# Question
Title: How to install google apps when android built from source
I added a kernel module to the msm flo kernel. I built android JB from source for my Nexus 7(flo). I flashed the device with the built OS. I can add 3rd party apps for which I have apks or I could add them to the source tree.

But I can't add google apps or anything from the play store. I can't add my google account under settings-\>add accounts since it doesn't exist. I tried installing google play store by downloading the apk to my machine and installing it with apk. Play store does install, but play store crashes as soon as I click on it.

Is there anyway to fix this issue?

I am using ubuntu 14.04

# Answer
There is a lot more to the Google Apps than just downloading and installing the APK. Google's Services framework and apps (a.k.a. GApps) are not part of AOSP which is probably where your source comes from, but they are required for Play Store and other apps to work properly.

Unfortunately GApps is closed-source, so it's not allowed to re-distribute these portions. However, since your Nexus 7 tablet shipped with them, you should be able to easily find all the necessary components in the original image. Alternatively, you should be able to find the GApps package for your specific Android OS version that works on your tablet over at XDA-Developers forums.
> 1 votes

# Answer
You need the GoogleLoginService.apk and GoogleServicesFramework.apk installed in addition to the play store.

You can obtain the needed apks out of the google apps package cyanogenmod makes available, or just flash the entire thing.

If you want to do the one-at-a-time method, they also have a listing of what all the system apks actually do so you can decide if you want them.
> 0 votes

# Answer
You need to flash the Google Apps package for your device.

Head over to Goo.im. There'll be a guide there on which GApps build to download for a specific Android version.

Flash it through recovery. If you're having lots of FCs with Google apps after this, I'd suggest you reflash your Android build and then GApps immediately after. Don't forget to clear cache.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: nexus-7, 4.3-jelly-bean
---


title: How to uninstall Android upgrade

text:
# Question
Title: How to uninstall Android upgrade
I was asked by my Galaxy Grand to update. It was a 608 MB build update. After done , now I got Android Jelly-bean 4.2.2 . It is making my phone very slow and uses too much phone memory. Want to uninstall, How can I do it without resetting device ???

# Answer
Downgrading Android, especially on Samsung devices, is generally not possible because Samsung includes bootloaders in OTAs that prohibit installing older Android versions than the one the bootloader was meant to run.

I think you can use Odin to do a *reflash* of Android 4.1, but I think you'd lose some data with that.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: updates, 4.2-jelly-bean, performance, downgrade
---


title: How to unbrick Nexus 7

text:
# Question
Title: How to unbrick Nexus 7
I bought this tablet on Jan 7, 2013, and have allowed it to update whenever it asked, but I can't tell you what version of Android is has now. However, instead of the "X", I see four colored balls that move into the center, become one white one, and then move out... I have used it happily since then, until a week ago. I had recently installed an anti malware program, and that may be part of the problem. While I was websurfing, without warning, it went to boot: it went black screen, the four colored balls came in from the edges, and did the usual boot thing. Forever. So, I held down the power button til it shut off (I hadn't powered down in a while...mea culpa), and tried a reboot. Still did te 4-ball X thing forever. So, I held the power, up AND down volume, and got the screen with the recovery/start/reboot options that you can scroll thru with the volume buttons. Start and Reboot got me back to forever-booting. So, I tried recovery. I tried deleting cache: it said it did it. I rebooted, still looped. So...I bit the bullet, and did the "factory reset, lose all data" option. It said it did delete everything (so it's talking to me and making sense). So then I rebooted, expecting the welcome screen...IT'S STILL BOOT LOOPED!!

OK, so what can I do next? Is there a solution?

Thanks for ANY help!!

# Answer
Sounds like your device had a problem with the KitKat OTA.

You can, however, download the correct image for your device here, and manually flash Android onto your Nexus.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: nexus-7, boot-loop
---


title: Turning on USB mode in Galaxy Grand

text:
# Question
Title: Turning on USB mode in Galaxy Grand
I have 2 mobile phones, a Samsung Galaxy S II and a Galaxy Grand. The Galaxy S2 has Android 2.3.6 and the Galaxy Grand has Android 4.2. When I am trying to connect the Grand to my PC, it gives me 2 options: MTP and Camera. MTP is media Transfer mode, and when I select it, restricts speed. On the other hand, the S2 has USB mode which works fine for me.

So is there any way that I can connect the Galaxy Grand with USB mode?

# Answer
> 0 votes
If your phone is rooted, try installing one of the "mass storage enabler" apps from the Play Store.

---
Tags: usb-mass-storage, samsung-galaxy-grand
---


# Question
Title: how can I change the contents of /proc/product_name_extra?
I have a rooted device and need to change the contents of /proc/product\_name\_extra from Prod to Eng. I have tried cp, mv, echo, and vi. I get IO error most commonly and no matter what perms I set I cannot edit the file. Any help would be greatly appreciated

# Answer
`/proc` isn't a real filesystem, so the 'files' in it can't be changed by normal means. Rather, it gives file-like access to the system state. The only way to change what it reports is to actually change the system: in this case, that means flashing your device with an *engineering* ROM instead of a *production* ROM.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: root-access, kernel, amazon-kindle
---


# Question
Title: Unable to use Network: "Not Registered On Network"
I am using Samsung Galaxy Chat B5330 (officially upgraded from 4.0.4 to 4.1.2). It used to work fine, but since a few days I am not able to call or send sms or use any network related services. It gives me error : "Not Registered On Network". I tried applying manual network settings. At first it gives a pop up : "Registered on Network". But as soon as I try to make a call, the same error : "Not Registered On Network".

I thought that factory reset would have been the solution to my problem, but unexpectedly , this too did not work for me. Please help.

# Answer
You need to check your SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) and if necessary get a new one from your service provider - If it is corrupted then you would not be allowed to sign on to the network. A factory Reset only wipes the device itself, not the SIM.
> 1 votes

# Answer
The problem is when you try to call anyone the error message says “NOT REGISTERED ON NETWORK“. I was fascinated this error in my samsung phone, so I was working on this issue and trying to solve this issue.

How To Fix NOT REGISTERED ON NETWORK In Samsung or Android Phones
> 0 votes

---
Tags: sms, calls, connection-issues, mobile-network, samsung-galaxy-chat
---


# Question
Title: Is there any (major) difference between the Galaxy Note 3 on different US carriers?
I am currently a loyal Verizon customer, and have been pretty much forever. My current phone is a Galaxy Nexus, and my previous phone was a Droid, and the carrier has been fairly hands-off with these "stock" Android models.

I'm currently out of contract, so I have the ability to freely/easily switch carriers if need be. I really like Verizon's coverage, but might be willing to jump ship for various reasons. (Carrier decision is really a separate question)

I'm currently interested in the Galaxy Note 3. However, I'm concerned about what modifications Verizon may have made to their version of this model.
The main reason for my concern is this list of differences about the previous model, the Note 2: http://engadget.com/2012/12/07/dnp-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-verizon-review/
What especially concerns me is things that were *removed* and *hardware* differences, such as the Verizon model of the Note 2 missing the wireless charging contacts, but on principle I am also concerned about firmware and software differences (other than the necessary CDMA chip, of course, and I can live with additional Verizon branding and bloatware).

I have asked this question in a variety of forums, including asking Verizon and Samsung directly, but haven't gotten a straight answer. I'm hoping that "no news is good news" and I would really like to dive in and take this model. But if there are any differences, I'd like to know them.
I just want to make sure I am getting the features as-advertised by Samsung.

Thanks!

# Answer
**Self-answering update from OP:**
I have now owned a Verizon Galaxy Note 3 for about 6 months and there are no significant differences between this and another carrier's model.
It even has an official upgrade path to KitKat at this point (although not yet OTA at the time I posted this answer).

http://xkcd.com/979/
> 1 votes

# Answer
I found good info on the hardware specs here: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Samsung-Galaxy-Note-3\_id7984 I'd compare that to any stats verizon releases. Word on the street is it will be both CDMA and GSM, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are no differences. My reading: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2469047
> 2 votes

# Answer
As underscorenorm mentions, it is your responsibility to ensure that the specs published by Verizon either match those posted by Samsung, or that the differences are acceptable to you. However, if the Note 3 is advertised with a particular feature and you purchase a Note 3 then it is reasonable for you to expect that feature.

Therefore, I would **highly recommend** that you contact Verizon **in writing** with your question and your concern. Doing this will let them know that their **spending money to modify the device** is actually **costing them potential customers**. A few letters like that might convince the company to keep their hands off the device.

*Posting as an answer, not a comment, due to recommending a different course of action than does underscorenorm.*
> 0 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-note-3
---


# Question
Title: Tasker: Detect ANT+ paired device, then switch on Endomondo
What will the Tasker Profile and Tasks look like when I want Endomondo app to launch as soon as my Note 3 detects a paired ANT+ device?

J

# Answer
> 1 votes
I can't tell what it will look like (as I don't know all the details, e.g. your BT devices MAC), but I can show you the way to create such a profile:

* **Condition:** State → Bluetooth Connected (parameter: BT MAC of the ANT+ device)
* **Task:** Launch App (select Endomo)
* Worth reading: Tasker User Guide (easy to look up things here ;)

---
Tags: tasker
---


# Question
Title: Mount /system/app/ using adb (non rooted phone)
Is it possible to mount /system/app/ or to push an apk file to /system/app/ using adb on a non rooted phone? I am trying to use adb push to push an apk file to the aforementioned directory but it keeps telling me `Read-only file system`. Is there any other routes to take to try to push the apk file to my phone without rooting it?

# Answer
Not from within Android, no. Only root can mount or remount filesystems, including `/system`.

There is another way, which is to go outside of Android completely by making the change you want from the recovery. Since the recovery doesn't use Android's permissions system, it can let you mount whatever filesystems you like, however you like. But if you're going to install a custom recovery to let you do this, you might as well root the phone anyway.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: adb, samsung-galaxy-s-4, apk, mount
---


title: Contacts app disappeared

text:
# Question
Title: Contacts app disappeared
I've got a rooted Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). Since a week I can't find the contacts app. Seems like it disappeared. It is NOT disabled (I've already checked). I also tried to re-install it, using the .apk placed in /system/app, but the installer fails ("Application not installed"). Does anybody know how to fix, or should I better factory-reset my phone? I know this is a solution, but I'd prefer to fix it...

