# Question
Title: How do you find out what changes there are in new firmware?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 running ICS 4.0.3. It has desktop software with it called Kies for managing the phone and when I plugged it in today it told me that there was new firmware available:

> Current firmware version: PDA:LPB / PHONE:LPB / CSC:LPC (TMU)
>
> Latest firmware version: PDA:LPD / PHONE:LPB / CSC:LPD (TMU)

How do I find out what changes there are in the new firmware version? I'd rather not make any changes to my phone (which is already flaky enough after the upgrade to ICS) without knowing what the changes are.

Plugging the firmware string into Google produces only a few results and none of them explain what the update contains.

A similar question suggests checking with my carrier's website but that only produced one result(\*) which I had already found via Google. It is a person saying they did the upgrade, thinking it was 4.0.4 but it wasn't. That page doesn't help me to understand what the changes are.

So to reiterate the question, **how do I find out what changes there are in the new firmware version?**

---

Similar question: What's in an update?

---

**UPDATE**

Looking as samfirmware.com as mentioned in the comments and answer, I can see that T-Mobile released two firmwares with the lable 4.0.3:

```
GT-I9100 - United Kingdom (T-Mobile)
PDA: I9100BVLPB
CSC: I9100TMULPC
Version: 4.0.3
Date: 2012-04-10
Regions:

GT-I9100 - United Kingdom (T-Mobile)
PDA: I9100BVLPD
CSC: I9100TMULPD
Version: 4.0.3
Date: 2012-05-25
Regions:

```

The first is the one I have and the second is the one on offer. Apart from what is written there, I could find no further information on that site about what they might contain. (*As an aside, I think that's a useful website and should come in handy in the future*)

# Answer
# Firmware update

A firmware update usually brings to your device bug fixes or new features. This is good because insures your device security and readiness for a stable usage.

---

After spending one hour trying to find a changelog for Samsung firmwares, the best I could came up with was this website:

SamFirmware

> What is this? The firmware page of SamMobile is specially for the die-hard Samsung owner.

Since firmware are country related, and I don't know yours, you can try to locate the firmware there:

**Your new version:**

> PDA:LPD / PHONE:LPB / CSC:**LPD** (TMU)

Marked at bold what's relevant to find that firmware.

Enter LPD in the search box and look at the column "CSC", than locate the row with the firmware released for your country.

**Note:** Nonetheless, there's not much information available.

---

**There's also:**

This two websites provide a comprehensive list of the firmwares released:

---

## Locate your current firmware

1. Touch Menu;
2. Touch Settings;
3. Scroll to and touch About phone;
4. The software version will be displayed.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: updates, samsung-galaxy-s-2, device-firmware
---


# Question
Title: How to preserve BTEP data when switching from Amazon App Store to Play Store?
I want to replace as many as possible of the apps that I got though the Amazon Appstore app (AAa) with apps from, say, Google's Play Store.1

Of these "Amazon-purveyed apps" the most important one (by a very wide margin) is Better Terminal Emulator Pro (BTEP), which I purchased from the Amazon Appstore many months ago, and have used extensively ever since.

> Is there an easy way to save my current (Amazon) BTEP's data, and restore this data once I have installed a new (non-Amazon) BTEP?

Now, as it happens, I have Titanium backups ("app+data") of all these apps.

> How can I restore the BTEP *data alone* from my BTEP Titanium backup?

(As far as have been able to find, Titanium offers the option of restoring the app alone, or restoring the apps data along with the app, but I have not found any option to restore the data alone.)

Thanks!

1Why? Because the Amazon Appstore app (AAa) I have on my phone *has to go*. I never use it anymore, and yet it starts on its own, and causes all manner of grief.

# Answer
> 3 votes
1. Make a backup
2. Uninstall the Amazon copy
3. Install BTEP from the Play Store
4. Open Titanium Backup and select your BTEP backup. As long as the app is installed at the time, it will give you the option to restore data only:

---
Tags: applications, amazon-appstore, titanium-backup
---


title: The size of the MMS message

text:
# Question
Title: The size of the MMS message
What is the maximum size for an MMS message that any Android phone can handle? and is there a way to increase this size?

# Answer
> 6 votes
**Short Answer:**

The maximum size for MMS is rather carrier-dependent, and usually is set to 300kB. For your second question, you might want to check Manually edit your max MMS size limit.

**More details:**

As for changing the limit, there are several consideration to be taken. Sure one can alter any limits, but usually there's a good reason for their presence. As Zuul pointed out (see comment below), you may then be able to successfully send a message of, say, 1MB size -- but that doesn't necessarily mean the recipient is able to receive (let alone read) it. Consider the 300kB limit as "smallest common denominator" between your phones capability, your carriers capability/configuration and the receivers capability.

So if you are pretty sure what you are doing (say, you know your phone can handle 500k at least, the recipients phone can do so as well, and *both* your carriers support it), increasing the limit might enable you to exchange MMS up to 500k *with that recipient* -- while failing to do so with others.

To me, this was never a question. If I need send some message, I use email. It's cheaper than MMS, and works between phones and PCs and Macs and... Exception: the recipient has an "older phone model" without email capabilities. But then chances are good it cannot handle MMS either -- so I have to stick to 160 chars with SMS telling him to lookup his mail :)

# Answer
> 2 votes
Basically the size of an MMS message depends on:

1. The size that the operator can handle;
2. The size that the phone can handle.

From Wikipedia:

> Although the standard does not specify a maximum size for a message, 300 kB is the current recommended size used by networks due to some limitations on the WAP gateway side.

There's no definitive answer to this subject due to the dependencies mentioned above. You can contact your operator and try to get a more accurate answer from them. Alternatively you can always test ;)

---
Tags: mms
---


title: Corrupted 16GB Samsung micro SD card

text:
# Question
Title: Corrupted 16GB Samsung micro SD card
### Background

I have a 16GB Samsung micro SD card that I use on my Samsung Galaxy tablet. It has 116 videos and tons of pics and songs. One day I recorded a concert and when my tablet's battery became low I switched the SD card to my Galaxy S3 phone. It recorded fine and was able to upload some of the videos on a website. One morning, I was taking a picture from my Galaxy S3 phone which still has the 16gb card, when I checked the gallery, it has nothing on it but the new pic I took.

I then realized that I've lost all my files for some reason, devastated but was able to recover the files via a FREE download of Wondershare Data Recovery software (which I actually ended up paying) and saved it on my PC. I was able to recover the pics, the songs I can open but only plays for 4 seconds. When I tried opening the video files, some are fine and was able to play them on my computer some won't let me. They are 3gp file extensions. I've tried playing them on a 3gp media player but they still don't play.

**My question is:**

Why am I able to play some of them fine and not the others? I've tried inserting the videos on my tablet and on my s3 phone it says:

> CANNOT PLAY VIDEO. UNSUPPORTED FILE FORMAT

I am devastated and would really like to recover them. Is there any other solution?

# Answer
File systems are organized in "blocks" of data, where each block has the same size. Internal storage (as well as some others which use NAND-Flash) on Android uses a block size of 128kB.

Especially video files are a bit larger, so they do not fit in a single "block" on the file system. In order to store them, they are split and spread about multiple blocks. This usually is no problem, as there is some "index" holding all the information of where those blocks are and what file they belong to. However: On a crash, some of that information might be lost -- while other parts have been preserved.

So your recovery process was 100% able to restore those files where complete information was available. I don't know what you used, but many of those recovery tools additionally scan all "unused blocks" (where the "index" says there's nothing stored currently) for data fragments, and this way discovers some additional files. But sometimes it's not possible to get all their pieces together, or do so in the correct order. Because of this, some of your videos might play for a few seconds (blocks), until the "lost information" part is reached.

