# Question
Title: adb su permission denied, no rom, rooted, need to fix internal sd card
can someone please help. im pulling my hair out lol

im trying to fix a friends phone GT-I9000. basically i get error in mounting sdcard. after searching endlessly and installing 100s of stock rom. still no luck.

i assume that the partition on my internal sd card is corrupted.

i have come across this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1253036

im hoping i can reset my partition on the sdcard.

but i can't get su permission on android sdk adb shell command phone is in clockwork recovery mod when running the adb commands

i.e. this is the code i have to do..

```
adb shell
mount /sdcard
su
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
rm 1
rm 2
rm 3
quit

```

but it ends up like...

```
adb shell
~ $ mount /sdcard
mount /sdcard
mount: permission denied (are you root?)
~ $

```

the su command it not recongised.... any ideas?

the phone will not boot into any rom. only option is recovery or download mode. i have rooted it with CF-ROOT, which in turn installs CWM

therefore i can't install or turn on debugging

HELP please!!!!!!!!

# Answer
Quoting your code:

```
adb shell
mount /sdcard
su

```

And now your output:

```
adb shell
~ $ mount /sdcard
mount /sdcard
mount: permission denied (are you root?)

```

it becomes quite clear why your `su` is not recognized: it comes *too late*. You need to move it one line up, as `mount` already requires root. Still, that would launch another shell, and wait for your input. Once you exit, the remaining commands would be executed. So correctly put, it should look like this:

```
adb shell
su
mount /sdcard

```

or like this:

```
adb shell su -c 'mount /sdcard'

```

So this part would work. The next part is something completely different:

```
su parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
rm 1
rm 2
rm 3
quit

```

The first line is your command. But the remaining lines are no shell commands, but the input to `parted`, so this needs to be handled differently:

```
su parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 <<MyCommandsHere
rm 1
rm 2
rm 3
quit
MyCommandsHere

```

That's a so-called Here-Doc.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: adb, root-access, mount
---


# Question
Title: How to exclude a program from being presented as program to update
I have an Archos 101 tablet which has Google maps installed.

I cannot uninstall Google maps but since I don't need it on my tablet I don't update it.

However, it is constantly being presented in the list of apps with 'new update available.

Can I somehow exclude this app ?

I have not rooted my device and are running Android 2.2

# Answer
The only way I see around this is to uninstall Google Maps and the only way to remove built in apps is to be rooted and either use a 3rd part app or use ADB and uninstall the app yourself. There's no way of "excluding" an app from updates unless you simply uninstall it.
> 1 votes

# Answer
If you meanwhile changed your mind concerning rooting your device (you had a full year to get to *know enough of the system to make sure \[you\] don't screw things up.* ;), next to un-installation there're some more options available using e.g. Titanium Backup:

* freeze (i.e. disable) Maps. This way it becomes "unavailable" on the device (and thus would no longer be updated, if you have a recent version of the *Google Playstore* on the device) -- but could be "unfrozen/re-enabled" any time.
* detach it from "market" (yeah, old term). This would leave the app available and useable, while telling Google Play it's not installed. Not installed → no updates.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: applications, google-play-store, updates
---


# Question
Title: i am locked out of my android after forgetting the pattern
I forgot the lock pattern to my android zte groove and the phone has locked me out. I attempted to use my google email as it requests and it still won't let me in. Is there anyway to unlock my phone?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Yes, at the bottom it should say "unlock by email" and type in your gmail account that you set your phone up to and voila it should be unlocked. And then change your password in the settings

---
Tags: locked-out
---


# Question
Title: Import my Personal Profile contact from a vCard
Is there a way or an app to restore my own personal contact (the one available in *Contacts* selecting the *Personal Profile* command) from a VCard (`*.vcf`)?

All contacts can be exported to the SD card (so also the personal one), but importing back the personal vcard put it in standard contact and not in the personal one...

# Answer
> 2 votes
If your intention is to have your "personal card" available as a kind of "business card" to easily share with your partners, there might be a much better idea than exporting it as vCard: Export it as QR-Code. So you only need to display that QR-Code on your device, and your partner can use a QR reader to "snap" it. It would then be detected as a "business card" (actually, the QR Code will represent a vCard -- AFAIK even in vCard format), and so your partner can directly import it into his/her contacts.

How to do that? An app I started using a while ago is QR Droid. It comes with some pretty practical widgets offering shortcuts, and has several add-ons on the playstore for sharing your current GPS position as QR Code, and more... OK, back to topic:

QR Droid "business cards", history, selection to create a code (source: Google Play; click images to enlarge)

As the screenshots show, this app is able to create "business card QR-Codes". You can even edit them (e.g. embed an image into the code to make it nicer looking). To show it to your partner for scanning, you can easily pick it from the history (second screenshot). And as a side-effect, it can do much more -- not only create, but also read QR Codes.

PS: As the contact will be exported as vCard, you can also share it with *your* other devices this way. It might not be imported to your "personal contact" on the other devices, though...

# Answer
> 2 votes
Select your contact -\> Settings menu -\> Share -\> Gmail -\> and send that to your own Email address.

Then you will get a e-mail with yourContact.vcf attached to it. simply download it. (Downloaded file will be available on SDCARD/Download)

# Answer
> 0 votes
download Super Backup from play store and export sms ,contact and app to your email

---
Tags: contacts, privacy
---


title: how can I auto connect to open wifi?

text:
# Question
Title: how can I auto connect to open wifi?
I have Galaxy Note2.

Is there a way to tell it to auto connect to open wifi when availble?

Whitout me needing to scan and choose open wifi?

# Answer
> 3 votes
In your devices settings (under *Settings → WiFi* or *Settings → Wireless & Networks → WiFi*, depending on your Android version / ROM) you should find a check-box to enable notifications for "open networks". If you enable that (and, of course, have WiFi enabled), Android will always scan for networks in the background (which it does anyway with WiFi enabled) and display a notification in the to inform you whenever an "open network" was detected.

This does not automatically connect you to that network, for reasons. Otherwise hackers would have an easy job to lurk you into their honey-pot, hack your device, and leave you - virtually - "naked". It's not a really good idea to simply connect to *any* open network around. Many background connections are not secured, or at least not *well* secured, so it would be easy to sniff your passwords or personal data transmitted (same for your "manual connections" via e.g. the browser). So pick your "open networks" carefully.

However: once you manually connected a network, Android will remember that -- and connect you automatically the next time it is in reach. Until you go and remove its configuration manually from the settings.

There are also apps available on the Playstore helping you in this context. While Android's default scanner shows networks using a "captive login" as open as others not using it, they even differentiate. A good example for those is e.g. WeFi Pro (at least it did show these differences in the past -- it's some time ago when I used it last).

---
Tags: google-play-store, wi-fi, samsung-galaxy-note-2
---


# Question
Title: Sync Google contact photo to Android phone
I created a contact a while back of a friend, just her name and mobile number. Today I added her Gmail address to the phonebook in her contact card.

When I go into Gmail Contacts I see her Google+ photo - How can I get my phone to sync that photo.

FYI - We are not friends on Google+

# Answer
> 1 votes
After some playing I figured it out.

I went to the App Manager - found Contacts and Contact Storage (cleared the cache from Contacts and cleared all data from Contact Storage)

After recreating my profile an automatic sync took place and all my contacts came back with associated Gmail contact photos

---
Tags: contacts, gmail
---


title: SIM vs. USIM inside Android smartphones

text:
# Question
Title: SIM vs. USIM inside Android smartphones
I've browsing through some jargon and cannot figure out what exactly the difference is between USIM and SIM. While not strictly an android question I figure all android phones are bound to have either one or the other so any clarification on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

# Answer
> 4 votes
SIM is a old guy, but USIM (card's name is UICC, USIM is logical module) is new designed specially for UMTS (3G) generation. While SIM can also be used to access 3G, USIM has extra advantages over SIM:

* 3G Video Calls (not supported with SIM)
* Higher Security: USIM introduces new algorithm to prevent unauthorized access to phone line. Plus, it encrypts your calls and internet traffic with stronger encryption keys. It stores contacts securely too.
* Bigger and Improved phonebook: USIM allows you to store thousands of contacts (limit on SIM is 255). Each contact can now contain email id and more than one phone number.
* USIM can run small applications like computer (SIM's analog is simple SIM menu which can't compute something by own other than communicating with carrier's server).

# Answer
> 3 votes
USIM could mean one of two things.

1. Universal Subscriber Identity Module, which refers to the software that runs within the SIM card (technically now called a UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card) in UMTS parlance).
2. uSIM could also mean microSIM (using u rather than μ), a SIM card format (technically known as 3FF) smaller than the miniSIM (2FF) used in most devices.

---
Tags: sim-card
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to use the Google Play Store without having a mobile provider?
I am trying to install Skype and other applications on my brand new Android tablet but I keep getting stuck with a message:

> ```
> Can't establish a reliable connection to the server
> This could be a temporary problem...
> If it continues, call Customer Care
>
> ```

The tablet is running Android 4.0.3 It's a cheap tablet that I ordered from a website for the purpose of doing my own software development. I am using it in Japan. I don't have any contract with any mobile provider. I can successfully access the Internet via WiFi. I tried opening TCP and UDP ports on the router after reading some other threads on similar problems. I updated the Google Play Store apk version 3.4.7 with version 3.10.10 which I downloaded to my Windows PC and transferred with an SD card to the tablet.

It's getting quite frustrating after almost one week of fighting with this problem. I would appreciated any help or suggestions. Thanks.

# Answer
If all else fails.

So if you can't install apps from the google store. Then you can sideload them with adb. The apk can be found in backup folders from apps like 'titanium backup' so you can have your friend install it and back it up. then copy the apk.

I had a Cricket phone that I didn't buy service for... and they disabled the app "Google Voice" This sideload method worked to bypass that.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, google-play-store
---


# Question
Title: How to boot the Mele A1000 in recovery mode
I installed `CWM` on my `Mele A1000` and I was able to reboot into recovery mode using adb.

