that, or just pop up an error message telling me I'm an idiot?
PS: I'm explicitly asking about the stock recovery for a good reason: This device's bootloader is not unlockable, so I cannot install a custom recovery.

Dont do unofficial flashing via stock recoveries. Use custom recoveries like TWRP or CWM.

Yeah, I certainly wish I could! So far I've only been able to use the stock recovery, and I was feeling optimistic yesterday.

Nonny, you might ask a separate question on how to install some custom recovery (or use it without installation: TWRP e.g. allows to "just be booted" without being installed) – of course after verifying such a question doesn't already exist. The culprit most likely will be availability: there rarely are custom recoveries for tablets. Checking on XDA cannot hurt, that's the most likely place to find such.

@Izzy thanks, but I was actually asking about the stock recovery. This device's bootloader is not unlockable.

Ah! That fact should go directly into your question to avoid recommendations like "better use a custom recovery" – it would make pretty clear why you're asking that way around! Done that for you :)

Stock recovery should just fail, it will look for a digitally signed package from the manufacturer, not find it, and error out without making changes. If the developer who made the package specifically made it to work for that device and spoofed the signature somehow, it could do anything from work perfectly to perma-brick the device, hard to say.

Thanks! The update does nothing of the sort, so it will accurately determine what I want to know.

Yeah. It didn't even bother to tell me the error, instead saying "installation aborted".


text:
Rooting my phone
I have a HTC one e8 dual SIM,nearly 2 year old.as the warranty is finished and the phone has became old I wanted to root my device(in real I want to get marshmallow rom for my device,it is available in other countries but not in mine that's why).And am new to rooting and flashing Rom so can someone help me out to install Rom and root my device?is there any marshmallow rom for my device?
Any reply would be helpful.

You have it easy, since the M8 has an unlockable bootloader.
What you'll want to do is:
1) Unlock your bootloader
2) Download and flash the TWRP build for your device.
3) Boot into recovery (TWRP)
4) Download the supersu zip onto your phone from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
5) Flash it, and you're rooted.
If you help need doing the above: http://htc-one.wonderhowto.com/how-to/unlock-bootloader-root-your-htc-one-m8-0154444/
As for a Marshmallow ROM, stop at step 2 above. Then grab the latest (as of Apr. 4, 2016) build of Cyanogen Mod for the M8 from here.
How to install it:
1) Copy that ROM onto your phone
2) Boot into recovery (TWRP)
3) Select Wipe > Factory Reset (A "dirty flash" isn't recommended)
4) Then, on the main TWRP screen, select Install, and point it to the ROM file you copied to your device.
5) Swipe to flash
6) Welcome to the world of ROMing & rooting!

I think u misunderstood m8sd with HTC one m8(m8sd is the dual SIM model of HTC one e8)so can u tell how to do rooting and flashing rom(marshmallow) in HTC one e8 dual SIM?plzzz reply


text:
How to charge a newly bought Nexus 5X(lithium polymer)?
I just bought a new Nexus 5X, how should I first charge it? (It's a lithium polymer battery)
I plugged it in the charger and the phone turned on. Phone almost had a full charge already though (out of the box).
I usually left my new phones to charge for 12 hours before using them or unplugging them from the charger. Now I know batteries have evolved, so I'm not sure this is beneficial anymore.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do for the first charge and it doesn't come with instructions about it.
Any advice?
Thanks!

When I get a new device, I usually fully charge it, let it sit an hour to cool, then drain it completely, before fully recharging again.

Also worth a look: our charging tag-wiki. Basically: It cannot hurt to charge it fully, then simply start using it. I never made a ritual out of that – and still use my original devices with their original batteries, some for 5 years already ;)

Batteries are way better than they used to be... Use it, try to charge it at about 20% and let it charge to at least 80% if you can, if you can't, or well... The full charge/drain thing is a myth, just use it.