I hope my explanation was understandable; I went for easy understanding instead of precise technologic terms.

As to your question on how to restore the missing parts: I'm afraid they are lost. But if you update your question and add information on what you used to restore your files, plus how you did it, we can look into it. One word straight ahead: I hope you didn't write anything on that SD card since -- or chances for restauration are really low.

**First thing to make sure on data loss: AVOID WRITING TO THAT MEDIUM UNTIL YOU HAVE ALL YOUR DATA RESTORED (or all hope to restore them is lost)!!**

## First steps on data loss

1. **STOP WRITING** to the device you lost data from (in your case, the SD card). Lost data might still be left more-or-less intact somewhere on the medium, but the corresponding blocks are marked "unused" -- so each new write lowers your chances on a successful recovery
2. Make sure all subsequent access to the device is read-only. While you might not have access to a Write Blocker, some SD-cards offer a corresponding switch (use it!), or some card readers might provide something like that. With a Linux/Unix system you are well off also, as it is quite easy to explitly mount devices read-only.
3. Best idea is to make a block-level copy of the medium. On Linux/Unix, this can be done using the dd command. This copy can be done to an equivalent medium (which in your case would be another 16GB SD card, best of the same brand), but also to a file -- which then can be mounted (again, best read-only) as a Loopback device. All susequent steps should use the so-created disk image: This ensures, even if some action fails and destroys something here, your original medium remains untouched, providing an additional safety layer.
4. Having created a disk image, optionally make a copy of that again (easy if it is a file -- otherwise just repeat the first procedure with the image as source). This provides another level of safety, as, having broken something on the 2nd image, you needn't touch the original, but can start again from the first copy.
5. Having created and mounted the image, as described in the previous steps, you now can try with all available recovery tools to get as much data restored as possible. If one tool doesn't restore enough, try the next, and so on. If the image breaks, see previous step.
6. Having all data (or as much as was possible) restored, there's not much more you can do. You might decide to keep one of the images and/or the original. If not all data was restored successfully, you might even decide to send the original plus the image to some forensics specialist or data recovery service.
7. On the seventh day He rested from his work ;)

## Useful tools

There are a lot of tools available to help you recover your data. I cannot mention them all here -- but at least a few should be named. Some are addressing the end user, coming with a nice GUI -- others are rather intended for the forensics specialist, coming with a lot of command-line switches, and again others might provide both.

* Wondershare Data Recovery was already mentioned being used by the OP. I cannot say much about it, as I never used it: It is available for Windows and MacOS (and I run Linux).
* TestDisk would be my tool of choice. It is available for DOS, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and more -- and I have successfully used it a couple of times.
* PhotoRec comes from the same developers as TestDisk, and is available for a broad range of operating systems
* Both tools are mentioned on LiveHacker's article Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools -- and as it says "five", there are obviously 3 more available.

I don't want to list up things I don't know -- but from here, everybody should find his/her way. Hopefully. So good luck -- or better: good results!
> 4 votes

---
Tags: external-sd, data-recovery
---


# Question
Title: How do I prompt the user for "Device Administrator" on Tasker?
I made a Tasker app via the Tasker App Factory that locks the screen based on various occasions. My app works fine except from the initial run which would require the user to enable it as "Device Administrator". How do I prompt the user to do this instead of having to instruct them to go to **Settings \> Security \> Device Administrators**? I'm quite positive it has to be done by using **Send intent** (a Tasker function) but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.

Just to clarify, I want to show the user the dialog box for "Device Administrator" automatically on first open of the app.

---

Okay so I tried using Intent Intercept but even that, doesn't seem to intercept the Device Administrator prompt. See my video below on how the Device Administrator prompt appears when I select it to be enabled on Secure Settings (a Tasker plugin).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TprkAYoDVDI

As you can see above, Intent Intercept never prompted me and the Device Administrator dialog still popped up.

# Answer
I'm no expert on intents but this is the best answer I can offer...

There are intents that can enable the Device Admin status but since Tasker is not yet a device admin I don't think your prompt will allow the user to enable this directly.

The next best thing would be to have Tasker open the Device Administration settings page with a popup that instructs them to enable it.

In tasker, using the "Settings Dialog Action" you can create an action that opens to the Security Settings page but the user would have to manually go to the next step to open the "Device Administror" menu. You can create a popup message directing what to do with the "Alert/Popup Action".

If you want to go directly to the Device Administror Menu you may be able to do that with the "Misc/Send Intent Action." To find specific intent for the Device Admin Menu you can try an app called Inent Interceptor. If you are able to identify the specific intent that opens that menu it's pretty straight forward from there.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: tasker
---


# Question
Title: How do I sideload Google Wallet onto my Verizon Galaxy Nexus?
The Verizon version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus famously shipped *without* Google Wallet. This is ostensibly because Verizon is coming out with their own mobile payment system and didn't want a competing product baked into the phone OS.

So much for a pure Google Android experience.

How can I get Google Wallet on my device? No rooting solutions, please. I am okay with sideloading the app from a trustworthy source if that's possible.

Once installed, will I be able to get updates from the Play Store? What other things won't work quite right?

# Answer
Grab this .apk file from the XDA forums and sideload it like you would any other app. The instructions state that it will work on unrooted devices, and CNET actually ran an article detailing this a little while back. The original XDA thread is here, the link you need is the one under the QR code (the "APK method").

This particular method will evidently only work if you live in the US and have Android v4.0.2 or later installed, but that should cover any typical VZW Galaxy Nexus at this point.

As far as I'm aware, you will *not* be able to get updates from the Play Store if you sideload like this, but that is the only caveat I've personally encountered thus far on my VZW Galaxy Nexus. I used the free $10 prepaid balance at McDonald's without any issue.

---

A few additional musings after doing some experimentation: after sideloading the .apk above I was not able to update Wallet from the Play Store app on my phone. However, if I logged into the web store and visited the page for Wallet, it listed my Galaxy Nexus as compatible. Hitting `Install` on the web page allowed me to push the updated version to my phone successfully, despite the fact that I could not do it from my phone.

If you're itching to try out the newly added ability to add your credit card to Wallet, you could try the above to get yourself updated to the newest version. Alternatively, if you consider me a "trusted source" (I'm trustworthy, I swear) you can get a copy from my Dropbox account. I simply pulled the updated .apk file from my device after I updated through the Play Store, so I can safely say this version has not been tampered with by any third parties.
> 8 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, verizon, side-loading, google-wallet
---


# Question
Title: Strange (unfamilar screen) on my Galaxy Tab?
I have a Galaxy Tab 10.1. It was powered off and charging when my nephew picked it up and turned in on. When he handed it to me on the screen was a graphic of an open box, the android logo with the words downloading.

It has been in this state for 4 hours now and I cannot switch the device on or off. Please help me understand what has happened and what I should do.

# Answer
Your device is in Download Mode. I don't have that device, but if the battery doesn't come out, you will probably need to use ADB and send an `adb reboot` to get it out of Download mode. If you don't know how to use ADB, then you can just let the battery die. I don't like that option though because the same image will be on the screen for an extended period of time.

Does the screen look like this:

To use ADB:

* Download the USB Drivers from Samsung
* Download the Android SDK
* connect the device to your computer via USB cable
* open a command prompt where the Android SDK was installed and change to the platform-tools directory. for example, my sdk is installed at c:\android-sdk so I run the following:

C:\android-sdk\> cd platform-tools

then try to reboot with adb:

```
C:\android-sdk\platform-tools\> adb reboot

```

if that doesn't work try the following command:

```
C:\android-sdk\platform-tools\> fastboot reboot

```
> 5 votes

# Answer
You most probably see this, right:

This is the Galaxy Tab's 'download mode' to install new firmware as a last resort via Samsung's Odin or to side-load aftermarket firmware.