At which point I got the `CWM` menu where I was able to install files from SD, wipe cache etc...
After installing all the files (`Cyanogen`) I rebooted, now when the device starts all I see is the `Cyanogen` splash screen for a few minutes and then a message indicating:

> Encryption Unsuccessful. Encryption was interrupted and can't complete. As a result the data on your tablet is no longer accessible.
>
> To resume using your tablet, you must perform a factory reset. When you set up your tablet after the reset ....

This message looks like it's part of the standard Android system.

Since `CWM` is installed I should be able to access it in order to install something else,
but I cannot figure out how to reboot in recovery/cwm mode. There is no hardware button other than the power button on the `Mele A1000`

# Answer
> 1 votes
Once the encryption screen comes up, Android may have gotten far enough in the bootprocess for the adb server to start. If you have adb set up on the computer, check and see if the computer can recognize the phone by typing `adb devices`. If you see device with a serial number, then just simply type `adb reboot recovery`. (If you don't have adb, there are several guides that can be found via Google that explain how to get it set up.)

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, clockworkmod-recovery
---


# Question
Title: Home button or back button to leave an app?
Is there a difference between leaving an app by pressing the "back" button vs. pressing the "home" button?

I've got an app which includes a countdown timer. The app says it will notify me when the timer reaches zero *but only if the app is minimized (home button) and not if it's closed (back button).* Is there really a difference here?

Note that I've confirmed that the app stays available in the list of running apps (the "history" button, or whatever it's called) regardless whether I use "back" or "home" so I am confused. Has the developer misunderstood this?

Details: I'm running the app Ingress Portals on a stock Nexus 4.

# Answer
In general, when you leave an app with **home**, or by launching another app from the recents menu, Android keeps the state of the app around for a while. That includes the stack of which screens you've looked at, the position of scrolling things, selected items, the state of checkboxes and the text in text fields, and other such things. It'll only discard that state if the device runs low on memory, or if you don't come back to the app for a long time.

If you instead press **back**, it takes the current screen off that stack, throws away that state, and goes to the screen you were looking at before. Repeated **back** presses keep doing this until you're all the way out of the app, and it has no state left. (Note that this is only the state of the screen as I described above. The app ought to save any persistent state, such as the document you were editing, or your high score.)

As Sachin Shekhar says, use **home** if you want to come back to the app in the same state; or **back** if you are done with the app and you want to see the main screen or starting screen next time you start it. In addition, note that apps can change the behaviour of the **back** button (such as how web browsers usually make it go "back" in the browser instead of leaving the browser completely), but they *can't* change the behaviour of the **home** button. You can always use **home** to get out of a misbehaving app.

There's one more thing. Android also allows apps to create what it calls a `Service`. This is a part of the app that runs in the background, with no visible part (unless it sends notifications). Any app that has a long-running task to perform, such as a download manager, or a torrent client, should use a `Service` so that the download keeps going even if the app isn't on your screen. It should make sure the `Service` exits when all downloads are finished, so you don't need to worry about how to exit it.

Perhaps this app is using a `Service` to run the countdown, and it has changed the behaviour of the **back** button so that as well as leaving the app, it also stops the `Service`. That could be why you get that instruction. But it's only that way because the author chose to do it that way: he could just as easily enable and disable the countdown with a checkbox or button inside the app. It's not standard behaviour, and in general, you shouldn't expect to have to use **home** to keep downloads or long-running tasks running.
> 6 votes

# Answer
Generally, *Back* button calls `onDestroy()` method of current activity. But, *Home* button pauses the activity. This is the difference if a developer follows standard guidelines (a developer can choose not to respect this behavior).

In layman's term, when you exit app with *Back* button and start it again from *Recent Apps* list, it'd be app's fresh launch. And, when you exit app with *Home* button and start it again from *Recent Apps* list, the app would be resumed from where it was left. It means that *Back* button kills an app whereas *Home* button sends an app to background (Android memory manager can still choose to kill it if system runs out of memory).

The app in the question is simply showing standard behavior.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: notifications, buttons, home-button
---


# Question
Title: How to quickly change the language in the latest Swype beta?
According to Swype's advanced tips page:

> Switching languages: To switch between the two most recent languages, Swype from the Swype-key to the key with the language initials on it.

Since I updated Swype, the language initials are on the space bar and this tip doesn't work any more. I can still switch languages by long-pressing the space bar but that's a hassle. What's the new quick way to change the language?

Here's a screenshot of the keyboard as it looks like for me:

# Answer
> 0 votes
May I ask which version of Swype beta are you using?

For my version 1.0.3.5809, the official documents said:

> To Switch languages from the keyboard: Press and hold the space bar Select your desired language from the pop-up menu

# Answer
> 0 votes
In my version I simply Swype from the Swype key to the space bar.

---
Tags: languages, swype
---


title: How to filter my Google contacts?

text:
# Question
Title: How to filter my Google contacts?
I have synced contacts from my Google account on my Samsung Galaxy.

Now in my contacts are all kinds of people I've written once an email to, which Gmail stored in my contacts.

Some contacts even show up when I search, while they are not even to be found in my contact list on Gmail.

I would like to keep some control over which contacts I want to see in my phone or not. I would like especially to show those who have a phone number in my phone.

How do I filter my contacts from Google?

# Answer
Click on the people (contact) app and click the menu button and go to Settings -\> Contacts to Display -\> Customize. Then make sure only "My Contacts" and "Stared in Android" are enabled. Google shouldn't be adding random emails to My Contacts (since those should be ones you specifically added and the "All other contacts" should contain all the addresses you sent emails to).

If those emails are part of My Contacts, I believe your only option is to manually go through your contacts and change it. Luckily, Google has a web interface to allow this at http://contacts.google.com. When you are there, you can click the checkbox on all the contacts you don't want shown on your phone and then click the Groups icon (3rd button over, it shows 3 people on it), and then uncheck the My Contacts checkbox. The next time your phone syncs your contacts, it will fix your contacts list.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, gmail, google-contacts
---


# Question
Title: Terminal-IDE: Is there a working wiki somewhere to discuss issues unique to this environment?
I'm trying to use the "Terminal-IDE" development environment.

I think it's FANTASTIC from what I can see so far, but at the moment its promise is more than it delivers (to me at least) because I'm having trouble getting to / from the phone as discussed in the HELP literature.

The wiki link on that page is non-functional.

While I have specific issues that may appear to be more of a generic nature and may appear to belong on, say ServerFault or SuperUser, I think they're likely to be common to people using Terminal-IDE...

I'm going to post those issues here in AndroidEnthusiasts as so far this seems like the best place....

Thanks.

**BY THE WAY,** a new tag, **"Terminal-IDE"** should be created, but, while I have plenty of reputation in StackOverflow, et al, I haven't got that reputation HERE. Would someone PLEASE create this tag (and let me know!), so we Terminal-IDE users can find related questions and answers? **THANKS!**

# Answer
> 2 votes
In communications with the coder who created Terminal-IDE, known only as Spartacus Rex, the Terminal-IDE community is fairly new and no one had yet created a community.

So, I did.

You can now find:

* A Web Site where there may one day be a wiki (help needed - **can YOU help set up a Wiki?**).
* An email list to join to ask and answer questions. This list has a searchable archive.
* A new Blog-Site.
* And, at least one new contribution of code to help user's out. It's called Resolver.

Happy? Give it a thumb's up!

---
Tags: terminal, wiki
---


# Question
Title: What information is available to an app from the magnetometer?
I would like to know what other functionality is provided by the magnetometer inside android devices besides allowing applications to display a compass. Can an app do anything else with it besides display compass functionality?

# Answer
Magnetometer reports the magnetic strengths on the three axes of the phone. Can work as compass , metal detector and can also be used to increase mapping accuracy.
> 4 votes

# Answer
The magnetometer measures magnetic field, so it can do anything a magnetometer can do. Other than compass, the magnetometer can be used as a metal detector for instance.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: hardware, sensors, magnetometer
---


# Question
Title: My Sony Xperia S started rebooting after i installed Beats Audio Installation
I was looking through the Google Play Store after I rooted my Sony Xperia S The other day, and came upon the app "Beats Audio Installation" & Downloaded it and then when i opened the app and finished the setup, it started Rebooting and you cant go to your regular screen, etc. You can only see the boot loader (Green animated android logo) and Sony Logo in the beginning and it keeps rebooting. Please Help!

Booting into safe mode using vol- when switched on doesn't work it still reboots as soon as it goes on. Any one had an issue regardless "Beats Audio Installation" please let me know how you fixed it.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Wipe data and cache from recovery and reboot.

---
Tags: audio, internal-storage, boot, sony-xperia-s
---


title: open keypad on default when calling?

text:
# Question
Title: open keypad on default when calling?
I was wondering if there's a way to automatically expand the keypad when I'm calling someone? I know that it likes to have a picture of that person there, but I don't really take pictures of anyone and store them to my contacts. I want to hide that contact picture and have the keypad open instead. I looked around the settings and there doesn't seem to be an option?

Thank you.

# Answer
I don't think there is any option for that . Probably a third party app (Dialer/Call) would.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-3, calls
---


title: Sony xperia ringtone

text:
# Question
Title: Sony xperia ringtone
I am using this mobile for over a week now and accidentally, I tapped on open (always open) on my ringtone such that, now I cannot set any MP3 ringtones and stuck with default Sony ringtones.

Is there anyway that I can change it to use MP3 ringtones.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Almost every Android file manager or music player has option to set song (not only `mp3`) as ringtone - so just use it. This video may be helpful.

---
Tags: ringtone, default-applications
---


# Question
Title: Use Applications on post-boot mounted SD card?
In order to increase free space on /data , I moved some 15Mb of application files to an ext2 partition on external SD card that is mounted on /data/HWUserData/mnt

Specifically, I moved

> /data/data/com.opera.browser/lib/\*

to

> /data/HWUserData/mnt/lib

and symlinked.

This worked fine until reboot, as the SD Card partition is not mounted at boot time - The Phone now says that Opera is not installed.

