# Question
Title: How can I get Kies to detect my Galaxy S GT-i9000 on Windows 7?
When I connect my phone to my Windows 7 PC the Kies application opens and displays "Connecting", but it does not connect. Why? How can I fix it?

# Answer
This answer doesn't seem to apply if you have a Galaxy S running the official Froyo, and the latest Kies as they seem to have fixed many of these issues now, this is mainly for if you're running an older phone OS or Kies version.

For prior versions of Kies and the Galaxy S (I don't know which upgrade is the one that fixes it) there were quite a few problems Kies had seeing phones.

Some of these problems were driver problems, you can generally fix these by using the reinstall drivers option in the Kies menu at the top-left of the Kies screen.

Kies had problems connecting properly to phones that had files on them with long file extensions *(I think the problem was if they were 16 characters or longer, but I couldn't be sure)*.

To get round this problem, firstly if you have an SD card in your phone, unmount, eject and remove it for the moment, this saves a lot of messing around with the contents of that card, you can plug it back in after you've done everything you need to in Kies.

Next attach your phone to your PC in Mass Storage mode, and have a hunt round on the internal SD card and internal memory for groups of files with long names and long file extensions (one particular culprit is often the pictures' thumbnails cache which sits under Android\Data\com.cooliris.media on the internal memory; you can safely delete everything in that folder, it'll get automatically regenerated next time its needed). Once you've done this, disconnect from the PC, run the My Files app, and go in and re-delete that folder if it has regenerated (if you haven't got My Files you should be able to find it in the Samsung Apps listing, if not you can use something like Astro File Manager).

Finally make sure you are actually connecting to the PC in Kies mode. depending how your phone's set you may get a list appear on the phone's screen when you plug it into your PC asking what mode to connect in, make sure you select Kies mode. If you're not seeing that menu and its automatically connecting in one mode or another, then you can go into your settings and re-enable that menu. On a Froyo Galaxy S (it was somewhere slightly different on Eclair but I can't remember where) go into Settings -\> Wireless and Network -\> USB Settings, and select "Ask on connection".

Of course this all depends what you want to use Kies for, if you want to backup files from the phone, look up contacts, send/manage text messages, etc then it might be worth trying out the **Kies Air** app that Samsung released into the Samsung store recently, this runs a website on your phone that you can connect to from a PC using your web browser over the wifi connection, this smooths out almost all of the connection problems and is actually quite a nice, handy piece of software.
> 6 votes

# Answer
I had a similar problem and found that the phone was complaining that the connection with Kies is only possible in standby mode. It seems that some badly programmed apps can prevent the phone from entering standy mode, so I deinstalled any apps I suspected and suddenly Kies did find my phone.
> 2 votes

# Answer
You could try Kies Mini, it may work better although it may not have the features you want. Or make sure Kies is updated, you can check for updates right from the program.
> 1 votes

# Answer
I had the same problem until I noticed that previously installed PALM synchronization software used the same communication port. Uninstalling the PALM software solved my problem.

**EDIT - This question was asked again in which I answered (again) but this time a bit more thorough. I have copy/pasted my from that question here because my answer to the other (closed) question is unlikely to be read. Maybe it helps someone.**

I had the same exact problem that my KIES program did not recognize my Samsung Galaxy S. An exact PC, also running Windows 7 Pro didn't had that problem. E.g. the exact version of KIES on this exact PC would recognize my phone without any problems.

I spend a fairly amount of time investigating this.

In my case the problem was that on my PC I had previously installed the PALM synchronization software to sync my Palm with my PC.

This synchronization software of PALM use a communication port (**Comm 4**) in a software way. I am no communication expert so I don't know why, but it does.

Somehow this blocked the KIES software on my PC from detecting my phone. **As soon as I had uninstalled the PALM synchronization software, KIES detected my phone all right** .

Please look at other communcation / synchro programs on your pc.

This may or may not be the problem in your case, every PC is different, who knows what is blocking your phone on you case.

We can only strive to answer question in our own experience in the hope that one of the suggested solutions also applies to your case.
> 1 votes

# Answer
KIES is known to cause problems, especially if you're on 64-bit Win 7. If you are, your best bet is to load up a Virtual Machine and run 32-bit Win XP on it and then running KIES on it.

If you're trying to update your phone, try using ODIN instead to install the requisite ROMs.

Just to digress a bit... KIES is to Samsung phones, what iTunes is to Apple devices. 'Nuff said.
> 1 votes

# Answer
update to latest version of kies

check if it works plug in phone in data/media mode

search on phone for "." This will bring up a list of all the files on the drive. Look for anything that has an extension of more than 16 charactors. these will need to be deleted. WARNING - check that they are not needed by doing a google search. If not found then they are not needed.

unplug and plug back in in keis mode.

goto device manager in windows. This will show where there are any driver problems. If there are any ones with issues(they have a yellow triangle beside them) right click and update drivers. Unplug and repeat until there are no issues

In my case I had problems with USB controller -Samsung android USB composite device, and then Modems - Samsung android USB modem.

unplug, restart keis and plug back in

keis should now work
> 1 votes

# Answer
Had a problem of the phone not being able to sync with outlook through Kies. My PC detected the phone but I was not able to sync. Outlook would start flash a brief message and close. Here's how I solved it step wise.

1. I first unmounted the internal storage
2. Shut down the phone
3. Removed the external SD card
4. Started the phone.
5. Downloaded an update from MS (Windows Search 4.0 for Windows XP (KB940157))
6. Plugged my phone into a USB port on the back of the PC.
7. Started Kies and was able to sync.
8. Unplugged, shut down, inserted the external SD, restarted and reconnected successfully.

Thoughts

1. I tried connecting through the front USB ports but Kies hung
2. I tried through the back port and it was successful.
3. I read in some forums that the phone was sensitive to voltage and that may be true.
4. Outlook needs to be upgraded for Kies to work.
5. I'm not so sure about the unmounting of SD trick but who knows. Anyway Kies works and that's all I ask.
> 1 votes

# Answer
It is a fairly common problem with Galaxy S. Try one of the solutions offered in this thread.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I have discovered after a lot of experimenting that not all supposedly compatible USB to micro-usb cables will work with the Galaxy S. Even though your PC may make the connecting sounds and KIES will say connecting, the connection is never completed. The Samsung original lead (Marked U2 APCBU10BBE KD1ZC08TS E) works every time for me. However of two unbranded leads one (the longer one) works perfectly whilst the shorter one seems only to work to supply power. As USB is a four wire system +ve, -D, +D and ground I suspect that some of these cheap cables are possibly only wired to supply power or have the +D and -D lines transposed. So I'd say it's worth ensuring you're using the genuine Samsung cable as a first check.
> -1 votes

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-s, samsung-kies
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# Question
Title: Seems like my SD Card just died... can I insert a new one?
So today my HTC Desire randomly froze, then started acting strangely - only showed the background image, nothing else. Didn't respond to power-off or anything so I pulled the battery.

After this, it simply would not boot up, just gets stuck on the boot up screen.

The phone is flashed with InsertCoin ROM so I can still get into fastboot but can't make backups - it can't load the SD Card. Error given is: **E:Can't Mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (Invalid Argument)**

When I try to mount the SD Card to my computer it fails (ie. computer doesn't recognise it at all). Tried other random SD Cards and they mount no problem (thus shouldn't be a problem with the reader)

Main question... can I insert the original SD Card that came with the phone, and will the phone bootup and be usable? (note: this SD Card would be pretty much 'as-is' since I used a diff SD Card pretty much from day 1)

Sub question... anyone with ideas on if I can salvage what is left of this original SD Card? (can't seem to get anything to recognise it at all...)

Thanks in advance!

# Answer
> 1 votes
There's no reason you can't use the original card.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Ok, after a lot of headache (the replacement SD card I got sent from where I originally purchased turned out to be a 2GB card rebranded to be 16GB!), I think I now understand everything a bit better.

This is my understanding of the situation:

**Flashed with Insertcoin ROM** (and possibly other ROMS)

The SD card needs to be partitioned in a particular way for the custom ROM to work (ie it requires an ext2/3/4 partition to boot up). So inserting a brand new unpartitioned SD card **would not** work. You will at least need to format the card accordingly. With the correctly formatted card, I would imagine you can then boot up the phone. Data on the SD card will obviously be lost, but data on the phone should be ok.

Note: When I put in the new SD card, I wiped all caches, phone memory etc and re-flashed the ROM, so I lost everything. Though having played around with it a bit more, I do think it would have been possible if I just partitioned the SD card and booted the phone up. *(Not tried, just an educated guess, and if it is true, it will hopefully mean you lose less data in the unfortunate event that your SD card retires)*

**Stock non-flashed phone**

My guess is that you will be able to insert a new card and things should work. Data on the card will obviously be lost.

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Tags: htc-desire, external-sd, boot
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# Question
Title: Is it possible to use the camera without unlocking first?
Is it possible with Android phones (like with iOS 5) to take photos directly from the lock screen without unlocking first?

# Answer
> 5 votes
With just the stock Android experience, no. That is, until Ice Cream Sandwich is released.

That's not to say that OEMs haven't added their own changes that *do* allow for launching the camera app without unlocking, or perhaps a clever developer making a change to the lockscreen.

# Answer
> 2 votes
There are apps in android market which provide an alternate lockscreen such as WidgetLock or MagicLocker(Free) through which you could have direct access to camera from the Lock Screen. Also with some custom ROM's based on CyanogenMod, you could add shortcuts to any app on the Lock screen.

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Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, camera, lock-screens
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# Question
Title: How can I force the Market to reinstall an installed app?
I have an app, installed from the Market, which I just updated. The "updating" notification was present for several hours, so it appears to have gotten stuck somehow.

I believe it now claims to be the current version, but to be sure, **is it possible to tell the Market to re-download and reinstall the current version of the app?**

# Answer
As far as I know there's no way to tell the Market to reinstall an app. I was hoping you could do it through the Market website but I just tried and it refused to install an already-installed app. (Which bothers me because my phone and the website will *definitely* be out of sync regularly, I do too many third-party restores and so on.)

