title: Phone using GPS while the screen is off

text:
# Question
Title: Phone using GPS while the screen is off
Recently I noticed that when I press the home or power button to turn my screen on, I notice that the GPS indicator is on for a split second. What is happening here? Is there something trying to use the GPS only when the phone is idle? It sounds fishy to me. Phone: Samsung galaxy s3 mini. Standard rom.

# Answer
## What is running?

On today's Android phones, *Google Play Services* samples and records your location occasionally, even if you have "location sharing" (what used to be called Latitude) turned off, in order to support a number of use cases:-

1. It allows apps on the device to define regions in space, and notifies an app if you go into (or out of) a particular region. This way, only Google Play Services needs to be running and checking location, rather than every location-based app on the phone keeping track of your location separately and using power unnecessarily.
2. It looks at which Wi-Fi hotspots are visible, and sends them periodically to Google, to support the feature of finding "coarse" (less accurate) location without turning on GPS.
3. It looks at your speed to determine whether you're stationary, walking running, cycling, or driving. Google Now uses this information to show you a "you've walked five miles this week" card, if you turn that on, and the statistics are also made available to other apps, again so that they don't all have to burn battery by tracking location individually.
4. It samples where you spend time in office hours and the evening so that Google Now can work out where your home and work are, and when you commute. This lets it offer you relevant traffic and weather information, and it tells it when you're travelling away from home to suggest places to visit &c.

## Why only when the screen comes on?

This is to do with the way Android power management works. Usually, when the screen is off, your phone is *asleep*. Apps can't run in this mode: it only does the minimum necessary to keep the device connected to the phone network. Some devices can save power by even turning off the main CPU of the phone, switching to a smaller, more efficient (but slower) CPU while they're asleep.

In this mode, Android tries quite hard to avoid waking up, because each wake-up costs a lot of power. Most apps that run periodically have their run delayed, and all run at once, so as to wake up only once instead of many times. This includes the location sampling discussed above.

When you turn your screen on, the phone has to wake up, so at that point any periodic background tasks that were held back will run straight away. Google Play Services isn't trying to use the GPS only when the phone is idle: it just runs for that split second when the phone wakes up.
> 4 votes

# Answer
Usually this is related to weather apps that refresh and update location when the screen is turned on. It could be any number of other apps, but most commonly it is weather apps trying to locate you to give you an accurate update for where you are at.

Check any weather apps to see if any are set to use your location.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: gps, malware, samsung-galaxy-s-3-mini
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to run a PS2 emulator through Android's DVM?
I have heard some random posts from people on forums claiming that Android's Dalvik Virtual Machine can't handle something of the magnitude of a PS2 emulator, such as this one ported somewhat.

Is this true?

Are there obvious limitations to a massive program running under Dalvik, or the DVM's workload?

With the obvious limitation being the hardware and most devices having major trouble with this for that very reason, is there any **software aspect** that may limit this, in short?

# Answer
> 1 votes
It's not a matter of Dalvik being *incapable* of running certain types of programs, it's a matter of performance.

Any runtime system based on non-native bytecode (e.g. Dalvik, JVM, .NET CLR) incurs some performance overhead in translating the bytecode into a form that the CPU can run. For most apps this isn't a problem, since most apps do relatively little CPU work and spend most of their time just waiting for input. But an emulator is typically a CPU-intensive program, so it's often better to implement it using native code, which doesn't incur the overhead of running on Dalvik.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Dalvik does effectively limit the maximum size of a program, in terms of the number of Java classes and methods you can have. I don't know any emulators written in Java, so I don't know if they would be too big or not, but that reveals a more important point: you wouldn't write an emulator in Java anyway.

Most emulators are written in C or C++, often with the crucial parts in the assembly language of the host platform for maximum efficiency in the inner loop. You would do this on Android just like on any other platform: Android apps don't *have* to be written in Java. If you don't write the emulator in Java, it doesn't matter what Dalvik can and can't do. So there's no reason at all you couldn't have a PS2 emulator on Android.

---
Tags: applications, operating-system, dalvik, emulators
---


# Question
Title: No SIM card detected after installing new ROM
I probably did some mistake which I don't know how to solve. After I installed a new ROM I get message:

> Slot 1: No SIM card detected
>
> Slot 2: No SIM card detected

„SIM management“ is inoperable, „Sim Toolkit“ can't launch because it cann't detect SIM card.
Calling emergency number gets „Out of service area“.
Everything else works just fine (including WiFi) except I can't get SIM card to work and get signal.

**Information about the phone:**
FEITENG GT H9500
Android version 4.2.1
Baseband version MOLY.WR8.W1248.MD.WG.MP.V6.P4
Kernel version 3.4.5 root@android #1
Build number drx\_0.1
I have both IMEIs and IMEI VS visible
CWM v6.0.2.8

**What I did prior to loss of SIM card functionality:**
\- Made backup of „user data“, cca. 350MB
\- Rooted the phone using instructions as follows:
1.Download usb driver ----\> mirrorcreator.com/files/RJDKYXRH/ and open Driver\_Auto\_Installer\_v1.1236.00.rar and run install.bat it install driver automatically
2. Plug your phone to pc
3.Download this file ----\> www.mirrorcreator.com/files/09XPAELB open Motochopper\_Auto\_Root.rar and run run.bat your phone has root

* Downloaded ROM update FEITENG H9500 - Update - 06/01/2013 and Recovery from: www.needrom.com/mobile/feiteng-h9500-3/
* Followed instructions:
Unpack FlashTools, and Click on Flash\_tool.exe
Select a the MT6589\_Android\_scatter\_emmc.txt in Recovery
Turn off your phone, remove the battery.
Press F9 (or hit Download button) and connect your phone into the computer via USB data cable.
The process will start and a red progress bar will appear after color purple, yellow. And green circles display
* Installed ROM from SD card ( in CWM)
* NOTE: I downloaded only update file H9500\_DRX\_03, and in „Flashtool“ only „Recovery" option was checked. I don't remember was the SIM card inside during installation of the ROM (probably wasn't).
* FlashTool V3.1252.1.sn104
* I installed that ROM with most of its options and wiped data and cache before installation.
* ROM got installed and after restart I lost SIM card visibility.
* No external damage was done to SIM slot.

**What I tried to fix it:**
\- Both SIM slots are not damaged, this happened just after reboot
\- Tried different SIM cards from anothers phones
\- Tried my SIM card on other phones to make sure that it works
\- Format eMMC
\- At „factory mode“ Detect SIM test failed
\- Did wipe data/cache several times before and during attempts to install different roms
\- Tried installing another ROMs (with SIM card in and without), all with „clean install“.
\- During installation (download and upgrade) of ROMs from FlashTool selected all options (preloader,mbr,ebr1,uboot etc.)
\- Tried installing „original“ ROM from: needrom.com/mobile/feiteng-h9500 However it said „Installation aborted“ but I see the ROM was installed.

**What I did wrong from what I know:**
\- I didn't backed up old ROM that I got with my phone
\- I did „Download“ with update ROM v3 and not the initial version
\- I didn't do „download“ the first version and then „Upgrade“ the rest of upgrades (I don't know is that relevant)
\- I did not selected all options (preloader,mbr,ebr1,uboot etc.) in Flashtool except for „recovery“ when I first installed the ROM if that is relevant

So, I don't konw is there any relevant information I can provide since I honestly don't know
what can be relevant and what not.
Is there something that can help with this?
Thank You for Your time.

# Answer
> 1 votes
SOLVED: http://www.movilesdualsim.com/threads/rom-drx-v0-4-jb-4-2-1-feiteng-h9500-star-n9500.32072/ That is Spanish page, I don't know Spanish, I never translated it completely. There is one line where it points out that there are some problems with loader and recovery so they made modification. I Applyed modification "Actualización rom base" ... uploaded DRX4 and it worked like charm. Thank You for your time.

---
Tags: rom-flashing, rom, sim-card
---


title: Paste number into Dialer

text:
# Question
Title: Paste number into Dialer
Is it possible to paste a number into the dialer? (or get another dialer that has this feature). I have Android 2.2 (HTC Desire HD)

# Answer
> 2 votes
A solution is to use Number Saver which automatically suggests to call a number if the clipboard contains it.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Sure can.

Assuming you have already copied the phone number you're looking to dial, just long press on the area of the dialer where the number appears and choose "Paste".

(Tested on a stock Motorola Droid with Android 2.2.1)

# Answer
> 1 votes
My solution to your other question at Save a number during a phone call could also be a shortcut to this problem: Paste the number in a note application that supports phone hyperlinks and click on it.

# Answer
> 0 votes
We can use the standard copy paste mechanism. Type any digit, say 0. Long tap on it to select. Now the copy paste options should appear. On my samsung s duos 2, just long tap too works, but i have to choose the exact area where the numbers appear.

---
Tags: phone-app
---


# Question
Title: Recovery is not working on Huawei MediaPad 7 lite
A friend of mine owns this tablet and has entered the password incorrectly too many times and now the device is locked asking for a Google account. Unfortunately the Google account password is forgotten.

I figured the only way would be to factory-reset the device from the Recovery mode but when I enter the recovery mode (by holding Vol Down + Power Button) it reboots the device after a few seconds in recovery screen.

Now I'm stuck and have no idea what else to do. The tablet model is S7-931u.

# Answer
> 2 votes
I had the very same problem for like 4 months. And finally, in one day, the problem was solved. Follow these steps:

1. Switch off the device.
2. Press power button + Volume up button until the device is switched on (followed by a small vibration).
3. As soon as the device is switched on, let go of the power switch but keep pressing the volume up button.
4. After a few seconds, a screen will appear showing a green android symbol with rotating gears. When this screen appears let go the volume up button and keep pressing volume down button.
5. Hold like this for a few seconds. till a big green 'OK' appears on the screen.

After this the device re-starts automatically. It may take some time. After this, it'll be like you're switching on your tablet for the very first time. You have to provide your GMail address (optional), name, system date and time etc. All the apps and files that was previously in your device, will be gone.

---
Tags: factory-reset, locked-out, huawei
---


title: How to identify camera app?

text:
# Question
Title: How to identify camera app?
Is there a way to identify the stock camera app on an android device? Browsing the installed packages using Titanium Backup didn't show any package with "camera" in its name.

With the app identified, i hope to find some info or documentation regarding the app's features.