Is there some way I can tell android to rescan, or redo what ever it needs to do to detect that opera is installed and integral once again after mounting the sd-card? Does it have to do with the dalvik cache?

Another issue/solution is getting the sd-card mounted at boot-time, I know, but that is not this question.

# Answer
From this XDA discussion:

> Create a script in /etc/init.d to do it. You'll need to remount / to read+write first though.

And solution:

> Thanks for your help! I'm quite firm in shell-operations, I just didn't think I could just put a script to /etc/init.d! :)
>
> I'v created a shell-script named 07sdcard and with the content: Code:
>
> `#!/system/bin/sh rootrw ln -s /mnt/external1 /sdcard-ext rootro`
>
> Works geat! :)
> 1 votes

---
Tags: external-sd, sd-card, mount
---


# Question
Title: How to Remove this battery symbol of head in Android 4.0.4 device Sony Xperia MT27i?
0.4 device **Sony Xperia MT27i** For development use. I describe one screen the here, and display my question:

Image Screen with red mark (click image to enlarge)

I want to remove the icon from my device screen. How can I do that?

# Answer
Its power saving symbol and you have to disable from Setting for remove symbol.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: notification-bar, sony-ericsson-xperia-x10
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to reproduce munsell colours on an android device?
Given a wide variety of devices, is it possible to address the colour spaces such that a accurate reproduction of munsell colours are shown?

If it is possible, what applications can best be compared against a printed colour book to check an individual device's colour reproduction?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Nearly all Android devices use the sRGB colourspace with 8 bits per channel, though some cheaper or older ones use 8 bits per channel in the framebuffer when the screen actually has a much lower bit depth, so it's not always possible to tell the real colour reproduction capabilities of the screen from the software configuration. If you have a table giving the closest sRGB equivalent to each Munsell colour, then the only question is how close you need it to be.

I don't know of any colour calibration tools, and a quick search on Google Play didn't find any, so it's likely that no such software exists for Android. In any case, actually adjusting the on-screen colours to match the printed swatch would need you to have on the device. Your best bet may be to use a paint tool or colour picker tool to show on the screen each colour you're interested in, and compare with the swatch that way.

---
Tags: screen
---


# Question
Title: Can I install Android on my Samsung Omnia W8350 - windows 7 phone?
I have a samsung omnia w 8350 with windows 7.5, I want to install Android OS on the phone, can anyone help?

# Answer
Doubtful. A Google search suggests that even getting custom Windows 7.5 firmware installed is difficult, let alone a wholly different OS. In theory it should be possible, but I think you'd be better off getting an Android phone instead of waiting.

From XDA:

> So far, we haven't even gotten custom WP7 ROMs to run on the Omnia W. In fact, we don't even have a flashing tool to replace the stock ROMs with.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I only know of one Windows phone that got Android on it (HTC Photon) and it was because the hardware was basically identical to an Android-based phone (HTC Legend) that was put out by the same company, it was a simple port.

The reality is that the phones hardware likely doesn't have proper Android support. This could require writing drivers from scratch and creating many interface layers (like interacting with the camera). Many times this is extremely difficult even if the phone does run Android due to the code being closed source. In fact, many times manufacturers will change the drivers to interact with the OS differently than Vanilla Android, so just trying to get a custom ROM working on the device can be a nightmare. This is why many devices aren't supported with 3rd-party ROMs like CyanogenMod or AOKP. The developers just can't reverse engineer things to work properly.

So, it wouldn't be as simple as installing Android, because you would have to fully port Android over to the device and be a highly skilled programmer to do so. It would most likely require a lot of reverse engineering and debugging just so their custom drivers would work. Simply put, it just isn't worth any developers time to try and attempt this. Their time would be far better spent starting with a device that already has Android running.

And even if they were to get some basic support, you would likely have many functions of the "smartphone" not working, such as GPS or wifi. Your money (and sanity) would be much better spent with getting a device that runs the OS you want.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: windows, samsung
---


# Question
Title: Will Asurion charge me for my replacement phone if I've rooted it
I have an android phone with Sprint which I dropped and cracked the screen. I have insurance, and they've already sent me a new phone. However, my old phone is rooted and has CyanogenMod on it. Will they charge me for the full cost of the phone (instead of just the deductible) when they find that my phone is rooted/has CyanogenMod on it? I don't see why they would, because which ROM it had wouldn't prevent the screen from getting cracked, but I want to know if I'll have to flash it back to factory stuff before sending it back to Asurion.

# Answer
In most (all?) cases, rooting voids your warranty. I would assume that in jurisdictions with sane laws, physical damage clearly caused by the dropping would still be covered; they can't reasonably claim that the rooting caused the damage or would prevent them from fixing it.

That said, most jurisdictions don't have sane technology laws, and most carriers seem to jump at any chance to screw people over for money. **If** they find out it's rooted, I would expect them to try to charge you the full cost. So unroot / flash stock if you can.
> 3 votes

# Answer
I have rooted every phone I've ever had and they never charge you for rooting it. As already commented, I doubt they even look. Here are some examples:

1. I used to have Assurion and they never charged me for a rooted phone.
2. I bought a phone one time, rooted it and returned it. Never heard a peep from them.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: rooting, sprint
---


title: How to root my LG Escape?

text:
# Question
Title: How to root my LG Escape?
I haven't been able to find any information on how to do this. The only thing I found was this, which seems a little shady and isn't even for the Escape, it's just a generic tool. I've also seen this question but there are no LG phones listed & I'd rather not try a 'generic one-click' tool unless I know it's going to work.

Also, I'd like to be able to do it from Ubuntu. I CAN do it from Windows if I need to, but I'd much rather not.

# Answer
> 1 votes
A quick Google search turns up this guide on XDA.

You need to have propers drivers installed.

"Download the zip and unzip it to your desktop. Go into your phone's settings and go to developers options. Turn on USB debugging. Go back to settings and go to security. Turn on unknown sources. Now plug your phone in and run the .bat file that you just unzipped. Follow the commands on the and that should be it."

Most rooting tools are released for Windows first, and Linux/Mac only if there is considerable demand. I'd suggest getting it done on a Windows system if you have access to, rather than searching for a Linux compatible tool.

As for your comment on 'generic' tools, you should know that most tools work by exploiting known security vulnerabilities, many of which are specific to a kernel and/OR ROM version, and this may carry over to multiple devices (example would be OneClickRoot). If such a tool is reported to work for your device, you can try it.

# Answer
> -1 votes
Thought I would share with everyone how to root Version 10i of the LG Escape.

How to Root Version v10i Run LG Spectrum ICS Root script (Windows version) Batch file. Takes about a minute

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jtcbmy

# Answer
> -2 votes
LG locked out the ability to root if you have their current firmware (10i as of my last knowledge and at time of writing). Key points from that thread are: to successfully root, you must be using firmware 10f (or presumably earlier). In that event, the rest of the 'easy root toolboxes' (I used one produced by bin4ry; available here. I believe his toolbox comes with both win and \*nix binaries, but the reason \*nix is irrelevant I explain below)

In conclusion: Use the information outlined in this post keeping in mind the following.

1. Ensure your firmware is 10f (if not, you must pursue the kdz and the downgrade process)
2. Use bin4ry's toolkit

---
Tags: rooting, lg-escape
---


# Question
Title: Too little memory in Android NAND ROMs. Cannot install apps!
(I was about to ask it here, but since I found the answer I'll share it too)

After installing Android on NAND on my HD2, I found that the available system memory is too little for everyday use. It's around 180MB and after a few applications I need to move everything (manually) to SD card.

I would like to have more space for system, especially if I have a large (say, 8GB) SD card.

# Answer
> 5 votes
# The answer is data2sd

### What does it do?

It basically tells Android to use the ext2 partition (once available) on the SD card as internal storage, together with HD2's internal memory. This way you can get up to 4GBs.

### How to install?

As specified in the forum, you can grab the recovery zip (check topic if link goes down) and install it in recovery. It's not that straightforward. If that's your first time, I suggest to:

1. Make a backup of the SD card on PC, laptop, tablet or cloud, **because it's going to be wiped**
2. Insert the card in HD2, boot in recovery (keep `HOME` down during HTC logo). Some ROMs allow you to reboot in recovery, some apps allow you to with one click: choose your favourite option
3. From Clockwork recovery, choose the option to partition SD card (`Advanced -> Partition SD Card`), and choose your partition size. With card \>= 8GB, I recomment 4096MB
4. Once finished, power off, remove the card and copy the recovery zip you downloaded on the card. Also restore your previous backup
5. Insert the card, boot Recovery again and choose the option to install a ZIP from SD card, then choose that file and confirm
6. Reboot Android. You're done!!

### How does it work?

When you partition the SD card, Android creates a swap partition (that works like in Linux, don't forget it's just plain Linux kernel) and an ext2 partition of the size you just chose in the end of the card. The first part of the card is partitioned with a FAT32 partition for easy interoperability, because Windows and other OSes only mount the first partition in a removable drive, **if** they can mount it.

Data2sd is *basically* an init script (running on system boot) that mounts this ext2 partition as the `/data` directory of the system.

Credit to user `Anurag pandey`@xda-developers

# Answer
> 1 votes
1. Root your phone.
2. Install CWM
3. Create a second partition on the sd card. 8 Gb card = second partition 3 Gb. Leaves you 5 Gb storage.
4. Install link2sd from Google store. Link all apps to the second partition. In that way you have all widgets available.
5. You will never have low memory problems again...

---
Tags: storage, htc-hd2
---


# Question
Title: Galaxy Nexus ICS Does't remember wifi Passwords - ICS 4.2.2
Anybody else have this issue? It's freaking annoying as every time i revisit somewhere and want to use their wifi, i have to get the password and enter it in again.

Any suggestions on how i can resolve this issue?

# Answer
Likely the wpa\_supplicant file is corrupted. If you are rooted, you might be able to use an app like Titanium Backup to wipe the data for it. If you aren't rooted, I am not sure what all you can wipe. You can try and wipe the Settings database (Settings -\> Apps -\> All -\> Settings -\> Wipe Data, which might include the file, but I don't know for sure (this will obviously erase all your Android settings)..