That said, you could clear the data for the Market (Settings -\> Applications -\> Manage Applications -\> All -\> Market -\> Force Close, Clear Data) and reboot your phone, then start up the Market again and look to see whether the update is available again or not. If it's not then you can trust that the latest version is installed since it grabbed that info directly from the system, and if not you can attempt the update again.
> 9 votes

# Answer
You can't "reinstall". All you can do is just simply uninstall it and install again.
> 6 votes

# Answer
I take the back up of all the applications regularly to my SD Card. Sometimes I uninstall them because of some issues. If I need them I install from my SD Card directly.

Now I open the My Market Account in Android Website using my Google account. It shows all the installed applications even though I removed them and installed again.

I feel this answer isn't completely relevant to the question. But I am sharing a way to reinstall the applications from Android Market. Anyways you can remove the application and install it again.
> 0 votes

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Tags: applications, google-play-store
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title: Change screen rotation sensitivity

text:
# Question
Title: Change screen rotation sensitivity
I often find myself in the wrong screen mode (landscape vs portrait) and I find the switching delay quite annoying. I would like my phone to be much more responsive when I rotate it (iphone-like)... Do you know about any apps/tweakings to achieve this?

# Answer
> 3 votes
I have searched for the same thing, and unfortunately, have not come up with much of anything. What I have settled for is turning off auto-rotate, and only using it for apps where I really need rotation. I do recall there being an app which allows setting auto-rotate on and off on a per-app basis. I believe it is called Smart Auto-Rotate.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Part of what jlehenbauer wrote is correct in that ADW only gives you an option to have auto rotation or to keep your home screen in portrait or landscape mode. Depending on how many home screens and what widgets and types of widgets, folders etc you have on your homescreen it will determine the amount of memory your home screen requires and how long it takes to refresh it when it rotates between landscape and portrait and thus how quick it does it. The iPhone doesn't have widgets (the main cause) and thus it is quicker at doing this. Due to some widgets HTC Sense actually locks the home screen in portrait mode and doesn't allow you to change it.

Currently I am using Go Laucher where i have experienced what you say - the home screen refreshing on orientation, however as stated you can speed this up by removing widgets, especially any scrollable ones. Try setting up one of your home screens as blank, and then see how much faster it will switch between the two states. The only time I have sensitivity options and more than just portrait, landscape or auto for the home screen is on a cyanogen rom. However you would be looking at rooting. I haven't checked out every launcher app available, so its possible you might find a better alternative.

In regards to app killers - no longer necessary unless you have a rogue app (in which case would seriously suggest removing it full stop), all they do is drain your battery.

# Answer
> -3 votes
Really the only things you could do is lock the rotation of the screen from the "Settings/Display" menu, so you wouldn't have to deal with rotation, or start freeing up space on your device.

This process will be taken care of by the available memory, so if you have a lot of things running, it will be sluggish.

The iPhone was speedy at this previously because it didn't have the ability to run things in the background, and since gaining this ability has found a similar stumble. A good appkiller will help, and i find deleting old, unused apps every now and then helps system speed.

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Tags: auto-rotation
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# Question
Title: Always see last-viewed group in Contacts
Whenever I view **Contacts** it always defaults to the full list.

Is there a way to make it show the last-viewed Group of contacts? Or at the very least a specific group?

Thanks for any help!

# Answer
> 1 votes
If you are using google contacts as your address book, you could star those people you always want to come up, and then use the star folder on your desktop making it a quick easy way to always have access to them.

The Folder Organizer app will also allow you do this and isn't limited to using just the google address boo, and it also has more features enabling you to pick specific details from a contact i.e. choose only mobile instead of all their details etc.

I know it doesn't answer your question specifically in terms of the contact app, but it does provide a decent work around. Note that depending on your phone it might have built in widgets that can aid i.e. Sense has a pretty good one for this purpose.

# Answer
> -1 votes
In order to do that on Gingerbread select 'Display options' from the menu of the Contacts app. Then under 'Choose contacts to display' select your account and check only the groups you are interested in.

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Tags: contacts
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# Question
Title: Does Skype video work on a Samsung Galaxy 10.1?
Can Skype be used for video calling on a Samsung Galaxy 10.1?

I have been googling, but the results are not clear, for example, the official Skype Blog says that Skype 2.1 supports the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but it is not clear if this means that it works with both the 7" and 10.1" versions.

*Update: as of early 2012, Skype does work on most Android tablets.*

# Answer
The official Skype app currently does not support video on NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipsets, according to their FAQ:

> * This specifically does not include some tablets that use the Tegra 2 chipset (e.g. Android tablets and Motorola Atrix do not support video calling).

From what I read on various forums, a test version that does work on Honeycomb tablets sporting Tegra 2 has been seen floating around in Youtube videos, so it should be coming to official channels shortly.
> 2 votes

# Answer
You have go into the settings then enable video calling.
> 2 votes

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Tags: skype, samsung-galaxy-tab-10
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# Question
Title: How can I search the contents of the books I added to my Google books?
I want to search the **contents** of the books I added to my **Google Books** account.

The Google Books web site offers a `search my library` option.

But I want to search the contents of the books in my **Google Books** account from my Android device and from an Android application which is optimized for small screens.

# Answer
I think your question could be worded better as it seems to ask a couple of questions.

Google books are filed as cryptic alphanumeric IDs, and they seem to be HTML type files it makes it more difficult than with most other book types.

1. finding books on your device is very easy, use an explorer like File Expert or Astro (both are free, however Astro's search function is better) which contain a search option. You will probably have to use multiple searches depending on how many different types of ebooks you have on your SD card - I know I have epubs, mobi, prcs, pdf, txt and doc files.
2. If you are looking specifically for just your google books then as long as you have set to store them on the SD card they will be under the following path - Storage Card/Android/Data/com.google.android.apps.books
3. Searching contents of books within google books - you can't from the library or app itself, unless you are already in the book - in which case press menu and then use search. However due to the nature of google books you could probably do this much quicker via the website. With other book and file types you could try Astro's search within text - might just pull up what you are looking for as I have had this work on some txt and doc files.
> 1 votes

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Tags: google-play-books
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# Question
Title: Picture converted to very low quality while sending MMS
I've HTC Desire 2.3.3 . Recently I took one photo from stock camera app and clicked Menu -\> Share -\> MMS.

My picture was automatically converted to 7KB sized file. No doubt the picture lost all its quality.

I was wondering from where I can control this setting, so that I myself can define what size/quality should the MMS picture be. The only thing I found in MMS setting was maximum size of the message.

# Answer
> 5 votes
My understanding is that its operator defined per all the discussion I have seen around this, and does seem to be correct when I consider that on TMobile in the UK I can send a picture file around 258KB - with 640\*480 dimension JPEG without any issue - which is plenty big enough for phones.

I have checked to see if its working on a standard algorithm by using a much smaller picture file and size, however it still created a MMS around 200KB (around half the file size of the original picture), suggestion the algorithm is dynamic when it compresses the photo. Further suggesting it really is operator defined.

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Tags: mms
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# Question
Title: How can I browse old mails in an IMAP folder?
Both the build-in mail client (Android 2.1) and K-9 mail, display the most recent `n` messages received during the last `m` days, where `m` and `n` are configuration items. Messages older than `m` days are invisible.

It's certainly sensible to hide old mail my by default, but how cannot I lookup an old message in INBOX or another folder? Even if the INBOX folder is huge, retrieving all headers should be an option.

# Answer
> 0 votes
In K-9 Mail, if you scroll down in your inbox, it shows the option "Load up to `n` more", and by repeating this you can go back further and further.

# Answer
> 0 votes
When using both features i.e. n messages in the last m days I have always found it to be buggy.

If you want to pick up loads of old messages would suggest going into the account settings for that account, removing the m days option and changing the fetching option from xKB to just headings. Would also suggest changing n messages to a higher value, one that is likely to pick up however many you want. Then refresh your account - you should get exactly what you need now.

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Tags: email, imap
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# Question
Title: How do I send Bluetooth audio from the Stereo (A2DP) to Headset (HSP) profile?
I have a stereo Bluetooth headset. When paired and connected, both the Phone and Media profiles are supported.

I can hear Google Maps Navigation voice directions in the headset.

However, if I uncheck the Media profile (I am using the the media profile to connect to an iPod touch), then the voice directions come out of the speaker. I want them to come over the headset.

From this, I assume that the phone wants to send the voice directions to the A2DP if the headset supports it, and to the speaker if the headset does not support A2DP.

Is there any way to configure the Phone (Bell's Samsung Galaxy S) so the voice turn-by-turn directions are sent to the HSP (headset) profile (where to audio for cell phones voice calls is directed)?

Although I haven't tried it, I assume this problem exists for simple non-media headsets that only support HSP.

# Answer
> 4 votes
A2DP (media profile) is a protocol for high-quality unidirectional audio over Bluetooth. HSP (phone profile) is a protocol for bidirectional lagless communication (audio) over Bluetooth.

A modern headset typically supports both. A2DP is meant to play (stereo) music. In Android, whatever the system considers as 'media' (you can find this terminology in the volume settings), will be using A2DP. Whatever is voice ('ringtone'), will be played over HSP. I suppose all that likely will be is a phone call.

The reason for this choice is that voice in a phone call is bidirectional and you don't want any delays on the line. Hence the lower (and mono) quality of HSP. In voice, quality is of less importance. However, the voice directions (which is not the same as 'voice') of your GPS are not a call, they are not bidirectional and delay does not matter, and they are played as 'media' in the system. Therefore they will be played using A2DP, or when you disable the 'media' profile in your Bluetooth settings, over the speaker. In summary, check your volume controls, they work similarly and will hint you what is what.

It is currently not possible to choose where audio is being sent, neither is that intended in both the design of Bluetooth or of any OS for the above reasons.