You can wait for the battery to drain by itself without taking further action.
> 3 votes

# Answer
I don't own a galaxy tab but some tablets have a hard reset button similar to windows power reset button. It's generally a small hole and you can use a pin to reboot the device by pressing the pin in the hole for few seconds. Basically what it does is it reboots the tablet. You don't require to wait for the battery drain.
> -1 votes

---
Tags: factory-reset, bootloader, samsung-galaxy-tab-10
---


title: Can Android extract zip files?

text:
# Question
Title: Can Android extract zip files?
Can Android extract zip files? If so, could you please explain the process of downloading and extracting a zip file?

# Answer
Yes, provided you've got an application to deal with zip files, you should be just fine:

WinZip for Android

---

By default there's already apps within your OS to deal with zip files:

Best is access a zip file thru your browser, download an open one. A window should pop-up, with some recommended apps already on your system.
> 3 votes

# Answer
Android allows downloading of any file type irregardless of size (FAT32 formatted SD cards however allow only up to 4GB per file).

Many file explorers come with built-in ZIP support -- and again, many also offer access to network ressources via FTP, SFTP, FTPS, Samba (Windows Network), and more. Some good examples for these include:

* ES File Explorer File Manager: Compress and Decompress ZIP files, Unpack RAR files, can create encrypted (AES 256 bit) ZIP files \[...\]; Samba, FTP, Bluetooth, Dropbox, Box.net, Sugarsync, Google Drive...
* ASTRO File Manager / Browser: Zip/ Tar; Bluetooth & Samba (via AddOn), SFTP, and (explicitly mentioned) a downloader
* Total Commander: Zip and unzip, unrar; Bluetooth; FTP & WebDAV (via AddOn)

Of course they offer a wide range of additional features.

Downloading then either takes place using the file managers network capabilities to browse the resources and copy the file (as you are probably used to with file managers on your computer; on Windows, Total Commander is already widely known and used) -- or, alternatively, using the web-browser, which then stores the file on disk. Once on the local file system, the mentioned file managers offer you to open/extract the archives (a zip file is an archive) either when directly tapping on the file, or via its context menu (usually opened on tap-and-hold the file entry).

Should be pretty easy and self-explaining -- though some of the file managers also offer tutorials / online help / inline help to guide you:
> 3 votes

---
Tags: zip
---


# Question
Title: How to ensure that the data traffic is going over the VPN connection?
I have Motorola XT910 and I would like to install the Motorola AnyConnect by Cisco to use when out in public and using open WiFi. Once I do that how can I check if all the traffic that is coming from my phone is going over those VPN tunnels?

# Answer
The application, Motorola AnyConnect, takes care of that for you.

When you sign on to your corporate network, the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Android only allows the traffic thru the VPN Tunnel created, preventing any armful or unauthorized access or data transfer outside the parameters defined by your corporation security policies.

> Cisco AnyConnect provides reliable and easy-to-deploy encrypted network connectivity from Motorola Android devices by delivering persistent corporate access for users on the go.

---

One thing that's not clear on your question is if you're aware that this Cisco solution is a corporate solution, not for the end user who just want's to navigate the web covertly.

> Whether providing access to business email, a virtual desktop session, or most other Android applications, AnyConnect enables business-critical application connectivity. Through the use of Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS), TCP-based applications and latency-sensitive traffic (such as voice over IP \[VoIP\]) are provided an optimized communication path to corporate resources.

**Users have to authenticate to their enterprise networks** in order to use this app and the features provided, **but you can navigate the internet as usual**, only restricted by the security policies applied.

---

Additional Reading about this solution:
> 2 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, vpn
---


# Question
Title: Still visible after I deleted my WhatsApp account
I've deleted my WhatsApp account according to the official instructions.

Unfortunately I'm still visible to my friends and they can still send me messages. But with a deleted account that shouldn't be the case — at least in my opinion.

I've already contacted WhatsApp's support but to no avail. Until now I haven't gotten a response.

Do you know what I could do about this issue? Have you already experienced such a problem yourself?

# Answer
> 5 votes
**PS:** I've just talked to some of my friends and on their phone I disappeared from their Favourites list automatically without manually refreshing.

---

I've just received the following answer from WhatsApp's support team:

> Hi there,
>
> Thanks for confirming your account to be deleted within the WhatsApp settings. Your phone number has been deactivated and it is scheduled to be deleted within 30 days. Therefore, please have your contacts refresh their Favorites List so that you no longer appear as a WhatsApp user.
>
> If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. We would be happy to help!

Sad that my friends have to refresh their Favourites list manually for me to be deleted. Especially when exactly this is described by WhatsApp's FAQ to be done seemingly automatically when you delete your account:

> Deleting your account will do the following:
> \[…\]
> **Delete you from your friends' WhatsApp Favorites lists.**
> \[…\]

---
Tags: instant-messaging, whatsapp-messenger
---


# Question
Title: Moved microSD from droid to droid 4 but apps don't show
I moved my microSD card from my old moto droid to the droid 4, but I can't see any of my old SD card apps. Is it possible to import them? Neither phone has even been rooted.

Thanks!

# Answer
By simply moving the SD card between devices, it is possible to transport *data*. The apps you are referring to are probably the once you moved to SD card via App2SD -- this will not move the entire app, but (hopefully) the biggest part of it. At least a small piece remains on the device -- which is, amongst others, how the device knows about those apps. And which is why "the other phone" won't show them: It simply doesn't know they are there, as they are not "registered" with that device.

So if you want to move them over, you will have to re-install them on your new phone (here: the Droid 4), and then (optionally) delete them on the old. The apps data are lost that way -- unless you can export them from within the app on the "old droid", put them on SD card, and import them with that app on the Droid 4. Or, alternatively, if both Droids are rooted, and you use Titanium Backup to backup app and data on the old, and restore them to the new phone.

**EDIT:**

If your idea is to permanently switch the card to the new device (i.e. not just temporarily, and then switch it back to the old), you might want to follow these steps:

1. check with your apps list (from the homescreen, press the "menu" key, select "apps", and then again "apps" -- second place might be titled "manage apps", not sure, as it differs between devices and Android versions) which apps you've installed on your card, and write that down (just for safety).
2. with the card in the old phone, uninstall the apps you've installed on the card (don't worry, you can re-install them later -- even the paid ones, as they are connected with your Google account)
3. remove the card from your old phone, and use a card reader to attach it to your computer. With your file browser, check whether the directory `.android_secure` is empty. If not, just remove it. This step is optional, and should help avoiding trouble when re-installing the apps.
4. now put the card into your new phone. All your data (stored on the card) will be immediately available.
5. hopefully you've configured your device with the same Google account -- so now you can go and re-install those apps.

Alternatively, if your old phone has sufficient internal memory, instead of uninstalling the apps (step 2) you could simply move them to internal memory. Then, if you configured your phone to backup apps+data to the Google cloud, you should be able to just "sync them back" to your new phone (in step 5). I've never tried that, but the possibility exists.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: applications, external-sd, data-transfer
---


# Question
Title: Prepend phone numbers with a calling card dial in number
I use a calling card to call my home country and usually it's these steps:

1. Call the dial in number for the calling card company (e.g. 1 800 123 1234)
2. Enter the card PIN code (e.g. 1234 1234 1234)
3. Enter the destination number (which is saved as a phone in the contacts - e.g. +7 12 123456780)

I have several several contacts I call regularly and also plenty of one-offs.

Is there an app or way to automatically prefix the numbers from steps 1 & 2 along with pauses (p) and waits (w) so that I could dial the contact directly from the address book?

Thank you!