But you should be able to fix it by performing a Factory Reset/Data Wipe (Settings -\> Backup and Reset -\> Factory Data Reset). Google should remember your apps and automatically install them once you type your password back in, and all your sdcard content should stay untouched.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, 4.2-jelly-bean
---


# Question
Title: I'm seeing duplicated images and videos on Gallery
I'm facing a strange situation on my Nexus 4, with Android version 4.2.2. I've being using it for the past 2 months without any issues whatsoever (other than a "regular" battery performance), but since last week I started seeing some duplicated albums with images on the Gallery. So, some images and videos appear twice, both with the same album name, but on a different "physical" folder, one on the folder `/storage/emulated/0/` and the other on `/storage/emulated/legacy/`. I'm absolutely positive that this issue started only last week and the "duplicated" images existed before this issue ever appeared. I haven't installed any custom ROMs, I'm not rooted and haven't installed any apps in the las week (other than Google Translate, but I find it hard to believe that this is related). If this is a duplicated, please feel free to close it and point me to that discussion. If you need any more details, I'll update my question.

# Answer
That's not duplicates. If you are the "device owner", `/storage/emulated/0/` is *your* storage area (where your files etc. reside). `/storage/emulated/legacy/` is a symbolic link, always pointing to the logged-in user's storage. That is, if you are the device owner, and you are logged in, both locations are identical. If some apps show the contained files as "dupes", they obviously have problems interpreting symlinks.

While for the gallery, this sounds pretty strange (if we are talking about the stock gallery, and not a 3rd party app): the very same Android developers who designed the multi-user capabilities should have been aware of that. Still, this is not the first time I heard about it. I cannot find the other issue currently, but a solution is as follows:

Go to *Settings→Apps→Manage Apps*, and scroll to the Gallery app. Open its entry, tap "Clear Cache" and "Delete Data". Tap the `back` key, and repeat the same for the "Media Storage" app.

Don't be afraid about losing data: the *Media Scanner* will re-collect them at its next run. You can trigger the scan by either...

* powering off/on the device (bah!)
* going to *Settings→Storage* and safely remove the SDCard, then mount it again (OK for one-time use :)
* using a helper app like e.g. SDrescan or Rescan SD Card! (if you need it more often)

Once the *Media Scanner* is finished, all your media should re-appear in the *Gallery* app. Hopefully without the "dupes" :)
> 3 votes

---
Tags: 4.2-jelly-bean, file-system, nexus-4, gallery
---


# Question
Title: When enabling Bluetooth, is there a way to prevent it from attempting to connect to the two most recently used devices?
Device: LG Nexus 4 (16 GB)

Android version: 4.2.2

I connect my phone via Bluetooth (A2DP) to three devices on a daily basis. Since Android only tries connecting with the two most recent devices, I have to go into the Bluetooth settings and manually select the device I actually want to connect to.

Also, while the first two are attempting a connection, I'm unable to select the third device. I have to wait until those connections fail before it lets me manually choose the other.

Have any of you found any ways to get around this or automate it?

# Answer
> 2 votes
If you are using ICS or Jelly Bean, there are free apps called Bluetooth Auto Connect and Auto Bluetooth that will automatically connect to devices you specify. From the looks of it, it was designed because some devices don't auto connect to *any* Bluetooth devices (let alone two). It will likely work for your phone as well, if you are running Android 4.

---
Tags: bluetooth
---


# Question
Title: scp and rsync to transfer data from Linux to Android
I'd like to be able to push PDF files onto a phone/tablet with a Bash script. Is it possible to transfer data using scp (or even rsync) from a Linux computer to an Android phone over wireless?

Could I even run Unison on the phone?

And is it possible to run Bash (or only POSIX Shell) scripts on the phone remotely?

# Answer
> 7 votes
Many things are possible. Installing an SSH Server app (e.g. SSHelper or DigiSSHD / SSH Server) would give you the possibility to login via ssh, or remote-copy via scp.

Terminal IDE (available only for Android 4.4 and earlier, according to the app description) gives you a quite complete package, even including the famous Midnight Commander, and a lot more useful tools:

> javac, java, dx, proguard, aapt, apkbuilder, signer, ssh, **sshd**, telnetd, **bash** 4.2, busybox 1.19.2, vim 7.3, nano 2.2.6, midnight commander 4.8, htop 1.0, TMUX 1.5, **rsync** 3.0.8, git 1.7.8, BitchX 1.1 and a nice terminal emulator are all available.

(emphasis are introduced by me to pick the items your question was for)

So except for Unison, the latter package should cover your needs :)

# Answer
> 0 votes
For your first question. I use the OASVN Android client to pull PDF files to my droid from my private Windows based SVN server. Works Great!! I used rsync before and would favored the SVN solution over rsync. NetApp's FX File Manager Plus handles the SFTP protocol over wireless and will cost you $2 for a license.

---
Tags: ssh, rsync
---


title: Terminal-IDE / wifi routing issues

text:
# Question
Title: Terminal-IDE / wifi routing issues
As cited here, I think there are likely issues unique to **Terminal-IDE** users because Terminal-IDE is, effectively, an **"accessable-linux-on-your-non-rooted-Android"** environment. And, therefore, it likely has unique environmental issues. So thank you for not immediately telling me to go to ServerFault or SuperUser...

**After installing Terminal-IDE,** I read all the help and set about taking advantage of the SSH tools - I really want to get logged in from another system so I have a full keyboard and can treat the phone just like any other networked system. However, I got stopped in my tracks pretty quickly.

I have several routing issues, but I'll put them all here in thinking they may well be related and one place is better than several for finding answers.

**I'm using WiFi** to get to/from the phone and, using my **possibly lame Netgear WN802T WiFi** unit (that doesn't have a DHCP server and requires another system to do that). The phone (and other devices) links up, gets an IP address, and surfs the internet from there just fine. I told the DHCP server to **match up the MAC address and give a fixed IP** \- this way I avoid the "single IP for all interfaces when "fixed IP" is chosen" problems identified elsewhere on this site. I have confirmed that IP is indeed given to the phone.

So, **I set up the sshd service** as found in the official Help PDF. It runs. But no inbound connections succeed; they always end with "Connection timed out" (notably NOT "no route to host" - which is what I get when I ask for a non-existent IP). That tells me it MAY be actually getting to the port on the phone but nobody's answering! This leads to to immediate questions:

* Is there a way to log inbound attempts?
* Is there a "firewall" of some kind?

**When I connect out-bound,** it ONLY connects either on the wilds of the internet, OR on the default gateway the DHCP server told it about. It won't connect to ANY "non-routing IPs", even though other devices on the same WiFi will (so clearly the WiFi is routing to the local subnet just fine).

* Do I have to create a route specifically pointing to the internal router (the netgear box)? Or;
* tell the real outbound router how to route internally as well as externally?

**Thanks** for any insights.

**EDIT TO SHARE MORE DATA**

As I have continued to work the problem, and after many hours of frustration, I hooked up a USB cable to the phone and used "internet passthrough" to connect to a lap-top which itself is connected via the same wifi. Now I have more data.

I have confirmed the following:

* connection via the laptop to the rest of the network is stable
* connection to the phone from the laptop succeed in getting through authentication and, after discovering and fixing a minor typo in the sshd script, it works fine.
* connection from the phone, through the cable to the laptop then has full access to the local internal network via IP address.

So, this strongly implicates that there are some issues with the phone's end of the WiFi and NOT with the WiFi itself, however, there's not quite enough data to say that since I haven't got sshd running on the laptop to know it is accepting connections through the net... Interestingly, it is not rejecting connection attempts out of hand - they take a long time to drop! (It's a Windows 7 laptop and, frankly, I don't really know how to tell it to open up specific ports - or how to forward to the phone!)

Note also that the only system that can connect to the phone via the wired connection is the laptop that the phone is wired to; so far I have been unable to find a way to get to the phone *through* the laptop.

Thanks again for any insight.

# Answer
After some discussions on the (new, and not yet archived) Terminal-IDE community email list, I learned that the configuration should be working correctly!

A bit frustrated, I kept trying and then noticed something that I suppose should not have surprise me: I set one computer screen to 'pinging' the Android device, with ZERO reply for a long time, and forgot about it. Then, I later noticed the pings were getting through and there were zillions of them scrolling past.

From this, and a bit more investigation, I found that the stability of a WiFi connection on my Android device isn't very stable, especially as compared with my laptop.

In short, "be patient, ping the heck out of it while moving the device to find a good signal path, and it should eventually work."
> 1 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, terminal
---


# Question
Title: Red notification light on Nexus 4, won't power on, device unresponsive
This morning my Nexus 4 wouldn't turn on, so I plugged it in, but the white battery recharging icon doesn't show up when I press Power, and holding Power doesn't turn on the phone. Instead the notification light blinks a deep red. The screen was totally unresponsive.

Lots of websites have plenty of doom and gloom hinting that red light = device is bricked, but I see no official source for this. What does this light mean?

# Answer
**This does not necessarily mean your phone is dead.** Your phone will flash the red LED light briefly when the battery is *completely* drained. When I got this I left the phone in the charger for a while, and eventually the white "charging battery" icon appeared again. Upon turning on the device it had 0% battery. It was in fact so drained that it died while on the charger (at 0%), so I left it to charge for longer. After it regained 30% of it's battery I took it to work and it seems to be draining, charging and working normally.

I'm not sure why lots of sites claim this means your phone is dead, lots of them just say "what else would a blinking red light mean", but definitely leave your phone plugged in for a while and attempt to turn it on again before you attempt to get your phone repaired.