# Answer
> 3 votes
There is a Bluetooth app that allows you to listen to music over the HSP profile called BTmono. It may accomplish what you're looking to do.

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Tags: bluetooth, navigation, a2dp, bluetooth-hsp
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# Question
Title: How can I set different ringtones - one for new email and one for new SMS in Nexus One?
Currently I can't find the `selection box` anywhere in the configuration in my Nexus One to allow this; i.e. they are the same and when I'm expecting SMS from my friend, I get distracted by the emails and vice versa...

So, is it possible everyone? And if it is please show me how. Thank you!

# Answer
> 3 votes
To deviate from the generic notification ringtone, the app itself needs to support it. Are you using the stock email and SMS apps? Gmail, at least, allows for changing the notification ringtone that it uses. (In fact, you can setup individual notifications by account by label.)

# Answer
> 3 votes
If I go to Message - Settings I see options to choose different ringtones. Similarly if I go to Gmail - Settings - Main account, I can see options to choose ringtones. But I am using HTC Desire.

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Tags: sms, email, ringtone
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# Question
Title: Connecting Huawei Comet via USB -- shows as CDFS?
I'm trying to install a custom ringtone to my Huawei Comet, and when I connect it to my computer via USB it shows me a drive named "Mobile Partner" that is CDFS and has 0 MB free of 6.59 MB (not the 2GB MicroSD card I have installed). Do i have to use a separate SD card adaptor to plug it into my computer? Or how do I get my phone to show me the SD card?

# Answer
T-Mobile Comet Manual, p.14:

**Using the microSD Card as USB Mass Storage**

To transfer all your favorite music and pictures from your PC to your mobile phone’s microSD card, set the microSD card as USB mass storage.

1. Connect your mobile phone to your PC with the USB cable. Your PC will detect the microSD card as a removable disk.
2. Open the notification bar, and then touch USB connected.
3. Touch Turn on USB storage in the dialog box that opens to confirm that you want to transfer files. You can now transfer files from your PC to your mobile phone’s microSD card.
> 3 votes

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Tags: external-sd, usb-connection-mode
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# Question
Title: Why does my Samsung Galaxy S lose data for some applications?
I am very happy with my Galaxy S, which I have had for about a year now. Recently I noticed that some of the installed applications seem to lose data. Because I do not know the file system nor the inner working of an Android device, I will give the specific apps in the hope that someone recognizes this or at least can tell me something to try.

1. The first program I noticed was Friend Caster. This is a (very good) Facebook client which worked fine for some weeks. But now I have to, at least once a day, re-enter my user ID and password. The technical staff helped with some things to try (related to the Facebook integration), but nothing helps.
2. The second program I noticed was Business Calendar Free. Every once in a while (and I really can't put my finger on why) this program starts up as if it is just installed - i.e. it produces the start help screen, and I lose the settings I chose (f.i. the chosen colours for Saturday and Sunday). Although the installed and active calendars are kept. Also, the widgets of this program, stop updating themselves, which is rather useless for a calendar widget, of course :)

I have lots of other programs installed, and all of those seem to work correctly. None of them has an obvious function which could cause this.

*Samsung Galaxy S - GT-I9000 - Firmware 2.2.1 - Kernel 2.6.32.9 - phone is not rooted*

The problem can be specific to those two programs, of course, so I also installed both of them on my son's Galaxy S, on my wife's LG, and on my Archos 101 tablet. None of these phones present the same problem.

**UPDATE**

I have upgraded my Android version to version **2.3.3**, but this has not solved the problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

**UPDATE 2**

I received the following answer from the nice guys from the Business Calendar support. Can anybody verify this (or knows a solution to the problem):

> This is a well known problem on some Samsung devices, since the update of Android version 2.2.1. **The settings of some apps are not saved permanently**. Once this problem occured, this will happen again and again.
>
> As the problem seems to be caused by a bug in Samsung's version of the Android OS I am afraid to say that we can't do anything against it. We hope that Samsung is about to fix the reason of this in the future. Maybe you can contact the Samsung support, that they hopefully accelerate working on that issue.
>
> So unfortunately your device is affected by this problem. Some people told us that a factory reset helps them out of this really annoying problem, but I won't guarantee for anything. That's up to you.

# Answer
It may actually be a Samsung problem. Here's a similar problem report (app on Samsung becomes forgetful) with DropBox: http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=37207

The DropBox folks claim they fixed it (though perhaps they just worked around it). I couldn't find any details, so it may not be the same underlying mechanism as the apps you're having problems with.

Assuming the apps in question store the login data in an sqlite database internally, here's a SO question about a similar problem: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5886019/android-application-samsung-galaxy-tab-2-2-does-not-sometimes-write-to-the. Sadly, it is currently unanswered.

The Samsung developer website does not have any mention of sqlite or persistence problems that I could find. (But there isn't a whole lot there.)
> 2 votes

# Answer
I can't answer why this is happening to your Galaxy S. Mine works just fine and I'm also able to transfer apps to the SD. But here is how I would approach the problem:

* Look in the system log, either via adb or an app. Maybe there is a hint about what's going on.
* Try installing a custom rom. I have heard that cyanogen mod has pretty good support for the SGS. This will likely also change the filesystem to ext3/4.

All in all it sounds like and hardware problem of the flash storage. The system log will maybe reveal some unreadable sectors.
> 0 votes

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Tags: applications, samsung-galaxy-s
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# Question
Title: Does encrypting the Xoom tablet use battery faster?
I recently decided to encrypt my Xoom tablet. The process went smoothly (full power, plugged in the whole time, took about an hour) but since the encryption, it seems like my battery life has decreased. With moderate usage, I used to get close to two days worth of usage before the encryption, but now my battery usage meter has me at 15% after 23 hours.

I found this thread on the Motorola Owners' Forums but that is about it.

# Answer
Encryption is a fairly CPU intensive process, so using more battery is not unexpected. Though it depends a lot upon the apps you use and how much they read/write to the storage. I would expect that an 'idle' Xoom with encryption would last just as long as one without, but if you use an app that does lots of little writes to disk, it will end up using more CPU.

The encryption happens at the block layer. This means that small writes to the disk require a read, a decrypt, an update, and then writing the block back.

I don't see any useful stats about the actual CPU overhead. (Android is using the 'dm-crypt' module of the Linux kernel to do the disk encryption.)
> 6 votes

# Answer
There is a bug with encryption on the Xoom. I have been working with a Google engineer to identify the problem. Basically some of the low level kernel worker processes are not sleeping properly. If you use the full version of SystemPanel you can see which processes are prevengint your Xoom from going to sleep. Hopefully there will be a fix baked into ICS. According to Motorola it should be released in early December.
> 1 votes

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Tags: battery-life, motorola-xoom, encryption
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title: Unable to restore stock OS on Nexus S

text:
# Question
Title: Unable to restore stock OS on Nexus S
I had a post on https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14999/how-can-i-restore-the-default-os-on-phone-that-has-custom-build however this got closed because it was a possible duplicate. Unfortunately the duplicate did not answer my question so I am posting again with further details.

Basically I had built the Android source and flashed this to my phone and now I would like to go back to the stock version.

The link in the duplicate points to the following recovery file http://android.clients.google.com/packages/ota/google\_crespo/f182cf141e6a.signed-soju-ota-102588.f182cf14.zip

I renamed this to update.zip, and reboot into recovery. I then get a triangle with an exclamation mark. Then I hit the power and volume up key again and see more options, so I then selected 'apply update from /sdcard'.

I receive the error:

```
 E:failed to verify whole-file signature
 E:signature verification failed
 Installation aborted

```

How can I restore my phone with stock Gingerbread?

# Answer
> 2 votes
It's an official update, so the signature should be perfectly valid. There are a couple things to check:

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, samsung-nexus-s, stock-android, restore
---


# Question
Title: Google Voice Upgrade: Get a new number from Google or use my mobile number?
Google voice added an upgrade recently, in which they allow to choose whether you want to use your own mobile number or get a new Google number.

Will I be able to activate my android with either one of the options? Is there a good reason why to prefer one over another?

# Answer
Take a look at the Choosing your Google number page in their help section. Specifically, have a look at the "Learn more about the difference between the two options" expandable link.

The gist is that unless you have Sprint, choosing to use your mobile number will simply allow you to **port** your mobile number and turn it into your GVoice number or continue using GVoice Lite. This means you lose your mobile number for your cell plan, which is probably not what you want in most cases.

If you have Sprint then you can choose to have your GVoice number be a copy of your actual mobile number, allowing GVoice communication to essentially appear as though it originated from your mobile phone (among other things, explained more at About Google Voice on Sprint).
> 4 votes

---
Tags: nexus-one, google-voice
---


# Question
Title: One purchased app stuck at "Starting download..." but others download fine
I purchased an app from the Android Marketplace and the download will not start. It is stuck at "Starting Download..." and none of the suggestions on the support site worked. **I can download other apps** just not the one I purchased. My credit card *was* charged for this app -- it was charged twice in fact (I think that could be the issue maybe?)

I emailed Google support, and they responded with the following:

> * Cancel and restart the download(s)
> * Reboot your device
> * Sign in and out of Google Talk repeatedly to restore connection to our servers:
>
> 1. Go to your device’s app launcher, and press the Talk app
>     2. If you’re already signed into Talk, press Menu, and then touch Sign out
>     3. Launch Talk again to sign in (if you are unable to sign in, please let me know)
> * Clear the Market cache (Menu \> Settings \> Applications \> Manage applications \> All \> Market \> Clear cache)
> * Clear the Download Manager cache and data (Menu \> Settings \> Applications \> Manage applications \> All \> Download manager \> Clear cache and Clear data)
> * Ensure there is at least 20MB of free space on your device
> * Try your download(s) using both WiFi and network (3G/4G) connections
> * Try to initiate your download from the Web (market.android.com) instead of the device
> * Ensure firewalls are not blocking access to ports required for Android Market (TCP and UDP 5228)
> * Confirm that there is strong connectivity on your device, and contact your mobile service provider if you aren't connected
> * Uninstall Market updates by visiting:
>
> Settings \> Applications \> Manage Applications, selecting "Market" under the "All" tab or filter and touching "Uninstall updates"

I tried all of those things and responded that none of them worked. Their second response told me to **perform a factory reset**!