# Answer
You might want to take a look at Prefixer, which lets you "prefix, suffix and/or replace numbers in your calls" -- sounds like exactly what you need. There are a few similar apps on the Playstore:

I'm pretty sure one of them will solve your issue.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: phone-app
---


title: How to fix this Google+ sync problem?

text:
# Question
Title: How to fix this Google+ sync problem?
Few months ago, I restored a full Nandroid backup which was created few hours ago. When I booted up, everything went fine, but Gmail & Google+ went out of sync. Perhaps, it was a timestamp problem.

Problem was this: If I read an email on web, the read status was reflected to app, but reverse wasn't true. If I read an email on app, the read status wasn't reflected to web or other devices/apps.
The exactly same thing was with Google+ notification read status.

I cleared data of Gmail app and the problem was fixed. I did the same thing with Google+ app, but no benefit. I even uninstalled & reinstalled the Google+ app, but again no benefit.

I left that for months. I have notified Google, updated to every new version, but the problem is still here even today.

How to fix it? Don't suggest factory reset, please.

Device: Samsung Galaxy S with ICS (rooted)

# Answer
You state you're running ICS on your Galaxy S so I assume it's CM9 or so and rooted.

Some thoughts of mine:

* Do you have any sort of firewall set up (e.g. droidwall)? That has bitten me often so far.
* Is there a 2nd device where it does not happen?
Just trying to sort out a general problem with your account or G+
* Maybe G+ doesn't even sync by itself but *outsources* some of it to other GApps (or the Android framework)? Aka, the problem is not directly within the G+ app?

My steps to narrow it down would be:

1. Make a backup via CWM and be sure everything is backed up by Titanium Backup too. You want to be able to revert to this current state once all is debugged and the problem is found & fixed.
Be sure your SD card has enough space left, I found CWM (v3.x) to not report that and *silently* fail in case of a *no space left on device* error.
2. Reboot into normal Android, remove unneeded apps and start a cycle:

* clear app data of suspected problematic app (Google Services Framework, etc.)
    * test
    * retry and clear data of more apps and narrow down more if still present
3. If problem is found, revert to your backup, apply the fix and see if everything works fine still
4. Report your findings :-)

I know you don't wanted this answer but I include it nevertheless:
Wipe (with CWM and Titanium Backups ready of course). Then go partially back step by step (userland apps only) with TitaniumBackup. It's time consuming and tedious I know. Having a CWM backup ready leaves you the option to roll back at any time though.
> 1 votes

# Answer
I assume you have checked the sync options of your google+ account to make sure it is set to sync regularly.

Have you tried removing not ony the app but also the account from the phone, doing a restart and then adding the google account back again?
> 0 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s, sync, google-plus
---


# Question
Title: Will installing a file manager app void the device/Android warranty?
One of the frustrating things about HTC is that I cannot manage my files which have been downloaded. On the marketplace, there are some apps which allow you to do this such as:

* Astro File manager
* eFile
* Root Explorer

If I install a file explorer app, will that void my warranty with HTC or Android?

# Answer
> 13 votes
No, you won't invalidate your warranty.\* Keep in mind that Root Explorer requires root, though, and rooting will invalidate your warranty. I personally love Root Explorer, so I recommend the non-root version: Explorer.

<sub>* I haven't read your warranty, but I've never heard of a condition that bizarre. This is not legal advice; I am not a lawyer.</sub>

# Answer
> 1 votes
No, using a file manager will not invalidate your warranty. Rooting often will though. On my phone, I personally use Astro File Manager.

If you want a solution to manage all your files from the desktop, our company produces a solution called SnapPea. It's an easy way to manage contacts, apps, music, and videos from your Windows desktop.

---
Tags: applications, installation, file-management, warranty
---


title: A simple explanation of CWM and Odin

text:
# Question
Title: A simple explanation of CWM and Odin
I'm going to root my Samsung Galaxy Note and I come across the terms CWM and Odin very often. What exactly are they? It seems that CWM is used for rooting and Odin for flashing the phone. Is there more to it?

I've posted here because I have been unable to to find a good explanation online.

# Answer
CWM is the shortform of ClockWorkMod. ROMManager, CWM recovery, Tether etc are their products. CWM Recovery and ROMManager are tools which enables you to backup your current ROM, install custom ROMs etc.

If you are interested in knowing more about CWM, see this page. For rooting you do not need CWM. In fact for installing CWM you need to be rooted.

For anyone who plays with ROMs, tweaking and testing, CWM Recovery or some thing equivalent to it is mandatory and would save your neck several times.

Also, you could specify which part you are not clear with. It will help to get better answers. :)
> 6 votes

---
Tags: clockworkmod-recovery, odin
---


# Question
Title: How do I download app's APK file from Market to my desktop computer?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> How can I download an APK file from the Play Store?

Is there any working tool I could use to download app's APK file from Market to my desktop computer?

I know there was a Chrome extension but it no longer works.

# Answer
As far as I know, it is against terms and conditions to do so. But if you would still like to do so, a work around is to use an emulator and connect to market. This site explains how it can be done.

Once such emulator is working you can use applications like app extractor to extract the APK to emulator's file system (sd card). Then you can use adb pull command to take it out.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Nope, that's not intended for several reasons (at least one of them was why that Chrome extension got modified in the first place). Installation from "the Market" (now known as "Playstore") should be done via the install process. Ideally, the user shall have no access to the `.apk` file at all (to prevent de-assembling etc., or pirating payed apps).

A valid reason for requiring the "real `.apk` is e.g. when your device has no Market/Playstore app. In those cases, you might contact the developer and ask him for the `.apk`. Some even have it on their websites for free download. Also, if you report bugs or request new features, the developer might offer you a pre-release `.apk` for testing purposes.

But as to your original question: There is no official solution, and I don't know of any "inofficial way" for this.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: applications, downloading
---


# Question
Title: Android phone has Wi-Fi troubles after subnet change
I just moved our network access point to a different subnet (which has a different default gateway). After the change, all the laptop computers adjusted without much issue (some XP computers needed the "repair" option run on the connection). However, none of the Android phones have Internet access anymore. They can connect to the wireless access point without a problem, but they can't access the Internet. This only seems to happen on the Android phones. I am wondering if maybe it remembers the old settings and isn't picking up the new default gateway? What can I do to fix this?

# Answer
Turns out it was a problem with the DNS servers my DHCP was serving up. The first two were local DNS servers. I don't know why they weren't working for android (they worked fine for the laptop computers), but as soon as I replaced the second local DNS server with a remote DNS server, things started working. It also appears that android only pays attention to the first two servers given by DHCP since I had other servers listed after my local server.

It seems kind of fishy that only the android phones had problems with the local DNS server. I wouldn't mind finding out what the underlying problem is, but changing the DNS servers is an acceptable workaround.
> 1 votes

# Answer
Most likely, the device is still hanging out to the old network configuration and needs to be adjusted or cleared. There are a couple of methods that can be used to accomplish this. Lets start from the simplest:

1. **Reset the device Wi-Fi connection**.

Simple Wi-Fi connection reset, by turning off wireless and then turning it back on:

1. Tap the Menu button on your device;
    2. Tap "Settings";
    3. Tap "Wireless and Network";
    4. Tap "Wi-Fi settings";
    5. In the new screen, uncheck Wi-Fi to turn it off;
    6. After Wi-Fi is turned off, tap the entry again to turn it back on.

Test your connection to confirm if this worked. If not, continue to the next options.

---
2. **Forget about the network**

You can have your device forget the network and then re-add it, but for this to be possible, it needs to get out of range of the network, then:

1. From the previous location, long press the network you want to forget;
    2. Tap over "Forget Network";
    3. Get back within range, wait for the network to show up;
    4. Enter the network password to join.

At this point your device should have a new address and be working.