Also if a normal microUSB doesn't seem to be working, try the original charger + wall wart that came with your Nexus 4. My dad had this issue with the N4 and other chargers didn't seem to work. Not sure if the volt/amp/something just isn't enough from other cables or what, but Google recommended it and it seemed to work.
> 45 votes

# Answer
I just saw it. It was a simple case of 100% discharged. To fix it use the power socket charger and not the usb charger from your laptop or desktop. The red light first goes down, then it will blink and then the white charging icon comes. Let it charge at least 10 minutes after that before you switch it on, otherwise it would shutdown again (but won't go to red light mode).

In most cases the red light is not the light of death.
> 8 votes

# Answer
I just had the same issue with my Nexus 4, phone suddenly died, press the power button and it would flash the white Google then turn off. I tried several times use the power button and even hold both volume buttons and power at the same time, nothing. So I plugged it in the charger and saw the blinking red light, thought, "Oh no this is not good."

Then I came here and read, "This does not necessarily mean your phone is dead. Your phone will flash the red LED light briefly when the battery is completely drained," so I left the phone in the charger for a couple minutes and the white battery indicator finally came on after a couple minutes. I now realize the battery was completely drained and I did not have a glass brick for a phone. All hail the forums!
> 2 votes

---
Tags: nexus-4, notification-led
---


# Question
Title: Android does not boot because of missing apk files in system/app folder
I moved the question from https://stackoverflow.com/q/15872848/1665807

I have a rooted Huawei u8825d phone.I want to know if there were no apk files in "/system/app/" folder.

So,I moved these apk files from /system/app/ to internal sd-card.When I tried to reboot the phone,it didn't succeed.I hanged up with a white screen.

Then I tried to push the apk files from the internal sd-card into the /system/app/ folder by using "adb".

```
D:\MTH\update>adb devices

List of devices attached

78F5FD6420D5 device

D:\MTH\update>adb remount

remount failed: Operation not permitted

```

Then,in another way,

```
D:\MTH\update>adb shell mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

mount: Operation not permitted

```

This is another way.

```
D:\MTH\update>adb shell

shell@android:/ $ su

su

Segmentation fault

139|shell@android:/ $

```

# Answer
> 0 votes
Root access or SuperUser is an apk that resides in `/system/app`. If you remove it with the rest of the apps, you lose root. As a possible workaround, you can try to run:

```
> adb root
> adb shell

```

And see if the shell that adb opens is `$` (normal user) or `#` (root). If you're logged as a normal user, I'm afraid you will need to reinstall root in your phone.

Also, `/system/app` is like `C:\Windows` or `/bin` (in Linux), if you remove the files there, don't expect the device to run, as it won't have the necessary files to do so.

---
Tags: adb, boot, root-access, superuser, system-apps
---


# Question
Title: Mount external sdcard after upgrade to Jelly Bean 4.2.2
Yesterday I installed a custom rom on my Samsung Galaxy S2. Before I had ICS 4.0.3 installed. Now my external sdcard does not mount automatically on the phone. How can I get this working?

# Answer
> 1 votes
It turns out that the location or link to the external sdcard has moved from /sdcard/external\_sd to /extSdCard, while the /sdcard/external\_sd was blank. So I thought that the card was not mounted, but in fact it was.

# Answer
> 1 votes
A lot of sdcards are formatted as ExFAT (extended FAT32 - which is better than FAT32 in a number of aspects for flash media, including support for larger than 4GB files). Unfortunately, this is a licensed and proprietary technology and custom ROMs can't legally include support. If you have a card reader for your computer, you can use that to back up the contents of your sdcard. Then you can right click on the drive in My Computer and select format. Select FAT32 and let it do its thing. When it is finished, copy the contents back to the drive and put it back in your phone.

If you don't have access to a card reader, then you will either need to use another phone to back up your content on the card, or possibly, see if you can still enable USB Mass Storage in recovery (most likely under the Mounts and Storage menu depending on the recovery used). If you can't do either, then you can just format the sdcard from within recovery, which will put the filesystem to standard FAT32 and make it readable in your custom ROM, although, this will erase all the content on the card.

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, external-sd, 4.2-jelly-bean
---


# Question
Title: Samsung s-planner as interface to google calendar, miss 3-day layout
S-planner app lost 3-days layout after last update.

That made me cry.

I want to solve it with anyway, change calendar app, or rollback to old s-planner version, or something else?

Please point me to any solution.

# Answer
> 1 votes
If you have saved the previous version's `.apk`, you can re-instate it. That's why I have AppMonster Pro Backup Restore installed and running: it captures each and every `.apk` installed, so I can always revert to a previous version.

If you don't have the old `.apk` available, and you are talking about a free app, you can check Android Drawer for a previous version's `.apk`. Download it, make sure you have enabled in your settings, and launch the `.apk` e.g. from a file explorer. This should install the (old version of the) app without you losing any data.

---
Tags: calendar
---


title: Reading ReStructured text on android?

text:
# Question
Title: Reading ReStructured text on android?
I found/got referred to this book : http://www.djangobook.com/

Which had a github page having files in the .rst(ReStructuredText) format.

What is a format that I can compile this to so that it can be read by some app on an android device and how?

# Answer
rst2pdf is an application that can be used to compile Restructured text into pdf.

To read a pdf on your android should be trivial-ish. Grab any pdf reader.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store, 4.2-jelly-bean, ebooks
---


# Question
Title: What app allows me to block "probable" spam calls
I receive 2 or 3 calls per day from random spammers. I have tried blocking the numbers, but it is no use as they just call with new numbers. Is there anyway to avoid this? I suppose the end solution could be changing my number with a new sim card.

I have tried the app MrNumber, and I have tried a few other apps, but they all suffer from the problem of only blocking single numbers. Spam callers have too many number to utilize. Are there any apps that come with an extensive black list pre-installed? Or some method of detecting what other people have marked as spam?

# Answer
A friend just recommended Call Control to me for this very reason. I'm starting to get spam calls on my cell phone and it disgusts me. Plus there's a black list feature as well.
> 2 votes

# Answer
Try True caller, it comes up with the preloaded blacklist and spammer numbers and keeps on updating..it has some interersting features too..
> 2 votes

---
Tags: calls, call-screening, spam
---


# Question
Title: Trigger "mount as disk drive" (aka "USB Mass Storage" mode) from PC
I've got an HTC Incredible that I sync to my Linux box. I'd like the Linux box to automatically detect that the phone is attached (I can do that via `adb wait-for-device`), and then automatically put the device in "disk drive mode" (I've no idea how to do this part), and then mount the phone as storage, and run my sync script (I've got this covered), and then unmount the phone and return it to "charge only" mode.

I can manually put the device in "disk drive mode" by pulling down the shade and changing the "USB connection type", but I'm not sure how to trigger this remotely from the PC. Ideally, some `adb` command would be great, but I'm open to installing an app, or other hacks (the Linux box can usually reach the phone via WiFi ...)

"Disk drive mode" is also known as "USB Mass Storage" (UMS) mode.

In newer (ICS and later), UMS support is being deprecated for MTP (slightly different USB-based transfer protocol).

# Answer
This app is designed to mount your phone as soon as it is plugged in. It seems to do your missing step.

Alternatively, this command (found from this forum) can be run on the phone (ex. adb shell) to turn on disk mode.

`echo /dev/block/mmcblk0 > /sys/devices/platform/usb_mass_storage/lun0/file`
Edit: This only appears to work in recovery.

Auto Mount App
> 1 votes

# Answer
Look, I got tired of searching how to mount the drive automaticaly in UMS mode, and the solution above is right.

```
echo /dev/block/mmcblk0 > /sys/devices/lm-2/gadget/lun0/file

```

Search for the correct file `/sys/device` in your system. This way I can use Tasker to auto-mount my device whe a USB connection is detected.
> 1 votes

# Answer
According to this Android Forum post the `sdutil` app on the phone can be used enable "USB Mass Storage" mode on the device. This can be run through `adb` as:

```
adb shell sdutil ums enable

```

However, it seems like this only works on older version of Android (circa 2010?), on my device (which is not rooted), `sdutil` is not available (or is hidden somewhere I cannot see like `/sbin` or `/system/sbin`).
> 0 votes

---
Tags: adb, htc-droid-incredible, usb-connection-mode
---


title: Verizon HTC Incredible 2

text:
# Question
Title: Verizon HTC Incredible 2
Will rooting my HTC Incredible 2 allow me to switch carriers ? If not does anyone have any information on how to unlock my phone from Verizon ??

# Answer
CDMA carriers tend to not allow phones from other carriers to operate on their networks. There is not a way to get your Incredible 2 to operate on another network. Rooting your phone will have no affect on this.

Per This link, here is an explanation:

> **What CDMA vs. GSM Means to You**
>
> For call quality, the technology you use is much less important than the way your carrier has built its network. There are good and bad CDMA and GSM networks, but there are key differences between the technologies. Here's what you, as a consumer, need to know.
>
> It's much easier to swap phones on GSM networks, because GSM carriers put customer information on a removable SIM card. Take the card out, put it in a different phone, and the new phone now has your number. What's more, to be considered GSM, a carrier must accept any GSM-compliant phone. So the GSM carriers don't have total control of the phone you're using.
>
> That's not the case with CDMA. In the U.S., CDMA carriers use network-based white lists to verify their subscribers. That means you can only switch phones with your carrier's permission, and a carrier doesn't have to accept any particular phone onto its network. It could, but typically, U.S. carriers choose not to.
>
> In other words, you can take an unlocked AT&T phone over to T-Mobile (although its 3G may not work well because the frequency bands are different). You can't take a Verizon phone over to Sprint, because Sprint's network rejects non-Sprint phones.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: sim-unlocking, carriers
---


# Question
Title: What information does stock Android send to Google by default, and how do I opt-out?
I'm about to buy my first Android phone. My understanding is that, in order to download apps and get updates from Google Play, I need to be permanently signed into a Google account that's linked to my name via credit card information.

I find Google's privacy policy too ambiguous to understand what data is logged from Android users. I don't want to share more information than the device needs to operate.

Here are some steps I plan to take already:

My questions:

1. What other information does Android send to Google by default?
2. What actions should I take to minimise data collection from Google and other apps? (I'll be using stock Android 4.2 on a Nexus 4.)
3. Is Android still a good choice if I don't plan to use Google's services?