EDIT:

To be more precise - i'm trying to detect the name of the camera app that came with the device. I own a Galaxy Tab 3 and a Fairphone - the camera apps on both devices differ regarding functionality.

# Answer
> 1 votes
The camera and gallery apps are the same on Android 4.3 and below.

It got separated only on KitKat version.

So you have to look for gallery apk on titanium backup. Probably named Gallery 4.apk or Gallery 2.apk with com.android.gallery3d....as its package name

---
Tags: 4.2-jelly-bean, camera, stock-android
---


# Question
Title: I can reverse tether now by using alias but it stops on adb shell command
I made some aliases to quickly reverse tether.

```
alias t='r && sh && n'
alias n='netcfg rndis0 dhcp'
alias sh='ad shell'
alias r='ad kill-server && ad start-server'
alias ad='adb'

```

**I want to enter** t **(which turns on reverse tethering) but the aliased command doesnt do anything past** `sh`

**How to automate this better?**

(I guess its because its not in first shell anymore but android adb shell)

**UPDATE:** I edited the .bashrc as answered by Stephen Schrauger but the command enters me into adb shell and when i disconnect usb cable I get `netcfg: command not found`

> The aliases are now:

```
alias t='r && sz $n'
n='netcfg rndis0 dhcp'
alias sz='ad shell'
alias r='ad kill-server && ad start-server'
alias ad='adb'

```

What is wrong now?

UPDATE2 moved here:Help with this ADB REVERSE Tethering Script?

# Answer
> 2 votes
This is more of a linux question, and it may need to be moved to superuser.se, but I can answer it.

On linux, you string commands using `&&` (or `||` or just `;`). With `&&`, the first command must finish executing and have no error codes in order for the next command in the sequence to run.

In your setup, it looks like you want to open an ADB shell, and then run `netcfg rndis0 dhcp` *on the adb shell*. However, Linux doesn't do that. Instead, it is waiting for the ADB shell to exit without errors, after which time it will run `netcfg rndis0 dhcp` on the desktop computer's shell.

If you want to run a command on the Android device, you don't start an interactive ADB shell (the default); rather, you pass the command like so:

> `adb shell`*`netcfg rndis0 dhcp`*

You'll need to change your alias for `n` to be a variable instead. Remove the `alias` directive so the line just reads `n='netcfg rndis0 dhcp'`. Then change your alias for `t` to be as follows

> alias t='r && sh $n'

---
Tags: adb, automation, reverse-tether, bash
---


title: Wrong caller ID for home number

text:
# Question
Title: Wrong caller ID for home number
I recently had to wipe my Nexus 4 in order to root it.

Prior to that when I received a call from my home telephone it would display my wife's contact from the caller ID.

Since rooting it now displays my own contact instead.

My contacts are synced from my Google account and I haven't changed anything on my Google account.

The only thing that has changed is the wipe and root.

How can I get it to display my wife's contact again?

# Answer
> 1 votes
You could always remove the home number from your contact information. It will then match your wife when getting a call from home. You can try re-adding the home number back to your own contact card and see if the change sticks.

If you have the home number in your own contact info as well as your wife's, Android will display the first contact it finds. Since your 'self' card was probably synced before your wife's card, Android shows your 'self' card as the incoming contact. (Whereas before, you likely added the home number to your wife's contact first, then to your 'self' card later).

There's another android.se question asking a similar question.

---
Tags: contacts, calls, 4.4-kitkat, google-contacts, people-app
---


# Question
Title: Backup using adb on a phone with a dead screen
I have a Galaxy S3, screen is visually and touch impaired. It is USB debug enabled, un-rooted.

I'm able to use Droid@Screen to see my screen, which i'm able to unlock. I then run this command:

> adb backup –apk –shared –all –f /backup/mybackup.ab

Which then initiates a backup on the phone. On the screen I can see it asking for an encryption password, which i provide by keyevent through adb. The final sticking point, is being unable to find a keyevent which will press the "Backup up my data" button. I am able to tab to it, and have it highlighted, but the 'space' and 'enter' events do not trigger it, as well as 'soft\_right'.

I'm getting my keyevents from HERE.

If there is another way for me to dump the ab, that would be awesome.

# Answer
I was in the same situation as you. Once you enter the full backup screen Use the following commands:

```
adb shell input text <your password>
adb shell input keyevent 22
adb shell input keyevent 23

```

the "adb shell input keyevent 22" command is Dpad Right, you'll be able to select back up my data the "adb shell input keyevent 23" is the Dpad Center, It will allow you to select enter

22 --\> "KEYCODE\_DPAD\_RIGHT"

23 --\> "KEYCODE\_DPAD\_CENTER"
> 7 votes

# Answer
Have you tried sending a `KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER`?

```
adb shell input keyevent 23

```
> 2 votes

# Answer
Use Droid Explorer and the Screencast plugin to use your keyboard and mouse from your desktop computer to control the handset?

That would make life easier instead of fiddling around with using `adb shell input keyevent ...`
> 1 votes

---
Tags: backup, adb
---


# Question
Title: How to select file to attach to E-mail from "My Files"
I'm using the stock e-mail client in Android 4.3. I have a file in my Downloads folder that I want to send in an e-mail. When I try to attach, it asks me where I want to get the file from. Most of the apps are unhelpful (Images, Video, Calendar, etc.) The only one that looks like is helpful is "My Files" which has an icon of a folder on it. Why it doesn't offer any of the File Managers I have installed, I don't know.

But when I tap on "My Files" and it brings up a file explorer, I can navigate to the Downloads directory, but when I try to select the file to attach, it pops up a new "Complete action using" modal dialog. If I try to open it with anything, it goes to that app, instead of returning me to the Email app. There is a Cancel/Done selection in the upper right, but only Cancel is allowed. What do I need to do to cause a selection (so that the Done option is allowed) without it popping up something that prevents me from completing the action? I have already looks at the menu (no help) and have tried long tapping (does nothing until I release, then brings up the same modal dialog that a short tap does).

# Answer
> 2 votes
It may be your file explorer isn't written well. You could try to use a different file explorer, such as ES File Explorer.

Or, try going about it from a different way. Instead of using your email program to look for an attachment, use your file explorer to 'share' the attachment, and choose to share it via your email app. It will add the file as an attachment and open your email app. As long as your email client is listed as a possible 'share' app, this should work.

If neither of those work, try getting a new email client. Since the email client isn't showing all of your file explorer apps when selecting to add an attachment, it may have written its own (poorly designed) app selector.

---
Tags: 4.3-jelly-bean
---


# Question
Title: How do you get the EmotionSoiD app to load the BIOS?
I downloaded an app called EmotionSoiD which is supposed to be a PS2 emulator for Android here:

https://app.box.com/emotionsoid

I got it and it installed and runs and stuff, but a black screen pops up that says to load the EmotionSoiD BIOS, but it doesn't give an option to do so within the app...

I read another forum and it said that you might have to possibly put the file in the /data folder, but you can't access that without root and I can't risk rooting my phone.

I tried contacting the developer but I can't find any email/etc. What else can I do now????!!!

# Answer
> 1 votes
The app is most likely asking you for PS2's original BIOS files. Usually BIOS files are copyrighted by the manufacturer, and are illegal to distribute. You will have to do your own research on how to obtain them.

Your best bet of getting developer's support is over at their SourceForge site, which seems to be the origin of the app.

---
Tags: root-access, file-system, emulators
---


title: Firmware upgrade gone wrong

text:
# Question
Title: Firmware upgrade gone wrong
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (SPH-D710) and was trying to do a firmware upgrade through Kies and the upgrade encountered an error (I think the usb cable came loose and lost connection). After that, when I tried booting the phone a screen appears with a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in the middle, a phone to the left of it and computer to the right with the message "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again". I tried doing the emergency firmware recovery in Kies but that seemed to freeze at 64%. I wasn't sure how long it was supposed to take so I let it sit there. Eventually the battery level went low enough that the recovery failed and now the battery is too low to boot into download/recovery mode. When I plug the phone in to try to charge the battery the "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies & try again" screen flashes and it doesn't seem like the battery is charging. Is my phone completely screwed? Is there anything I can do at home to fix this or will I have to take it somewhere?

Thanks

# Answer
Yes, turn off the phone and try to charge from a wall charger, and when battery is full, try to do firmware recovery, this time use a good usb cable, and ensure a good Internet connection.

Keep battery level above 80% or keep it full.

And if all fails go to service center.

Vote up if I helped ;)
> 1 votes

# Answer
I ended up borrowing a battery to finish the emergency firmware recovery in Kies. The second attempt proved successful in the firmware upgrade, however, still had network connection problems. I took it into a Sprint service center and they tried doing software updates to the phone. Tech had to do the software updates several times. Found that after each update attempt, phone would work, but connectivity issues would come back after inserting the SD card. He deemed the SD card to be corrupt. Phone is now working fine on the latest firmware with a new SD card installed. I am not sure what exactly is on the old SD card that would have corrupt it.

Thanks for the suggestions.
> 1 votes

# Answer
If you still have the original usb cable then use it because it probably is modified by Samsung.

Consider upgrading to latest Android (currently 4.4.2) it is well worth it you wont brick it, I did it with my first Smartphone 3 years ago (I still use it) just when I got it and I've done all I wanted to do like install root Rom kernel audio engine etc removed bloatware and lots more :)
> 1 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-2, device-firmware, system-error
---


# Question
Title: Very high mobile data usage reported by carrier, no evidence in phone
My phone is a galaxy Note II, I found out yesterday that I breached the 5 GB limit of data usage for the month when the carrier completely cut my data connections. I went to check the reported usage in the system settings and it just shows 687 MB used for the month, the highest usage app is facebook with just a little over 100 MB used.

Now here's some facts:

* Running Ditto Note 3 v 3.2 (android 4.3) (based on XXUEMK9) (Baseband: N7100XXUEMJ9)
* Never used tethering this month
* I always keep 3G off at night and when I'm on WIFI

How do I find out what could have caused all this data usage? The detailed connections report from the carrier will come in 2 months so I can't know anything yet from that, I'd like to try and figure out something now.

I will be getting a data plan upgrade that will allow me 500 more MB for the month but I'm afraid that if I don't do something fast I might end up wasting all the data again, for now I'm planning of clean flashing the newest release of the rom but I'd like to know if there is some app that will let me monitor data usage in a more detailed way as it seems the built-in android graph doesn't record this hidden data that was used.