Charging a new battery for x hours before use is a "legacy hangover" from the days when Nickel Cadmium batteries were used. Those batteries had a "memory effect". As a result, over a period of time, they "remembered" lesser battery capacity than rated capacity. To prevent this, it was advised to always fully charge these batteries
This is not the case with Lithium Ion or Lithium polymer batteries. There is no logic to charge fully or x hours before use. Just use the battery normally, as suggested by others in comments
Table 1 corroborates with additional information


text:
Does CPU and RAM affect MTP file transfer speed android?
I am testing an application for file transfer using MTP the transfer speed is getting vary in different android devices. Can anyone help me to know what are the factors that may affect the MTP file transfer speed.

The number one factor in transfer speed is the actual R/W speed of the phone's internal NAND chip.


text:
How to extract .backup files created by android stock recovery?
I'm using Coolpad note 3 lite, running Android 5.1. I created internal memory backup using stock recovery. Files were created in this format:

userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup  = 2GB
userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup1 = 2GB
n. ...
userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup5 = 1.53GB

Is there any way to extract the files to PC? I couldn't see file header mentioned here. Another user referred a method, which I couldn't understand.

Android 5.1
TWRP installed
Rooted
FAT32 internal & SD card.
Tried Titanium backup and it don't recognize the format.

Edit:

Tried to do a stock recovery backup and replace the files. While trying to restore stock recovery not showing SD card, although it takes backup in SD card during backup in same session.
7Zip Windows opened the merged .backup file. It shows "2.ext".

Mounting 2.ext in Ubuntu shows nothing even though file space is occupied.

When trying to open 2.ext using 7zip, I see lot of files in similar name and opening them in 7zip again shows again same file names....

Now how do I recovery files from this 2.ext?

@ManishRamavat No solution yet, I just run foremost in Ubuntu to recover my photos. That's not recovering great either.

this is solution for your ext4 image https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=73612779&postcount=58

https://android.stackexchange.com/a/137339

stock android recovery extracted files can be restored with nandroid custom recovery, if you simply repack them into tar archive.
i put this two command lines in a dirty shell script (extract + repack as tar).
thanks to ektoric figuring out his gunzip method!
download on
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=65374561#post65374561

As a first step, you will need to merge the various .backupN files into one by using the following command:
cat userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup* > userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup
It looks like the header size of 512 bytes is the same across many devices, so try to extract using the following command:
dd if=userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup bs=512 skip=1 | gunzip -c | tar xv
If this doesn't work, you can try the other method as described in this post:

Download the simg2img tool from here.
Convert the .backup file into an image using command simg2img userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup.raw
Mount the image using command mount -t ext4 -o loop,rw userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup.raw "data".

You should now be able to copy the contents of the backup image.
Alternatively, you can download the simg2img binary along with the script that automates the above steps using the link from the above mentioned post.

Tried with Cygwin, unable to cat files (no space issue). Downloading ubuntu for VM and update the status.

First method didn't work because of
"gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: This does not look like a tar archive". simg2img can't open the merged file. "Cannot open input file userdata.backup". Any other ideas? How to do with fallocate as another user mentioned?

@Jones Are you able to use md5sum? If yes, then try to issue md5sum -ve '1/1 "%02X "' userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup | head -n 10, then tell us the output. This way, we could try to identify the file type for you.

@DeathMaskSalesman - "md5sum: invalid option -- 'v'" I'm getting this error. Am I missing something?

@Jones No, it just means that your build of md5sum does not support the -v flag. You may want to skip the -e flag as well, and use md5sum -C instead. This will output both the hexadecimal code and its ASCII transliteration.

As an alternative to this manual procedure, you may also want to check if your Ubuntu distro has the file or the magic command, which are able to identify files by examining their header.

@DeathMaskSalesman - Used file with c flag. No patterns found.

@Jones Then we should perform an hexadecimal dump in order to manually analyze the file.

@DeathMaskSalesman - Now I'm able to see the internals of backup, although I couldn't retrieve anything yet.


text:
What is this Finder shortcut?
A few days ago, my Samsung Galaxy S6 added a shortcut to "Finder" on my home screen.  I looked through my app list, and I can't find an app with that name.  What exactly is it, and how did it get added to my home screen?  If it's relevant, I'm in the US and use Sprint as my carrier.
The shortcut on my homescreen:

When the app runs:

I haven't been able to find this in my app list.  What is this app, and if I want to uninstall it what do I need to do?