Before I do something that drastic, what else can I try?

**UPDATE:** I went ahead and did a factory reset and I still cannot download this app... any other suggestions?

# Answer
> 4 votes
I am not sure why this happened... I suspect it was due to my open issue with the Android Market team... however I suddenly got an email that my order for this app had been canceled:

> Hello JOSHUA,
>
> Your order has been canceled and you have not been charged.
>
> Reason: Other (describe below)
>
> Comments: We could not complete your order in a timely fashion. Your order has been automatically canceled. Please retry your purchase.

I was then able to purchase and pay for the app again, and this time, it downloaded!

# Answer
> 1 votes
I had a similar issue once. It occurred immediately after I got a refund for another app that didn't work (I bought the one that got "stuck" to replace the refunded one). I was lucky in that after an hour or so the download started on its own and everything was fine.

So that's one option. Another is to contact the seller of the app, explain what happened, and ask for a cancellation/refund. Hopefully it fixes the issue, but if not you'll at least be able to get your money back.

---
Tags: google-play-store, downloading
---


# Question
Title: Can Android and/or Apps handle switching an SD card temporarily?
I have a lot of apps and app data on my SD card. I know Android handles unmounting and remounting that card very well.

However, **what if I temporarily insert another SD card onto my Android device - will the system handle this OK and be back in the same state when I reinsert my original card?** What about apps, should they in most cases handle this well too?

What I'm worried about is that Android seeing the empty SD card decides that I've removed all the apps that I had on my SD card, and any apps I have left will also think I've removed their data and rewrite some internal indexes accordingly...

# Answer
> 1 votes
AFAIK it is very difficult for an App to identify the inserted SD-Card. A regular App should be able to handle the case if the SD-card is not available (ejected or connected as drive to the PC via USB) but I assume that most Apps can not handle the case when you regularly switch between two SD-Cards.

In general you should not start any Apps that use the SD-Card while you have inserted the "wrong SD-Card".

Regarding the Apps moved onto SD-Card - this is a different topic. As my device does not allow to switch the SD-Card while running I have no clue what happens e.g. to the app data in your device if you switch the SD-Card.

---
Tags: external-sd
---


# Question
Title: How do I turn off the cellular radio without disabling bluetooth?
I have an old Motorola Droid that is no longer subscribed on any Verizon service. I still use it for things like web browsing, ebooks, and along with some wireless stereo headphones, music. I've already turned off 3G data usage (EVDO) by disabling the `Enable data` option under `Mobile network` settings. However, when I turn off the cell radio (CDMA), bluetooth is also disabled. I first observed this problem on the stock Android 2.2 firmware. Now my phone is rooted, running on an Android 2.2 based firmware (CyanogenMod 6).

**Why disable the cellular radio?**

Simply put, I want to turn it off because I don't use it. Moreover, it uses battery life and cpu time (even if relatively small amounts):

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

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

As you can see, even though Wi-Fi does stay on, `Airplane mode` disables bluetooth. The headphones won't sync until I turn off `Airplane mode`, which of course turns the cell radio back on.

In both cases `Airplane mode` is enabled, so bluetooth gets disabled. But now that the device is rooted, I should be able to disable the cellular radio without using `Airplane mode` at all. How can I do that?

# Answer
Check out this guy's post on XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11370203&postcount=2

This might be considered a risky solution, but if you aren't using the 3G connection at all and you're careful to simply rename the .apk's he references you might just disable the cell radio without needing to use Airplane Mode.

In case the link doesn't work, he suggests using Root Explorer to rename **phone.apk** to **phone.apk.bak** and **telephony.apk** to **telephony.apk.bak** thus disabling these two packages. **You have to reboot your phone to finalize the changes.** If it doesn't work, you should remove the .bak from each file name and they should be available again.

**At OP's request, a summary of his findings:**

> `Phone.apk` is the `Dialer` app, which is responsible for the cell radio. `PhoneTelephony.apk` turns out to be just the `Dialer storage`, which we can kill just to save more memory. AndroidOS immediately restarts `Dialer` when it is closed, so renaming it will cause problems. But after a battery-yank-reboot, everything is ok. It also gets rid of the annoying `Activate your phone` dialog that comes up on every boot. btw, the dialpad still comes up after getting rid of `Dialer` :-)
> 10 votes

# Answer
Actually, the `*#*#INFO#*#*` (4636) method DOES work. While the control is greyed out under wireless settings, the taskbar icon still shows BT connectivity and I have tested and confirmed that BT is still active on my og Droid.
> 4 votes

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

1. If you don't have this option, uncheck **Packet Data** or **Data enabled** under `Settings -> Wireless and Network -> Mobile network`
3. Turn off WiFi.
4. Turn on Bluetooth.
5. Done!
> 0 votes

---
Tags: 2.2-froyo, wi-fi, settings, bluetooth, battery
---


# Question
Title: Is there any known memory leak in Gingerbread 2.3.3 fixed by occasional reboot? Related to battery usage?
I notice that when I reboot my Samsung Captivate, it runs smoothly for about 2 or 3 days. After that, I notice that there is a lot more lag with various apps, and the launcher screen is more likely to die and restart, mostly after running the browser. After I reboot, it seems to behave fine.

Today was one of those days where I needed to restart. I also noticed that the battery drained much more quickly today (down to 45% after 3.5 hours). Looking at battery usage stats, Android OS used 41% of the battery.

From talking to friends, battery usage issues are fixed temporarily by a simple reboot.

From other questions on here, people who have issues with lag use various type tools like Watchdog, only to see Android OS using most of it.

Is the battery usage issue and occasional lag issues related? Is this an issue that is fixed in 2.3.4, or a subsequent version?

# Answer
> 1 votes
I upgraded to a 2.3.4 ROM. I no longer have the battery drain issue, or the lag issue. The question is whether or not it was the specific ROM or the 2.3.3 OS, but based on multiple links, here and here, I believe it is a 2.3.3 issue fixed in 2.3.4.

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, battery-life, performance, samsung-captivate
---


title: Save txt messages to PC?

text:
# Question
Title: Save txt messages to PC?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> How do I backup and restore SMS Messages?

Is it possible to move/backup txt/sms message from my phone to my PC? I have Android 2.2 If this could be done via a usb cable, that would be ideal.

# Answer
> 4 votes
Use Backup & Restore application on your mobile. Take the Backup of your messages only. Its going to store in SDCard/data/backup/.sbf.

You can copy this file into your PC using a Cable or using Bluetooth.

Anyways I prefer SMS Backup+ which syncs your SMS, Call Logs, etc with your gmail.

---
Tags: sms, backup
---


title: set song as alarm tone

text:
# Question
Title: set song as alarm tone
How can I set song from my sd card as alarm tone ? i tried to change the tone but I cant figure out how to make the songs from my sd card to show up on the list. I am using samsung galaxy ace with android 2.3.4

# Answer
> 2 votes
I also faced the same issue with the Stock Alarm. Stock alarm was not able to recognize the SD Card songs. I vaguely remembered the solution. Couple of restarts and removing the SD Card from the phone and plugging it again solved the issue fro me.

But now I installed Alarm Klock which has the option to see all the Songs on SD Card by Author and Album wise. It has vibrating feature which doesn't there in stock Alarm.

# Answer
> 0 votes
There are a number of apps that will let you set pretty much any sound file (mp3, ogg vorbis, etc) as a ringtone or notification sound. Tone Picker is just one example.

---
Tags: alarm
---


# Question
Title: Microsoft Exchange bandwidth out of control?
Yesterday afternoon I synced my Galaxy S II with Microsoft Exchange and my multinational corporation's exchange server. Mail settings were to push at all times.

Over night my phone drained its battery completely and rang up 550MB in mobile ***upload*** charges via Exchange. I'm certain it was exchange because I have a traffic monitor tool and that particular email client is only holding my exchange account.

This was, to understate, surprising.

Is this normal behavior for Exchange? I only received 8 emails over night, none of which had any attachments to speak of.

# Answer
Well I finally figured this out, after racking up 800MB of upload and 3.5MB of download with my Exchange Email over 2 days... I had tried to send someone an 8MB PDF and it never sent successfully... so it tried again, and again, and again, and again.

The email was stuck in my outbox and couldn't be deleted. I'd get "server error" messages (DERP!). The solution was to de-couple the device from Exchange, completely removing that account, thereby deleting the message, and then re-registering the device.

Now all is as it should be...

Long story short -- keep an eye on your outbox!
> 2 votes

---
Tags: exchange
---


# Question
Title: Picasa (in gallery) not linked. Can't open picasa folders. How do I fix it?
I'm trying to open my **picasa folders** in the android **gallery**. When I press the Picasa button, I get this message:

> your google account is not linked to Picasa Web Albums. Please add another Google account

I found this link from xda.
It starts with "can't find the app", and "can't sync" (problems I don't have) but then someone starts about the "not linked" problems. The tips I found where about removing accounts (for youtube, for htc sense, etc), but that didn't help.

I found a link to Why can't I Sync Picasa Web Albums? , but this is not the same question. The sync option is in the accounts menu, but I can't seem to get picasa in the gallery.

I can upload (via gallery -\> share) to picasa. I can also make new directories etc. I just can't see my picasa in the gallery

specs:

* HTC Desire Z
* "standard" htc software: android 2.2.1 with HTC sense (1.82.405.1)
* HTC hub has "sync" enabled
* my Google account has the picasa-sync enabled

Does anyone have a clue about how to fix this?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Ok, not a real final answer, but this is what happened. I had another problem with the gallery, described here: Not all images showing up in gallery

In following all the advice there I have

* Removed data from "gallery" application in menu-\>settings-\>applications
* Removed the .thumbnails directory from /DCIM
* Removed data from gallery app again.
* Shut down the phone and removed the battery.