---
3. **Advanced Wi-Fi settings**

At this point is clear that you need to confirm all settings for your Wi-Fi connection:

1. Tap the Menu button on your device;
    2. Tap "Settings";
    3. Tap "Wireless and Network";
    4. Tap "Wi-Fi settings";
    5. Tap the Menu button again;
    6. Tap "Advanced";

From here you can confirm all the settings one by one and make sure they match your network requirements:

Use static IP address, Network Gateway, Netmask, DNS1 and DNS2.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: wi-fi, internet, connection-issues, networking
---


# Question
Title: What is the basic functionality behind the Odin buttons & checkboxes?
⚠ EDIT: Note that there's now a slightly different but highly related, relatively newer question on the same subject. See "What do the terms “BL”, “AP”, “CP”, and “CSC” mean in Odin?".

---

There's a good question on what the Odin tool is. I understand now that it's an internal Samsung tool for flashing firmware, which explains why it's so hard to find info on the (rather cryptic) options and buttons. Can anyone here perhaps enlighten us with a basic description for the following:

* Options:
    + **Re-Partition** (checkbox)
    + **F. Reset Time** (checkbox)
    + **Phone EFS Clear** (checkbox)
    + **Phone Bootloader Update** (checkbox)
* Buttons and files:
    + **PIT** (button to select a `*.pit, *.xml` file)
    + **PDA** (button to select `*.tar, *.md5, *.smd` file)
    + **PHONE** (button to select `*.bin, *.tar, *.md5` file)
    + **CSC** (button to select `*.tar, *.md5` file)
    + **ETC** (button to select ???)

For reference, here's a screenshot of the App showing these various options and buttons:

# Answer
Looking at this Odin 3, don't forget, there are variant versions of Odin in respect to different Samsung devices. But this particular one is what's used to flash, from my experience, Samsung Galaxy 5 and Samsung Galaxy tablet P1010T.

In short, for Odin to operate, there can be *.bin*, or *.tar* or even *.tar.md5* files associated with a ROM for flashing. Odin knows how to handle them in the appropriate manner. (Have not seen .bin used, its more of the .tar.md5 which is a tar file with MD5 check-sums contained in the archive, in which Odin will automatically verify each file within it)

* **Re-Partition** does what it says - re-partitions the layout.
* **Auto Reboot** and **F.Reset Time** \- when the flash is done, auto reboot and reset the timer of the flashing when done. Usually can leave those two checked.
* **PIT** \- this is a file that describes the layout of the partitions involved, this will be very specific to the device in question, use the wrong PIT file for the device, and its... well... face the consequence!
* **PDA** \- an all in one archive that contains the ***.img***'s MD5 sum, boot, recovery, system, userdata, cache and movinand. Those .img's are different to the normal ones that is out there, they use Samsung's RFS (Not sure what R means, but its **F**ile **S**ystem and is proprietary to Samsung) - this is optional, the clue would be in the name of the file - if it contains *PDA* in it, use it, if not, uncheck this and follow on, if using this to flash the device...
* **Phone** \- When flashing a ROM for Samsung device, depending on the model, there will be usually, a file similar to this *XXXX-REVnn-ALL-low-YYYYY.tar.md5* Again, this will be an all in one archive as explained for the *PDA*, the distinction and big clue, is the former is for tablets, the other is for smartphones (That's what have played with - just doubly check and make sure this is correct, have a wifi-only tablet here, and it uses the Phone when flashing - O\_o).
* **CSC** \- This is some country code used for the region to flash the ROM against, XE is Europe, AU is Australia, and so on, this part can throw you off, its more then for tracking what region this is based of, in *terms of localization and language support*. **And more importantly**, for Kies to recognize the region and to determine if there's firmware update available. It is quite possible to have a CSC that can be limited to one country.

Another aspect of the Phone and CSC is, some would expect the name of the file for the Phone to be near same as CSC, for example, P1010XWKC1 is the froyo firmware, but does not have a PDA in the filename... just to highlight that firmware for Samsung devices can be inconsistent at times.

So with that in mind, here's the general guidelines for flashing a ROM,

* Re-Partition - do not check, unless you have the appropriate PIT file for your device. This will wipe all your data.
* Auto Reboot and F.Reset Time are both checked.
* *PIT* \- mandatory, ensure you have the right file for your device.
* If its smartphone, ensure *Phone* is selected and the appropriate file is picked from the file browser.
* If it's non-smartphone, ensure *PDA* is selected and the appropriate file is picked from the file browser.
* CSC - ensure you have the right region for this.

Before doing any flashing business on Samsung, ensure it is in *Download mode*, And away you go, Odin will extract the archives and performs check-sum first to ensure integrity of the files within the archive and start, ambiguously, uploading to device, or from device's viewpoint downloading!

If there is a kernel update, similar principle to flashing ROM, but with one notable exception - Un-check the *Re-Partition*, specify the kernel file which would go in under *PDA* or *Phone* as well, that depends! Omit the CSC as its not really used for the kernel flashing.

Phew, this Odin can be confusing, armed with inconsistent filenames so to emphasize, *double-check around first before doing anything with Odin*.

In all fairness though, Odin is actually a lot more safer than Kies from the flashing business viewpoint, be prudent and happy flashing :)
> 22 votes

---
Tags: odin
---


# Question
Title: Will flashing a custom ROM on my Galaxy Nexus device wipe my data?
I'm wondering if I flash a custom ROM onto my Samsung Galaxy Nexus device, will it erase all my data (musics, pictures, etc.) due to its memory singularity?

# Answer
> 4 votes
Flashing a CustomROM (usually *any* ROM different to the one you're currently running) requires you to do a complete Wipe (well, at least it is *strongly recommended* for stability reasons) -- so the answer is probably: Yes. Data on an external SD card usually is not affected -- but as far as I remember, the GN has no such thing.

You might wish to consult the following Q&As for more information:

**EDIT:**

Just to be more clear: Data on (external|internal) SD-Card (the Nexus uses an internal eMMC *instead* of the external SD, if I'm correct) -- that is the place where you store your photos, videos, music files, etc. -- are **not** affected by the wipe. Just all "internal memory" -- i.e. the apps *you* installed, and all settings plus app data -- will be erased.

# Answer
> 0 votes
My understanding is that you'll need to unlock your bootloader in order to flash, and unlocking your bootloader will indeed wipe everything.

---
Tags: custom-roms, samsung-galaxy-nexus, rom-flashing
---


# Question
Title: Push notification on Samsung Galaxy Note (GT-I717)
Why is there no push notification or some notification for incoming messages in the screen when the phone is in locked state? I am using Samsung Galaxy Note. When my phone is in locked state, and when I click the power button I see the pattern unlocking screen. When new messages flow in, I just see a mail icon in the top status bar, but no other notifications in the screen. What needs to be done for that?

# Answer
> 2 votes
If you would like something on your screen in addition to the notification in your notification bar, I would suggest using something like GoSMS with WidgetLocker.

If I'm correct in your understanding, this will do what you want: Set up WidgetLocker to be your unlock screen and then place a GoSMS messaging widget on your lock screen, so you can read the messages immediately.

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I hope it helps!

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-note, push-notifications
---


title: Disable 4.1.1 camera slide effect

text:
# Question
Title: Disable 4.1.1 camera slide effect
I've noticed since the 4.1.1 update that every time a photo is taken there's this very distracting slide effect that transitions the photo you've just snapped off the screen, replacing it with the live view.

Is there any way to disable this?

# Answer
> 2 votes
The new animation added to Jelly Bean camera app when photos are being taken, acts as a visual hint at a new swipe gesture that's been added.

The idea is to make the user aware that swiping to the left at any time, they are able to scroll through all the photos taken:

> When taking a photo, a new animation sweeps your photo off the screen. There is now a new paging animation when swiping between photos.