# Answer
Turns out it was the carrier that messed up something as it seems I wasn't the only one to get this issue, so I didn't really use all that data.
> 1 votes

# Answer
There's a difference between the amount of data reported from your device, and from what your carrier counts. Usually, that's minor; but with bad connections and frequent retries, the difference might get bigger:

Imagine you want to transfer a 10 MB file. Android counts 10 MB, and so usually does the carrier. But with a bad connection, and, say, all data-packages had to be re-transmitted 10 times until being transferred successfully, Android might still count a 10 MB file transfer, while your carrier sees 100 MB data traffic.

I've got to admit I don't know for sure how Android calculates data transfer here, so the above might not truly reflect it (though your description suggests something like that – or an error on your carrier's side, which you might wish to check with him). The "usual differences" are that the carrier calculates in "units" (e.g. "per 10 kB block"), while Android calculates the real size. Differences here are usually not much larger than 10% on average.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: custom-roms, 4.3-jelly-bean, networking, samsung-galaxy-note-2
---


title: How do I lock my HTC whenever I want?

text:
# Question
Title: How do I lock my HTC whenever I want?
I have a HTC Wildfire S and set up the screen lock pattern for it. This triggers after some time but sometimes I want to lock it myself, for example if I leave the office and let my phone on the desk.

In **Settings | Security | Lock phone after** I can use the "Immediately" option but this closes every time the screen turns of.

Is there some way I can keep it to lock after some time as it is now but also lock it whenever I want?

# Answer
> 4 votes
You can press the power button or use program like Screen Off and Lock. The advantage of software lock is it will prevent wear and tear of your hardware button.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Try using Temporary Lock. It allows you to lock the phone on an as-needed basis. (There is a free trial.)

# Answer
> 1 votes
The setting you have mentioned there will work when you manually turn off the screen - on my HTC Desire it is pressing the power button.

With "Lock phone after" set to "Immediately" it will lock the phone once the screen turns off (manually or after timeout)

To set the screen timeout go to **Settings | Display | Screen timeout** and set it to however long you want the screen to stay on for until it automatically turns off.

The two timeouts work separately:

* **Screen timeout** is for when the screen turns itself off (for the battery conscious)
* **Lock timeout** for when the lock screen will be shown (for the security conscious)

For example, I have **Screen timeout** set to '2min', and **Lock timeout** set to 'Immediate'. So if I leave my phone without touching it, 2 minutes later the screen will turn itself off. If I immediately turn the screen back on, I will be challenged with the lock screen.

If I keep **Screen timeout** as '2min' and change **Lock timeout** to '5min', then like before without using the phone, the screen will turn itself off in 2min. However if I immediately turn the screen back on, there will be no lock screen. Only after 5min of not using the phone will I be challenged with the lock screen when I turn the screen back on.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I have a Samsung S3 mini (Android 4.2.2). I prefer to lock the device manually. I also prefer to turn the display on and off manually without locking the device. To keep these functions separated, I made three configuration changes.

1. I set a long lock timer (15 minutes).
2. I set a long screen saver timer (10 minutes).
3. I installed a widget called Screen Off.

Touching Screen Off locks the device instantly. Pressing the power key turns the display off and on, but does not lock the device. The long timers eventually turn off and lock the device when I forget.

# Answer
> 0 votes
This should be possible using Tasker. While it might be a bit expensive if used for this one purpose only, there are so many other things you can solve with it, so it finally is definitly worth the money. A free trial is available at the dev's website.

But back to your question. I didn't try it out (yet), but basically it should work like this:

## Tasks

You first need three tasks, to enable/disable/delayed\_enable the lock:

* **Task "Activate\_lock":**
    + Display -\> KeyGuard: On
    + Variable -\> Variable Set -\> Name: %MyLocker, To: 1
* **Task "Deactivate\_lock":**
    + Display -\> Keyguard: Off
    + Variable -\> Variable Set -\> Name: %MyLocker, To: 0
* **Task "Delayed\_lock":**
    + Task -\> Wait <sup>(configure the delay time here)</sup>
    + Display -\> KeyGuard: On
    + Variable -\> Variable Set -\> Name: %MyLocker, To: 1

## Profile

A single profile should take care for the automated locking:

* **Condition:**
    + Variable -\> Variable Value -\> Name: %MyLocker, Op: "Math: Isn't equal", Value: 1
    + State -\> Display -\> Display State: Off
* **Task:** Delayed\_lock

## Widgets

*Tasker* allows you to create widgets for tasks. So you create two of them: one for "Activate\_lock", and one for "Deactivate\_lock". Configure your system for immediate lock.

# What will happen?

* If you hit "Activate\_lock", your screen will be locked. Unlock it and work as usual, and as soon as you turn your display off, it is locked again. This is the "immediate lock" you wanted.
* If you hit the "Deactivate\_lock", you get your present state back: Once you turn off your screen, both conditions of the profile are met -- and after the configured delay, *keyguard* (and thus the locking mechanism) is switched on again -- your screen is locked.

# Answer
> 0 votes
All you have to do is make sure that it is set to 'Immediately' and then when you turn your screen off (by pressing your phones power button once), the phone will lock at the same time - and the screen will still be off.

---
Tags: security, lock-screens, htc-wildfire-s
---


# Question
Title: Changing the Google Now voice back to male?
Not sure why, but today the voice on Google Now has changed from a male to a female. I'm in the UK and before I had a male with a British accent but now that's changed to an American female.

I can live it, although I would prefer to have the male one back. It sounded more human IMO. Anyone know how I can get it back?

I've tried changing the language setting but it didn't make any difference.

---

**EDIT:**
A while ago Google changed the voice to a female with a British accent and AFAIK there's no way to get the male British voice back. Not really a problem for me anymore as the new voice seems to have improved a lot.

# Answer
> 3 votes
Not sure if this question can be answered any more, because I have had the English UK male voice back for a while now. Turns out it was Google changing things - not me. Just one day it reverted back to the male voice. Thanks to the guys who answered though! :)

# Answer
> 2 votes
I have Jelly Bean 4.1.1, and I was able to change the Text-to-speech output setting to **English (United Kingdom)**, which is a male voice. The setting is at `Settings | Language & input | Text-to-speech output | Preferred Engine | (settings icon) | Language`.

*However*, Google Now is still giving me output in the **English (United States)** (female) voice.

Changing the `Voice | Language` setting in Google Now to *any* flavor of English also had no effect.

I'm afraid that for the moment Google Now is only giving one option for English text-to-speech. (I'm in the U.S., so I can't *fully* test it, but what I've seen jives with what you posted.)

# Answer
> 1 votes
`Settings -> Language and Input -> Text-to-speech output -> settings Gear for Google TTS -> Install Voice Data`. Then, click on US or UK for English voices, and download the Male voice!

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you go to settings in Google Now and select voice\> English UK, you get the male voice.

# Answer
> -2 votes
The default Pico TTS engine on Android is only a female voice. Your phone probably came with a second voice engine that has a male voice, and it sounds like the voice engine somehow got switched from that to Pico.

To change it back (on 2.3 aka Gingerbread), open `Settings` -\> `Voice input & output` -\> `Text-to-speech settings`, and click on `Default Engine`. Change the default engine back to the other option. You can then `Listen to an example` to make sure it is set correctly.

ICS and Jellybean should have similar options to change the voice engine.

---
Tags: text-to-speech, google-now
---


title: How to open read notifications?

text:
# Question
Title: How to open read notifications?
I got a notification which was shown in my notification bar on my Google Nexus 5. As soon as I clicked on the notification an app opened and the notification has been removed from my toolbar. With the trick described here I am able to see that passed notification but I cannot open it (see screenshot).

Is there a way to open that notification again so that the app leads me again to the content belonging to it?

Screenshot (click for larger image)

# Answer
Assuming I'm understanding your question correctly, you want a "pinned" notification, meaning a notification that stays in the notification bar after you tap it and open the app in question.

If I am correct, you might want to look into apps that let you create your own notifications, like the app Custom Notification.

This could clutter your app drawer a little bit though; I know referencing Tasker without a specific task is poor form, but you might check into the Tasker subreddit, and tell them exactly what you are looking for. Someone might be able to recommend a profile that pins a notification to the status bar until you are done with it.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Building on Redjax's answer: In Tasker, you can create a `Task -> Action -> Alert -> Notify` that is triggered by the notification. Just check the `permanent` box, and add an action that opens up the application in question.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: notification-bar, nexus-5, notifications
---


title: Tasker Profile Help

text:
# Question
Title: Tasker Profile Help
I have been playing around with Tasker lately and had a good idea that I would like to implement but I am new to Tasker and so I can only create simple profiles.

My idea, for myself, is that my phone remains without some sort of password or pin, until someone places their hand above the proximity sensor on my Galaxy S4. Then, the phone requires a password/pin. Otherwise, it remains without one.

How would I go about doing such a thing? I played around with the proximity sensor but I set the context for the proximity sensor as a "State" and I'm not sure how to set something that would implement the proximity sensor. Also, I would like to know if I can set it to lock the phone when someone's hand is within a certain distance.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Basically the proximity sensor gives 1 if it's covered, 0 if not. So you just want to use the state to detect it, then run a task for activating the password.

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-4, tasker
---


title: Force Show Menu button (Soft keys)

text:
# Question
Title: Force Show Menu button (Soft keys)
I've updated to the latest nightly build of Pacman ROM, and then updated it through recovery (wiped: cache and Dalvik Cache) and the system boot up and everything works great but there are 2 exrea menu buttons (softkeys, on the left side of the screen, and on the right side) and actually they are a little bit dimmed. Is there amy solution to remove this extra menu soft keys?

Thanks in advance.

# Answer
> 1 votes
There is a setting for them in Interface \> Navigation bar. You should read the instructions there and then proceed. It's similar to CyanogenMod.

---
Tags: buttons, pac-rom
---


title: Synchronize Gmail but not contacts

text:
# Question
Title: Synchronize Gmail but not contacts
I have a phone with Android 4.2.2.

I want to sync my mails but not my contacts.

The problem is that it seems to be joined in my phone.

When I go to `Settings > Account > Google` I can activate synchronisation but not choose which one.

Does anyone knows how to do this or an app that allows this?