# Answer
> 40 votes
## Android is FACC

Android might be many things, but certainly not "privacy first". At least not if you want to use Google Playstore as a ressource for your apps. While at creation (initialization) of your on your Android device, you are asked "Do you want to store your data with Google?", this only means "Backups of your apps and their data, as far as they support it". Soon you will discover that your contacts and calendars are automatically synced with Google servers, without asking you, unless you explicitly opted out of that.

So if there are any firsts, it's **FACC**: Android comes **F**ree of charge, is **A**d supported, **C**loud based, and highly **C**ustomizable. Nobody will argue the first and last items are very appreciable, while "the cloud" is fine with most, and the ads are mostly "accepted" (as long as they are not too agressive, like e.g. *Airpush*).

## So what data do Google services collect?

Nick checked some sources (namely, Google's privacy policy), and reported in a below comment:

> Google says it logs your "phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls" in their privacy policy. It also logs your IP address.
>
> But it doesn't say if this info is logged for Android users specifically, or if it's only collected from other services such as Google Voice. And it doesn't say whether it logs data even if you're logged out of Android services.

Sometimes what's missing speaks as well (sometimes even louder than the facts mentioned). So starting with the "worst-case scenario", we won't be too much shocked later on. Having created a Google account or not: as soon as a network connection is available, data can be uploaded to any servers. System apps *can* access identifying data such as or IMSI, your phone number, or even your locally stored contacts and calendars (yepp, paranoia-mode enabled again), and with an available network, they *could* transfer all data they have available anywhere. (Careful: I did *not* say they do so, just they *could*).

> We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number). Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.

(Source: Google Collection, see below)

Never forget: While Android itself is Open Source, many apps are not. **But also keep in mind: this is not just the case with Android, but with any other system as well.**

If you want to read some more on Google's privacy:

There's one really scary part:

> **We may collect and store** information (including personal information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and **application data caches**.

(emphasis mine; source: Google Collection, see above)

## First steps for privacy

At the very first you could check in advance how the device you want to buy comes configured. In most cases, there will be a lot of pre-installed, which contributes to the "data share". While you cannot really be forced to use those apps, it sometimes is not really possible to get rid of them without rooting. So the less bloatware there is, the better.

is not always an option, as in most countries this will void your warranty. Otherwise you could decide for a more privacy-friendly . So when you've got your new device, you will have to carefully check all options whether they might be intrusive to your privacy:

* say "No" to above mentioned "Backup to Google" question. Otherwise, next to the list of apps you've installed from *Google Play* (which Google knows anyway), and data from several apps, also sensitive information like e.g. your WiFi passwords find their way into the cloud.
* before you enter any contact or calendar data, make sure to have the sync disabled for them (see *Settings→Accounts & Sync*). You can still export your contact list easily direct from within the contacts app -- but if you are going to import anything again after e.g. a or on a new device, make sure to check the sync options *before* that (that was how Google got my data, when I forgot that one time).
* if you enable Google's location service, this will also send "anonymized" data about places you've been. I placed "anonymized" in quotation marks, as a study recently showed that de-anonymization can be easily achieved. So you might want to turn that off as well.

## Android without Google?

Wouldn't it be more consequent then to use Android without Google? This question has been discussed more than once. And yes, it is certainly possible (and before you say it's a "contradiction in terms", I could split hairs and argue that Android is not developed "by Google", but by the AOSP, the Android Open Source Project). You will have to sacrifice some things (as e.g. a big part of the apps on *Google Play* are hard to find outside *Google Play*, for example). But if that's a price you are willing to pay to protect your privacy at max, here are some readings for you:

## Privacy with Android **and** Google?

Okay, the above approach might be a bit too exaggerated for the most (but hey, only because we are paranoid, that doesn't mean nobody's after us, right?). So what's the way in the middle? I mean, aside the "first steps" mentioned above?

There are many things. In *First steps for privacy* I already described how to prepare a fresh, unbloated Android that comes with the Google Apps. Now let's look what to care for next:

### Pre-installed apps

There might come some pre-installed apps not belonging to the Android core system. And not "really needed" for the privacy-concerned. Stuff like *Google+* or *Facebook*. Starting with Android 4.0, we can simply go to *Settings→Apps→Manage Apps*, and disable those we don't want to use. This also might give a boost to and improve , as it rids us of several "background " those apps were running. At startup. Even if we never started them.

### Installing new apps

Don't click on everything fancy (well, need to remember that for a later part: ads in apps). Of course look around what sounds useful or interesting to you. But make sure to read through the comments (at least scan through them) for possible obstacles. Ignore those one-word comments like "great" and "shit", and also those just declaring "download problems" and the like. They do not speak about the app. But check if there were any privacy concerns in the past, or any other trouble for that sake.

Then make sure to check the the app requests. Do they make sense (in the context of what the app is supposed to do)? Critical combinations for privacy are e.g. access to personal data (contacts, calendars, etc) with internet. Or simply internet -- as they could send anything. How hard you argue depends on the grade of paranoia you cultivate :)

### Privacy helpers

Sometimes it's not avoidable to risk some permissions: of course a web browser needs internet access, as does a SMS app need access to your messages. So how to control or restrict them?

There are several helpers around (see e.g. this list at lisisoft, will take you a while to scan through it :). You can hide sensitive information using...

* password stores
* locked galleries
* crypt containers (see e.g. Droid Crypt)

All these things do not even require your device to be rooted. But really forbidding apps to access things (or control their access) won't work without . Examples have already be named in bassmadrigal's answer:

* LBE Privacy Guard controls access to your data (call-logs, contacts, etc.), to critical functions (initiate calls, access location data, etc.) plus firewall your device (control which apps might access the net via WiFi, mobile data). Careful when you're running JellyBean or higher: the playstore version of this app is known to cause boot-loops there. Rather check XDA-developers, they have a fixed version.
* PDroid comes in several variants: PDroid Privacy Protection being the original one, followed up by PDroid Manager and OpenPDroid. Other than *LBE*, these cannot be installed as an app, but need additional preparations -- as they are deeply integrated into the system. This not only adds another layer of protection -- but *OpenPDroid* is even OpenSource, which adds another layer of trust as well.

See also how to fake my personal information.

### Want some shocking details?

Visit your Google Dashboard, log in with your Google account. Here you can find out whom you contacted most frequently, and what other data Google collected from you.

### What happens with all your data when you die, or for any other reason become inactive?

Ooops? Yes, also something one should keep in mind in this context: Plan your digital afterlife. The linked article introduces the new Inactive Account Manager:

> You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason.
>
> For example, you can choose to have your data deleted — after three, six, nine or 12 months of inactivity. Or you can select trusted contacts to receive data \[...\]

(Read more in the linked article)

## Protect your device

Now you've taken care no data is leaving your device, even locked data away in "data vaults", and secured the "back-doors" -- you should not leave the front-door wide open. Go to *Settings→Security* and set up a screen lock. Multiple choices here:

* the good-old PIN code. Not really secure. At least not, if you use King Roland's PIN for Druidia's planet shield (or president Screw's for his briefcase; in case you do not know Spaceballs, the PIN was "12345" for both). Also not your birthdate or something like that.
* a . More secure, as a relation to data retrievable by social-engineering is quite unlikely.
* a can be highly secure, if you use all characters available: letters (upper and lower case), numbers, special chars. And make it long. E.g. `Ti1$spnc3h!` -- how to remember that? Check: "This is a $uper secure password nobody can 3asily hack!"

## Anti-theft protection

Also a lot of solutions on the playstore. Highly praised solutions include Cerberus anti theft, avast! Mobile Security, and more. If your device gets lost, with a good anti-theft protection you can

* check its position
* sound an alarm
* remotely back-up (retrieve) stored data, before you...
* the entire device including its sensitive data

and optimally, the anti-theft app automatically informs you in case the thief changes the SIM. It hides itself (stealth mode) and, with available, can even protect itself against a by integrating into the `/system` partition. So the only chance a thief has is to immediately switch-off the device, put it into a Faraday cage, and flash a new ROM while it's still in there...

## Anti-virus

...you can left out, if you've followed above steps. Yes, there certainly is around. But with all the protection levels taken, and careful selection of sources as well as the apps themselves, risk is absolutely minimal. I never had malware on any of my devices, though I've tested a lot of apps over the past years. After all, Anti-virus (or rather anti-malware, as yet there was no virus sighted for Android) might give a false sense of security ("What shall happen? I've got that Anti-virus."), as they cannot really detect everything (no heuristics, e.g.), but rather check against a database of known malware mainly.

## Backup

Last but not least: Having turned off all Google services (or at least restricted them to a minimum), you will need an alternative backup. To be honest: even if you've decided to answer "Yes" to the above question of "Do you want to backup your data with Google?", you will need a good backup -- as that "Google backup" might be many things, but for sure not complete (apps must explicitly support it by implementing its API, which is done by few apps).

For this, if your device is rooted, I strongly recommend a little investion: do yourself (and your device) some good, and buy Titanium Backup PRO. You won't regret it. *TiBu* is a very powerful tool to backup and restore apps including their data, restore parts of backups (see: nandroid tag wiki and backup tag wiki for details), freeze/unfreeze apps, detach apps from the playstore, and much more. Scheduled backups included. Stored to your sdcard or, if you really want to, to the cloud.

Not being rooted, but having a device with Android 4.0 or higher? Take a look at Carbon - App Sync and Backup, so you can at least backup all your apps and their data, plus some of the system data. Scheduled backups are planned here as well.

Additionally, you might want to take a look at Full Backup of non-rooted devices for more details on *this* topic.

## Conclusion

As I wrote, there usually isn't a simple answer. You can use "Android without Google", cut down all network connections, and so on -- but at latest when you also take out your SIM, it's no longer a smart*phone*. Android is designed to be network enabled, from its very beginning.

You could say "who cares", and let it all go -- and complain when it's too late.