Android 4.1, Jelly Bean - Camera and Gallery (scroll down till this title)

From that location, the user can rotate, crop, share, just like in the gallery app.

As already mentioned by jlehenbauer, it's a feature and cannot be removed.

---

Here a YouTube video about this: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Camera app

# Answer
> 6 votes
I believe this is a "feature" of the new Jelly Bean camera. You probably **won't** be able to change it without resorting to using another camera app (like Camera Zoom FX) or installing a custom ROM.

---
Tags: camera, 4.1-jelly-bean
---


# Question
Title: Migrating SMSes from Windows Mobile to Android phone
I want to migrate all my SMSs from WinMo to Android.

I currently use PIM Backup to make a backup in case WinMo gets hard resetted, and it works fine. I have complete history of received and sent messages. I tried `SMS Exporter` but it looked like the XML file doesn't contain sent SMS (bad!!)

I tried `Sprite Backup`: it generates a good EXE file with possibly all the messages it in, but I couldn't restore it by copying the generated files into Android SD card and opening Sprite Backup for Android, since it listed no backup file available in SD.

I also read about `Sprite Migrate` from a 2010 blog post, but I see no more traces of it.

What can I do to migrate SMSs? Contacts are no problem: I'll use `LocalSync` for Windows

# Answer
I guess this article was made for you: Import/Export/Move SMS Messages from Windows Mobile to Android. It mentions several tools to export your SMS from WinMo to an XML file, which then can be imported on your Android device without involving 3rd party tools. It also links to more useful articles on this topic.

**EDIT:**

As the OP commented, he was successfully using the Piemaster.NET guide mentioned on the page I originally linked. As suggested, I add it here in case the originally linked page is unreachable some day.
> 4 votes

---
Tags: sms, data-transfer, windows-mobile
---


# Question
Title: Screen keeps black after official upate for Samsung Galaxy S3
A few days ago, the phone got an OTA update (build number: IMM76D.I9300XXALF6). After that the phone got unusable: Once the screen goes out, I cannot wake up the device anymore. The only exception is when it's connected to my laptop, then I can wake it up any time.

I already tried resetting it to factory defaults, but it did not help.

Any ideas? Or should I send the phone back?

# Answer
Sent it back for repair. Main board was exchanged and now it's working fine with the latest version. Just bad luck I guess.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: standby, ota-update, samsung-galaxy-s-3
---


# Question
Title: Google Play Music offline files cannot be found
So I have a very odd problem. When I mark my songs for offline use in Google Play Music, they download just fine and are available offline. However, when I go to the `/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache` directory, there are **no** files in there.

Does anyone know how to find my files or fix what's wrong?

I'm very confused and have already tried factory restoring my phone. I am using a Samsung Galaxy S3 (Verizon) with the stock ROM which I've rooted.

# Answer
> 1 votes
So I figured this out. Somewhere along the line, Google moved the offline music/cache to `/data/data/com.google.android.music/`.

---
Tags: files, google-play-music, cache
---


# Question
Title: Galaxy Gio doesn't find GPS satellites after minutes of searching
I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Gio (GT-S5660). When I try to connect to the GPS satellites, 75% of the time the built-in GPS is unable to locate me within a few minutes. I keep seeing the blinking GPS icon. The other 25% of the time I get a GPS signal within 15 seconds.

Is this unusual behavior? If yes, what can I do to find the cause of the problem? Are there any known "death grip" issues related to GPS chips?

I should note that I don't have a data subscription for my phone and I've disabled mobile internet on my device, but I have offline maps (certain areas in Google Maps and my entire country in MapDroid) so the GPS chip should be able to operate without data or WiFi.

# Answer
> 3 votes
I discovered an app called GPS Test that assists in finding satellites by showing how many are currently in view. Basically, I just move my phone around until I can pick up enough satellites. Then I hold it still until my position has been locked in. After the lock-in I just use my phone like I normally would.

I look like an idiot when I try to pick up a GPS signal by holding my phone up weirdly, but at least it works now.

For those of you who are interested, you can find a full write-up of my solution here. You can download the app for free on the Google Play Store.

By the way, I'm on Gingerbread now. Samsung has released an official update since I posted my question a few weeks ago. As far as I can tell, the GPS reception didn't improve after updating.

# Answer
> 6 votes
Apparently Samsung has a lot of problems handling the GPS feature.

It is no news that the Galaxy S is really flawed regarding location (see this). Personally, using one, I have felt the pain, as I had the same problems. I don't know if the problem is the same with the Gio, but some of the things I've tried were:

* Turn GPS off and then back on;
* Reboot the phone;
* Bang my head on the wall.

It also appears that the problem tends to be resolved by upgrading the OS. What is yours?

**More:** there are several ways to reduce the GPS problem on the SGS, check that thread out, I hope you get some ideas for your problem.

Personally, I don't think the "death grip" is a problem, nevertheless you can make some tests to check out if it really makes a difference (I actually don't know where the GPS receiver is located within the phone).

The fact that you have no Internet connection is also not a factor.

Also make note that you can obtain a course location via network triangulation and/or wifi networks.

# Answer
> 5 votes
Without a data plan you actually have two big problems with GPS.

Firstly without a dataplan the coarse location via network triangulation or wifi networks won't work properly, as your phone needs to query Google's central database of phone network tower IDs, Wifi point IDs and their location, this is a huge amout of data that's updating constantly, so your phone only ever has a small cache of recent data for the location near where it was last needed. This means that with no dataplan your phone can't quickly get your rough location to help it out (coarse location is accurate to anywhere from about 30m to 2 miles depending on your location, better in more urban areas, and you're missing out on this).

If you have no data then another problem you'll have is that your phone will almost never have the current assisted GPS data. The GPS satellites periodically transmit an almanac of all their current, precise *actual* locations (which can vary from their predicted locations by quite a long way for various reasons), this data is only transmitted by the satellites on a very slow bandwidth transmission, rebroadcasting a few times an hour. Most phones just connect to a server over the internet to quickly grab this almanac data, yours needs to wait until it's received the entire message from the satellites before it can properly calculate your location.

# Answer
> 3 votes
I have Galaxy 3 (GT-I5800) and 7" Galaxy Tab at hand, and I can confirm their GPS performance is abysmal. It also seems to deteriorate over time.. unless I'm imagining things.

The best way to get lock is to be outside, stand still and open the Google Maps. It can still take minutes and sometimes it just doesn't get lock at all, but if you move, or start some random Android app first, you can keep going for half an hour and not get a lock once.

My guess is that Samsung engineers are just plain bad at designing GPS antennas and the software side is not brilliant either.

I don't know how the GPS could get worse over time except some connector coming loose or drivers accumulating crappy data, but that's how it feels in practice. The effect remained the same on the Galaxy 3 after upgrade from Android 2.1 to 2.2. If anything, it went worse.

# Answer
> 0 votes
If your net is enable, The agps module would be active, which can accelerate satellites searching. In my experience, if your apgs is active, you would locate your location in 5s~10s(find day). That only gps locate your location is so slow that any guys can\`t bear it. :-). So, try enable your wifi/3G net.

By the way， the gps chip manufacturer provide an agps server, your mobile pad will connect this server by your net while you start gps location. Sometimes, the server can not be accessed， but it\`s little possibility.

May good luck!

# Answer
> 0 votes
I found out that I can access GpsTest2 (similar to LbsTestMode) using the access code

```
*#*#3214789650#*#*

```

Could this help in trying any possible fixes? My default settings are M-Based, supl.google.com:7276.

# Answer
> 0 votes
I also recently purchased the Galaxy Gio S5660 and was quite disappointed as it seemed the GPS did not work at all. I had to enable the location assist just to get some form of location that seemed vaguely accurate and even then its best only went to 120m accuracy.