# Answer
When you tap Google in your accounts list, the first option shows your user mail. Tap that and you will see a list of services which are getting synced. Untick Contacts and make sure Gmail is checked.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: sync, gmail
---


# Question
Title: Will deleting my whatsapp account delete my messages from my contacts phone?
I wanted to know if my messages will still be visible to the people I sent them to in the past when I delete my whatsapp account. I basically want my whatsapp messages to be deleted from their phone.

# Answer
The messages you sent will still reside in the recipient's Whatsapp even if you delete your Whatsapp account.
> 6 votes

# Answer
The messages will remain on the WhatsApp interface.

Also, there is a history of all conversations in the WhatsApp folder on your internal storage. You may also want to get rid of them, if you don't want backups of all of your messages.

Basically, once you send a message to someone they receive it and it goes to their storage, so you cannot delete those.
> 0 votes

# Answer
No they wont be deleted and stored in a private whatsapp directory. When you again Install whatsapp it will search for that content and if found you can reload all your contents with news version installed. And you do not have whatsoever any control on the messaged that you have already sent to other users they are stored locally on their side So just deleting your account does not make them vanish from other users device.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: whatsapp-messenger, delete
---


# Question
Title: Can every Android device be updated to the most recent Android version?
I never dealt with Android devices before so I'm completely newbie at it, please comment if something is too simple.

Say I purchase Android Galaxy Player S WiFi 5.0, that has got Android Froyo 2.2 installed in it.

If there is a new version of Android released tomorrow or next month, will I be able to update it (like I will be able to update my iPod Touch 4 to iOS 5)?

# Answer
**No.** Its up to the manufacturer to release new Android versions for their devices. Some devices will never get a new Android version. Only the devices from Google (Nexus One, Nexus S) will get the latest Android versions early and OTA. The others may get the new version, but it is the decision of the manufacturer.

Custom ROMs may provide a newer Android version, as the last official version that was released by the manufacturer. But this often only applies to popular devices.
> 6 votes

# Answer
\**No.\** For an Android phone to receive new updates, it must jump through several hoops.

First, Google. When Google releases new versions of Android, they get to determine the system requirements. While they have good reason to include as many devices as possible, they sometimes can't, or have to make hard decisions not to for the purpose of new features. Furthermore, in the future, their motives may change.

Next, OEM. If your phone is not a Nexus or Google Play Edition, the manufacturer of your phone must take the code released by Google and make it work with their drivers, their skins, and their addon software features (like gestures and such.) They may find it is not worth their effort. They also have the motive of planned obsolescence in selling new phones (if you loved the Super Duper X Phone when you bought it, but the new OS offers features you want that aren't available on the old one, you are more likely to buy the Super Duper X Phone II.)

Lastly, carriers. If you bought the Super Duper X Phone for $199, likely your carrier paid the other $400 that the phone actually costs, and plans to extract that money from you in an inflated-price 2-year contract. As the middleman, they likely demanded the right from the manufacturer to install some apps of their own. These apps must be updated by the carrier AFTER the first two hoops have been jumped through. THEN, after that, the carrier must test the new software stack to make sure it does not crash their network.

If your phone makes it through these hoops, then BAM! New OTA software for you. But remember, this process can be short-circuited at any step. Furthermore, those in the process KNOW THIS. So, if you are, say, HTC, and you spend the money, time, effort, R&D to update this phone, you'll want to be damn sure that, say, Verizon will do their part of the job and then finally approve the new version. If not, your effort is wasted. If you are not positive, you might not bother.

A good illustration of this is the Galaxy Nexus. Google made a promise (which I think they meant to keep) that this phone would get the newest updates first, for as long as reasonably possible. Unfortunately, they chose to release a Verizon version alongside the unlocked versions they themselves sold. Verizon dragged their feet on updates, and the Verizon version has lagged behind the unlocked versions for months on new updates.

If you must have the newest updates, the closer the phone is to Google, the better off you are. Choose Nexus first. Choose Google Play editions next. Choose Motorola phones next. Then choose the phone from the OEM with the best track record for updates and the network with the best track record for updates. Or learn to root and rom and take your chances in the Wild Wild West of phone software....
> 1 votes

---
Tags: updates
---


title: Reinstalling Windows Phone to Android

text:
# Question
Title: Reinstalling Windows Phone to Android
Is it possible to change phone OS from Windows Phone to Android?

# Answer
All my research tells me mainly \**No\**. There are ways of doing this on older Windows Mobile Phones, and on full-fat x86 Windows tablets (not 'RT'), but there seem to be no ways of doing so on Windows 7/8 phones for levels early-adopter or higher. The reason for the unusual wording of the previous sentence is that I am almost positive that this is doable, but would require some serious, pioneer-level hardware/software chops, as very few people have a motivation to make this work.

For Google and Microsoft, the conflict is obvious. Each would rather you buy a phone from their partners, and then use their services. Android phone geeks would likely consider it not worth the effort, as they would have to illegally hack the Windows phone to figure it out (their internal bits are proprietary), and Android devices of almost any category can now be had for less than $200. Windows phone geeks face the proprietary thing, plus they would rather you use Windows Phone OS.

The last time I saw a real effort to port Android to a device less popular than IOS and Windows Desktop was the HP Touchpad running WebOS. This was a 10' tablet selling for $99 in a fire sale, when most/all other tablets cost $400+. So there was a real value motive involved.

If your phone is "Windows Mobile", (read: several years old), there likely are ways of installing older versions of Android on it. But most of them are device-specific, so I would need to know more to help you out.

Bottom line: probably not worth the effort, even on the outside chance that I could send you a list of instructions that a non-professional could understand and carry out.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: installation, windows, operating-system
---


title: Brightness below system minimun

text:
# Question
Title: Brightness below system minimun
Is there tool or application that can set the brightness of the screen below the system minimum?

# Answer
> 1 votes
My personal favorite for this task is ScreenFilter, which is completely free (no ads, even) and has Tasker integration.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Yes there are a dozen of them, go to the below link and download the app.

Vote up and choose answer if I helped :D

NightMode

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, samsung-galaxy-s-3-mini
---


# Question
Title: Samsung Galaxy S4 turns off internet at night
On my friends S4 the internet connections (WiFi etc.) turn off automatically from 10pm and turns on again at 6am the following morning, so he gets no messages between those times.

Is there a way we can change it maybe?

# Answer
Try the profile settings. He probably has set a "night"-profile which turns down the volume and activates the plane-mode. The profile settings can be found in the normal settings of your phone.
> 1 votes

# Answer
In your notification shader, look for the "Blocking mode" icon, tap and hold it. You can activate the blocking mode there, pick a time frame for when it is active (e. g. 10pm - 8 am) and select what should be disabled from incoming calls, notifications, alarms and the LED indicator.

You can also allow only calls from certain contacts to go through to you, which can be helpful for emergency situations.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-4
---


# Question
Title: How can I recover Samsung Galaxy contacts?
I lost all of my Samsung Galaxy contacts by accident. Is it possible to recover my Samsung Galaxy Contacts? How can I restore contacts from Samsung Galaxy? I've tried many way, but doesn't work.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Is your phone synced to your Google account? If yes, go to https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#contacts then click on the "More" button and select "Restore Contacts".

Google saves all changes that were made to your contacts in the last 30 days.

---
Tags: contacts, data-recovery
---


title: Update Cyanogenmod to latest Snapshot

text:
# Question
Title: Update Cyanogenmod to latest Snapshot
I am running Cyanogenmod on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. by the beginning of March 2014, Cyanogenmod released V11 Snapshot M4. As far as I know, I am still running Snapshot M3, which I freshly installed in February.

When will 11 M4 arrive on my phone? Will it be available over-the-air?

There was one small OTA update in late February, was that already M4? If I take a look at System -\> Setting -\> About Phone, there are various version and build numbers, but there is no number showing any Snapshot number...

Thanks in advance, Sascha.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Thanks for your answer. If looking into "About phone", "Build Date" is "Tue Feb 25 14:46:23 PST 2014" and Build Number "cm\_maguro-userdebug 4.4.2 KOT49H InstallerXNPQ09P release-keys"

According to build date, I guess that's still M3, right?

Last weekend I tried to manually update, by downloading the ZIP file for Maguro from http://download.cyanogenmod.org, but that ended up in a corrupted phone:

* phone app was missing, I wasn't able to receive calls
* home button didn't work (flashed when pressed, but nothing happened)
* quick settings button in notification bar without effect
* and many issues more....

I now re-installed Cynogenmod by again running the installer. Build number and date are stated at the top of this post.

I suggest that installer version is quite a bit slower in its release cycles, right?

# Answer
> 2 votes
I too have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and I upgraded from CM11 M3 to M4 manually just one week ago.

But I looked it up on my phone and there is an OTA-Update to the M4 build. Other than that, you can find your current CM11-build under Settings -\> About phone and there it says in the entry named CyanogenMod-Version. It should end with your device's code-name (depending on your specific Galaxy Nexus it can be either "toro", "toroplus" or "maguro"; in my case "maguro").

And that update in late february cannot have been the M4-build, because that's just too far in the past. The M4-build was anounced officially by the team of CyanogenMod on march 7th.

I hope I could help you.

PS: If you still do not get the OTA-update, I would recommend you to flash it manually.

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, samsung-galaxy-nexus
---


# Question
Title: White Background In Landscape Text Input
I'm sorry to bother you but I couldn't find anything anywhere on this:

I installed CM a couple of days ago on my Samsung i9305 (Galaxy S3 LTE - CM stable release 10.1.3 based on Android 4.2.2) and so far am very happy about it. There is one thing to annoy me though and I couldn't find a way to change it.

I'm using my phone a lot to write, especially when it's dark, so naturally I've chosen dark themed text editors. On portrait, text input is as it should, I can write simply within the dark themed app. As soon as I put the phone in portrait mode (which is desired for longer texts), I get this awful white text input thing popping up with the "done"-button on its side which really takes me out of it (Form editor?). I have searched the settings high and low, tried changing the theme and have tried installing other keyboards (which has nothing to do with it but it was worth a shot) but no success.

Is there any way to get rid of that function? It may be possible for it to just be an Android 4.2.2 feature, which I would find odd since it breaks the immersion into an app, so the question remains.

Thank you very much for your effort.

# Answer
I assume you have a screen like this one? There's a way to disable the so called "fullscreen landscape keyboard". Some custom roms have feature an option by default, but not CyanogenMod.