Usually you have to find a way in the middle, deciding how much of your privacy you are willing to sacrifice for how much comfort/convenience. I just listed possibilities, showed what is to be found where, and what solutions exist to protect your privacy the one way or the other. Hopefully, my elaborations will help you making your decisions.

# Answer
> 9 votes
You don't need to sign into Google. But without access to the Play Store, you do limit the apps you can install on your phone. Many apps are available in alternative stores like Amazon, but I don't think they have all of them. When you first start up the phone, it should ask you for your existing Google or to create a new one. There should be a skip option there.

If you do still want the benefits of Play Store, then you can sign into an account and limit things as you have plans to do.

> What other information does Android send to Google by default?

Android itself will send anonymous data, such as Android version, device, carrier, and country to Google for usage statistics. I am not positive if this is sent through Play Store usage or if there is some code in the phone that does this. If it is the latter, there is no way to disable it.

> What actions should I take to minimise data collection from Google and other apps? (I'll be using stock Android 4.2 on a Nexus 4.)

Limiting your use of Google apps will certainly be the biggest way to minimize data going to Google. For other apps, pay attention to the permissions that apps ask for when you install them. If you aren't happy with the permissions, many times the developer will explain the reason for the permissions needed (Read Phone State and Identity is used to make sure the phone isn't in a call, Get location may be used for localized ads in free apps). If you still aren't happy, don't install the app and try to find an alternative.

Also, if you do decide to use a Google account for access to the Play Store, keep in mind that certain apps/services are already set to sync with Google. To disable syncing for those apps/services go to Settings -\> Google -\> your username. Under this menu will show all apps and services that will sync with Google. Uncheck any you don't want synced. Keep in mind, any that are not synced will not be recoverable if your phone goes belly-up without a backup (like your contacts), so if you choose not to sync those, I would make regular backups of any important data. Google also features an account backup, which can sync certain Android settings like your wifi networks and bluetooth pairings and can restore those when a phone is wiped. This should be one of the settings when you do the initial setup of your device, but if not, or you want to check, you can verify what it is set to at Settings -\> Backup and Reset -\> Back Up My Data/Automatic Restore.

If you are rooted, there are apps/mods you can install that can allow you to limit specific permissions for each and every app (Permissions Denied, LBE Privacy Guard, PDroid, etc - each app/mod has its own requirements/limitations, check them out to find out which one will work best for you and what you are currently running on your phone). While this can help alleviate concerns about what apps can access, it can also cause unexpected issues with those apps if they do require a permission that was revoked. It can take some testing to get things where you want them.

> Is Android still a good choice if I don't plan to use Google's services?

While running without Google does remove some of the benefits/functionality of running an Android device, it doesn't remove all fo them. You still get a easily customized OS that allows pretty much every default app to be replaced with an alternative 3rd-party app. Don't like the dialer? Replace it. Don't like the text messaging app? Cool, check out a couple of the big 3rd-party ones and see which one you like. I am definitely a fan of Android, even without Google's presence in the OS (although, personally, I wouldn't want to run it without my Google accounts linked, but it is still certainly feasible). I am not familiar enough with the privacy practices of other OSs, but I can't imagine they would be much better than Google's. Privacy practices are probably quite similar between all the major mobile OSs. Android may be a bit more singled out due to the tie-in with all of Google's services, but that ends up only becoming a concern if you decide to use those services. Android does allow you to sideload apps (install apps from outside the Play Store) by enabling a checkmark in the settings (it will pop up the first time you try and do it and ask you to enable it). I know that can only be accomplished on iOS after you jailbreak it (not sure about other OSs).

Another thing to consider, especially since you will be using a Nexus 4 is to look into custom ROMs. Many ROMs will not include any of the proprietary Google apps (like Play Store and Gmail) and only allow you access to it after you flash a gapps package (Google Apps). This removes everything "Google" related from Android (except for maybe that anonymous usage statistics I mentioned above). I run CyanogenMod on my Nexus 4 (albeit with the gapps package), and it runs great and adds additional features on top of what stock Android 4.2 includes. I see a lot of people on the CM forums running CM without Google's proprietary stuff included.

---
Tags: privacy
---


# Question
Title: When do Force Closes imply hardware problems?
In general: how do you know if random Force Closes (FC) are due to faulty hardware or not?

I experience a few FC's per day on standard apps (Skype, Facebook, Chrome) using stock Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 (ICS) on my Galaxy Nexus.

If it was another random Android device I would get it, but not on Google's flagship with this much development behind it.

# Answer
> 9 votes
Random force closes are only suspicious if it's truly random (i.e. no plausible causes) and it's only happening on your device. In most other cases, it's simply due to poorly coded third party apps.

There are two kinds of force close dialogs:

* Android offers to force close applications that fail to respond to an input event within five seconds. When this happens, the force close dialog offers you to either "wait", "report", or "force close" the app (this is also called the ANR/Application Not Responding dialog).
* There is also another force close dialog that happens due to an unrecoverable crash or unhandled exception (e.g. null pointer error, stack overflow, array out of bound, etc). This crash dialog would not offer you to "wait", just to "report" or "force close".

In any case, check the report dialog and see if you can scrap any useful info (most importantly, the traceback) to determine whether it's an application bug. Google the traceback message with the name of the app to see if it's probably a common issue with that particular version of the app.

Make sure you keep your apps up to date.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Force-closes are pretty much never related to hardware, only to software. A kernel panic (and a subsequent device reboot) is what happens when the hardware is faulty.

---
Tags: hardware, force-close
---


# Question
Title: I get "unfortunately exchange services has stopped" a few days after setting up exchange email
On my Motorola Xoom running 4.0.3 I can set up an exchange email account and it will work for a day or so then it will give the `"unfortunately exchange services has stopped"` error after checking for new messages (takes a long time to check). I can re-create the account and it will re-download the emails and contacts but then it errors out again soon.

# Answer
> 0 votes
I think I've found the problem. The user has over 19 thousand emails in his inbox. Moving emails from the inbox to sub folders was all that was needed to fix it.

---
Tags: email, exchange, motorola-xoom
---


title: Outer-shell music buttons like in iOS

text:
# Question
Title: Outer-shell music buttons like in iOS
I just dumped my iOS device for the sake of Android (iTunes, flash lack and other reasons).

I'm trying to retain the features I got used to on the iOS.

One of them was the ability to start, pause, skip etc. in music while screen is locked:

**Important:**
I'm an Android noob (I'm a .NET dev), I believe there has to be a way to control the device's music in a player-agnostic manner, so I'm rather looking for a "music controls lock-screen" or "music controls FOR my lock-screen" application rather than a "music player with ls controls".

Is there any similar app/feature on Android?

My device: Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 (YP-G70).

**Note** my device is locked with a lock pattern.

\*Pictures are downloaded from the web and are for illustration purposes, they do not reflect my own phone / settings.

# Answer
I found my solution. This feature is provided in Go Locker.

It's so great, and works with Google Music as well! Very customizable and there are zillion of themes out there. And most important, it's free.

I'm sure you now think I'm affiliated with them, the truth is yes, I use their products and I'm addicted to them, that's it!
> 2 votes

# Answer
If your built-in music app and lock screen doesn't do this currently, then you can try using WinAmp as your player, that was the first music app I saw that added the transport controls to your lock screen.

Go into WinAmp's settings to find this option:

Then it should look a bit like this when your phone is locked:

These days most music apps include this feature (I believe including Google Music or Amazon MP3 if you're in the US), try searching the Market for something like lock screen music control to see a selection.

This feature either needs to be built into which ever app you're using to play your music (as above) or you need to switch to using a different lock screen that supports widgets, such as WidgetLocker and then you can choose from available music control add-ons like Media Buttons or Phantom Music Control.
> 7 votes

# Answer
Missed the the same thing when I switched from IOS to Android. Don't know if this solves all of your issues, but supports generic controls (notification, widgets, etc) for most media applications.

Media Utilities
> 1 votes

# Answer
Well what i love about Android is that you can be assured you kind of get more than what you just got out of the box. You are not limited to only what has been shipped. My suggestion is go download widget locker. it allows you to add widgets on lock screens.
> 0 votes

# Answer
Try N 7 player, it supports what you desire and a lot more..
> -3 votes

---
Tags: lock-screens, music-player
---


# Question
Title: Droid RAZR - Is there any way to clear the numbers from the screen when using the dialer?
When I need to check my voicemail, I have to enter my password, of course. However, when I do, it displays it in big, clearly visible characters across the top of the screen for the duration of the call. I think this is incredibly stupid. Is there any way to clear it after entering it?

EDIT: I do realize there is the option to hide the dialpad and input box during the call. However, whenever I need to use the dialpad again I need to make it visible, which then shows my password still at the top.

# Answer
> 0 votes
> EDIT: I do realize there is the option to hide the dialpad and input box during the call. However, whenever I need to use the dialpad again I need to make it visible, which then shows my password still at the top.

That is an indication of proximity sensor, when the handset is near the ear, the screen blanks out, when you're pulling the handset away, the screen comes back on and can see the dialpad, along with the numbers entered!

> Is there any way to clear it after entering it?

When you make a check to voicemail, you're dialing the number, then enter the password, then after checking the voicemail, you hangup, does that not clear the dialer?

In certain dialers, you can actually long press on the dialpad's top screen to bring up a menu, to select all, then cut... **OR** long press on the keypad's `backspace` button

Maybe, if this does not suffice, then the only thing that comes to mind, is to either shield the screen from prying eyes or, use an alternative dialer.

---
Tags: phone-app, motorola-droid-razr
---


title: Titanium Backup batch options

text:
# Question
Title: Titanium Backup batch options
Does "**Backup all user apps**" also include app data too and does "**Backup all system data**" include backup of messages and contacts ?

# Answer
> 1 votes
TiBu's FAQ says:

> Click “Backup all user apps” (if you want just your apps) or “Backup all user apps + system data” if you want everything backed up. This doesn’t seem to always backup SMS and contact history.