I installed both GPS Test (as mentioned by Pieter above) and GPSFix from the android store and now I get up to 4m accuracy indoors. I have not tested this in real navigation conditions as yet but the change so far is very impressive.

It seems both GPS Test and GPSFix improve the AGPS functionality by updating some information on the phone. GPS Test does this via the menu - Settings - Update AGPS. To check I restarted the phone and then tried GPS Test again. Within 20 seconds I had a fix with 4m accuracy. I was not moving during my tests which can also have an impact as suggested by others.

I also have the Galaxy S2 and found that the S2 detect the satellites from the same location with much better strength. This to me indicate the antenna of the Gio is not that good. I attempted to change the position of the phone, removed the back cover, and tried some strange looking stances but no real improvement.

My phone configuration:

> Samsung Galaxy Gio GT-S5660
>
> Android: 2.2.1
>
> Baseband: S5660XXKB9
>
> Kernel: 2.6.32.9-perfroot@DELL104 #1
>
> Build: FROYO.XXKC4

# Answer
> -1 votes
Typing `*#*#3214789650#*#*` worked for me once gpstest2 opens up you can then go to commands-\>Get position it gave me lock on some satellites and i was able to get my accurate position in maps without WiFi and gprs

I also found a useful app in android market known as 'gpsFix' which pretty much does the same thing but it had trouble finding satellites when i was indoors.

# Answer
> -1 votes
try installing "gps booster" from the android market (nay, google play). It runs automatically once you start your gps and enhances the performance of the in-built GPS unit. To maintain a gps lock you can also consider installing tracker booster. it's easy to use and can be run in the background. I hope this helps.

---
Tags: gps, samsung-galaxy-gio
---


# Question
Title: How can I establish an AD-HOC Wi-Fi connection on my tablet?
I'm not an expert in this kind of subject. I'm reading that I need to root my tablet.

What does root mean? *All the instructions are really difficult.*

How can I make this AD-HOC Wi-Fi connection in my Sony S tablet?

I'm running Android 4.0

# Answer
There are two other Q&As here which might help you (in fact, there are several more, but most of them -- as you wrote -- are a bit "techy" or, as you put it, "really difficult"):

If rooting your device is no problem for you, the second approach should be possible also without the SDK -- if you have a terminal emulator such as Android Terminal Emulator installed on your Android device. You could then execute the commands quoted there within the terminal emulator, but probably need to prefix them with the `su` command (to have them run by root):

```
su ifconfig wlan0 up
su iwconfig mode auto;iwconfig wlan0 essid "your SSID" channel 11 mode auto
su ifconfig wlan0 10.0.0.x netmask 255.255.255.0

```

As explained,

> *your SSID* should be replaced with the name of your Adhoc network, and *10.0.0.x* is a different IP you give each device.

I didn't test/verify that, but from my Linux knowledge, it sounds quite reasonable. Drawback is, you would need to execute those commands each time you need to establish the ad-hoc connection -- but here some other app could kick in, once you verified the steps are working. One I found is Script Manager - SManager -- but there were some easier ones I just cannot remember at the moment. If this is an acceptable approach to you, I can update my answer and add a few more tools to compensate.

**EDIT:**

Here's the one I had in mind to make the script-running easier: Scripter
> 5 votes

---
Tags: ad-hoc-networks
---


# Question
Title: Is there an app/tool/setting for reading tiny websites?
I hate visiting websites that lack mobile views. Two examples are Phoronix and Gamasutra. They have huge amounts of navigation/advertising on the sides, and the actual article text is ridiculously small. Even zooming in does not help.

Is there something on Android similar to iPhone's reader feature? I'd like to strip a site's bad layout and read just the main text (larger font, wrap-around based on my screen width, etc.).

For what it's worth, I'm on a Galaxy S III.

# Answer
> 0 votes
The best I have for now is the app Readability available from Google Play Store:

> Readability turns any Web page into a clean view for reading now or later on your computer or Android device. With the Readability app, you can catch up reading you've saved with the free Readability add-on for your Web browser. Already a favorite on Kindle e-readers, now you can enjoy the benefits of Readability on your Android devices.

---
Tags: browser, internet
---


title: Make calls directly from contacts

text:
# Question
Title: Make calls directly from contacts
There are many contacts in which I have more than one phone number listed. I want to call the default number of the contact directly without going to the Infinity view and select the number to call. How to do this?

# Answer
As 3rd party apps are acceptable, there are some available which look promising. Not sure, though, that they completely fulfill the request, they should still be worth a look:

* GO Contacts EX -- from the well-known GO-Team, and with an excellent rating. Feature list mentions two things: "Smart dialing" (just type a part of the number, and it will be found) -- and "speed dial". The former is not what you look for, the latter is probably something like "favorites on 0 to 9".
* DW Contacts & Phone & Dialer promises the dialer "has many options to make it exactly to your wishes"
* exDialer offers "speed dial" and promises a lot of flexibility
* Dialer One is also worth a try -- feature-rich, high rated and regularly updated
* Angel Dialer seems to be highly configurable (and again is high rated)
* Eir Fast Dialer -- as the name suggest, this one promises fast dialing, and seems a promising candate indeed

As said, I cannot promise any of those will do exactly what you wish. But having checked many of them, these seem to be the best candidates. Personally, I'm not initiating too many calls, so I'm still contend with the default dialer...
> 2 votes

# Answer
You can create a "Direct Dial" shortcut on your home screen to do this:

1. On Android 1.x through 2.x (and on some replacement Launcher apps on newer OS versions) long-press on empty home screen space, and select `Shortcuts -> Direct dial`. On Android 3.x and above, open the app tray, and swipe to Widgets. Then find the `Direct dial` widget and drag/drop it to the home screen.
2. Select the contact's phone number from the list.

Now by tapping on the created shortcut you will call the number directly, as opposed to having to select the number from drop-down.
> 6 votes

# Answer
Open the contact and:

* Option 1: long press the desired phone number. A pop up will appear. Select Set Default.
* Option 2: press menu button and select Mark as default.

My phone uses Android 4.0.3.
> 3 votes

# Answer
In my rooted LG Optimus One (P500) I did the following in my stock contact application:

1. Added an existing contact with more than one phone number to my favourite list.
2. Opened that contact and long pressed on the phone number which I would like to make it as default. This is not required, if there a number is already assigned as default.
3. In my favourites list, I see the contact name and a button with phone icon. Touching the phone icon now calls the default number.

This is also verified with default contact app of Sony Ericsson SK17i running 4.0.3 (stock and unrooted)

The same can also be done without adding to favourites. Long press of the contact in the contact list opens up a menu. In that menu, touching "call contact" calls the default number.
> 0 votes

# Answer
I am quite surprised this has not been said here yet...

You can slide the list item of your contact to the right to directly call the default number. Also, you can slide it left to send a message to that number.

To set the default, long press on the number and "mark as default" or via the menu button, in the desired contact view.

I saw this on Android 2.2 and 2.3 on my Samsung Galaxy Fit. I'm not sure the same dialer app is used on other phones...
> 0 votes

---
Tags: contacts, calls
---


# Question
Title: How can I flash ClockWorkMod on my Samsung Galaxy Fit running froyo?
I was following instructions on xda-developers to install a new ROM, then it linked to these instructions about installing CWM on Samsung GT-S5670. The problem is, there's a Warning there that says:

> I take no support for RFS file system So this Recovery will not work for Stock ROM or Custom ROM that using RFS file system. Also this Recovery will not work for froyo baseband

My device matches **both** conditions. I did a `mount` and checked the output, both `/system` and `/cache` are RFS. And I'm running stock Android 2.2.1 JXKA4 baseband (And there's no official update from what I know).

Now, I searched everywhere, and found someone who ported this to support RFS filesystems. I'm not sure that's what I want though, because I will be installing an ext4 ROM.