What you could try is to download the Xposed Framework and disable that fullscreen landscape keyboard through Xposed Modules like "Gravity Box" or "XBlast Tools".

Those two modules also feature a lot of other useful tweaks.

I hope I understood you correctly and that this will be helpful.

EDIT: Those two modules I mentioned above may be a bit confusing at first. So I would rather recommend this module instead: No Fullscreen Keyboard Xposed - Android Apps on Google Play
> 1 votes

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Tags: cyanogenmod
---


# Question
Title: "Loading video..." seems to take forever on Android
For some reason, whenever I try to stream a video on my Galaxy S3 (running the latest stable Cyanogenmod 10) it takes up to 1 minute before it eventually starts playing. The exact same video on my iPad will load instantly on the exact same connection.

Does anyone please know why this is? I usually play videos through the default app, 'Gallery' I think it is, but I have tried other players too (ie MX Player and Hubi) and get the same problem.

Thanks!

# Answer
Their could be a number of possible problems such as the format of the video; either the phones hardware or Cyanogenmod 10 may not support the format in which the video is in. I believe the video format is most likely the case because as you describe:

> The exact same video on my iPad will load usually instantly on the exact same connection.

and

> I usually play videos through the default app, 'Gallery' I think it is, but I have tried other players too (ie MX Player and Hubi) and get the same problem.

So check the video format of the videos in which you view. In this link, they describe the possible video formats that the Galaxy S3 can play. If the video is not in the correct format, I suggest trying to convert the video files localy on your PC.

Also another solution may be to re-image the phone to possibly earlier version of Cyanogenmod could possibly work.

Hope this helps.
> 1 votes

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Tags: video, streaming, video-streaming
---


title: What is actually Move To SD Card?

text:
# Question
Title: What is actually Move To SD Card?
I recently moved Dead Trigger 2 to my SD storage, but when I open my file explorer it still shows that Dead Trigger 2 is in my internal storage. When I checked my storage details it is showing only a 10MB difference, so I'm totally confused about the 'Move To SD storage' concept. I thought moving a 486MB game to SD storage is actually moving a 486MB game to SD storage, but my recent experience proves that I'm wrong. What is really meant by "Move To SD"?

# Answer
There are different approaches to App2SD, which are briefly explained in our app2sd tag-wiki. The App2SD built-in to Android only moves parts of the app to SDCard, while other parts (e.g. the app's data and its cache) remain on internal storage. How much (or what percentage) gets moved varies from app to app – which is what you experience in the described case. Moreover, an app needs to explicitly support this mechanism.

There are different other approaches pre-installed with some custom ROMs (such as App2SD+), or separately installable on rooted devices (such as or Data2SD) trying to fill this gap; to completely move an app out of internal storage, one often has to use combinations of at least two of those tools.

Please see the linked tag-wiki for closer details.
> 1 votes

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Tags: 4.2-jelly-bean, app2sd
---


# Question
Title: Is there a technical reason Android update story is so bad?
Is there a technical reason why Android phones general lag a lot behind the stable released version of Android?

This applies to both new phones, for example a recent trip to the phone shop everything was 4.0 to 4.2.1, KitKat could not be seen. And also old phones, my girlfriend's iPhone 4 had an OTA update to the latest OS, this is a July 2010 phone, whilst a July 2010 Android is basically a paperweight.

Presumably Android itself doesn't concern itself with the actual hardware, and thus talks to the OS via abstractions? I guess then the handset maker just provides the drivers for the specific hardware, thus I can't see the issue with pushing OTA updates if the ABI remains stable (my phone doesn't grow new hardware features).

# Answer
> 18 votes
See this image released by HTC. It describes the update process in a very detailed form:

Image resized (click to see the full size)

# Answer
> 17 votes
Android phones have at least 2 fingers in the pot that iPhones do not: the hardware maker and the network carrier. The hardware makers often consider their drivers trade secrets, and therefore must learn the new versions code and then adapt their drivers. Manufacturers also often provide custom "skins" that must be updated for the new version, and sometimes wholly redesigned. Any changes must then be approved by the carriers. They often addon their own features, which must be updated/redesigned and tested. Then they must run networks tests for each phone to ensure it won't crash the network. While these tests must go on for iPhones also, they are probably done before the new version is released, as Apple can produce all the phones running the new version at once for testing, before the code is released to even developers.

# Answer
> 10 votes
This is a 2-part question. Part 1 asks why Android phones do not get the newest update right away, and has been answered adequately by the other answers. Part 2 asks why older phones often never get the newest update, and has not been answered yet.

As LeBeau says, there are other corporate stakeholders besides Google. Google only creates the new versions, and, besides the phones it directly creates, like the Nexus line, it does not get much say over whether and when the others put them into the phones. Also like LeBeau says, all these other stakeholders have to learn the new version before they can implement it. This is why the phones get new versions later, and why certain phones, like the Nexuses, get the versions before anyone else, because Google has already learned the new version.

As for part 2, the hardware makers want us to keep buying new phones every couple months, right? Otherwise, how will they keep all that dough rolling in if we keep using our old phones? They'd be in the same position the computer companies are in: with storage and RAM enough for any purpose, why buy any new hardware? The answer is to stop updating old phones, so if we want the newest features, we have to get a new one. Google probably doesn't do this as much, as it is already selling you Android, so why does it need to sell you phones, but it probably does it a little bit. The network carriers, for their part, probably help with their draconian rules like preventing rooting (or else you void your warranty). This is why, as you say, "`a July 2010 android is basically a paperweight`".

As for your comment about improvements being "mainly userland", I don't know how all that works, but I'm sure it's not that simple. The upgrades may be in software, but not all software talks to the user. Plus, the hardware makers put "skins" on our phones, so we do not see the inner workings, and it's likely that when they finally upgrade to the newest version, they put some new stuff in themselves, so that an HTC One phone at Android 4.2 is different from a Samsung Galaxy SIV phone at Android 4.2. Probably either HTC or Samsung throws some new features out to put in 4.3, and you do not even notice they did it. Then, when let's say the HTC One does not upgrade to 4.3, but the HTC Two does (I'm making this up), you are forced to get HTC Two to get (some of) the new features of 4.3, as well as some features of 4.2 you didn't get with HTC One. I am not certain this happens, but it is normal business procedure, so I would not be surprised.

# Answer
> 4 votes
I think there are a number of reasons why updates are so slow for android devices:

1. The time it takes a manufacturer to apply their customisations to the new version and ensure everything works OK can be quite long. This has improved over the last year or so as Google give them an Android PDK, or the Platform Development Kit which should allow them to work on their customisations several months in advance of the public even hearing about the next version of Android.
2. The time it takes for networks to test the update and apply their customisations.
3. There is little incentive for manufacturers to apply the update (especially on 1+ year old devices) as they are trying to sell their newest devices to customers.
4. Most customers don't know or care what version of Android is on their device so why would the manufacturer spend time and money updating the device to the latest version.

You can also look at this article which goes into a bit more detail, including why Apple is able to release updates 'so much quicker' (essentially because they control both the hardware and software).

# Answer
> 3 votes
In addition to the incredibly long HTC infographic in Mpeti's answer, other manufacturers have come out and said why their updates lag behind official Google releases, and why they don't release updates for older models:

**Sony Mobile**: Ice Cream Sandwich – from source code release to software upgrade, selected excerpts and headers below:

> However, before we can roll out those software upgrades, there are a lot of activities to first of all get Ice Cream Sandwich to work and become stable on all Sony Ericsson phones. We call this the **Bring up phase.**
> Secondly, and perhaps most important, we must certify and approve the new software release with all the different technologies, networks, and hardware that a modern smartphone should work with. We call this the **Certification and approval phase.**
>
> * The Bring up phase: Getting Ice Cream Sandwich to work on our phones
> * Integrating Android patches
> * Getting the software stable and adding localisation
> * The Certification and approval phase: Making sure the software and hardware is compliant
> * Additional approvals might be needed
> * Many operators also want to customise the software according to their requirements
>
> When all of this is done, we are ready to roll out the software release variants as software upgrades to operators and consumers around the world.

**Motorola** used to have a good blog entry on this, but seem to have deleted all their older blog content in the last few months. However the Wayback machine has an archived copy of it: Archive.org: Motorola Update on Ice Cream Sandwich, selected text and headings below:

> Once source code is released from Google, it doesn’t automatically update to your device.
>
> Each new version of Android launches with one device partner, in what is called the “Google Experience Device” or GED, the showcase device for a new Android release. The GED partner for each launch works with Google during the development of the OS so that the device and new Android version are ready for a coordinated simultaneous launch.
>
> Once that GED device ships, the rest of the Android community gains access to the Android source code as its made public shortly after – a critical milestone for device manufacturers and component suppliers, enabling us to start work on integrating the new release into our existing products.
>
> * Merge and adapt the new release for different device hardware architecture(s) and carrier customizations
> * Stabilize and ‘bake’ the result to drive out bugs
> * Submit the upgrade to the carriers for certification
> * Perform a Customer pre-release
> * Release the upgrade
>
> We are planning on upgrading as many of our phones as possible. The ability to offer the upgrade depends on a number of factors including the hardware/device capabilities, the underlying chipset software support, the ICS support and then the ability to support the Motorola value add software.

Also, PC Mag Why It Will Take So Long to Upgrade Phones to 'Ice Cream Sandwich'

# Answer
> 2 votes
When Google releases a new version of Android, the build is then processed by the manufacturer. This takes several months for them to assure the update can take advantage of the phone's features, and so they can install any additional features they want.

The process is then repeated for the carrier, which again takes several months.

---
Tags: updates
---


# Question
Title: I have less than 40 apps (including system apps); What else can I remove?
I'm trying to remove as much bloatware as possible, but there is no information about some of them on Google. Here is the list of apps I'm not sure **what they are for:**

* com.android.provision
* com.android.keyguard (WHY doesn't it have a name in apps list? After removing it, I couldn't use the S2 home button. The phone has to be rebooted to make it fully removed or installed)
* Input Devices
* Documents (com.android.documentsui)
* Package Access Helper
* Market Feedback Agent (Is it for adding your apps to Google Play my apps list?)
* HTML Viewer
* External Storage (Storage works without it)
* Key Chain (Is it for storing passwords?)
* Settings Storage (Can't settings store data itself?)
* Google Services

# Answer
Requirement: Rooted phone Samsung Phone

**AccountAndSyncSettings.apk** -- NO, Sync settings, this is required, even if out don´t sync, this is because it syncs more than just calendar and contacts, it is the effective sync to your google account, required for just about anything.