I don't know if that fixed the showing-up problem, but now all of a sudden I can actually see my picasa folders..

# Answer
> 1 votes
This is a bit of a stab in the dark from stuff I've read, but here goes...

I believe that the uploading is done through the generic Android/Google/Picasa features but HTC have their own gallery app that relies on an additional plugin to display Picasa Web Albums.

Go to the HTC Hub app, settings -\> sync and make sure you have the sync option checked for HTC Hub. If you don't have the latest version of the Picasa plugin then you should get a notification to download it, which might fix your issue.

If you do already have the latest plugin then double check under the Accounts settings that your Google account is set to sync with Picasa and that there isn't an additional sync option somewhere for the plugin itself.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I had the same problem after having updated my incredible S to Gingerbread. I do not know if it was some kind of luck, but the following fixed the problem:

* uninstall the picasa plugin (go to HTC Hub/plugins)
* parameters/applications/manage/Gallery -\> force the gallery application to stop.
* Go back to HTC Hub/plugins and install again the Picasa plugin.
* parameters/accounts and sync/ your google account/ enable the picasa update, and update now.
* wait until the end of the update, then go back to the gallery, the picasa plugin should now have linked your picasa account with your google account!

Hope this will work for you too!

Flolagale.

# Answer
> 1 votes
The HTC Hub suggestion put me in the right direction. I enabled the plugin when I was not using Picasa Web. Since Google+ I do, but the plugin said my google account was not linked to picasa web. Uninstalling and reinstalling did the trick.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Go online and download the .apk for Gallery for 2.1 and install. Make sure you have nonmarket apps checked (under `Settings -> Applications -> Development`). After install go back and sync all Google accounts. You will have two galleries but the new one will be able to sync with picasa. Open it and you should see all your picasa stuff. It worked for me with HTC Wildfire.

---
Tags: gallery, htc-desire-z, picasa
---


# Question
Title: How can I explore my Android from my computer?
I'd like to explore the content of the internal memory. I have a rooted phone with a terminal emulator which allows me to navigate through it.

The problem is that it's quite hard to use (small screen, no physical keyboard) and I cannot transfer files from internal memory to my computer to examine it (maybe memory -\> SD and then SD -\> computer but not the easiest).

Is there a way to have an SSH daemon (I've ConnectBot but it's only a client) on the phone, control it with a USB cable (with USB debugging maybe), install a backdoor (maybe no), or something like this?

# Answer
The Android Debug Bridge (adb) can do pretty much everything you want. It is part of the Android SDK, just download the SDK and enable USB debugging on your phone.

You can get a shell with the command

```
adb shell

```

and you can get files from the phone with

```
adb pull

```

All the commands are documented in the first link I gave.

Another way to get any file from the phone would be to use any of the backup utilities available and back up your whole phone to your computer where you can examine it. As you already rooted your phone you might already have a backup utility installed, or you can easily install one, e.g. Titanium Backup Root or Nandroid. I have no experience with those two though, I can't tell you anything more about them.

The kernel I used to root my phone included ClockworkMod Recovery with a backup program already integrated, so you might already have that available too.
> 5 votes

# Answer
If you are looking for a GUI you should take a look at Droid Explorer. Basically, it is a graphical frontend for ADB especially developed for rooted phones.

I know that it runs under Windows (.NET) but AFAIR, it also runs Linux using Mono.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: remote-control, ssh
---


title: Installing GalnetMIUI Rom on HTC Desire

text:
# Question
Title: Installing GalnetMIUI Rom on HTC Desire
I Have an HTC DESIRE which I upgraded to Gingerbread recently. My friend told me about Galnet MIUI for Desire, and now I want to root my device. Is this possible? These are my phone's specs:

```
HTC DESIRE
Android Version  2.3.3
Base band version - 32.56.00.32U_5.17.05.23
Kernel Version 2.6.35.10-g3f43272
Build No 3.14.405.1 CL 96875

```

# Answer
> 1 votes
Notes:

* Rooting allows you to install a custom recovery (Clockwork Mod or AmonRa) to install ROMs
* S-OFF allows you to change the HBOOT to rearrange your internal partitions

I rooted with Unrevoked before I used Alpharev's S-OFF some months later

Nowadays it's easier apparently. You can get S-OFF with Unrevoked Forever too but I'm not sure your phone is supported. And Unrevoked/Alpharev teamed up for revolutionary

Finally, there are many ROMS out there, some are better then others. I use Oxygen personally with the Oxygen HBOOT for 330MB internal data space. I'd use Devnull (same developers) but it doesn't have long press to kill

# Answer
> 1 votes
For rooting HTC Desire 2.3.3 official update you have to use revolutionary.io beta app. Its very simple process. You've to download the program on your computer (Windows/Linux), get the beta key from the website and follow the steps the program asks you to do. I've written a detailed blog here if you want.

---
Tags: rooting, htc-desire
---


# Question
Title: Are there any apps for storing SMS online for latter viewing and searching?
I like how Google voice stores all my text messages online so I can search them and store conversations for ever. But I am not a fan of Google voice and want to use my own number etc.

I saw a few apps that upload texts to Gmail but I don't want to clutter my gmail inbox. Any separate apps that are specialized in this?

# Answer
> 1 votes
There are several programs that will allow you to save your texts (among other things) on a computer, like Myphoneexplorer. It depends if you want to be able to access them everywhere, or if having them on one computer is enough for you (you can still do copies/backups of the texts).

---
Tags: sms, storage
---


# Question
Title: Mobile network: browser is OK, apps doesn't connect internet
When phone use WiFi connection, all apps can connect to internet. When it use mobile network connection, browser can connect, but apps cann't connect. Is there any settings? How can I diagnose? Phone is Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 with Android 2.1.

# Answer
I think the most interesting is you **APN** and **Operator**. It could be that only **http** traffic is allowed (port 80 and 443 for https) or some similar limitation. Check you operators support page for details.
> 1 votes

# Answer
In my country there is one operator with whom we've same behavior. They have given us two different **apn**. With first only the browser works, exactly like you have said. With second everything works.

If your operator has different **apn** for using Mobile internet in Computer, try that **apn**. This works with one of the operator in my country but not sure if this will help you.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: applications, wi-fi
---


# Question
Title: apps missing from My Apps part of Market
I have a HTC Desire, with the official Android 2.3.3. My problem is that not all the apps I have installed are showing on the Market, which means that I can't check for updates to them. To pick one example, Dolphin HD. It's missing regardless of whether I move it to SD or phone memory. I can't detect any pattern to explain which ones show and which ones don't.

I've googled a fair bit and most solutions posted involve uninstalling the updates to the market (no longer possible on this version of Android), clearing the cache of the Market app, or clearing the cache of Google Services Framework, but this doesn't fix anything. I've turned the phone off/on, removed the SD card, dismounted/remounted the SD card etc, plus several combinations of the above. I had the problem before applied the 2.3.3 upgrade. On earlier versions, uninstalling updates to the Market seemed to usually do the trick.

Any more suggestions for things to try?

# Answer
Do you have multiple Gmail or Google apps on your domain logins? I found it confusing, because whatever email account I happened to be reading became the current account in the Market.

So some of my apps ended up being assigned to these other accounts until I figured out that I wasn't logged in as expected. I didn't realize it because they were free apps so there wasn't the issue of requiring a registered credit card for these other logins.
> 2 votes

# Answer
Try this:

1. Go to `Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All`
2. Scroll down to Market, tap on it, and then tap on `Clear cache` button.
3. Go back to the listing of apps, scroll up to find the "Google Services Framework" app, tap on it and tap on the `Clear data` button.
4. Reboot your phone.
5. Launch the Market app, and accept the license.

Your installed apps should now be properly linked to your account in the Market. If not, simply download or update any app, and everything should be back to normal.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store
---


# Question
Title: making android provide notification for email with specific header
Currently my gmail in android notify me when there is new mail arrives. I wonder if the notification can limit to the messages with specific words in their title.

Thanks

# Answer
In latest version of Gmail you can specify notifications based on labels.

1. Create a filter in Gmail's web interface and assign it to a Label.
2. On your Android device, open the Gmail app, press Menu key and go to `More -> Settings`
3. Tap on your account, scroll down and tap on the "Sync inboxes and labels" option.
4. Tap on the label you created in step 1, and change the preference to "Sync last 4 days" or "Sync all."
5. Go back one step, scroll down and tap on the "Labels to notify" option.
6. Tap on the label name from step 1, and set the notification options to your liking (custom ringtone, vibration, etc.)
> 3 votes

# Answer
You can use one trick. Use filters in Gmail to put a label on the message with that particular word. Now in Gmail app go to settings -\> Notifications. You'll see option to set notification as per the label.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: email, notifications
---


# Question
Title: What's the process for installing a new ROM after I've just completed one?
I have a HTC Incredible running 2.2, successfully used the unrevoked method and rooted it, used Titanium Backup to back up all apps and system data, and ROM manager to install and run CM7. ok, that's all done, but now i want to try Miui, is the process still the same?

What i mean is, i'd rather not reinstall all the apps as I want to try a new rom, but want to go back to CM7 if i don't like it.

How can i try Miui, then go back to CM7 if need be??