Thanks in advance

Giacomo

# Answer
> 0 votes
The install fail is likely due to your system being read only. If you use es explorer, select tools and root explorer, and remount system to rw and try to install again. Also make sure your launcher (if it allows hiding icons) isn't hiding your contacts app

---
Tags: contacts, samsung-galaxy-nexus, 4.3-jelly-bean, google-contacts
---


# Question
Title: Can no longer access Hotmail account on Android device
Since moving from Hotmail to Outlook, I can no longer access emails on my Android device. I have installed, removed, and reinstalled the Outlook app, but despite my receiving emails daily my inbox is blank.

How to use a Hotmail account on an Android device?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Usual solution is to remove and re-add the account, on your mobile Outlook.com. Generally that works. (Obviously you will lose any mails and unsent outgoing mails (manually save unsent outgoing mails first with some file-manager app, if you need them)).

Be warned: Outlook.com's Android sync is very brittle, and their support is nearly non-existent. Beware of taking over-the-wire Android updates.

---
Tags: hotmail, outlook.com
---


# Question
Title: How to flash a kernel image without building Android from source
I got the following msm kernel branch for my Nexus 7(flo)

```
      msm/remotes/origin/android-msm-flo-3.4-jb-mr2

```

added some files and then built an image(zImage). I then downloaded a factory image of Nexus 7 for JB - 4.3 (JSS15R) \[This said razor which I dunno why. I thought it was flo\]

Anyway I took the factory image. Split the boot.img file into the ramdisk.gz and zImage. Then I got the zImage from the kernel I build and replaced it with the zImage from the factory image. The I combined the zImage and ramdsik.gz to create the boot.img and tried to flash it. But the device goes into a bootloop.

The zImage works when I build android 4.3-JB from source. But aosp seems to miss some packages I need.

I wanted to know what I'm doing wrong and why android goes into a bootloop when I combine it with the factory image

# Answer
> 1 votes
You can't (reliably) combine a kernel with a ramdisk from a different kernel. The ramdisk contains the kernel modules you build, so it has to go with the exact same kernel build. If you build a kernel, you have to flash the ramdisk produced by that build along with the kernel image (and vice-versa).

---
Tags: rom-flashing, custom-roms, nexus-7
---


# Question
Title: How to unlock Google Device Manager remote lock?
I have a rooted Samsung S4 mini with the latest stable CyanogenMod installed (cm-10.2.1.3).

I was playing with the Google Device Manager (https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager) and tried to lock the device.

When I tried to unlock I found out, **there is no keyboard or input box to enter the password into**.

The screen looks exactly the same as my lockscreen - I'm using the pattern lock which I remmember perfectly - besides there are just words: "locked" and the message I typed into the web remote lock. I can also see there is Android Device Manager running in background (icon in top left notification corner). Wherever I click or try to draw my pattern lock, the device does nothing (but it is not frozen as I can open the Power button menu).

I also use a custom keyboard application and I removed the original CyanogenMod keyboard. Can this be a problem?

1. Is there any option at the online Device Manager to remotely unlock the device?
2. The phone is rooted and I can connect via ADB in Recovery. Can I do something there - besides wiping the device - to unlock the remote lock?

# Answer
> 7 votes
In the end I was able to solve the problem by clicking the "Emergency Call" button.

That enforced the keyboard to come up and after closing the Emergency Call screen there was a window to enter Google Device Manager password.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Open your terminal and type:

```
adb shell

```

Now enter these commands:

```
su
rm /data/system/cm_gesture.key
reboot

```

If a lockscreen appears after reboot, it should accept any pattern.

---
Tags: locked-out, android-device-manager
---


# Question
Title: How to remove other apps icons (like Skype or WhatsApp) from contact and phone app?
I would like to keep Skype Mobile installed but get rid of its icons from contacts **AND/OR** from being asked whether I want to make a call to the contact through Skype or other similarly annoying application. Is there any facility in Android that allows me to keep the control of that? Uncle Google isn't much helpful in that matter.

Moreover I have two Skype icons per contact on my phone. And that the thing that hits my taste.

Phone details: Sony Xperia S, Android 4.1.2

# Answer
go to Settings \> Accouts and choose Skype/WhatsApp \> then search for each one how do you remove the sync contacts. After this your Contacts list should update not showing Skype/WhatsApp data.

As for the call using skype, you should have the option to choose Phone and click Use Always.

This is very phone dependent, so if you cannot find this options, tell us more about your phone and Android version.
> 0 votes

# Answer
Go to your Contacts app and hit the menu key - choose 'Contacts to display' - you can choose to display contacts from a single app source or click on Customized list and it's setting button to choose which app sources to show contact data from and which ones to ignore.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: contacts, calls, skype
---


# Question
Title: Google location history shows me driving 700 miles when I only drive for 30 miles
I'm not exactly sure when it happened. Originally my location history was accurate. About a month ago my location history map looked close to being correct but the mileage was ridiculous!

For example, I drive about 30 miles one way to work. Most of the time lately the mileage shows me driving about 700 miles! It looks like it might be making multiple trips but I can't tell because I can't expand the history map.

I have a Nexus 4 with a straight talk SIM using AT&T.

Any ideas what could cause this strange behaviour -- or even better, how to fix it?

# Answer
Not sure if this really qualifies as an answer, but since I don't have enough points to comment and I do want to contribute what I've discovered about this problem, it'll have to do...

I've had a very similar sounding problem for the last 2 weeks or so with no obvious trigger in terms of app or firmware updates. My location history has gone crazy with some days getting reported travel distances of 10 - 20 *thousand* miles in spite of me just going to work and back (60 miles each way).

What is happening is that while I am at work, or travelling (or anywhere away from home), location points are being recorded for where I actually am, then for a point very close to my home location, then back where I am again, then back at home, etc. The system seems to be seeing me travelling home and back roughly once per minute, and all those journeys quickly add up!

So far I have tried switching off wifi/cell location services, but that gives you basically no location history and Google Now is largely disabled, so that's no help.

Turning wifi/cell location services back on and then turning wifi off when away from home does help - it gets rid of the 'home and back' in one minute journeys, but the location history is less accurate when away from home. I am using an app called 'Llama' to do this automatically at the moment.

My conclusion from this is that for some reason wifi location reporting is giving a bogus result of 'near home' constantly throughout the day. The only sensible reason I can think of for this would be if I was carrying around another device acting as a wifi access point and that Google location services had learned to location of that wifi point as being at my home. However, I'm not actually carrying around such a device.

Next steps I am considering trying :

* wipe the data associated with the maps app on the device
* wipe the data associated with the wifi app on the device
* do a factory reset on the device and restore

As suggested by GAThrawn below, the most likely cause of this problem is having a second Android device set to report location in addition to your primary device. You take your phone with you, but your tablet sits at home. Both report their location once per minute, or thereabouts, and your location history goes crazy.

The solution in my case was simply to turn off location reporting in the Google maps settings on the secondary device.

I also have a Nexus 4, on T-mobile UK
> 1 votes

# Answer
I had the same issue. I have a second device at home which was intermittently causing my location to jump back to home multiple times a day.

Disabling reporting on the device seems to have fixed the issue.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: google-location-history
---


# Question
Title: Xperia x10i complaining "no network connection" in some apps, but not others
I have an Xperia x10i running firmware version 2.1-update1 from 3 (a very annoyingly-named mobile service provider). After returning from a trip, I have noticed that certain applications are having difficulty recognizing the availability of a network connection, while others function just fine. The cases I have spotted so far:

* After spending a good while on "Loading...", the Facebook app displays "No Internet Connection. Try Again"
* The Youtube app immediately displays a popup stating "Attention: There is no network connection right now. Please try again later." on startup. Attempting to view any type of information from youtube (e.g., "favorites" or "most viewed" lists, not just videos) causes this same error to be displayed.
* The Google+ app can retrieve and display Notifications or members of my Circles just fine, but attempting to view posts leads to a long "Loading..." display, followed by "Google+ connection lost."
* Searching and browsing work properly in the Android Marketplace app, but any attempt to install or update apps results in the downloads almost immediately going into "Download paused" status and staying there for hours, aside from the occasional attempt to restart the download (which invariably ends in re-pausing it), until I kill the Marketplace app.

Despite this, other apps work just fine - Browser will run searches and bring up pages, the Google Calendar widget updates properly, etc. These results are consistent regardless of whether I am on a 3G or wi-fi network. "Data traffic" is enabled under Mobile Network Settings. Both "Background data" and "Auto-sync" are enabled in Accounts & Sync Settings.

What do I need to do to get this working again?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Try this:

Menu \> Settings \> Wireless & Networks \> Mobile Networks \> Data Enabled (that should be checked).

Menu \> Settings \> Wireless & Networks \> Mobile Networks \> Access Point Names, hit menu, tap on 'Reset to default' :)

# Answer
> 0 votes
Check the date and time under `Settings`. YouTube and some other apps report no network when the date is wrong.

---
Tags: networking
---


# Question
Title: I just got a new Android phone and I'm wondering how google got all my old phone numbers
I finally upgraded from an incredibly old and aging blackberry to a new Galaxy S5. I like the phone, but the amount of information google is trying to squeeze out of me is feeling incredibly invasive.

The phone came with a new SIM card that I put in it and when I turned it on and looked at my contact list, I was very surprised that it had somehow obtained every phone number on my blackberry. I'm wondering how Google managed to get all my old phone numbers. I want to reiterate, this is my first android phone ever and before that I was just on a blackberry. Also, the names were specifically what I entered in my blackberry word for word. It even included numbers like #AUTO and things like that.