**ApplicationsProvider.apk** -- NO, required for application installation and uninstall.

**audioTuning.apk** -- ?, not really sure about this one. I guess this is an automatic sound adjustment according to background noise, however I´ve never seen this into effect. If you´re feeling lucky, you can try removing it, however I´ve never monitored this actually showing up resource managers.

**AxT9IME.apk** -- YES, This is the stock Samsung keyboard. You can remove it, but even if you have swype, swype doesn´t have all of the keyboard layouts. I´d leave it, to my opinion, this is kind of essential.

**BadgeProvider.apk** -- NO, Something to do with messaging and email. Removing this causes SMS and email related apps to force close. Even if you manage to keep the program open for long enough without it foce closing, you won´t be able to send messages, they´ll just be stuck on "sending".

**Bluetooth.apk** -- YES, incorrectly named, this apk actually manages the Bluetooth printing rather than the bluetooth itself. If you have no need for bluetooth printing, this won´t ever be missed or will never bother you in any occasion.

**BluetoothOPP.apk** -- NO, this apk actually manages file transfer between phones. Remove this and you´ll never be able to transfer files. This actually includes streaming music through Car bluetooth and headsets, since they effectively speaking, file transfers.

**BluetoothServices.apk** -- NO, provides general framework for Bluetooth. If you´re going to use bluetooth for any reason, this apk is a must. Removing this one breaks all other bluetooth applications.

**BluetoothTestMode.apk** -- YES, this is activated when you need to test the fidelity of your bluetooth. You can do that by going into the test section by typing the secret code *#*#197328640#*#*. Removing it is possible, however, some BT connections actually test the bluetooth to measure how much data is transfered. This way, it calculates the buffer size it needs to use, and at what quality media can be streamed. Removing it can disrupt communications with those BT terminals or you can experience fade-outs, where while listening to songs, the sound will fade every few seconds, because of inadequate bandwith. (this can occur even with this application left as is, if your BT terminal doesn´t have the auto regulation feature)

**Browser.apk** -- YES, removing this will make you lose your browsing ability (not internet as a whole). If you have firefox or opera for android, and like those best, you can remove this without any problems.

**BuddiesNow.apk** -- YES, this is just that widget offered by the TouchWiz launcher. If you don´t use it, remove it.

**CallSetting.apk** -- NO, do you like to use your phone for... umm calling people? This is kind of essencial, it will allow call setting to be edited. Stuff like call waiting and forwarding will not work if you remove this, as well as other stuff I didn´t have time or willingness to test, as soon as I confirmed dialpad and other things while calling had been disabled.

**Camera.apk** -- NO, this is the camera application. If you find an alternative one (I don´t think there are any on the market) you could remove it. CameraFirmware.apk -- NO, this is the actual ROM (if you will) for the camera. Without this, camera.apk is useless.

**CertInstaller.apk** -- NO, Installs certificates for the apps you install. I assume without this, you cannot give permissions for apps to do things and access certain folders and files. I´m guessing if you don´t have this installed, you couldn´t even install root on your phone. So in short, no.

**ClockPackage.apk** -- YES, however this controls the alarm clock, stopwatch, world time and timer. There are alternative applications online if you want, but this seems to do the job pretty well and all under the same apk.

**Contacts.apk** -- NO, this controls the contacts application (the contacts / groups / history / activities tabs). Removing this will make you have to call everyone by physically inputing their number.

**ContactsProvider.apk** -- NO, this controls contacts sync. Pretty useful if you still don´t use google contacs sync, you should try it. In theory if you don´t use it, you could remove it, but I don´t know what effect it would have on your contacts.

**CSC.apk** -- NO. This breaks CSC. According to insanity, this can be removed after first successful boot, but if you ever have to hard reset or restore factory settings, this will not allow you to boot successfully.

**DataCreate.apk** -- NO.

**DialerTabActivity.apk** -- NO. This controls the dialer. Even if you have all your contacts already stored, you cannot call them without this app.

**Divx.apk** -- YES. This is some licesing information for the video player. I don´t really watch alot of videos on my phone, but after removing this I´ve never had any problems. If you do remove it, and have problems, post it on the comments.

**Dlna.apk** -- YES. This is allshare. Never had any use for it, and it shall not be missed.

**DownloadProvider.apk** -- NO. Handles file downloads and market downloads.

**DrmProvider.apk** -- NO. In theory, you cannot remove it, it will break your ability to play DRM protected files, aka, Ringtones and SMS notifications. I´ve been in the process of de-DRMing my ringtone files. I would imagine, if you don´t have a reason to play DRM protected files, this could be removed. However keep in mind all DRM protected files will not be able to play. This apk takes up a lot of memory and stays on all the time on the background. It is one of my most hated apks, it serves no function rather than to protect you from copying or editing the stupid samsung ringtones.

**DrmUA.apk** -- NO, see above.

**DualClock.apk** -- YES. Dual clock widget. If you don´t need, remove it.

**Email.apk** -- NO. According to insanity, removing this will break things.Haven´t tried it yet though.

**EnhancedGoogleSearchProvider.apk** -- YES. This controls that ability to hold the menu button for a second or two and the search menu pop up. I usally keep it.

**FactoryTest.apk** -- YES. Removed it without any problems. If you have ever run autostarts, you´ll realize how much of a hog this apk really is during some actions.

**FlashPlugin.apk** -- YES. This allows flash content to be displayed, so even though you can, I don´t recommed it.

**FlashSVGPlayer.apk** -- YES. As far as I know, this is the player which provides you to view the flash content through the plugin above. Removing this might break your flashplugin.

**FMRadio.apk** -- YES. Radio player.

**Gallery3D.apk** -- YES. This is a battery hog. It´s that fancy 3D accelerometer enhanced gallery. If you remove it, you won´t be able to easily access photographs though. If you want a good replacement, I would suggest QuickPic, it does the job, it´s fast and doesn´t hog memory (although its not fancy like the 3D Gallery)

**GlobalSearch.apk** -- YES. This is the search function on your phone. Remember the Enhanced search this above, well, that actually accesses this to do the search. That can be removed and this will be fine (although you´ll have to access the search feature by the app drawer). But if you remove this, the enhanced search will be useless.

**Gmail.apk** -- YES. Don´t use gmail? It can be removed, but will break Talk.apk as well.

**GmailProvider.apk** -- YES. I guess it is tied to gmail.apk. See above.

**GoogleApps.apk** -- ?. This is didn´t even come installed on my phone, so I guess it´s not that important.

**GoogleCheckin.apk** -- ? Same as above.

**GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk** -- YES. Syncs contacts through google. This can be removed, but you won´t be able to sync contacts.

**GooglePartnerSetup.apk** -- NO.

**GoogleSearch.apk** -- YES. This is the google search widget you can add onto your launcher desktop.

**GoogleSettingsProvider.apk** -- NO.

**GoogleSubscribedFeedsProvider.apk** -- ?. Don´t know, this is not on my phone.

**GpsSetup2.apk** -- NO. This sets up GPS configurations.

**gtalkservice.apk** -- YES. You might have this as talk.apk or gtalkservice.apk, although it´s all the same thing, it´s Google Talk.

**HTMLViewer.apk** -- YES. No side effects were noticed when removing this.

**HwCodec.apk** -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.

**IcsService.apk** -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.

**InfoAlarm.apk** -- YES. This is the daily briefing widget. Don´t need it remove it.

**InputEventApp.apk** -- NO.

**Layar-samsung.apk** -- YES. Layar. Seems awesome on paper. Never has been of any use in reality.

**LbsTestMode.apk** -- YES. GPS testing mode. Can be accessed via *#*#197328640#*#*, but not needed per se.

**lcdtest.apk** -- YES. Removing this will cause your screen to not turn off when you lock your phone. By installing spare parts you can fix this, however if you don´t use spare parts for any other reason, that´s just replacing a passive apk for one that invades your phone on all levels. So I rather just leave it and not worry about it.

**LogsProvider.apk** -- NO. Lots of things will crash and force close if you do.

**Maps.apk** -- YES. Google Maps apk. If you don´t use it, remove it, but it is pretty useful, since it has gps navigation as well.

**MarketUpdater.apk** -- YES. Safe to remove but when the market gets updated you won´t be recieving the update.

**MediaProvider.apk** -- NO. Needed to access media files and ringtones.

**MediaUploader.apk** -- YES. This uploads pictures to picassa (facebook as well?). If you don´t need it, remove it.

**Memo.apk** -- YES. Remove it and you won´t be able to write memos though.

**Mms.apk** -- NO. This controls MMS sending and recieving on the phone.

**MobileTrackerEngineTwo.apk** -- YES. This app and the next control the tracker ability on your phone. What this does is if you lose your phone you can use this to track it down and find it. If it gets stolen, you can use this to lead the cops to the thief. Although this is an awesome idea, if you don´t live in a perfect world, it would be wiser not to go after the guy who stole your phone in case he decides to, hum..., go kill you afterwards... Besides, I live in Argentina, and the cops cannot be trusted to do this kind of job... they´ll tell you they can´t do anything. These things stay on memory all the time and really consume battery, so if you don´t care about this feature and really just take care of your stuff, you´ll not be needing these two apps.

**MobileTrackerUI.apk** -- YES. See Above. I forgot to mention though an extra feature this offers though. If you have these 2 apks installed, you have the samsung apps and singin (you´ll see them later further down), you can use another apk called wipereciever.apk to remotely wipe all the data on your phone, in case you are very privacy concious. However, removing any of these 2 apks, removing samsung apps and not setting up a samsung apps account before your phone gets stolen, this feature becomes disabled. Really in my opinion, its too much stuff to be worried about, and my phone doesn´t contain any nuclear launch codes. So I rely on my lock screen password to protect my data. (Most thieves don´t have the knowhow to crack the lockscreen protection and access the info inside the phone. At most they´ll get bored and might find the info on how to flash a new ROM or reset to factory settings, where your info will be deleted and your privacy sensitive stuff with it).

**MtpApplication.apk** -- YES. Required to sync with Kies. Do you flash your ROMs rather than update through Kies, this is useless to you then. (Updating through Kies is the equivalent of upgrading from XP to windows 7. It does the job, but it never works as well as installing from scratch.)