# Answer
Assuming you installed ClockworkMod Recovery via Rom Manager app (or manually), you can do the following:

1. Install the Appbrain and Fast Web Installer apps. Run Appbrain, sign in with your Google account, enable the Fast Web Installer from Settings, and perform a sync.
2. Download the ROM installation ZIP for MIUI and place it onto your SD Card.
3. Reboot your phone to Recovery mode, scroll down to "backup and restore", go in, and select the "Backup" option. This will write an image of your phone onto your SD Card. OS, your apps and settings will be saved.
4. Perform a full wipe of your device from Recovery by doing a "wipe data/factory reset", "wipe cache partition", and "advanced -\> Wipe Dalvik Cache".
5. Select "install zip from card" option, and then "choose zip from sdcard" to flash the ROM zip that you downloaded in step 2.
6. Optionally, flash the GApps package, and any other files (refer to the ROM's instructions.)
7. Once the installation is completed reboot the phone, add your Google account, and set up the system to your lining (do not download any 3rd-party apps yet.)
8. Open the Market app, install AppBrain and Fast Web Installer again, and sign in.
9. Open the Appbrain app, and enable Fast Web Installer in settings again.
10. While still inside the Appbrain app, go to "Manage And Sync", press the Menu button, select the "More lists.." option. Pick the list that was created for you in step 1, and press the "Add all apps" button. This will queue up all the missing apps that you had installed on the previous ROM.
11. Go back once, and tap the "Execute" button. After verifying the permissions, tap the Install button. This will automatically download and re-install your apps.
12. Once the apps are installed, configure them to your liking.
13. Reboot back into Recovery, perform another backup, and reboot the phone normally.
14. Open the ROM Manager app, and tap on "Manage and Restore Backups." You should see a list consisting of the 2 backups you just made, sorted chronologically.
15. Rename the first backup to "CM7", and the second to "MIUI".

You can now easily switch from CM7 to MIUI by simply restoring the corresponding backup. Keep in mind that if you change anything on either ROM, you will need to perform another backup so that your changes are saved.
> 5 votes

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, custom-roms, rom-flashing, htc-droid-incredible, miui
---


# Question
Title: How to save something to Instapaper with TweetCaster
I have TweetCaster Pro (thank you Amazon Daily App...) and it has a place for me to enter my Instapaper account in the Settings, but for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to send something from TweetCaster to Instapaper.

Anyone know how?

# Answer
This one took me a while. Go into "Personalize TweetCaster" in settings and change "URL action" to "ask".
> 4 votes

---
Tags: share-menu, tweetcaster, instapaper
---


# Question
Title: How can I automatically reject some types of calls?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> How can I reliably screen or block callers on a number-by-number basis?

I've been getting calls from a strange number recently, and it's not even a local area call. This caller has called me 20 times, and whenever I pick up the phone I am met with intimidating silence, even if I shout in it.

Naturally, I decided that I had enough, and tried to surf the internet finding ways to block certain phone number. However, the only methods I found were to either:

(1) Call your call service company to block a call,

(2) Install some apps to do it,

Now, I do not want to overcomplicate this situation, and I've had bad experiences with applications... so, any suggestions on how to deal with this?

# Answer
> 4 votes
Try blacklisting the phone no. Long press the phone no. in the Call Logs and select 'Add to Blacklist' option.

---
Tags: call-screening
---


# Question
Title: How to prevent data extraction from rooted phone via adb?
I've a question regarding security in a rooted device.

Being superuser means that you can access the /data/data directory, and that's a lot of personal data (I think it is almost all the data there can be in the phone).

So if a rooted phone is stolen, anyone can connect to the device via adb and perform a complete "audit" of the data, including mail, sms, search and browser history, contacts, etc. It is in fact easier than with a non-rooted phone. I see a big vulnerability here. Is there a way to prevent adb connecting to the phone like, for instance, a password?

# Answer
The adb can connect to an android device only if "USB debugging" is enabled in Settings-\>Applications-\>Development. If this setting is disabled and a password lock is set for unlocking the device, there should be no worries.

Also there are many apps such 'Lookout' which provide the ability to remotely wipe data from a phone if it gets stolen.
> 6 votes

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Tags: security, adb, root-access
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# Question
Title: Why are playlists breeding like rabbits on my device?
I use Banshee 2.2 to synchronize music and podcasts to my Android 2.3 device. On the device, I'm using PowerAMP to play music.

When I open PowerAMP and look at the playlists, each one is repeated a dozen times. So, for example, I have a playlist called "Pop". After a dozen syncs with my computer, I now have 12 playlists called "Pop". 11 are empty, and one has the actual playlist in it.

At first I thought this was a problem with PowerAMP, but since I have tried the Android default music player and a few other music apps, the problem is repeated no matter what I use to play music. So it seems this isn't an app specific problem, but a system wide one.

I have scoured the onboard memory and the SD card, but I have no idea where the playlists are stored. (Note my phone is not rooted, nor do I intend to.)

How do I clear out the empty playlists and stop this behaviour?

# Answer
This sounds to me like a similar problem I have had with duplicating images in the gallery. I fixed this by clearing the gallery data, and allowing it to rebuild next time the media scanner ran.

I would suggest trying the same technique. I would imagine that whereas I deleted the data from the Gallery App, you should try clearing data from the stock Android Music Player, or failing that from PowerAMP.

Settings-Applications-Manage Applications-All-Gallery-Clear data (confirm). This doesn't delete your media itself, just the database that details where the media is. The media scanner will rebuild this database automatically next time it scans.

It would be prudent to backup your phone contents before you try this.
> 3 votes

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Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, sync, media-player
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# Question
Title: Can a phone without a gyroscope measure angles sufficiently?
It seems that a gyroscope sensor is currently not so common amongst Android devices. But does an accelerometer (in conjunction with the compass?) provide enough accuracy to measure angles (tilt, yaw) with high precision?

# Answer
Sufficiently for what, how high a precision?

There are a number of apps that will measure levels and angles purely using the accelerometer, that are good enough for everyday use, after an initial calibration.

For examples see the range of Spirit Level apps available on the Market.
> 2 votes

# Answer
If you're interested in sensors, you might want to watch this Google Tech Talk - Sensor Fusion by David Sachs.

Accelerometer provides an approximation of angles, but it does not provide a good accuracy. It has a major fault in that it amplifies hand jitters. That can be fixed with a low-pass filter, but that will introduce a delay when there is actual change in angle (which could cause a visible problem in reactive games and sensor log).

However, Gyroscope is not the king of measuring angles either. Gyroscope has a major flaw in that its measurement have a long-term drift. Therefore, accelerometer and compass will need to be used to correct a gyroscope.
> 1 votes

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Tags: sensors
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title: What does the pressure sensor measure?

text:
# Question
Title: What does the pressure sensor measure?
What kind of pressure does it measure? Air pressure? Finger pressure on the touchscreen?

# Answer
> 5 votes
Some devices, like the Motorola Xoom, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active and the Galaxy Nexus, have an air pressure sensor built into them that measures the barometric air pressure. I have the Barometer HD app installed on my Xoom which seems to give roughly the same reading as my Suunto electronic barometer.

Support for a barometer pressure (and other environmental) sensor was added in Android 2.3 To follow the trend of linking to the related developer resource, I believe this is a TYPE\_PRESSURE sensor.

See also this related StackOverflow question Android devices with pressure sensor, and this Gizmodo article for some of the possible uses for the barometer, which includes helping the device to calculate your altitude in GPS apps.

Android Engineer Dan Morrill made a post to Google+ explaining why the Galaxy Nexus had a barometer internally:

> I've seen a lot of hay made about the barometer in Galaxy Nexus. Here's the skinny; it's not really as dramatic or weird as people think.
>
> The primary purpose of the barometer is (at least, I've been told) to make GPS lockons faster. Locking on to a GPS involves numerically solving a 4-dimensional set of linear equations -- 3 dimensions in space, and time. (Yes, you get accurate time for free if you lock on to GPS.) Because of the way GPS works, this can take a few minutes.
>
> This goes much faster if you already have an estimate of your location. This is why "aGPS" (assisted GPS) services are so popular: by starting with a rough city-level coordinate fix through something like cell-tower network location, you can reduce the amount of math you have to do to lock on. This is where the barometer comes in.
>
> The 3 dimensions in space are latitude, longitude... and altitude. The barometer gives you a reasonable first-cut estimate for altitude. This gives you a bit of a leg up on one of the dimensions -- especially combined with "2D" aGPS -- which can help speed up lock-on in general.
>
> Now of course, the barometer can also be used for things like, well, determining atmospheric pressure (although I'm not sure it's really weather grade.) But the main reason it's in your phone is to help with GPS.

# Answer
> 0 votes
It measures finger pressure on the touchscreen.

Source: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/MotionEvent.html#getPressure(int)

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Tags: touchscreen, sensors
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# Question
Title: Does the processor speed have any bearing on the time taken to charge?
I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S II i9100 running the default Sammy Android 2.3.3 on the Siyah Kernel 2.0

I use SetCPU to change my processor speeds to conserve battery life during the day.

Will there be any difference in time taken to charge my phone to 100% depending on the core processor(s) speed / governor? Will a change in processor speed increase/decrease charging time?

Will a phone charge faster if it's completely powered down? Or is charging solely based on the output of the AC power adapter ?

# Answer
> 8 votes
Any phone you'll get will draw power from the battery, not directly from the charger. Let's make some assumptions:

1. Your phone takes 2 hours to charge when off.
2. Your phone always uses constant power when on.
3. Your phone drains a full battery in 8 hours.
4. Charging and discharging is completely linear.

So if you plug your phone in when it's completely drained and turn it on, it will be charged to 75% (100% - 2/8) after two hours. It'll take 3 hours and 20 minutes to charge fully.

As illustrated above it will take longer to charge the battery when the battery's being drained at the same time. Obviously, none of the assumptions hold in real life, but it's more or less accurate. Certainly it will charge the fastest when off.

As for the question of CPU scaling, that's very interesting. The rate of battery drain affects the maximum rate of charge, so less CPU work means less drain and a faster charge. I'm not totally convinced that underclocking the CPU will achieve this, though. If your phone is idle it should already be doing a negligible amount of work. Slowing the CPU will make that little amount of work use the CPU for longer. It's almost certainly chipset-dependent whether 100 ms at 100 MHz take more or less energy than 10 ms at 1000 MHz, for example. If SetCPU is altering the voltages as well, that further complicates things.

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-2, charging
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# Question
Title: Problem running z4root on Galaxy S GT-I9000
I installed Z4root on my Galaxy S (the original, not the S II) after reading this post, using the APK file attached to the post (can't find it in market). The thread leads me to believe that the process is as simple as installing, switching USB debugging on and pressing the root button. Not in my case.