I honestly don't know if these numbers were somehow in my google contacts previously as I rarely checked that screen, but they're sure as hell there now. Additionally, I never once installed a google app on my blackberry at any point in the years and years I've owned it.

Could anyone shed light on how this happened? Did it happen when my phone carrier activated my new SIM somehow?

Thanks, I'm not really technically versed in the world of phones but this has me really freaked out.

# Answer
I think BIS was automatically syncing your Blackberry contacts to Google server. When you added Google account to your Android, it automatically imported all your contacts from Google server.
> 8 votes

---
Tags: contacts, sim-card
---


title: Insufficient Storage Available

text:
# Question
Title: Insufficient Storage Available
I have a Nexus 4. Whenever I try to install *any* app, no matter how small, it says "Insufficient Storage Available".

I have aggressively deleted photos, uninstalled apps, cleared the app cache, and now I have 315 MB free (according to Settings \> Storage).

But it *still* says "Insufficient Storage Available" when installing from the Play store. (For *any* app; I have tried with dozens.)

*I cannot even install the apps that I removed two minutes before.* (WTF?) I have restarted several times.

What can I do to fix this erroneous error?

(Note: I don't have any SD card.)

# Answer
You didn't mentioned it's a rooted device or not.

When I face similar issues I manage to fix this issue in this way. This is a permission related issue. I guess you face this issue when you're trying to update or install previously uninstalled apps.

When you are uninstalling app, it remain some leftovers in "data/app-lib" directory. Therefore, carefully check app that you wish to install leftovers are in this folder and delete those folders.

* Go to "*/data/app-lib/APP-PATH(that has this error)/lib*" and delete its all the sub folders. Then delete *APP-PATH* folder.

If its not work you can factory rest your device to fix this issue.
> 1 votes

# Answer
I get a kick out of people suggesting downloading an app when the problem is insuffient storage and you can't download anything because of INSUFFIENT STORAGE.

The only solution is to factory reset and even that doesn't work when you start up again and everything is restored presumably from Google Servers.

I have done factory resets and cannot get my tablet back to factory out of the box condition. You can still use it but cannot download anything.

It can also be used for cutting onions and tomatoes.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: nexus-4, storage, insufficient-memory
---


title: How to store a wifi password?

text:
# Question
Title: How to store a wifi password?
My previous phone was saving automatically my wifi password. I now have a LG OPTIMUS L1 II, but it is asking for the password each time.

Is there a way to tell them to save it?

# Answer
> 0 votes
The phone should automatically remember all previous connected wi-fi networks. Please verify these steps :

* When you disconnect from the network and it is not within reach will it remain in the networks list ?
* When you connect to the network and tap the network is there a button that says "Forget network " or alike ?

---
Tags: wi-fi, password, lg-optimus-one
---


# Question
Title: Touch screen is not working properly after replacing LCD display and Touch screen
I recently replaced LCD display and Touch screen of micromax canvas A116. but unfortunately my touch screen is not working properly. so my question is that is it because of
some hardware issue or should i require to hard reset my phone or should i do something else? Thanks in advance.

# Answer
The fact that you replaced your LCD and Digitizer of the tablet may suggest that this will be a hardware problem. Assuming that the device was functional before the 'surgery'. You might want to double check all the connectors of the digitizer and or display. When that is all 100% correct you can consider that the digitizer will be Dead on Arrival. Good luck..
> 1 votes

---
Tags: screen, hardware, touchscreen
---


title: PIN invisibility in android

text:
# Question
Title: PIN invisibility in android
I am using PIN security for unlocking the phone. When i type the PIN, a blue highlight comes to the pressed digit. How can i hide it? I am in Note 2 rooted with stock rom.

# Answer
Unfortunately there is no such function on Android. There is something similar when using a pattern to unlock your phone. Another solution would be third party software. Also check this article on Lifehacker for much more tips on improving your phones' security http://lifehacker.com/three-ways-to-improve-your-androids-lock-screen-securi-1293317441
> 1 votes

---
Tags: security, lock-screens
---


title: Wifi connection issues

text:
# Question
Title: Wifi connection issues
Yesterday, we changed the service provider of the office wi-fi and since then, my Samsung Galaxy Tab3 (8.0) working with Android 4.2.2, has stopped recognising my office wi-fi.

It is working well on other wi-fi connections. My cell, my laptop recognise the office wi-fi but its my Tab that refuses to play ball.

Could someone help me out here ?

# Answer
> 0 votes
Try powering down the device. Turn it all the way off, not just reset. This will ensure power cycling the NIC.

When you power it off, make sure it's off for at least 30 seconds.

---
Tags: wi-fi
---


# Question
Title: Can't get in recovery or normal boot HTC One M7
**Please help me.**

I've done something really stupid. I flashed from ClockWorkMod to Android Revolution HD on my HTC One m7. I've got ClockWorkMod Recovery installed and when flashing was done i got stuck in HTC startup screen. Trying to get in to recovery mode again and install my backup did not work, it just shows ClockWorkMod Recovery logo and reboots.

Is there any way to use ADB/fastboot when in the bootloader screen?

**Info from bootloader screen:**

* M7\_UL PVT SHIP S-ON RH
* HBOOT-1.56.0000
* RADIO-4A.23.3263.28
* OpenDSP-V32.120.274.0909
* OS-4.19.401.8
* eMMC-boot 2048MB

# Answer
The first problem was that fastboot didn't connect to my PC. This was solved by changing computer to one with a USB 2.0.

The problem I had with my recovery was solved by flashing the recovery partition again and cleaning the cache (forget that the first time).

```
fastboot flash recovery clockworkrec.img
fastboot erase cache

```

After this I was able to get into recovery mode.

I then had a problem where Android Revolution HD did not install and my HTC One M7 was stuck in a bootloop.

This was solved by installing TWRP instead of CWM recovery, and by changing S-ON to S-OFF. I was then able to install Android Revolution HD.

*Thanks for the comments and many thanks to "bored\_stupid" on XDA-Developers who solved the installation problem for me.*
> 1 votes

---
Tags: root-access, recovery-mode, clockworkmod-recovery, bootloader, htc
---


# Question
Title: Can 'coredump' folder be deleted safely?
Internal memory (1.21 GB) of my phone is mainly occupied by a folder named 'coredump' (size ~900 MB). Will it be safe to delete it? What should i do to release this memory?

# Answer
> 5 votes
### Short answer

I wouldn't recommend deleting the *folder* itself, but it should be pretty safe to delete its *content* (i.e. the files inside). I'm just afraid you won't be able to do so – unless you have root access on your device.

### Explanation

Core dumps (on some Android devices also called "tombstones", which somehow explains their purpose) are generated when an app crashes (or force-closes). They usually contain a complete dump of the memory that app was using, plus some additional information – and are intended *for debugging purposes* (to provide the developer with information about the state the app was in when it crashed – hence "tombstones", describing the "dead of a process").

The system itself doesn't need them at all, so deleting them should be pretty safe. However, depending on implementation, the system might rely on the fact the folder is there – so removing the folder along might have "negative side-effects" (should not, but who knows). As an empty folder is not using up any space, it shouldn't hurt to keep it.

On the other hand: as its only purpose is collecting those "crash reports", and as they probably won't go anywhere either: who cares whether "writing those crash-logs crashes"? ;)

---
Tags: internal-storage
---


title: Set global proxy in Android

text:
# Question
Title: Set global proxy in Android
In order to provide safe browsing, I want to set global proxy to route all http/https requests from any browser to my proxy server on both WiFi and 2G/3G networks for non rooted Android devices with OS version 2.2 and above.

After categorization, proxy server will send response to browsers.

I have seen so many posts in SO also, but nobody has explained for Mobile networks(2G/3G). Please inform whether there is a possibility or not at all? If yes, please suggest a way. If anybody have idea, please share your thoughts.Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Gopi.

# Answer
> 4 votes
There are several proxy apps available to accomplish something like that. Though most of them require root access to the device, not all do (I have not tested any of them, so I cannot tell in detail).

However, a different approach might be checking into VPN apps, as that's pretty much what you targeting: a Virtual Private Network, where your server acts as a "checkpoint". Many of those VPN apps do not require root access, but many also use a dedicated VPN provider. Still, the linked lists should contain a working solution for you.

Disclosure: the linked lists are maintained by me, to provide you good "jump-points".

---
Tags: proxy
---


# Question
Title: How to make an unrooted phone use or detect ad-hoc Wi-Fi?
I have an unrooted Android 2.3.6 phone and I want it to connect to the ad-hoc connection made on my Ubuntu.

I referred to some already existing questions here but none seem to be the solutions for unrooted phones.

How do I do this?

# Answer
This is unfortunately not something you can do without root. I found a fully fleshed out discussion about solutions and alternative options on Stack Overflow.

User Andy notes:

> \[T\]his is currently not natively supported in Android, although Google has been saying it will be coming ever since Android was officially launched.
>
> While not natively supported, the hardware on every android device released to date do support it. It is just disabled in software, and you would need to enable it in order to use these features.
>
> It is however, fairly easy to do this, but you need to be root, and the specifics may be slightly different between different devices. Your best source for more informationa about this, would be XDA developers: https://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=564. Most of the existing solutions are based on replacing wpa\_supplicant, and is the method I would recommend if possible on your device. For more details, see http://szym.net/2010/12/adhoc-wifi-in-android/.

User Silveri also notes that there are other options:

> \[I\]f you just want to share your laptop's internet connection via Wi-fi using any means necessary, then you have at least two more options:
>
> * Use your laptop as a router to create a wifi hotspot using Virtual Router or Connectify. A nice set of instructions can be found here.
> * Use the Wi-fi Direct protocol which creates a direct connection between any devices that support it, although with Android devices support is limited\* and with Windows the feature seems likely to be Windows 8 only.
>
> \*Some phones with Android 2.3 have proprietary OS extensions that enable Wi-fi Direct (mostly newer Samsung phones), but Android 4 should fully support this (source).
> 1 votes

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, wi-fi, ad-hoc-networks
---


# Question
Title: How can I fix my lined screen on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1?
I was reading my Kindle app when suddenly the screen on my Galaxy 10.1" tablet went blank. The battery was low, so I figured it had just died. I pressed the power button to double check and my screen showed up, except that 3/4 of the screen was black and the rest had streaked lines where the background would be. I can't even do my unlock code because I cannot see it. There has been no water damage to it and it has never been dropped. I have also never altered the coding. I tried charging the battery, powering down and restarting but the screen stays the same. Please, help. Could it be the video card? I have only had it since December.