**MusicPlayer.apk** -- YES. This is the music player. If you remove this, you can still preview sounds and stuff through the SoundPlayer.apk. This can be effectively replace by PowerAMP and Winamp. In fact, if you have a stable music player alternative installed, I would recommend you delete this, since it could cause clashes and you might even get both players playing different songs at the same time via Bluetooth.

**MyFiles.apk** -- YES. This is the default file viewer installed by Samsung. If you use RootExplorer, this is kind of pointless. However, I sometime do things on the go and need to access things fast. I usually use this for everyday use and leave RootExplorer just to do alterations such as what we are doing in this list, so as to not delete important things by accident.

**NetworkLocation.apk** -- YES. This is the semi-accurate GPS simulation. It uses Cellphone Cell information to estimate your location, rather than using the battery hog GPS antenna. If you remove this, things like automatic weather location will be broken (you´ll have to input your location manually). I usually leave this on, because since it uses the very GSM network used by the phone, it seems like hitting two birds with one stone. Using the real GPS will force you to have two antennas working together. This wastes a lot of battery, and really most of the time the network location does a pretty good job of narrowing down your location. If you use GPS A LOT, I recommed just buying one of those TomToms or Garmin GPS, it has better maps, better accuracy and the very device is optimized to use only the GPS antenna, therefore wasting less battery, and not wasting your phone battery life.

**OtaProvisioningService.apk** -- NO. According to insanity, this is required. However see wssyncmlnps.apk to get more of an idea.

**PackageInstaller.apk** -- NO.

**Personalization.apk** -- NO.

**Phone.apk** -- NO. Remove this and you won´t have the dialer application. Even though your phone will theoretically work, you just won´t be able to dial out or view missed calls and stuff.

**PhoneCrashNotifier.apk** -- ?. Don´t know, my phone doesn´t have this.

**PhoneErrService.apk** -- NO.

**Phone\_Util.apk** -- NO.

**PicoTts.apk** -- YES. This is part of the text to speech (not speech to text). If you´re blind, this is kind of important, because the phone will read via a a robotic voice things to you. This is also part of the Google GPS application where it will tell you "turn left" "keep right". If you remove this, GPS navigation will work, you just won´t have someone talking to you. If you decide to remove this, remove TtsService.apk as well.

**Preconfig.apk** -- NO.

**RilFactoryApp.apk** -- ?. The galaxy 3 seems to be the only phone in the world that has this. Nowhere I have seen is this apk mentioned. I have no idea what this does.

**SamsungApps.apk** -- YES. Samsung apps, if you remove this, you can remove signin.apk as well. If you remove this, and you manage your music and have apps via Kies, they might not work, however Kies will still connect (if you want to update firmware via Kies). By removing this, your samsung and touchwiz widgets will still work.

**SamsungWidget\_CalendarClock.apk** -- YES. Calendar clock widget.

**SamsungWidget\_FeedAndUpdate.apk** -- YES. Feeds and Updates widget.

**SamsungWidget\_StockClock.apk** -- YES. Stock clock widget.

**SamsungWidget\_WeatherClock.apk** -- YES. Weather clock widget.

**SecDownloadProvider.apk** -- NO. I believe this has to do with the maket, so I´d just leave it alone.

**serviceModeApp.apk** -- NO. Required for secret codes and service tasks, such as those accessed by secret codes.

**Settings.apk** -- NO. Isn´t settings explicit enough?

**SettingsProvider.apk** -- NO. Some Carriers will send you settings via sms or internal message. This is mostly for those people who don´t really know how to configure their phone (anyone not reading XDA ). Although it seems banal, it could be useful at some point, and some people have reported things force closing because of this

**SetupWizard.apk** -- NO. In theory can be deleted after first successful boot. However this could cause problems if you need to factory reset

**shutdown.apk** -- NO. Tells you your battery is low and manages shutdown notifications.

**signin.apk** -- YES. See SamsungApps.apk

**SisoDrmProvider.apk** -- NO. Has to do with the DRM. If you successfully manage to remove DRMUA and DRMService, maybe this can be removed as well. Don´t know, haven´t been able to rid my phone from drm still.

**SnsAccount.apk** -- YES. Does the feeds sync with facebook and twitter. Without this, you won´t be informed of new tweets of your friends saying "OMG! I´m at the toilet reading cosmo magazine. LOLZ".

**SnsProvider.apk** -- YES. See above.

**SoundPlayer.apk** -- YES. This, not to be confused with MusicPlayer.apk plays sounds and previews ringtones. Even though it can be removed, you´ll be pretty limited if you do, since it works a bit faster and to the point than MusicPlayer. It doesn´t genera playlist, history and has no visualization. It just plain to the point plays sounds. Even if you have Winamp, PowerAMP, cubed or whatever I recommend keeping this.

**Stk.apk** -- YES. You know those annoying menus your carrier offers you, you know, to inform you about your hororscope (no I didn´t misspell it), roaming information or traffic information, making you send a message so they can send you the info back? This is the menu apk for that. Don´t want to download your carrier (payed) games or apps telling you bad jokes? Delete this.

**Street.apk** -- YES. Streetview for Google Maps. Removing it will not break google maps, but you won´t get to view street pictures.

**Swype.apk** -- YES. Swype keyboard, and awesome alternative to samsung´s. It does a good job at predicting text, but not essential if you like to manually type all words out.

**syncmldm.apk** -- YES. Device Management. I read something somewhere but don´t really remember what it was. I deleted this accidentally while trying to delete syncmlds.apk but nothing has broken yet...

**syncmlds.apk** -- YES. This has to do with the Synchronize page options in the settings menu. If you don´t use it, it has no meaning in your life.

**Talk.apk** -- YES. Google Talk. There was some chatter about removing this breaking Gmail or the Market. As far as I´ve read, this can be removed, although I still haven´t gotten around to trying it out.

**TalkProvider.apk** -- YES. See above.

**TelephonyProvider.apk** -- NO.

**thinkdroid.apk** -- YES. This is the mobile version of a microsoft office clone. Removing this will not let you open .doc or .xls or .pps on your phone.

**TouchWiz30Launcher.apk** -- NO. Even though if you use Zeam or LauncherPro or GoLauncher, removing this is kind of dangerous. Let me explain. A while ago when I was a virgin at ODIN flashing and new to the phone, i deleted this because I was using LauncherPRO. I had also deleted something that made my phone force close all the time. I didn´t trust flashing yet, and in my haste, I decided to restore factory settings. The thing is, when you do that, it deletes all non stock apps and reconfigures the phone to use stock apps. When I that, even though the phone booted, I couldn´t access anything, because launchers also control the appdrawer. My phone was literally blank, although if was working. The problem is, if you factory reset, the settings that control your USB connection as MODEM or PDA go back to its original settings. As mine did. So I couldn´t get to anywhere on my phone and couldn´t get my computer to recognize the phone. Until I flashed it via Odin (after a 7 hour desperation overnight, and finding some miracle Samsung USB x64 drivers for mobile phones on a forum) the phone was in effect soft bricked. If you remove anything from this list and have problems, you can factory reset or prepare you contacts and apps for a flashing via ODIN. If you delete however, you won´t even be able to prepare yourself or backup anything. I wish this upon no one, so I advise keeping this, just to be on the safe side.

**TouchWizCalculator.apk** -- YES. Calculator app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.

**TouchWizCalendar.apk** -- YES. Calendar app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.

**TouchWizCalendarProvider.apk** -- NO. This has something to do with calendar sync and seems to be the connection between the calendar app and the phone´s internal calendar and date settings.

**TtsService.apk** -- YES. See PicoTts.apk

**TwWallpaperChooser.apk** -- YES. Wallpaper Chooser. If you have 3DGallery or QuickPic installed, you can use those to set wallpaper, even though there are some wallpapers (internal to this apk) you won´t get.

**UNAService.apk** -- ?. I have no idea what this is, and so doesn´t insanity.

**UserDictionaryProvider.apk** -- YES. You know when you add new words, like names and nicknames to your keyboard prediction? This is where those are kept. Delete this and you´ll have to write like the English Academy of Words wants you to write. LOLZ and WTF won´t be recognized as words and you´ll have to write them out everytime you write them, rather than it being available to you via prediction.

**Vending.apk** -- NO. Part of the Android Market. Actually this IS the Market.

**VideoPlayer.apk** -- YES. Video player. Do as you wish.

**VoiceDialer.apk** -- YES. Allows you to dial by speaking someone´s name. Most people´s names when I say them, tend to return something entirely different from what I was looking for. Sometimes though, it surprises. For some reason this sometimes doesn´t work if you don´t have mobile internet activated, making me believe this actually sends via internet the recording, and an algorith somewhere in the Google empire sends the decodification back... Very ineffective.

**VoiceRecorder.apk** -- YES. Allows you to record your voice. Some people complain the quality is too low, however I use this as a notepad, rather than writing my to-do list, I speak them. Much faster and much easier. Don´t see why something such as this would need audiophile levels of quality.

**VpnServices.apk** -- YES. VPN for Android. Perhaps gMote or applications that allow you to control your phone via PC desktop might require this. I don´t , so I delete it, and it doesn´t break anything.

**wipereceiver.apk** -- YES. Remember mobile tracker? This is the apk that lets you wipe your data remotely.

**WlanTest.apk** -- YES. Tests wireless settings, via the same test menu mentioned on the above test apks. Required for OTA updates.

**WriteandGo.apk** -- YES. Write and Go application.

**wssomacp.apk** -- NO. Required for SMS messaging.

**wssyncmlnps.apk** -- YES. This is Over The Air Programming. What this does is if your provider decides it has a better way to configure your device or alterations to do to improve something, they´ll send you a message telling to dial such and such number. Your phone will go into download mode and somethings will be updated. My carrier never has done such things, and really I trust the guys from XDA to configure my phone way better than my carrier. I usually remove this.

**YouTube.apk** -- YES. Since android has limited flash support, this application allows you to take the full youtube experience, rather than having to access youtube through the browser. Delete it if you don´t watch videos.