Results:

1. First time, the app didn't get further than the "running root exploit" message (waited 30+ mins)
2. After rebooting the phone out of desperation, when I press the permanent root button it gets as far as the "acquiring root shell" message and the app either just disappears (with no results) or the app stops working and I get the force close window.

I've tried this many times with reboots in between, both plugged in and unplugged and no different results. Do later SGS models have some anti-root hax built into them? Have I missed something obvious about the process?

Extra info:

* The phone does not have three button recovery mode
* The author of the app claims to be from the same country as me, and his phone is also SGS running Froyo. If we are cursed with weird "international" hardware I would've expected the same to happen to him.
* The thread talks about a superuser app being installed after the phone reboots. I already had Superuser installed (but never been able to use it because I haven't successfully rooted ever). I uninstalled the app and tried z4root again, but nothing different happened.
* The thread suggests using adb logcat to get debugging info, but logcat spews an endless stream of info that is much longer than the examples I've seen in the thread (long enough that my terminal buffer loses the top info before it finishes). What I can see doesn't seem like it is related to z4root.

# Answer
> 1 votes
That wasn't working for me neither, but when I tried the SuperOneClick it worked perfectly and very stable, but you will need to use a PC to do it.

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you've got a Galaxy S without a three-button-recovery mode, have you looked into making or buying a download mode jig? See this post for instructions on making one, or there are a few eBay sellers that stock them pretty cheaply.

---
Tags: 2.2-froyo, samsung-galaxy-s, rooting, z4root
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# Question
Title: How do I get the GPS icon to show in the status bar in CM7?
Just did a fresh install of CM7 in my Incredible, it's fantastic, but whenever I turn on my GPS, it does not show in the status bar that it's on, like it does in the stock 2.2 OS.

Is there a way to enable this show it shows when it's active?

# Answer
> 4 votes
It will only show up if you open up an application that will use the GPS for something. For example just open up Google Maps. If you want to know if you left the GPS activated, just slide the notification panel and at the top you will have the toggle buttons, one of them is the GPS.

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Tags: cyanogenmod, gps, htc-droid-incredible, notification-bar
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# Question
Title: How can I migrate my data/apps from one Honeycomb tablet to another?
I got myself Honeycomb tablet, but after I used it for a while I've decided that I'd like to get a different one.

How do I transfer all my apps from one tablet to another?

Or, if this is not possible, how I can delete all my data from my old tablet?

# Answer
Yes if you've previously set your current tablet to back up your data and settings to Google's servers, then during the initial setup of your new tablet you should be given an option to restore your previous settings and data.

The settings that you need to check on your current tablet are in **Settings** -\> **Privacy Settings**. See below for more info on this from the official Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) user's guide:

*Page 13*

> **Backing up and restoring your data**
>
> You can back up your settings and other data with your Google Account, so if you ever replace your tablet, you can restore your data on the new one. If you choose to use this service, your data is backed up automatically.
>
> If you previously used the backup service with the Google Account you just used to sign in, you can also choose to restore your settings from your Google Account to your tablet now.
>
> **Important** If you want to restore your settings, you must do that now during setup. You can’t restore data after setup is complete.
>
> Many kinds of data are backed up, including:
>
> * Your Android settings, such as your Wi-Fi networks and passwords, user dictionary, and so on
> * Many Google application settings, such as your Browser bookmarks
> * The apps you download from Android Market
>
> Some third-party apps also make use of the backup service, so if you reinstall one, its settings and data are restored.

*Page 132*

> **Privacy settings**
>
> You use the Privacy settings to manage whether your settings and other data are backed up to Google servers, using your Google account. You also use these settings to erase all the data on your tablet by performing a factory data reset.
>
> **Back up my data** Check to back up some of your personal data to Google servers, with your Google Account. If you replace your tablet, you can restore the data you’ve backed up, the first time you sign in with your Google Account. If you check this option, a wide variety of your personal data is backed up, including your Wi-Fi passwords, Browser bookmarks, a list of the applications you’ve installed from Market, the words you’ve added to the user dictionary used by the onscreen keyboard, and most of the settings that you configure with the Settings application. Some third-party applications may also take advantage of this feature, so you can restore your data if you reinstall an application. If you uncheck this option, you stop backing up your data to your account, and any existing backups are deleted from Google servers.
>
> **Backup account** Displays the Google Account that your settings and other data are backed up with. This is the account you need to sign into on a new Android tablet or other device, if you want to restore the settings from this tablet to that device.
>
> **Automatic restore** Check this option to restore settings and other data when you reinstall an application. This feature requires that you are backing up your data with your Google Account and that the application is using the backup service.

To wipe your current tablet (after you've ensured that it's been backed up, from the same privacy screen you should also see this option:

> **Factory data reset** Opens a dialog where you can erase all of your personal data from internal tablet storage, including information about your Google Account, any other accounts, your system and application settings, any downloaded applications, as well as your music, photos, videos, and other files. If you reset the tablet in this way, the next time you turn on your tablet you’re prompted to reenter the same kind of information as when you first started Android.
> 1 votes

# Answer
I think the transfer is supposed to happen automagically, without you having to do anything (or maybe you need to select some "please back up all my stuff" checkbox somewhere in the Settings).

In practice, though, I've never seen it work properly.

To delete data, I am pretty sure there's a "factory reset" option in Settings somewhere. On my 2.3 phone, it's under Privacy/Factory data reset.
> 0 votes

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Tags: 3.0-honeycomb, data-transfer
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# Question
Title: Does Accelerometer Sensor work on my Samsung Galaxy S2?
I have Samsung Galaxy S2 and i'm experiencing with an issue that is annoying me very much.

When I do \auto rotate\ , the rotation happens after 4-5 seconds.

I've done the calibrations and all that stuff that you will find on google or forums.

After i checked secret code `*#0*#` , i noticed that: at Accelerometer Sensor I get:

> ACC Raw Data - X: changing numbers, y: changing numbers, z: 1024

( z is not changing like X and Y)

After this test i noticed that somthing is wrong with this phone, and i doubt that the problem is with the sensor.

The strange thing is that sometimes my phone and accelerometer WORKS JUST FINE, but most of times it doesn't work at all!

So, does my phone have problem with sensor or something wrong with the software?

Here you can see in the graphic Accelerometer values https://i.stack.imgur.com/OvUzb.png

Please Help Me!!!

# Answer
> 2 votes
Having an SGS2 myself, I just checked `*#0*#` and all 3 axis values change. So you definitely seem to have a problem here, either in software or hardware, and since you've already tried to search for solutions online and could not find anything which works, perhaps it's best to contact Samsung directly for help.

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-2, sensors, auto-rotation
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# Question
Title: Can you install MIUI themes from different sites?
I'm installing Miui from Miui.us, and I was wondering if I can install themes from http://miuiandroid.com/, or will those not work?

# Answer
If it's a MIUI theme it will be compatible, but I highly recommend you to use the Themes app that comes built-in your MIUI ROM.
> 1 votes

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Tags: miui, themes
---


title: Unknown Tag Type collection

text:
# Question
Title: Unknown Tag Type collection
Since purchasing my Samsung Nexus S I have been bombarded by 'New Tag Collected' Tag Type 'Unknown'.

I have since learned how to turn this off, but I was wondering what these Tags are and where are they coming from?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Sounds like NFC terminology to me. Presumably either NFC is malfunctioning or you've been in the vicinity of NFC tags that are of a type your phone doesn't recognize.

Looks like ID badges and probably some credit cards and so on could trigger this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-989630.html

# Answer
> 2 votes
I had just activated my new credit card and it was sitting beside my Nexus S and this kept happening. After reading this I tested it and it was the credit card causing it to happen.

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Tags: settings, nfc
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# Question
Title: How to avoid expensive roaming fees when going abroad with my Android?
Usually I like to bring my Android phone with me when going abroad. But I use it very carefully because I know that it is very expensive to consume data traffic and roaming fees, when I'm abroad.

How do I best use my Android without getting expensive bills when coming home again?

Is there any specific settings that I should do? Any good applications or other tips that can be useful when going abroad?

# Answer
Go to: Settings \> Wireless & networks \> Mobile networks.

Make sure the "Data roaming" checkbox is unchecked. That will keep you from roaming accidentally, since you will have to enable it.

If you want to enable it and use roaming lightly, there are some apps in the Market that will track your data usage for you.

However, in my experience roaming abroad has been so expensive that even roaming for a few minutes of data is not worth it. I usually either try to find a public hotspot or get a prepaid SIM card with data.
> 8 votes

# Answer
It is a very simple tool, but I like apndroid to totally disable data while leaving basic phone functionality intact. It has a nice toggle widget.

There are also settings that can help with this. On my Nexus One, there are settings here: Settings -\> Wireless & Network Settings -\> Mobile Networks Your mileage may vary depending on your model. You can play with those settings to disable roaming or data.
> 4 votes

# Answer
make sure to use WiFi whenever possible. No data is consumed when you're connected via the wifi antenna.
> 1 votes

# Answer
I realize this is a commercial plug, but I'm merely a happy customer, not part of the business ... anyway, I rented a SIM card from http://iphonetrip.com, and got data while travelling in Mexico (I live in the US). It worked well!
> -1 votes

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Tags: settings, data-monitoring, roaming
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# Question
Title: How can I clear the cache of the Android Facebook app?
My phone (T-Mobile Pulse/Huawei U8220 with Android 1.5) doesn't have much on board space, so I quite often run into the low disk space warning. Looking through the list of apps, I see the facebook app has about 2.5 MB of user data. I suspect most of this is a photo album I looked at recently. But I can't seem to find any option to clear that cache ...

Does anyone know how to? I'm happy to use a file manager and go into the filesystem to delete stuff if I can find it and someone can reassure me that I'm not going to stuff up the facebook app at the same time.

And I don't want to uninstall and reinstall because nothing will install any more.