@beeshyams after digging around its help info it calls itself SFinder. That's too bad.

As confirmed by OP, it is Sfinder which is a Samsung app and cannot be uninstalled without root


text:
How do I decrypt files on my SD card that I encrypted using the Settings?
I have files that I used to copy from my SD card to my PC using the USB Mass Storage option under the "USB connection" pop-up.  I checked the flag under Settings->Location & Security->Data encryption->Storage encryption and now I can't read new files of these types (e.g., .jpg and .txt files). I tried unchecking the box -- a message appeared saying that future files will be decrypted, but existing files will remain encrypted.
How do I access the files that are currently encrypted and/or decrypt them?

may be relavant: Decrypt folder, that was encrypted using EncFS, on Android. I am not sure what device you have, so i dont know if your device is using encfs (but it probably is)

Thank you for your comment.  I looked at Decrypt folder, that was encrypted using EncFS, on Android, and it doesn't seem to apply.

what is the encryption that is being used then on your device? what device do you have?

I have a Droid Bionic.  I'm not sure what encryption is being used.  I assume that it's part of the Android Operating System.  I'm using version 2.3.4.

i have read that other motorola devices use encfs for the encryption, to that link may have applications that can help you. I dont recall that the encryption is part of the OS, well, the "vanilla os", I believe this is something that motorola added.

I sent this question into Verizon Wireless as well.  Here is their reply:

Thank you for contacting Verizon Wireless through our website...I
  understand that you've been having an issue trying to decrypt files on
  your handset.  At this time Motorola hasn't provided an update for
  your phone to be able to do this.  Without that, we're unable to
  assist you because this is a phone issue and not a network issue.

So it looks like Ryan was correct in his comment that this is an issue with a Motorola OS add-on, not vanilla Android.
Since originally asking my question, I experimented some more with my phone.  My phone has 2 check-boxes for setting encryption: one to encrypt the SD card (that I mentioned in my original question) and one to encrypt the main phone memory.  When I unchecked both boxes, my phone decrypted all files, both on the phone and on the SD card.  So, that is my solution for now.
Thank you Ryan for your comments -- they helped lead me to this answer.

I'm using Samsung Galaxy Note, ICS 4.0.3.  There's a Decrypt option.
Go to Settings → Security → Encryption, there's a "Decrypt Device" and "Decrypt SD Card" option.
After you select "Decrypt SD Card", just uncheck all the boxes on the next screen (see screenshot below).
(Click image to enlarge)

Got a downvote for sharing my knowledge :( Anyway, I just decrpyted my Galaxy Note's SD Card a few minutes ago, because I can not access or edit my files stored on the SD Card (by attaching the USB cable and access as Mass Storage Device).  After decrypting for around 25mins, I now have full access to my files. No files were damaged, back to normal.

Summary: With a Motorola Droid series phone using encryption, you have to click to use the phone as a "Media Device", not as Mass Storage, in order to decrypt files for transfer or viewing on a USB connected PC.
OP has stated he is using a Droid Bionic with encryption enabled.
To view or transfer the encrypted files to his PC -- but in a decrypted state -- while the phone is plugged into his PC by USB connection, he should:

Plug in Droid phone via USB to PC. Make sure phone is unlocked by entering passcode, etc.
When symbol appears in notification bar at the top showing a USB connection of phone to PC, he should drag down from the top of the screen, and click on "Connected as a mass storage: touch for other USB options".
He should then click on "Connect as: Media device (MTP) -- Lets you transfer media files on Windows, or using Android File Transfer on Mac". (He may be prompted to install Motorola connection software, which he should allow.)
In Windows, he should then access My Computer, and, under Portable Devices, click on Droid Bionic. Within there, he will have access to "Interal storage" and "SD Card" (if any), and he can begin viewing or transferring the files in a decrypted state.  (Note: the decryption process can take a noticeable amount of time, say, 1-2 seconds on each folder viewed.)

Source: I have a Droid phone with encryption enabled, and did this procedure to transfer files in a decrypted state.
(Click image to enlarge)