Source: XDA
> 6 votes

# Answer
**UPDATE:** (will update soon enough)

* com.android.provision *uninstalled (no issues encountered)*
* com.android.keyguard (WHY doesn't it have a name in apps list? After removing it, I couldn't use the S2 home button. The phone has to be rebooted to make it fully removed or installed)
* Input Devices *uninstalled (no issues encountered)*
* Documents (com.android.documentsui) *uninstalled (no issues encountered)*
* Package Access Helper left it
* Market Feedback Agent (Is it for adding your apps to Google Play my apps list?) I left it before because I thought it makes a My Apps list in playstore so you can check for updates but sideloaded apps (like from a backup) never appear in My Apps anyway so I *uninstalled (no issues encountered)*
* HTML Viewer someone supposed it is for better rendering so I guess it is for better html content experience but I *uninstalled anyway (no issues encountered)*
* External Storage (Storage works without it) I\* also removed some mediaprovider/whatever stock Gallery app fails to find anything but still opens images when using open with inside file manager so I replaced Gallery with a better alternative
* Key Chain (Is it for storing passwords?) (google play still works) *uninstalled (no issues encountered)*
* Settings Storage (Can't settings store data itself?) after freezing Rom was stuck on its animation (confirmed twice restoring to different backup and freezing again to verify if it always does that) so I leave it as it is
* Google Services
> 1 votes

---
Tags: applications, bloatware, system-apps
---


# Question
Title: How to transfer a file from my downloads folder to my media folder? (Nexus 4)
I have downloaded an mp3 I want to use as a ringtone. I don't want to connect my phone (Nexus 4) to my computer, I just want to transfer the file from my downloads folder to the appropriate folder where it can be used as a ringtone. I'd rather not download an app for this. Any suggestions?

# Answer
Either you can use a root browser like ES Explorer or even easier is to add a folder on SD denoting what you wish to use it for ie. Ringtone, alarm, ui, notification
> 1 votes

# Answer
Add a folder named 'Ringtones' to your SD card. Add your ringtone files to that folder.

In the same manner add folders named 'Notifications', 'Alarms ' etc
> 0 votes

---
Tags: nexus-4, downloading, ringtone
---


# Question
Title: I deleted folder in / and I want to make the folder exist again. Does it start with Capital letter (SEE picture)
\`I deleted the folder symlinking to /storage/sdcard0 and I want to restore the symlink but I'm not sure if I should make new folder starting with s or S

there should be folder named ?dcard does it start with S or s?

# Answer
It should be `/sdcard`, with a lower-case `s`.
> 2 votes

# Answer
I made a folder called /sdcard and wanted to `ln -s /sdcard /storage/sdcard0` but I got ln not found or something like that.So I `mount -o bind /sdcard /storage/sdcard0` **which made me unable to access the sdcard in anyway on my phone.** I was scared the sdcard got wiped because it was empty except it had a Root Explorer folder for a reason unknown to Me.

Being scared of wiped data I unplugged the cable and rebooted hoping it was a temporary error caused by the mount -o bind command.Fortunately it was and I also found out that the /sdcard has been restored properly automatically on boot (the restore wasnt cused by any command it is just how Android is made)
> 0 votes

---
Tags: file-system
---


title: How do I begin to troubleshoot aCal?

text:
# Question
Title: How do I begin to troubleshoot aCal?
I'm running aCal on my Samsung Galaxy S / Gingerbread and it isn't updating. Adding events pushes them out to my CalDAV server, but I don't see any events.

In aLogcat I see an awful lot of errors:

> W/ActivityManager( 110): Permission Denial: broadcasting Intent { act=android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET\_UPDATE (has extras) } from com.morphoss.acal (pid=11107, uid=10003) requires null due to receiver com.android.settings/com.android.settings.widget.SettingsAppWidgetProvider

and

> E/aCal DavParserFactory(14157): IO Exception when parsing XML

I can't figure out how much of this is aCal, how much is my phone, and how much is bad data from my CalDAV server (Chandler Hub)

# Answer
It looks like an update to aCal has resolved my issues. So I still don't know how to troubleshoot, but it is working.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I'm having similar issues on a Kindle Fire with iCloud. One quirky workaround is to open Settings | Servers and disable your server(s). Then re-enable them. That seems to force an update.

Edit:
a) Not sure about all calendars.
b) Right, it's a workaround, not a fix. But it address your questions:

"*I can't figure out how much of this is aCal,*"
Likely most of it, aCal being the one common element in both our observations.

"\*how much is my phone, \*"
Less likely, for the same reason.

"\*and how much is bad data from my CalDAV server (Chandler Hub) \*"
Ditto.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, logging, troubleshooting
---


# Question
Title: Force Android to stop asking me if I want to terminate my own app
I've got a simple logger app that I wrote for my Android phone. The problem is, periodically (seems like it happens every few days) when I turn on my phone I am confronted with a modal dialog box telling me that my app has consume X amount of CPU already, and do I want to kill it? The thing is, this generally happens some time AFTER I have stopped logging and it is just sitting there doing nothing, and moreover, this is when it is on AC power, so I don't see how battery consumption is even a concern. In any case, it is getting annoying having to constantly tell it to not kill the app. It is more concerning to think that this might still happen if I ever enable "stealth" mode on my app to track it if it is stolen, as this would alert a perpetrator and give them a chance to disable my app.

Is there some way to disable this behavior? If so, how?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Try running your logic in another thread or in async task's doInBackground

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, motorola-droid
---


# Question
Title: Queue a Google Play app to download later on wifi to save mobile data?
Is there a method to queue a new app for installation from Google Play, so that it downloads later when the phone connects to WiFi? The point being to save mobile data.

# Answer
> 1 votes
For an update to an existing app, you just have to enable that in Google play's settings. For a newly installed app, I don't think it is possible. You can block the background data for Google play, but that's just a workaround and it has limitations like you won't be able to make in-app purchases when you are on mobile network.

---
Tags: google-play-store, wi-fi, mobile-data
---


title: want to remove Samsung Apps

text:
# Question
Title: want to remove Samsung Apps
I don't need poor Samsung apps such as *SamsungApps, Chat-On, Blurb, S-Translate* anymore. Can i simply uninstall them and make an exclusion in my Updates so as not to get them back again?

# Answer
You can remove them, you just need to root your device and then download titanium backup and you will be able to clean them out completely!

1) How to root your phone? Depends on your device!

2) Stop updates? Go to apps, find samsung apps and there you have an option to specify when to update them! Choose none and you are good to go.
> 3 votes

# Answer
You cannot remove those apps normally.

What you can do is - disable them, at least you won't be getting annoying notifications.

Open **Application Manager** -\> **All** -\> **ChatON** and click on **Disable**

*If you really want to purge them. You have to **root** your device.*
> 2 votes

---
Tags: updates, uninstallation, samsung-apps
---


title: Customizing Google Play Newsstand feed

text:
# Question
Title: Customizing Google Play Newsstand feed
On Google Play Newsstand, I can select feeds for "My news" section, and when I select "Read now", I get a list of news from my selected feeds, and some news not from my selected feeds.

Is there any way I can customize the "Read now" feed and block publications or topics, etc? Or just get news from my selected feeds in the "Read now" section?

# Answer
I am just now configuring My News on my tablet. Each news source tile has a setting menu on the far right next to its name (3 vertical dots). Pull that down by clicking, and select "Remove" from the menu, if you do not wish it any longer. Mine came with 12 pre-configured tiles, which I turned off way.

It is easy to add them back from the "Featured" list if you decide later to return to that news source.

UPDATE:I'm not seeing any direct removal of stories of the removed news sources when I first return to "Read Now", but I believe I must click through to expire the stories already presented, and then refresh to have the content cleared.

UPDATE2: Well, that's annoying. There could still be a number of items in the queue from the first opening of the app with pre-selected news sources. I may have to click through them all to see when my preferences will be adopted.
> 0 votes

# Answer
You can only remove the sources that you've added manually (via the My News tab). It seems Newsstand is more of a discovery app, so it keeps putting in new stories from new locations based on your reading habits. I've been using it for a few months and it certainly has begun to know me a lot better, but then, I like receiving recommendations and discovering stuff.

One thing I can't seem to remove is the purple and orange background stories, which, for me, seem to be local, current affairs and sports topics, which I'm not interested in. This is because you can add a new source by clicking the '+' at the end of the story, but there's no '-' button to specifically remove a story that you don't wish to receive. The only way is to ignore stories/sources you don't want to read and hope that they'll go away.
> 0 votes

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Tags: google-currents
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title: Disable sound alerts for new emails

text:
# Question
Title: Disable sound alerts for new emails
I have a Samsung Duos GT-S7562, running Android 4.0.4.

I have set up two email accounts on my device: Gmail and YahooMail. I want to stop the alert sound it plays each time I get an email. How do I do that?

ty,
Rajeev

# Answer
See below how to change your email notification sound, or how to disable it. My android is 2.3.5, gmail is 2.3.6.

You open the gmail app, menu \> more \> settings, tap in the account; in the very bottom there's an option "Labels to notify". In my case I have "Inbox", which I'm assuming is default; when you click on it, you have a few options:

* "Email notifications" - notifies in the status bar
* Ringtone - this is what you're looking for, you can set any ringtone or silent
* Vibrate - well, it vibrates ;)
> 3 votes

# Answer
This question answers it

But lets recap:

In Gmail press menu and go to More-\>Settings-\>Select the email account-\>Sound & vibrate...

Basically, should be a part of the settings within the app. I dont know for Yahoo but it's probably similar.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I found that my driving mode was On in the quick menu. Once I turned it off, it didn't give me the audio email notification.
> 0 votes

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Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, notifications, samsung-galaxy-s-duos
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# Question
Title: Nexus 5 not getting net data even though its having hspa+ range
I tried rebooting my phone, reset to default on APN , safe mode but nothing seems to work.I still dont get internet on my phone.I'm from India and connection is docomo.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

# Answer
> 0 votes
Go to

> Settings \> More \> Mobile Networks \> "Use only 2G Networks"

Make sure the above option is unchecked and you've correctly activated a proper 3G plan. Also, don't forget to configure the APN for using the internet.

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Tags: nexus-5, mobile-network
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# Question
Title: Can app access the text in my default memo app?
I use Samsung Galaxy S2 and store some personal data in the default memo. I have updated the phone to the latest version. Can any app just access the data in my memo?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Nope. No other 3rd party app will be able to access your data in the memo. Applications on your phone are sandboxed meaning they can't access other apps data.

Check this:

```
> The Android Application Sandbox, which isolates your app data and code
> execution from other apps.

```

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Tags: security
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