Unfortunately it doesn't explain all options in detail -- but from the above quote one can conclude:

* "Backup all system data" normally includes contacts, SMS, etc (but *might* miss some history -- not clear if the latter a) refers to an old version, as I never experienced that, or b) is device-specific)
* "Backup all user apps" must include the data, otherwise the term *if you want everything backed up* wouldn't make sense.

To make sure, just visit the above mentioned FAQ for a closer check, which might answer other questions (you didn't know you've had ;) on the way.

---
Tags: backup, titanium-backup
---


# Question
Title: Factory reset Cynogenmod 10 OS in LG P-500 makes applications crash
Previously my friend installed **cyanogenmod 10 OS** in my **LG P-500** phone. It was working so superb.

I had to do **factory reset** to the phone for deleting some files, after which I am **unable to open any of the applications, not even browser and play store.**

I installed **Dolphin browser**, which is **also getting crashed** in 1 min itself.

Now I decided to re-install the OS.

All zip files required for installation are with me, but I don't know **how to install Cyanogenmod OS** .

# Answer
Since you already had CM10 installed, you should be having the ZIP file with you.

If you do not have it, you can download it from the previous source and place it in your sd card. If you do not have and do not know the source from where you already downloaded, you can try the one from where I had downloaded (Courtesy).

The reason I am trying to stick to your previous download is that these ZIP files are unofficial CM builds and are compiled from same source by many developers, each adding their own bells and whistles and most importantly bug fixes. Hence you already know what is working and what is not with your previous ROM which will avoid you any nasty last minute surprises.

As far as the ROM that I am using, apart from what is mentioned in the blog, Google location service is not working. Which means that News and Weather app, Google maps etc will not get your location without GPS.

After deciding which ROM ZIP file to use, place the ZIP file in sd card and switch off the phone. Please backup whatever you want as the following steps is going to erase all except the SD card contents.

1. Reboot your phone into recovery mode. To do this, press and hold Home button, Volume down button and while holding both down, power on the device. Do not release the home and volume down button until you see the CyanogenMod recovery console.
2. Then simply follow the steps as said in the blog.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, rom-flashing, clockworkmod-recovery, lg-optimus-one
---


# Question
Title: Sony Xperia Tipo JB installation unsuccessful
I was trying to install JellyBean on my sony xperia tipo and have suddenly come to a halt. I was following this tutorial. The only thing that differed here is I obtained the latest JB from Cyanogenmod.

I have successfully installed till the recovery image installation (CWM). Post that I tried selecting the zip which I had downloaded but the installation aborts. Unfortunately it is not meant for tipo and I have come to a halt. I want to know what is the appropriate CM for Xperia Tipo and how do I transfer that appropriate cm\_xx.zip to internal storage in the recovery mode.

# Answer
I was able to solve the question:

The problem was i couldnot find the driver for the device.Did it the manual way by selecting the Android adb interface driver.

And then used

```
adb push <local> <remote>

```

to push the file on to SdCard.

More references on the same can be found here .
> 1 votes

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, sony-xperia-tipo
---


# Question
Title: How to hide audio, video or images at gallery?
Is there anything to be done if I don't want particular folder containing audio, video or images being displayed at gallery or any audio application ?

Actually I am facing problems since my audio books are also being listed at all songs playlist of music players.

Any suggestions ?

# Answer
> 2 votes
You find a possible solution in many posts around here -- if you know what to look for, that is...

Responsible for files turning up in the gallery etc. is the , so you have to keep that one from processing the directories you want to ommit. The usual approach for this is placing a file named `.nomedia` (note the starting dot) into all directories you want to exclude (in your case, the ones containing your audio books). Simply put, this tells the media-scanner: "No media here, just skip this folder".

---
Tags: music-player, gallery
---


# Question
Title: Samsung Champ (GT-3303k) to be converted to Andoid?
I have a Samsung Champ. Model number GT or CT3303k. I want to convert this phone to an android system. Can this be possible for my phone specifically ?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Nope sadly you cannoy convert it to Android.

---
Tags: samsung
---


# Question
Title: Camera app crashing on Nexus i9250 Android 4.2.1
I just bought a i9250 Nexus, and the system proposed to upgrade to newer version 4.2.1 (it is not a rooted phone. It is an unblocked UK phone)

I played with the new phone and after a couple of days I did upgrade it.

Now the camera is not working. When I try to use the camera, it calls the application and before I can see any image from camera, it says "Unfortunately the GALLERY has stopped"

How can I downgrade to previous version? (The phone is not rooted)

Or, does anybody knows how to fix it? or anything that I can try to bring the camera back to action?

# Answer
An update to 4.2.2 should fix the bugs. My Galaxy Nexus has been running a lot more stable since the update. You should be able to find the update in Settings\>\>About Phone\>\>System Updates.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, 4.2-jelly-bean, camera
---


title: How can I root my Yarvik Tab411?

text:
# Question
Title: How can I root my Yarvik Tab411?
How can I root my tablet, the yarvik tab411? I tried to find information on the internet, but had no success.

The tab runs Android ~~4.1.1~~1 2.3.3.

1 according to the link, this device currently ships with Android 4.1.1. Marrssel has an older version, running 2.3.3. (comment by Izzy)

# Answer
According to a thread in the yarvik forum (besides, the first hit on a Google search for yarvik tab411 root), you should be able to use the *SuperOneClick* tool. But while the name suggests "one click" should be pretty easy, it might be not the case.

However, you will need to:

* download SuperOneClick e.g. from here
* download and install the device drivers (for your device, possibly to be found on the yarvik's support pages) on your Windows machine
* activate *USB Debugging* on your device
* run the *SuperOneClick* application *as administrator* (oops) on Windows 7
* now the most difficult: click the "root" button :)

As I have no yarvik tablet, I could not check the above. It's just the result from a little Google search -- so forgive me in case it fails...
> 1 votes

---
Tags: rooting
---


# Question
Title: Android and DEX files handling at runtime
I'm trying to understand a few things around how dex files are handled by android.

What I do know is that an APK ships a dex file, the system gets it, optimises it at install time, and stores the resulting ODEX file (optimised dex) at /data/dalvik-cache/myOdexfile and then runs the application from there.

Is that really how it works?

What happens when a dex file downloads and opens a new dex file from the internet? is that optimised as well?

Also - the system, afaik, keeps the original APK around, right? I think that is kept at /data/app/myAPK-1.apk. Is that used in any way by the system? When?

Can you somehow manually force regeneration of the odex file from the stored APK file after installation?

# Answer
For general information, you might want to refer to the tag-wiki and the tag-wiki for the tag. But your question even covers some parts not contained there -- and only now I realized that indeed all `.apk` files seem to include `.dex` files (I always thought only the "odexed apps" do that), and you seem to be right about what the "O" stands for -- at least it makes much sense. So forgive me, I'm not a developer :)

But still I might be able to answer at least a part of your question.

Yes, your description seems to match how it works (until the question mark, at least). But, to my knowledge, no app should download and install `.dex` files separately. If not running with root permissions, that would even be difficult (as the app could not write to `/data/dalvik-cache`, lacking the ). So we can skip the second part as, according to Aristotle's logic, from a wrong assumption one could derive everything :)

Second: Yes, the system keeps the `.apk` files. If your device has a Custom Recovery installed, you could manually wipe the Dalvik cache from there -- which would force the Android system to re-generate it on its next boot. Basically, this is even done for the (`.apk` files are located in `/system/apps` for those, and thus survive a factory-reset), namely when you do a .

Third: Oh, already answered. Yes, by wiping the Dalvik-Cache.
> 2 votes

# Answer
**\> Is that really how it works?**

Yes, I think it works very like that.

**\> What happens when a dex file downloads and opens a new dex file from the internet? is that optimised as well?**

I think it is not possible for an application to open a dex file directly.

**\> Also - the system, afaik, keeps the original APK around, right? I think that is kept at /data/app/myAPK-1.apk. Is that used in any way by the system? When?**

Yes, APK file contains all of assets and resources needed by the app when it runs. So, as an android developer, I'm pretty sure that apk file is used everytime an app runs.

**\> Can you somehow manually force regeneration of the odex file from the stored APK file after installation?**

Yes, if you clear dalvik-cache folder manually (your device should be ROOTed obviously), then system regenerates needed odex files when you run apps. Some apps, like Titanium Backup, has an option to clear dalvik-cache. Also, I remember that there was same option in recovery menu of my device.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: installation, odex
---


title: Kindle Fire Power Adapter Specs

text:
# Question
Title: Kindle Fire Power Adapter Specs
I have misplaced the power adapter for my v1 Kindle Fire. USB charging works but is dog slow. What are the specs of its adapter, including any branding, as they're never labeled properly. Also, a photo would be very helpful, since it is likely in the box o' adapters in the basement.

# Answer
> 1 votes
According to this page the original stats are this:

> INPUT (AC): 100-240V, 50/60Hz
>
> OUTPUT (DC): 5V, 1.8A

Here's an image:

The newer charger is 9V and 1.8A.

---
Tags: charging, amazon-kindle-fire
---


# Question
Title: Format SD card after playing with fdisk (No card reader)
After playing with partitioning using FDISK (from busybox) i finished and now i want to format it back to whatever is usable under Android.
Using same FDISK via Android console i deleted all partitions, made a clean DOS partition table, made a new partition and changed its type to b (Win95 FAT32).
I got no microSD adapter to read the card from my linux PC and format it there. What should i do to format it into a usable condition?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Summing up from the comments:

With BusyBox, Android provides tools for formatting from the command line. In your case, this would be `/system/sbin/mkfs.vfat`. This is reported to sometimes throw an error like:

```
mkfs.vfat: lseek: Value too large for defined data type

```

According to this XDA thread, this is the fault of Busybox. Using a different version (as reported in post #12 of that thread) should solve the issue -- and did it in your case, luckily.

# Answer
> 3 votes
Android has built-in formatting capabilities that are usually available via `Settings -> Storage -> Format SD card` (or something similar depending on the device you use).

---
Tags: external-sd, partitions, command-line, formatting, busybox
---