# Answer
> 4 votes
Here are the instructions for Android 2.2, not sure if it will work for 1.6, but you may want to give this a try.

* Home Screen
* Menu --\> Settings
* Applications
* "All"
* Select "Facebook"
* "Clear Cache". If you want to delete ALL data, choose "Clear Data"

These instructions work for all apps, not just facebook.

# Answer
> 4 votes
The "clear data" option is available on Froyo (2.2) without rooting your phone. It doesn't show what data is there, however.

# Answer
> -1 votes
The only way you can clear that cache would probably be to delete system files which would only be possible if you were rooted. There might be a market app to help with that, not sure. Try googling something like "android app clear cache". Also keep in mind few apps were written for 1.5.

I would try upgrading to Android 1.6 at least and then see if you have more options. 1.6 is more stable and gives more options too. Plus the upgrade will likely clear out cache and give you a fresh start.

Also if you root your device there would be more opportunities for storing apps and such on sd card which would help with your internal storage issues. Check out XDA Forums to see if rooting your device is possible.

# Answer
> -2 votes
So far I believe the only way to clear your cache is a hard reboot.

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Tags: facebook, internal-storage, 1.5-cupcake
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# Question
Title: Nexus S: how can I control sites shown underneath stock browser search box?
The built-in web browser of my Nexus S has a cool feature: when I press the Search button, in addition to a text box where I can type a URL or search terms, there are 4 sites shown above the on-screen keyboard.

How I can control what sites are listed? I'd like to be able to populate that list with favorites so I can get one-click access to my top favorite sites without having to go through the "favorites" menu.

# Answer
It loads your most frequently visited websites. When you keep visiting a particular site lots of time (say like 3-4 times on the same day), then the site will get displayed in the list.
> 2 votes

# Answer
I just tried the search button on *my* Nexus S, and indeed saw the four sites you mentioned. I think they're some combination of bookmarks and history; I doubt that you can explicitly control them.
> 0 votes

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Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, browser, samsung-nexus-s, stock-browser, browser-history
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# Question
Title: How to check update log for apps on the phone
I am suspecting one of the app update causing a problem on my Galaxy S2 after I did a app update (about 15 apps) through Android Market. Is there a way to find out the app updating history (dates/app names/versions)?

# Answer
Go to your web browswer - not on the phone - use a desktop or laptop (you might be able to do this via phone but haven't checked - you would probably need desktop mode if you wanted to try) - and go to the Android Market: https://market.android.com/ Log in Between the Search bar and Android Market you should get the following options Apps, Books, Movies and My Library - click on My Library. Just under the search option you should see Purchase History. Click on it. You should find a list of the apps and when they installed. This will help you pick up any apps etc that are new.

To see the most recently updated apps just go to the Market app on your phone, go to my apps (my downloads - depending on the version of your app market) and it will list them in the most recent order of updated/installed - with any requiring an update at the top - scroll past these to see the last ones you updated (if any has an error its possible it might be in the apps to update).
> 3 votes

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Tags: google-play-store, samsung-galaxy-s-2
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title: Froyo Sound Management

text:
# Question
Title: Froyo Sound Management
I pickup up a Motorola Triumph (running Froyo) for Virgin Mobile a couple weeks ago. I like the thing, but I just don't understand Android's sound management. Let me explain:

* Setting SilentMode turns off ringer, but not Media or Alarms. While this is annoying in and of itself, it also disables the volumn control in the Settings, meaning I can't change the Media volume before something using the Media volume is actually playing!
* Occasionally, the media volume will be waaaaay loud, even though it's only one click away from off. Furthermore, changing the Ringer volume will then set the Media volumn to a lower level - changing some sort of multiplier, perhaps? I notice this mostly when using Pandora (it can change volume between songs, and I'll have to go nudge the Ringer volume again to get it to quiet down).

Is there any way to fix these issues? Make SilentMode silence Media as well as Ringer, AND still allow me to change the Alarm volume? Or simple make SilentMode ACTUALLY silent?

Thanks in advance for your help!

# Answer
Silent Mode definitely isn't supposed to mute media or alarms. Both of those are controlled by you, unlike calls and other notifications that are caused by external events. You wouldn't want to miss your alarm just because you forgot your phone was on silent :) but it's definitely strange that it disables the volume controls entirely, that must be a Motorola thing.

You could try the Audio Manager app for better control over the settings. It doesn't sync the media volume to the ringer volume, but you can use profiles to quickly set up one where both are muted and then it's easy to switch with a click or two. It also manages Alarms, Notifications, in-call volume, and "System Volume" (probably the noises you can enable for when you click things and so on).
> 2 votes

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Tags: 2.2-froyo, audio, motorola-triumph
---


# Question
Title: Watch and download youtube video simultanously
So I can watch a youtube video, great. But once I go out of range of wifi I can't play it.

So the other option, is, I use a program to download the video. But I can't play it before it's downloaded.

So is there like a program that you see the video, but after it has been downloaded, it's not discarded but permanently saved ?

# Answer
> 4 votes
There are apps like TubeMate or EasyTube that let you download Youtube videos to your phone internal storage or to the SD card in order to allow you to see these videos whenever you want wherever you want.

Maybe this is what you are looking for.

# Answer
> 0 votes
You could always:

Set it up downloading using 'TubeMate': http://www.androidfreeware.net/download-youtube-tubemate.html

Then watch it on the normal YouTube app!

If you go out of range, hope that the download has finished and you can carry on watching it offline!

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Tags: downloading, youtube, cache
---


# Question
Title: Android Contacts lost but seen in Message app
I rooted my Nexus S and re-installed a stock ROM. I had my contacts on my SIM card before starting to use my Nexus and I never bothered to sync those contacts to Google. After rooting I don't see my contacts anymore (even in the import contacts screen). However when I try to open the messaging app and type something in the "To" list, auto suggest starts suggesting some of the old contacts.

As part of rooting, I deleted all of my data.

How is it possible that message app is able to fetch my old contacts but I am not able to see them?

# Answer
> 2 votes
In the contacts app, press menu, then there should be some sort of option for display - this lets you change which contacts are displayed. At the minute you're probably just displaying your gmail contacts, but you should see the setting in there to display Sim contacts. My advice would be to copy them to gmail, you should find some sort of export/import tool in your contacts app too - just export all contacts from your Sim to a file on your phone, then import that file and select your gmail contact book, that means your contacts will always be available

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Tags: contacts, samsung-nexus-s
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# Question
Title: Is it possible to continue upgrading an Android device if the OEM stops supporting it?
Suppose the OEM loses interest in my device; can I still install the stock distro updates when issued by Google? Are there issues with device drivers if I go this route?

# Answer
> 11 votes
Once a manufacturer abandons supporting the device, your only choice is rooting it, unlocking its bootloader (if possible) and installing custom ROMs.

Google only releases the Android source code into AOSP (Android Open Source Project,) and has no say whether or not the manufacturer or carrier will update a given device. The only exception is the Nexus line of phones that are supported by Google directly. As it stands, AOSP cannot be built for any non-Google device without major work. Even though manufacturers and carriers are required to provide the source code, it is true only for the part of the OS. They don't have to (and rarely do) provide sources for the proprietary drivers, which are necessary to build a completely working Android version for a given device. The community developers usually use the drivers from older OS versions, which greatly limits the upgrade potential. The drivers sometimes are reverse-engineered which gives a greater flexibility to developers.

There also is an issue of locked down bootloaders on most new Android phones and tablets, which limits the extent of the changes a custom ROM can bring. Most manufacturers and carriers lock bootloaders to prevent people from "bricking" their devices. There are ways to unlock/bypass such locks for many devices though.

Bottom line is that if you are looking for a device that will be supported the longest - your best choice is a Nexus line. Otherwise, I suggest looking at various online forums (xda-developers or rootzwiki, for example) to see if there is enough interest in your device from community developers to produce custom ROMs for it.

# Answer
> 7 votes
As Uri Herrera commented, you'll need to **root your phone** to be able to install custom firmware, and then **install a community aftermarket firmware,** like CyanogenMod. Most likely the open source community will keep updating the firmware (ROM) even after OEM has lost interest.

**How to root:** You can refer to a nice guide by LifeHacker \- most likely it can be easily done by connecting the device with USB, and using a Windows program called SuperOneClick.

**How to install custom firmware:** The easiest way is most likely to use the Android program called Rom Manager. It's available from Android Market. The premium version will even notify when your custom ROM gets updates, so it's easy to keep up to date.

# Answer
> 0 votes
+1 to installing a custom ROM. Got my desire hd in January, was fed up with the bloatware so rooted and installed cyanogenmod around may time. While the manufacturer skins like sense are nice and all, custom roms allow a lot more customisation, andI guarantee I'll be on ics before HTC release an update (if they even do)

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Tags: updates, stock-android
---


# Question
Title: Just enabled 2-factor authentication for gmail, now on my Android phone I get "Sign-in error" to my google account
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Google's 2-step verification

As per today's Stackexchange Podcast I took Jeff's advice and enabled 2-factor authentication for my gmail account. However now when my android phone is complaining with a notification in the top bar saying:

> Sign in error for XXXX@gmail.com

I assume this is a failure in my phone trying to sync my account.

Of course I try to enter in my password (unchanged after enabling 2-factor auth) and it fails. Is there something I need to do to get 2-factor authentication to work correctly with my android device? I looked through the gmail app settings and didn't see anything obvious.

# Answer
> 5 votes
Apparently I needed to generate an application-specific password for my Android phone. When logged into google on a web browser, go under "Account Settings". Then Select "Authorizing application & sites". Once there create a new application specific password under "Generate new application-specific password". The password will be displayed once. Enter it into the Android phone's password prompt, and you should be successfully authenticated. You don't need to remember this password, its only intended to be typed in once and "remembered" locally on your phone. Note you can go to the same screen to revoke the credentials you just gave your android phone.

This is covered by this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player\_embedded&v=zMabEyrtPRg

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Tags: sync, gmail, password
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