Update: I attempted a hard reset, but I can't see enough of the screen to continue the prompts. Any suggestions would be helpful.

---

Update: I attempted a hard reset, but I can't see enough of the screen to continue the prompts. Any suggestions would be helpful.

# Answer
> 0 votes
This is a common issue on this particular device. My friend had the same thing happen and was going to give the tablet to me but after doing some research I found that its more than just a software issue.

I'd recommend counting your losses and buying a new tablet. =(

---
Tags: screen, samsung-galaxy-tab-10
---


# Question
Title: if I have an app running on android is it possible to send it commands from the computer instead of the device?
Say I was running facebook for android or something, and I wanted to delete all my friends or messages. Would I have to program a macro to do this?

B. would it be possible to send the application direct commands? Delete this friend or do this? Similarly if I was going to write something for the computer?

# Answer
Not in the general case, no. It's possible to send an *intent* to start an activity or service (or broadcast an intent to receivers) using the `am` tool from the Android shell (and therefore from a PC using `adb shell`). What you can do that way depends on what *intent filters* the app's developer has chosen to offer, and in most apps it doesn't include actions like deleting individual data items.

An alternative approach is the `monkeyrunner` tool. This is a testing tool, and it lets you write a Python script to send input events (and the like) via `adb` to an app running on your device. However, because it's designed for testing your own app, it's very limited in what it can do. To send a touch event, you have to program in the exact *x* and *y* co-ordinates that you want to touch: it can't record input and play it back later, like a general macro tool.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: automation
---


title: where can I find man page for top

text:
# Question
Title: where can I find man page for top
I have a bugreport file containing output from (as it says)

```
top -n 1 -d 1 -m 30 -t

```

The -m option is not known on my ubuntu linux, wo where can I find the android man page for the top command? I don't have root access to my android device.

# Answer
> 1 votes
By browsing the source code (for example here) you can see the usage help:

```
static void usage(char *cmd) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [ -m max_procs ] [ -n iterations ] [ -d delay ] [ -s sort_column ] [ -t ] [ -h ]\n"
                    "    -m num  Maximum number of processes to display.\n"
                    "    -n num  Updates to show before exiting.\n"
                    "    -d num  Seconds to wait between updates.\n"
                    "    -s col  Column to sort by (cpu,vss,rss,thr).\n"
                    "    -t      Show threads instead of processes.\n"
                    "    -h      Display this help screen.\n",
        cmd);
}

```

As you can see, the -m option specifies the maximum number of processes to display.

---
Tags: command-line, documentation
---


# Question
Title: Transferring files between PC and Android Sony Z1 Compact (KitKat) without needing app (i.e. via standard USB mass storage)
When I plug my Sony Z1 Compact Android phone into my Mac or PC, the phone prompts me to install a program on the PC/Mac.

Can I not just have the phone behave as a standard, common USB Mass Storage class (i.e. like a USB pen drive, hard drive, or SD card), without having to install a program on the host PC?

This is an inconvenience as if wanting to transfer to a PC that's not my own, I may not be in the position to install such a program.

**Update** This was so easy on Android 2.3 on a HTC Desire Z - plug it into a Mac, PC or Linux desktop (i.e. the host), phone asks which mode it should be in, select the USB storage / harddrive option and then the phone appears as an ordinary external disk on the host machine.

# Answer
The program that your phone ask to install is PC COMPANION. You can skip the PC Companion installation.

If you need to connect in MSC mode

In Settings-\> Xperia Connectivity-\>USB connectivity-\>USB Connection Mode-\> MSC
> 3 votes

---
Tags: usb-connection-mode, usb-mass-storage, sony-xperia
---


# Question
Title: Will a Factory Reset on an unlocked Samsung S2 4G T989 from T-Mobile relock the phone?
I have a Samsung S2 4G T989 from T-Mobile which is unlocked. It is currently using ion Indian carrier.

I want to Factory Reset it. Will it be locked again after performing a reset? I don't have any code with me.

# Answer
NO. A Factory Reset does not re-lock your phone.
> 0 votes

# Answer
No because efs files will not be updated by factory reset
> -1 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-2, factory-reset, sim-unlocking
---


# Question
Title: How will a swap partition/file affect the system?
Some friends told me that their Android phones have very little (\<100MB) available memory for regular apps, because the OS and some un-killable services take most of the RAM. For example, one phone with 512MB only shows 90MB available memory, so only 2-3 apps can run at the same time.

I'm wondering if creating a swap partition/file will help, but I saw mixed opinions all over the web and I'm not sure what to do. Here are my questions:

(1) Will there be many not-oftenly-used memory pages to swap out, especially in OS and those un-killable services?

(2) How will swapping out small memory pages hurt flash memory life span? Does the flash (or SD card?) do wear-leveling automatically?

(3) Will swapping really help performance when running multiple apps? I assume if the answer to (1) is yes, it will.

(4) Will writing to flash be too slow and thus hurt responsiveness when swapping happens?

(5) Is it true that Android keeps the swapping mechanism from the Linux kernel, so as long as there is a swapping partition/file, it will do swapping without extra configuration?

Thanks for reading.

# Answer
> 8 votes
I don't think there will be much benefit with swapping for Android, as the Android Application Life Cycle is a much more advanced form of swapping.

> (1) Will there be many not-oftenly-used memory pages to swap out, especially in OS and those un-killable services?

You can't swap the OS kernel even in Desktop Linux and Android already kills services when it needs more RAM. If your device vendor persists that you have to have useless services running all the time, then root your device.

> (2) How will swapping out small memory pages hurt flash memory life span? Does the flash (or SD card?) do wear-leveling automatically?

Even if the SD-card does wear-leveling, swapping will hurt quite a lot.

> (3) Will swapping really help performance when running multiple apps? I assume if the answer to (1) is yes, it will.

Not in the context of Android. Unlike traditional OS that will keep trying to chug in processes as you requested it, Android will Force Kill older, unused processes and reclaims their memory; this killing is fast as applications will already save their state when you task switch.

> (4) Will writing to flash be too slow and thus hurt responsiveness when swapping happens?

Probably, probably not. Will need benchmarks for that.

> (5) Is it true that Android keeps the swapping mechanism from the Linux kernel, so as long as there is a swapping partition/file, it will do swapping without extra configuration?

I don't know whether Android keeps the swapping mechanism, but even if it does (or if you compile your own kernel), you will still need some configurations. It's usually just having an `fstab` file that points to the swap file and doing `swapon -a`.

In fact I have reasons why swapping may actually hurt performance: it prevents Application Life Cycle, Android's memory management scheme, to work correctly.

# Answer
> 6 votes
There is definitely a benefit to swapping, despite what everyone else on the Internet will tell you. Try it and see for yourself. Empirically, on a G1 or other phone with low memory, swap makes the phone run better and faster.

Yes, Android has Life Cycle "task management" built in, but it's not very good. It routinely kills processes when it runs out of memory, and the apps are expected to save their state using "Bundles" so that when you restart them, they restart in the same state they were last in.

> Once Android determines that it needs to remove a process, it does this brutally, simply force-killing it. The kernel can then immediately reclaim all resources needed by the process, without relying on that application being well written and responsive to a polite request to exit. Allowing the kernel to immediately reclaim application resources makes it a lot easier to avoid serious out of memory situations.

This would be great if it actually worked, and would be better than indiscriminate swap. But the apps don't really save their state; they just save the minimal amount of information *to get back to* that state. (And some apps don't even bother to do this.) Getting back to that state takes time. Since swap actually saves the entire state of the app, which just has to be reloaded, it makes switching between apps much faster.

If you switch to another app from the browser, for instance, the browser almost always gets killed, and then it has to reload the entire page *from the Internet* when you switch back to it. This takes wayyyy longer than reloading the state from swap, wastes your money if you're on a data plan, and causes state problems when the web page is dynamic.

Many apps take much longer to start up than they should, or don't actually return to the same state when they're restarted, so swapping them out works better.

I'm guessing the people who are happy with the stock system use their phones differently.

Should I use a swap partition with Cyanogenmod?

# Answer
> 2 votes
I have a Spice mi-435(only sold in India) which has a RAM of only 340M. Hell ya, the swap files help a lot. My phone runs ICS on such low RAM and definitely entered many out of memory states and there the swap file helps a lot. All the application states are transfered to swap when not in active use. This gives my phone room for more applications and RAM hungry apps to run smoothly with much much much less lag than before. Though there comes a problem when i open the app i have been using before. It takes time to load its state as the SD is much more slower than the high speed RAM on board. But, the swap option is better for so less RAM. I would recommend to swap partition for RAM less than 512M but not for more than 512M.

Hope it is helpful.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Swap file helps even on systems with higher RAM. My quad core 1gb ram 7 inch tablet gets a major multi-tasking boost from chucking in a 2gb swap, on the uhs-1 micro sd card. And of course, the price of memory goes down rapidly, and even at constant write, nand flash is supposed to last years.

Im basically of the opinion, because the performance difference is so radical, that probably anyone with less than a really large amount of RAM should be doing this. In fact it should probably come as a standard option in android (along with bigger app caches, and a proper sized internet cache).

I mean you have a 64-128gb micro sd (uhs-1), or even the uhs-2 that came out this year, plus a 16-64gb internal nand, often "fast" nand, which is a kind of primitive ssd or even SSD, as are used on windows slates - your not exactly filling all that high speed space up with much. The speed only really comes into play with video, or loading apps into memory - which is exactly the use here.

Of course ideally, manufacturers would focus more on RAM, than resolution or extra cores, because clearly the system speed benefits a lot from higher ram - and they should probably also up the speed of the internal storage too (like switching to full ssd type systems, or at minimum "fast" nand. But in the mean time, while high resolutions tend to cause a sort of RAM deficit in all devices, a swap file, and caching to a reasonably snappy external sd makes a lot of sense.

Indeed it would be nice to see some browsers keep fuller caching too, most browsers are either slow, or low feature, rarely fast and full featured - and thats partly because the space for the app cache on the internal drive is tiny. They are designed to operate within a low memory and storage environment, and that whole story is changing. Even if the ram isn't up to chop as much as it should be, the storage certainly is, and it can be pretty darn fast on UHS-1 standards (or the uhs-2 released this year), even if its not "fast" or ssd.

And the cost of external memory, is peanuts really, even for higher capacity uhs-1. At least a 64gb uhs-1 is perfectly affordable (50 bucks where I am, but it would be less USD), much cheaper than the device, and 32 gb and under is basically a couple of tenners.

Plenty of lessons to be learned from the desktop really, especially now the specs are getting higher - the slowest performance link is loading from storage to ram. The more you can do to mitigate that, the better.

---
Tags: ram
---


title: where android backup its data?

text:
# Question
Title: where android backup its data?
For some reason, I had to reset my nexus5. Thankfully, I had "Backup my data" on. So, most of my settings are back. But I need to access the backup to change the wallpaper position (it has reset my last wallpaper, but I need to slide it). I have checked google drive and g+ auto-backup which backs up the pictures, but the wallpaper is not there. Any idea where I can found the data backed up?

# Answer
The data backed up using "Back up my data to Google's servers" aren't user-accessible. Each app has access to its own backup data. That's the only access available without hacking into the backup service.

This is a deliberate design decision. Android protects app data from being seen or modified by users or other apps, making it easier for apps to rely on the integrity of their data. (That is, unless you have root, in which case you're on your own.) Allowing users to intercept and maybe modify the backup data would defeat that protection, making it harder to write robust apps and harder for apps to restrict how you use their data (e.g. for movie rental apps).

You can learn more by reading my detailed answer about Google backup and how you can interact with it.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: backup, nexus-5
---


# Question
Title: I'm switching mobile phone service and I want to port over my contacts
So I have a Droid Razr and I backed up my entire phone to a 7zip file. All I want to get is my contacts and a specific picture and ringtone. I got the picture and the ringtone but I don't know where to find my contacts. I have a lot of them so I don't want to lose them. It would be much easier if I weren't switching phone services because the sim card is Verizon and I could just switch the simcard in and let the contacts transfer like that. But I'm switching to Metro so the sim card won't do anything. At least I don't think it will.

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you're just after the contacts, that should be easy as 1-2-3:

1. open the *contacts* app, tap the menu, chose "Export to SDCard"
2. copy the resulting file (in most cases named something like `0001.vcf` over to the new phone
3. on the new phone, same as in 1. – just chose to "Import from SDCard"

Of course, there are several more alternatives – depending on your preferences:

* if you've synchronized your contacts with Google (or some other cloud service), they should automatically be synced to your new device as soon as you connect it with your account
* plenty of backup/restore apps are available to assist you, some even specific to contacts
* more information might be found in our tag-wiki

---
Tags: contacts, internal-storage
---


# Question
Title: Widgets appear to be entirely missing from my device
When I long press on the Home screen, I am offered a "Choose Wallpaper From" menu. Everything I've looked at says I should be able to add Widgets here also, but nope. Widgets are not automatically added when I install one, and I've been through the Settings pretty thoroughly without seeing a mention of Widgets. What am I missing?

I have a Nexus 4 running 4.3.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Long-tapping on the home screen is how widgets used to be added in earlier Android versions, up to about 2.1. Some devices (such as Samsung ones) still offer the old way on the manufacturer's stock home screen: adding widgets is a feature offered by the launcher, so some third-party launchers may have yet different ways.

On the stock Android launcher, go to the app drawer (the list of all apps), and click **Widgets** at the top. Find the one you want (there are several pages), and long-tap it to pick it up, then drag and drop to the space you want on the home screen. You can drag to the left or right edge to change home screens. Once you've dropped it, you can drag the blue highlight to resize the widget (if it's resizable).

---
Tags: app-widgets, home-screen
---


# Question
Title: Transfer file securely android to pc via LAN
I need a file transfer from android device to pc server.Both of them is in same network.First i tried file transfer via adb.But adb is not secure connection.

How do i securely transfer between android and pc in LAN ?

# Answer
> 1 votes
BTSync is one way to go, another way is to install ssh server and use rsync/scp to copy what ever you need.

---
Tags: applications, adb, security, file-transfer
---


title: Best rated apps ? Any list of them?

text:
# Question
Title: Best rated apps ? Any list of them?
Thousands of apps on playstore but there is no way to sort them on best rated.is there any site of way to find best rated apps (from playstore or otherwise) ???

# Answer
> 1 votes
Summing up from the comments:

To my knowledge, there's no site currently which has a complete records of all available apps (not even that, I'm afraid), or at least the most of them, and really allows you to sort by ratings. As Lie Ryan pointed out in the first comment on the question, this wouldn't even be very useful: A dev could simply ask his "best friend" to rate his crap app 5-stars. As long as nobody else rates it, that would turn out on top of the "best list". And to my own experience, some "average rated" apps are better than their "high rated" competitors. It always depends on what *you* need them for, what your requirements and expectations are. Those might differ from the "big swarm" ;)

So you would need additional criteria. AppBrain somehow set up its own rating system of "100 points max". I'm not sure about the real formula, but it seems to take into consideration how long an app is out. Though: *AppBrain* doesn't really enable you to list all apps by rating.

If you're happy with a smaller, hand-picked list of apps, I can recommend you my own site: **my app lists** are separated into "real life categories" (no such things like "productivity", whatever that should be – but rather e.g. "eMail Apps", "File Managers", etc.), which have their related apps ordered by... yes. Rating and votes, descending. That is: Highest ratings first, and if two apps are rated similar, the one with the most votes comes first. Far from being perfect, though. But you find them linked with additional information, such as reviews, demo videos, etc; so when looking for a "good app for X", that should be a pretty nice starting point :) But be aware it has only about 1% of the apps from Google Play, and doesn't cover all areas (e.g. almost no "social network" stuff, games, or sports).

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


# Question
Title: I want to flash my my Skyrocket I-727. There's an issue, though: My USB conneciton isn't recognized on any computer
I got a Skyrocket my father no longer uses and there's a big problem with it: the Wifi doesn't work. after some checking with buddies, discussions, and searching, I'vbe figured out it's a software issue. I'd like to root, and then flash and install the latest stable release of CM 10.2 on the device. All of this would have been done weeks ago, however, it seems that my device's USB port is either unreadable or corrupt. Any computer I plug it in to the device is not properly recognized. Hell, I would have used the CM Installer already.

So my main question is: **I have a stock, non-root Skyrocket I-727. The Wifi does not work, nor does the USB connection. Is there any way to put a custom ROM, or even another Stock-based ROM on this device using just the shirt on my back and a microSD?**

# Answer
> 0 votes
What you need to do is head over to sammobile.com and download the latest firmware for your phone, then using Odin you can flash the new firmware.

If your driver issues are software related then this will work because Odin uses your phones "Download Mode" and that is a different driver all together, and if your truly stock and not rooted there is no way you could have changed it.

Samsung Kies will come with the needed driver for download mode to get that too if you don't already have it.

Also you can check out forum.xda-developers.com there is a lot of useful tools and guides there.

Another option if the Samsung Kies for skyrocket supports it is a firmware emergency recovery. It will install the latest firmware, and use download mode to do it.

---
Tags: cyanogenmod, custom-roms, root-access, samsung
---


# Question
Title: Is there a way to pay for apps with paypal?
Is there a market where I can buy apps with PayPal? Will the original Market going to support payment with PayPal?

Thanx.

# Answer
> 5 votes
With the recent legal bickering between eBay and Google, I'd say that the Android Market starting to accept PayPal (owned by eBay) is highly unlikely any time soon:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0528/EBay-sues-Google-over-stolen-secrets-poached-employees

There are other alternative markets like SlideMe that I believe do offer PayPal.

# Answer
> 5 votes
Neither Google Android Market nor the Amazon Appstore support Paypal.

SlideMe.org is an alternative market which does support Paypal payments. It's not a mirror, so you won't find as many apps as you would in the official Google Market.

# Answer
> 5 votes
YAAM (Yet Another Android Market) uses PayPal, I've had no problems with it.

# Answer
> 4 votes
There is no official support for Paypal in the android market, and seeing how Google and Paypal now seem to be competing a bit, I doubt there ever will be. But, if you want to use Paypal, you may be able to sign up for the Paypal Debit card and link that to your Google Checkout account. Then you will be using Paypal to make your purchases, and you can earn %1 cash back on the purchase.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Google allows Play Store apps to be purchased using PayPal (starting from May 15, 2014):

> Starting today, we're making it possible for people to choose PayPal for their Google Play purchases in 12 countries, including the U.S., Germany, and Canada. When you make a purchase on Google Play in these countries, you'll find PayPal as an option in your Google Wallet; just enter your PayPal account login and you'll easily be able to make purchases.

Source: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2014/05/helping-you-go-global-with-more.html

# Answer
> 0 votes
If you really need to do this, you could get a debit card hooked to your paypal account. Both their straight debit card, and their prepaid debit card are master-card branded, so you can use them as your Google app store payment option.

It's not the app store taking Paypal, of course, but it gets you what you want without the players involved having to come to any agreements.

# Answer
> -1 votes
You can buy a gift card and use it yourself. I have used paypal to buy gift card from www.pcgamesupply.com and redeem it on google play.

---
Tags: google-play-store, paid-apps
---


# Question
Title: LED not turning off even after there are no unread WhatsApp messages
I have this random problem with WhatsApp: the green light that blinks when there are unread messages don't turn off even after I go and read them. It doesn't even help if I delete all the messages. The only thing that helps is restarting the phone.

I have a Nexus 5.

# Answer
For what its worth, the issue stopped occurring after I changed the Whatsapp notification light color to white. I think it might have something to do with the fact that Whatsapp and Hangouts both had the notification light color set to green. If this happens to you try providing a distinct notification light color to all the apps.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: whatsapp-messenger, nexus-5
---


# Question
Title: Google Play site says the app is compatible but the Google Play app says otherwise
I am trying to download a game from Google Play to my VirtualBox. The site (browsed with my Windows 7 laptop and Firefox) says ***the app is compatible with all of my devices***.

I happily clicked the install button, and Google Play site said *the app will be installed on my device soon*.

However, my VirtualBox reported a failure: *the app cannot be downloaded due to an error. (942)*

Clicking the notification led to the a dialog with *the app cannot be downloaded due to an error. (942)* again, and at the bottom-left corner was a message saying that ***my device isn't compatible with this version***, which is a conflict with what Google Play site said as in the first paragraph.

I am using Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.3.10 with Android-x86 4.3 in Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64-bit). My question is: **Is my device compatible with the app?** And if it is, **How can I install it?**

(And an off-topic question: How can I complain this to Google for the conflict?)

# Answer
> 2 votes
That's not a Play Store compatibility error that you're getting on your device, that's an install error which says that it's having problems installing the app on your device. The Play Store only checks some basic specs of your device (like OS versions, screen size, RAM size, whether or not there's a camera, etc) it can't tell remotely whether or not there's a problem with your device.

There are a few threads on the internet that talk about getting error 942 when installing apps, and they seem to suggest that it's a problem with the GoogleApps on your device. Either there's a data corruption in the GApps, or there's a problem with the version of GApps you've got installed.

See some of these for more info:

The two main solutions that worked for people are clearing the application cache on Google Play Services, and Google Services Framework:

To clear the app cache:

* Go to **Settings** \> **Apps** \> **All** then find the following entries in the list **Google Play Services**, **Google Play Store** and **Google Services Framework** go through each of those and select **Force Stop** (if available) and then **Clear cache**

The other solution that has worked for people using non-standard ROMs and installs like yours are to double-check the version of the Google Apps package that they've downloaded and installed and make sure that it really is the right version of GApps for their device and OS version.

---
Tags: google-play-store, compatibility, android-x86
---


# Question
Title: Icons are very pixelated with some icon packs
I'm using Aviate at the moment and was trying to apply a new icon pack. While some packs are fine, most are awfully pixelated on my phone. In the following screenshots, the top screen is my 3.5' phone and the bottom one is my friend's 4.5' phone. I'm using "Blitz icon pack" here, but many other packs do this. "Sense 5 icon pack" for example, works fine on my phone.

Is this a hardware limitation? Is android incapable of anti-aliasing icons when they get resized?

# Answer
I don't know enough about Aviate to know for sure, but I can guess based on the way icons normally work in Android.

An app's icon has different versions for different screen DPIs, so there's no need to resize nor antialias icons. Note that antialiasing *isn't* the answer here: it works by blurring icons, so they still look wrong, just in a different way. The stock Android launcher always uses the right icon for the screen's DPI. (Actually, it uses the icon one size up, because it displays the icons larger than in early Android versions when the launcher icon sizes were set.) If the app doesn't come with an icon in the correct size, it uses a smaller icon. That's why, if you have what Android calls an *xhdpi* screen (240 dpi or above), some apps will have smaller icons: it's because they don't have an *xxhdpi* icon.

From what you describe, it looks like the icon pack that's giving you trouble doesn't have any icons for your screen resolution. Perhaps the author of the icon pack didn't realise about the different DPIs. Perhaps it's some limitation of the icon pack format, which isn't an Android standard.

When this happens, Aviate is picking the next smaller size and scaling up. There's no reason they couldn't use linear or cubic interpolation to replace the *jaggies* (yes, that's the technical term) with blurriness. If they're using the standard `ImageView` component, it's just a question of setting a flag on it when the icon size is wrong. However, that would be slower, and they'd need to be careful to only do that when the icon is missing. It's possible there's some reason within Aviate that they couldn't do that; OTOH, it's possible they've just never tried using icon packs with missing DPIs, or they want to make it obvious to encourage icon authors to do the right thing.
> 2 votes

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Tags: launcher, app-icons
---


title: How to restore (mobile) data usage?

text:
# Question
Title: How to restore (mobile) data usage?
I've an S3 and until yesterday I've PACMAN ROM running - previous: Paranoid Android

I made a Nandroid backup, in using titanium backup but I've forgotten to save my mobile data usage.

**Now I'm searching for an way to get it back (without restore the backup, if possible) Is there any absolute path to a file?**

# Answer
This time the correct approach, hopefully:

XDA mentions the stats being located in `/data/system/netstats/*` (the statistic data you are looking for) and `/data/system/netpolicy.xml` (configuration of the applications that have restricted reference data).
> 0 votes

---
Tags: root-access, restore, mobile-data, nandroid
---


title: Decrypt Samsung S3 Phone

text:
# Question
Title: Decrypt Samsung S3 Phone
I have recently encrypted my S3 to allow me to get work emails, but I have now decided against this as it has caused the phone to run like a dog. When I attempt to decrypt the device it says I need to set a password of 6 characters with at least one number, however when I go to the lock screen settings menu password is not an option. I have deleted the email account and I am not sure what to try next. Can someone point me in the right direction please?

# Answer
Here is a last ditch solution if you get nothing better:

If you know how to use John The Ripper then all you have to do is pull all of the files off of your hard drive, and use JTR to crack the password (depending on the length of the key, this could take days or even weeks). Then you can make an image file of your hard drive and flash your device using a flashing tool.

Besides that, I'm sure there is no way to disable the encryption without the key. Really your only option at that point is to get any files off of it that it will allow you to, and then do a factory reset.
> 0 votes

# Answer
As far as I know, reverting the android encryption is impossible, you will have to backup your information and perform a factory reset.
> 1 votes

# Answer
It is possible to decrypt an android. I am doing it right now. I had to turn off the maas360 device admin using the app itself: you can't do it from the device admin screen. Once I did that, I had the decrypt option. The decrypt worked fine for the phone, and I am doing the sd card now. I still only have the password option for the lock screen, but hoping this sd card decrypt gives opens the other options. I have a Verizon G S4 running 4.4.1.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: encryption
---


# Question
Title: HTC rhyme shows LOCKED when I turn it on
When I turn my HTC Rhyme phone, it just shows A page that's written \***LOCKED\*** at the top and has three android icons at the bottom and have some menu items as below:

* Bootloader
* Reboot
* Reboot Bootloader
* Power Down

I've tried all of the menu items, but gained no success. Is there anything I could do to recover my phone.

# Answer
all that the locked status indicates is that the bootloader itself is actually locked...it sounds like your partitions may have gotten botched up. Was the phone acting up prior to this, or were you attempting to root/install a custom rom?
> 1 votes

---
Tags: bootloader, htc, bootloader-lock
---


title: Google Play Store No connection

text:
# Question
Title: Google Play Store No connection
Why when I enter Google Play Store using my LG-P875 phone, it shows only "No Connection Retry"? A few days ago I was deleting some apps and other stuffs to save up my storage space, and I wonder if I actually deleted sth that relates to the connection to Google Play Store. Please help me find a solution!

# Answer
> 0 votes
Many people right now have been experiencing this issue over LTE networks. As we speak I am also experiencing this issue and I am only able to use any google application over wifi using a Samsung Galaxy S5 -\> Tmobile

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Google-Play-Gmail-Maps-and-other-Google-services-hit-by-global-outage\_id56208

http://www.droid-life.com/2014/05/16/google-services-experiencing-issues-how-are-yours-acting/

EDIT: After about a day without google services unless on wifi, they have been restored on my device.

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


# Question
Title: How do I change my email address on Play Store as the one I have is no longer in use
The email address I have on Play Store is no longer verified and I wish to change to my current provider as I do not seem to be able to download apps

# Answer
> 2 votes
Go to settings-\>accounts-\>add account-\>and add another Google account with the new email. Then go into the play store and there will be your email with a drop down arrow. Tap it and select the new email.

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Tags: google-play-store
---


# Question
Title: Where does Google Play store its ebooks on an Android device?
In the Google Play Books Android application, there is an option to keep an ebook on a device if the user wants to do it. So when you decide to do such a thing, the ebook may be stored somewhere on the Android device. I would like to know where the ebook is stored. I searched in `/mnt/storage` and I only found Aldiko ebooks (in the `/mnt/storage/eBooks` folder), not the Google Play eBooks.

Thanks for your answsers.

PS : if it can help, I do this on an Archos G9 101 tablet.

# Answer
I checked several sources on this. Googles own help page states:

> The Google Play Books app automatically stores books in the location with the most free space, whether that's your device or your SD card, as of when the app was first launched. If you've upgraded your app, your books will continue to be stored in the same location they were before the upgrade.

Which is not very precise. A discussion on the Archos forum reveals a setting available in the app (*Settings\> Storage location*), but there you can only chose between internal and external storage. But the same thread as well as another one on XDA reveal the path as being `/data/data/com.google.android.apps.books/` (which is the apps data directory on internal storage), the Archos forums thread also mentioning `Android/data/com.google.android.apps.books/files/volumes/`, which could apply to the "external storage".

As I don't use Google Books, maybe you could check those locations and confirm.

> Note that accessing `/data/data/*` requires "root powers". Without that, you probably won't see anything in that place.
> 7 votes

# Answer
If you want to add books you downloaded on your computer, the books are stored in: `/data/data/com.google.android.apps.books/files/accounts/{your google account}/volumes`, and when you are inside the "volumes" folder you will see some folders with a name that is some code for that book. Once you click one of those folders you will see 2 `.png` files: those are the cover of the book.
> 2 votes

# Answer
You can select "enable PDF uploading". This will allow you select all your books and upload to your Google account. That way, you can read from any device by just signing in. And you can select to view offline.

This reduces the amount of data needed on your device.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: google-play-store, storage, ebooks, google-play-books
---


# Question
Title: Galaxy S3 stuck on boot loop, Factory Reset didn't work
My Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300) was rebooting itself for the past few days, randomly. Today, it did it again, but didn't boot back up. Instead, it is now stuck on an infinite boot loop - it gets as far as the splash screen (Galaxy SIII logo), then reboots, and this goes on forever, until I remove the battery.

The first thing I tried was to remove the battery, SIM card and MicroSD card for 5 minutes. I then wiped the Cache Partition through the Android Recovery Mode. I then did an Emergency Firmware Recovery through Samsung Kies. This didn't help - the phone is still on the same boot loop. I then tried a Factory Reset through the Android Recovery Mode. This also didn't help.

I tried to view the boot logs through the Android SDK tools, but of course, the phone won't stay on for long enough to connect via USB. I'm not sure what else to try. Is there any other way I could possibly access the device's logs? Or should I try Odin instead of Kies?

**Update:** my S3 was had the official stock firmware on it, with official OTA upgrades, it was never rooted.

**Second update:** I've now tried flashing with Odin3. I used the firmware version appropriate for my region and carrier. Everything was successful, but I'm still having the same problem. I'm guessing there's not much else left to try except bring the device back to the dealer? ...

# Answer
I had same problem with logo loop.. I somehow screwed my EFS folder, but don't actually know how... Anyway I tried like 150 different thinks to fix it that I googled out but non of it worked for me.. Finaly I download orignal stock ROM **but the old one with 4.0.4 android.** Flashed via ODIN and only then get rid of logo loop and phone turned on normally (it took allmost 5 mins..) Then I restored my EFS folder. Than rooted the phone, installed CWM and made nandroid restore of my original ROM.. Not sure if this help, but saved my ass :) Wish you good luck
> 2 votes

# Answer
I had the same bootloop problem on T999 UVDLJA. I tried about 100 solutions, including flashing every possible ROM known and unknown.

Finally, the solution was very simple:

* ODIN CWM
* Flash ROM + Gapps
* wipe cache, data, dalvik cache
* install ROM
* install Gapps (this is the part which I would always skip for later - BIG mistake as Gapps missing caused the boot loop)
* restart, et voila!!!!
> 1 votes

# Answer
Try removing the power button. I had the same problem and saw on a youtube video that changing the power button was a good solution. As I could not find a spare power button on, I just decided to remove it and it actually worked! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ-U-Q\_NdOo
> 0 votes

# Answer
i got similar problem with any android based on 4.4 with my i9305, any system got stuck on boot animation, tried MoKee, Omni, CyanOgen and few other ROMs plus Stock JB (however this one was bootable just by factory reset after installation), with the same result; finally i was able to go further after **format /firmware** folder in CWM 6.0.4.7 or any other suitable recovery, actually i formatted everything excluding folders wiped by factory reset. Don't forget **wipe Dalvik cache**

i think this can apply for any SG3 or other new phones from Samsung
> 0 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-3, boot-loop
---


# Question
Title: Fast Upload, Slow Download on Wireless-AC WAN over SFTP
Title says most of it. I use ES File Explorer, but the issue seems to exist in any file manager. Copying files to the SFTP server nets 20-30MB/s, whereas copying files from is ~400-500kB/s.

I gather this may have something to do with Android treating these copy operations as a background download, but that's mostly supposition.

# Answer
Maybe the site/computer you are downloading from have a upload limit. but when you push files (you upload) the other side is downloading, so it less of a problem for them.
> 0 votes

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Tags: file-transfer
---


title: Offline voice recognition Kitkat

text:
# Question
Title: Offline voice recognition Kitkat
Got a Moto E recently.

I was checking out the Google voice commands. It works great. But offline commands are not working. As soon as I open the voice search/Google Now offline it gives error saying not connected. I tried downloading offline language and installed the same. But still not working. Anything else am missing here?

# Answer
I own a Moto X and I know that it has "two modes" of voice recognition: one activated at any time by the command "OK Google now", which appears on a black screen, and the other activated by the voice search button on search/Google now app.

Every voice command recognized on the black screen is done offline, but on the white screen it needs to reach Google to recognize the command. In this case download the offline language pack will save you some data and result in a faster command recognition, but you still need to be connected on the internet in order to do so.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: voice-command, offline, voice-recognition
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to change the answer swipe direction on Android 4.3, Motorola Moto G, or Samsung Galaxy S4?
I have a problem. My personal phone is a Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 4.2.2. I just got a new company phone which is a Motorola Moto G Android 4.3.

The problem is that if I swipe left when answering a call on Samsung it answers the phone. If I swipe left on the Motorola it ignores the call. Needless to say, I keep ignoring people on my business phone.

I need to figure out a way to change the direction of the answer swipe on one of them, preferably the Moto G since I'm already used to the Samsung way but I will settle for changing it on the Samsung if need be.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I know that Android 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 don't allow that by default (i.e, there is no setting for it.) You could, however, get another dialer or locker app. GO Locker is both a great locker and dialer, but it can get annoying, as it sometimes needs you to answer the Android OS dialer screen as well.

---
Tags: 4.2-jelly-bean, 4.3-jelly-bean, samsung-galaxy-s-4, motorola-moto-g
---


# Question
Title: Haptic feedback on samsung galaxy s3 mini
I have recently bought a Samsung galaxy s3 mini and there is no haptic feedback on my soft buttons or typing a message, there is only a vibration key press on my lock screen. I have tryed going into settings, language and input, keyboard setting but there is no vibration on key press option in any of the settings I have looked through. Can someone help me please?

# Answer
Haptic feedback is still there. Go to Settings \> My Device \> Sound and it should be around the bottom of the options. It is labled

Your keyboard should have its own option, but it depends on the particular keyboard.

Samsung Keyboard: Click on the 'cog' icon beside the space bar. Click 'Vibration'.

SwiftKey: Settings \> Sound & Vibration \> Keypress Vibration.
> 1 votes

# Answer
When you want to type, there is the option "choose input method", that comes on the crossbar. Click it, then click "setup input method", then click the "Settings" on the Samsung keypad. Then scroll down to the "advanced options". Click it, then disable key tap sound. That is easy.
> 1 votes

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-3-mini, haptic-feedback
---


# Question
Title: Watching "filmon tv" channels on my TV using chromecast and my smartphone
I know the android app called "filmon tv", it is great and with it I can watch UK and USA TV channels on my smartphone. I have also a chromecast device on my TV and wonder how could I watch these "filmon tv" channels on my tv since I do not see any option on the app.

# Answer
A Chromecast version of FilmOn is now available in the Play Store - it works perfectly!
> 1 votes

# Answer
If you have a Nexus 4, 5, 7, or 10, or some "Google Play edition" phones, running KitKat, then you can simply cast the whole screen of your device. In the settings app, go to **Display**, then click **Cast screen**. This can cast to any Miracast device. This might not work with the particular app you want to use: the app can tell Android that its content is "secure", which will exclude it from being recorded or cast in this way.

One of the CWM developers has an app called Mirror. This can cast the whole screen to a Chromecast device, but it's in beta, so you have to register to download it, and it only works on the Nexus 5. See his announcement on G+ for more information and to register.

Otherwise, all you can do is contact the developer and ask them to add Chromecast support to their app. This would be the best option in any case, as the app could make sure that only the movie stream is sent to the Chromecast, rather than the whole screen (including the notification tray and navigation buttons).
> 1 votes

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Tags: chromecast
---


title: How do you restore app from trash?

text:
# Question
Title: How do you restore app from trash?
Accidently dragged an app into the "trash". How do I restore it to home screen? Do not know how to retrieve the app from trash.

# Answer
> 2 votes
Dragging an app shortcut from the home screen into the little bin simply deletes the shortcut, not the app. You can recreate the shortcut this way:

* Find the app in the *app drawer* (that is, the list of all apps)
* Hold your finger on the app to pick it up
* The screen will change to the home screen
* Drop the app where you want on the home screen. You can move to the next screen by dragging to the edge of the screen.

On the other hand, if you drag the app icon from the app drawer to the bin, it will completely uninstall the app. It checks first, with the dialog, "Do you want to uninstall this app?" If you answer OK to that dialog, then the app is completely removed, and you can only get it back by installing it again in the usual way.

---
Tags: applications
---


title: Nexus 4 problems when charging

text:
# Question
Title: Nexus 4 problems when charging
My Nexus 4 is not charging when plugged into wall but it charges when connected to PC USB. When plugged into wall nothing happens, the battery icon shows nothing.
This problem appears and disappears randomly. Few weeks ago I had this problem, then it disappeared and now it reappeared again.

I tried to enable and disable MTP and PTP but didn't solve it.
I tried to use the wall charger on other devices and it wors (sometimes work also on this device)
I tried to plug it in different places and it doesn't work. I tried to move the cable to check if contacts are good and nothing happens. I tried different USB cables and the behavior is the same.

What can I do?

**EDIT:** The issue is *temporarily* solved. Here's what happened:

* The device was charging only from PC
* I plugged it to PC and the charge was 11%
* I came back after less than 10 minutes: the device was off and pretty hot
* I turned it on and the charge was 1%. The icon said "charging" but it seemed to charge very slowly
* I turned it off.
* I unplugged it.
* I replugged it to PC: it was charging.
* I unplugged it and I plugged it to wall charger. It was charging.
* Initially the battery monitor reported AC, however after some minutes believed that the phone was connected to USB mode.
* The phone charged very slowly.

**OTHER INFOS**: Today I was run out of battery and I plugged the cable.

* The battery was 18% but in few minutes went down to 4% (I was gaming with a poker game but it went down too fast as it was short circuited)
* The device has shut down automatically
* The device was warm
* After rebooting it I saw the battery charging but a red exclamation mark was blinking
* The red led (which turn on when it's charging) was noisy.
* The system was extremely slow also when I tried to check the battery manager.
* It was not charging. Sometimes a "flash" was on the battery sign but the manager reported "not charging". Another battery manager reported 38mA and then 0 (as if battery was not working).
* I cooled it down with a fan and it seem to start charging but very slowly (from 1% to 4% in 15 minutes)
* I shut it down and after 10 minutes I turned on again and it was 12%. Then it seems to charge properly (from 12% to 14% in a couple of minutes and current was 34mA), but after some seconds current went down to 9mA and then to 0.

<sup> Click on picture for larger version </sup>

Soon after this screenshot it seemed to start charging better, current was more than 200mA, but as soon as I took a screenshot it went down to few mA and then 0 again.

Another update:

Today I plugged the cable when battery was 29%. During the day I checked current usage, it was fine with an average of 200mA. When I plugged the cable (either via USB or from charger) the current usage went up to 1A, again with red exclamation mark, warming etc. I don't know what I should do now.

<sup> Click on picture for larger version </sup>

NOTE: it's not a short circuit in the Nexus pins because if I plug the cable in it but I don't plug the other end, nothing happens.

**UPDATE**: I tried to plug the phone to other USB ports and it works *with higher probability*. Sometimes the problem appears also in the other USB ports, but less frequently. However the charging current is only 200mA, which doesn't seem correct, in my opinion. Sometimes the phone appears to be in discharge while plugged via USB. I download a CPU monitor to check if the dicharge was due to high CPU load and I verified that when I plug USB the CPU load increases near 100%, see image:

<sup> Click on picture for larger version </sup>

From 19:26.03 to 19:28.49 the phone was plugged to the first USB port, then I plugged it to another port (CPU went down to zero) and the I plugged it again into the first port.

The process which consumes high CPU is **system\_server**.

# Answer
> 4 votes
There are a few things that could be happening here:

1. It could be that the charger is not powerful enough (either something happened to it or it never was). This means that although charge is going into your phone the phone is using it too fast to add any battery life. To see if this is the case try to charge your phone when it is off or in airplane mode.
2. A software issue could be causing the charging circuit to disengage due to excess charge (this is pretty much a guess).
3. The battery level on the phone (or charging symbol) may not be accurate and therefore not give an accurate representation of charging. To test this see if the phone gains actual usable charge when plugged in (leave it overnight starting at close to 0% and if it makes the night your all good).

Hope this helps.

\[EDIT\]

Looking at your CPU monitor I have a few more suggestions that might help (more in diagnosing than anything).

Attempt to connect your phone via ADB and access your phone via adb shell (there should be some tutorials around the web which I may post later).

Then use the "top" command to view all running processes.

Identify the offending process (it should have a high CPU load and be named system\_server)

Get the PID of the process and run the command: "kill PID" with PID being the PID of the process.

See if this fixes the issue.

Let me know what happens or if you run into any issues (I really want to figure this out now).

# Answer
> 1 votes
It sounds similar to a problem I had with a Nexus 7 (2012). I could get it charging by connecting it up to charge then rapidly plugging in and unplugging the USB cable from the power brick (not the phone). This usually allowed it to charge although slower than it should. I called Google and they said it needed replacing. In the EU we have directive 1999/44/EC that allows phone replacements for 2 years. A factory reset did not solve the problem. You could try different leads and open the contacts on the phone. An Apple power brick worked best for me.

Unfortunately it appears to be a hardware fault. Good luck.

# Answer
> -1 votes
i edit my post to tell you no it's not english , i agree i was not way clear , but remember im tryin to help here so be polite

well you know the apple charger you need like this one and you use it with a usb cable that you use to to coonect your phone to a pc and it ll work the issue is the hole in your phone get bigger than the charger thats why it works only with a usb cable

# Answer
> -1 votes
I tried to do a factory reset and it worked.

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Tags: nexus-4, charging, 4.4-kitkat
---


# Question
Title: Resettng an android device with non-removable battery
I'm planning to buy my first android phone which has non-removable battery. But in case the phone hangs what to do ? As in general case we remove the battery from the device and plug it in after a few seconds. But what can be done with non-removable device in cases where the phone just stops to responds and even refuses to restart ?

# Answer
I had to remove the battery from my O4X several times already, as it didn't respond to anything else – so I can see your concern: What to do if the battery cannot be removed then? As to my experiences, devices with a non-removable battery have a *reset hole*, which serves exactly this purpose: poking it with a needle (or tooth-stick, or something similar) disconnects the battery, as if you had removed it. So the only disadvantage left is you cannot *replace* the battery (say, with a backup you took along).
> 2 votes

# Answer
Like on a PC, holding down the power button is handled in a much lower level of the firmware, so it's not possible for even an OS problem or a CPU hang to interfere with that operation.

I've been using Android devices with removable and non-removable batteries for several years, and never once needed to remove the battery for the reason you describe.

Consider that the people most likely to need to do such a thing are the OS authors and system integrators themselves, inside Google and the OEM. They have to keep experimenting and testing with unstable builds of the OS every day, so they see the device hang a lot. In a single week, they probably see more hangs than the average end-user sees in the whole lifetime of the device. So if devices with non-removable batteries were a problem like this, they'd never get off the drawing board, because it would be so much harder to develop the software for them.
> 1 votes

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Tags: battery, motorola-droid
---


# Question
Title: The phone won't receive some text messages (Specially the verification codes from Google, Dropbox, Evernote, etc)
Recently, my phone stopped receiving verification text messages from Google, Dropbox and Evernote. I contacted the carrier and they say on their end things are working (My other phone (same carrier) receives these messages). I can receive other messages from my friends. I even reset my phone. Still not working? Is it something to do with Android? My phone is Glaxy Note 3 with Kitkat 4.4.3.

# Answer
Do you have avg anti-virus installed on your device? If yes he might be the guy not letting through these short number messages
> 1 votes

---
Tags: sms, 4.4-kitkat, samsung, samsung-galaxy-note
---


# Question
Title: What all does ADB backup and how do I restore part of it?
I am soon going to unlock bootloader and root my Nexus 5, but I didn't wanted to wipe all the data so I thought of using the ADB backup function to restore after rooting is done.

```
adb backup [-f <file>] [-apk|-noapk] [-shared|-noshared] [-all] [-system|nosystem] [<packages...>]

```

So, I made a full backup, with apk, with shared, all.

First of all, what all does this command backup? I suppose everything. Does it include the system, that is, Android files, like the main ROM files including kernel and stuff? Will the ROM get restored after I restore this backup?

Also, after I have rooted the device (which I have still not done), will I be able to restore just the apps, app data and shared storage from the backup? Or should I just backup the apk with shared data backup and that will do it?

Is it possible with a third-party app, root/non-root? (Titanium Backup, maybe?)

I need to know more.

# Answer
> 46 votes
For what ADB backup does, you might wish to see our tag-wiki. Basically, depending on the command line switches used, it backs up apps (`.apk`) and their data. For a full list of options see this.

As for the second part of your question, you might wish to see Is there a way to look inside and modify an adb backup created file? Yes, it's possible extracting parts of it, and yes, Titanium Backup is one of the apps capable of this. Other ways are described in the linked question.

Also worth a look:

---
Tags: adb, backup, nexus-5
---


# Question
Title: Does any app allow schedule voice record except Cinixsoft recorder?
I have installed cinixsoft. It can schedule time recording. However, it will randomly stop and then resume. For example, a 2 hour record may cut into 15 mins, 40 mins, 20 mins, 40 min etc. During every cut, it will lost around 3 mins of data. In other words, I will get around 105 mins out of 120 mins of recording. Does any other software do the same thing, but without that problem?

# Answer
> 3 votes
Voice Recorder can schedule recording at any given time for a predetermined time.

# Answer
> 1 votes
Try PCMRecorder. From the app description:

> This is a simple voice recorder. It records by high quality(PCM/WAVE).
>
> Records in 8000,11025, 16000, 22050, 44100 and 48000Hz - 16bits - Mono.
>
> Recordings are stored on the SD-card ('PCMRECORDER').
>
> Record:
>
> * Records by background
> * 16bits/Mono
> * Records no time limit
>
> Playback:
>
> * Playback by backgroud
> * Rename
> * Send mail
>
> Settings:
>
> * Sample rate(8000,11025, 16000, 22050, 44100 and 48000Hz)
>
> Permission:
>
> * record audio
> * wake lock (to background recording)

---
Tags: applications, audio-recording
---


title: Using Google Play music as an alarm

text:
# Question
Title: Using Google Play music as an alarm
I downloaded a song from the Play Store to use as my alarm on my S3 but for some reason can't find it. When I go into Play Music it's there along with all my other downloaded music, but when I go into my alarm and try setting it it doesn't appear. Some of my other music appears, but not my music I've downloaded from the Play Store. Has anyone got a solution to this for me?

# Answer
You could try to download your music in MP3 format from Google Music through your PC and then put it on your phones SD-card. Then you should be able to set the MP3 as an alarm sound.
> 1 votes

# Answer
When you download music from the Play Store, it stores it all on your account online. The best part of Google Music is that you can store up to 20,000 of your own songs online for free and then however many additional songs you purchase from the Play Store. These songs can be streamed at any time, or you can cache certain songs to listen to later when you don't have an internet connection or don't want to use all of your data. The downside to this is you never really have the music on your device.

Because of this, I am not sure you can use a song that you got from the Play Store as your alarm. You might be able to check in the file system to find where they are stored after they have been cached. Or you can download the song onto your computer, and then copy it manually onto the phone and then use it as an alarm.

**EDIT:** I have been looking all over my phone's file system trying to find where the offline music is being stored, but I have had no luck. Even after going to the location where every answer on this site says the offline music is stored, I still can't find the music. If you would like to check, this question appears to work for most people finding the offline music. From there you should be able to set the offline music as your alarm.
> 0 votes

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Tags: alarm, google-play-music
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