I also read in the forums about people bricking their device with ROM Manager, as it is not currently supported... (and with the method I linked to also with android 2.2)

I guess I definitely need Odin, but can't find the right version (official or not) of CWM to flash? What do I risk trying to flash the one on xda-developers forum, most probably bricking right?

Or maybe should I use another recovery for my device?

**UPDATE**: I just read this thread. It seems there is not other way but to:

> First of all upgrade to Gingerbread via Kies/ODIN. Then, install CWM via ODIN. Download any ROM and flash via CWM.

So, for CWM 5 on Samsung Galaxy Fit to work, you need to have Gingerbread flashed, and ad my phone has never had the Gingerbread official update, I think I will have to flash another stock ROM (another region), then flash CWM, then probably flash a custom ROM. Additionally I thought I might install that RFS based CWM to backup stock ROM, then go on flashing a custom ROM.

I'll try it, and if it works, I'll post an answer and accept it.

# Answer
This is what I ended up doing, just in case this might help someone else:

* I tried flashing CWM 5 for RFS file systems via Odin. It's actually straightforward, and then the phone reboots normally. However, trying to get to the recovery mode fails. (I'm not sure how exactly, but it wouldn't work for me, I think it hanged at the recovery screen with android written on it).
* (I freaked out) Then I downloaded a stock ROM (indian, based on 2.3.6) from samfirmware. Flashed it through Odin again. The device reboots (and takes some time) and you're on 2.3.6!
* Then I flashed CWM 5 for Galaxy Fit (also from Odin) from the forums. It went smoothly. It will also boot into the stock ROM, and into the recovery.
* From there, I didn't really try to do a Nandroid backup. (I supposed it would fail).
* Then I formatted /data, /cache, ... Then moved the update zip file (the ROM) onto the SD card. And from recovery, installed it.

It's really not a big deal, if you're worried as I was. A simple backup of all your user data and apps via TitaniumBackup or similar, and your contacts synced to Google or exported to the SD in csv format, and you won't even feel the transition.
> 0 votes

---
Tags: clockworkmod-recovery, samsung-galaxy-fit
---


# Question
Title: What happens when an SDcard is inserted?
I have a rooted Sony Tablet S, and one of my issues with it is that there is little onboard storage. The Sony-recommended way of dealing with this is to transfer files between internal and external storage, as many apps do not have access to the external storage.

Having rooted the device, however, I am able to use `mount -o bind /mnt/sdcard2 /mnt/sdcard/2` to mount this. I was then intending to rename the media folder on my external sdcard to .media, and use `mount -o bind /mnt/sdcard2/.media/$F /mnt/sdcard/media/$F/external` for each folder `$F` in that directory. The problem with this is that on removal of the external sdcard, or on reboot, these mounts are lost.

On my Maemo phone I did something similar, and was able to have this mount behaviour occur when the external storage was attached. As Maemo5 is a truly open OS I was able to do this fairly easily, and there was a lot of community support.

When trying to do the same under Android I have come across an app called Tasker that performs actions as I would need, however this is paid software and I would prefer not to have to install something that performs actions which should be build into the operating system.

## TLDR;

I'd like to know what is actually happening on my device when an SDcard is inserted - are scripts run? Are signals sent which could be used to trigger scripts? Has anyone attempted to do similar (I don't understand why this would not be the default behaviour to be honest - the fact that external storage is hidden from apps is frustrating to say the least)

# Answer
> 1 votes
If your intention is to have your script run each time the card is inserted, or the device is booted, I'd recommend the already mentioned app Tasker, maybe in connection with Scripter. The latter can be used to execute (and manage?) scripts, but AFAIR you can do that part with tasker as well.

You would need to create 1 task (execute your script), and 2 profiles using this task (as there is no possibility for a logical OR with the conditions). One is for the boot\_completed event, the other is for the inserted SD-card. That should do it.

In case of trouble (or hard understanding), just comment and I see what I can do :)

---
Tags: external-sd
---


# Question
Title: How to specify where Samsung S5830's camera saves photos to
I have a Samsung S5830 phone which has Android on it.

When I look at:

* Task Manager -\> Summary

It appears that my, small, sim card is being filled up with data whilst, my larger, External SD card is relatively empty.

I'd prefer the camera to save images to my SD card. Not the sim.

But, I have no idea how to tell it to do so.

Any suggestions?

# Answer
> 1 votes
Your device, Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830, should be running Android 2.3. If so, you can set the storage location while within the camera app:

1. Access the camera app;
2. On your screen should be what looks like a cog wheel, tap on it;

> for your device, while in landscape, **should be** at the left/bottom of your screen.
3. On the next screen, there's a scrollable list, make your way to part where you can set your storage location, tap on the prefered location to select.

The camera app should now store the photos taken into the selected location (Memory card or internal storage).

---
Tags: camera, storage
---


# Question
Title: On it's own, my Verizon Droid Razr (recently with ICS), went into debug mode. How do I get it out of debug mode?
This evening I took my phone out of my pocket and the screen was on and it was in debug mode. I assume it is debug mode - there is a column of text right justified near the top of the screen that changes with time. When my finger touches the screen a vertical and horizontal line appear and track my finger movement and there is a trail left showing where I moved my finger. Along the top of the screen there are fields which display info about the finger movement. I am not a developer, but I assume this is debug mode.

My question is: How can I get it out of debug mode? HELP!!!

# Answer
Do you have "{} Developer options" under Settings menu? If yes, go to Settings-\>Developer Options and uncheck the boxes under "Input", "Drawing" "Monitoring" sections.

I presume these should be not available with standard ROMs (i.e. produced by carrier/that come with phone). In that sense, I am bit surprised on why you have it, unless you have CM's or other similar ROM.
> 5 votes

---
Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, motorola-droid, usb-debugging
---


title: GPS stopped working after update

text:
# Question
Title: GPS stopped working after update
I recently asked a question on this site about how to stop my USB transfers from being so slow on my rooted Galaxy S2. It was suggested to me that I update my kernel and/or ROM. That seemed reasonable, so I did. I now have the latest kernel version and latest ROM.

And now, after doing so, my GPS is completely unresponsive.

So now I'm playing feature-whack-a-mole again. Something I was doing a while back when I could either have my compass or my WiFi, but not both.

How do I get out of this? How do I get my GPS back and not be juggling every other feature on my phone?

(... and I'm not even sure my USB problems are solved...)

# Answer
> 3 votes
The GPS was fixed by downloading a "tweak" script, whatever that is, from here. I originally found it on this thread on XDA-Developers.

---
Tags: gps
---


title: SD Card fills up with GPS/*.txt files

text:
# Question
Title: SD Card fills up with GPS/*.txt files
My Galaxy ACE SD card fills up with .txt files in the GPS folder when the GPS is on. I often run out of space. This doesn't happen with my other Android phones.

How can I diagnose and fix this?

# Answer
> 4 votes
It's most probably a buggy 3rd party app (preinstalled by Samsung or by you).

To find the offender I'd install Permissions and narrow the problem down to apps with **precise GPS location** permissions.
If this list is huge you can also cross-check with running apps (Task Killer or QuiteTaskmanager, the latter lists more but is not available in Google Play).

If you're rooted you could also run 'lsof | grep sdcard' to see which processes have these gps/txt files open and subsequently delete the offending app, here's a sample output:

```
1|root@android:/ # lsof | grep sdcard
com.googl  2635    [...] /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/[...]
com.fsck. 16308    [...] /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.fsck.k9/[...]

```

---
Tags: sd-card, gps, samsung-galaxy-ace
---


# Question
Title: Is there a way  to compare networks in terms of internet connection?
I want to compare two different networks and choose the "better one". Better could be that I want to find out if the one I want to switch to would handle VoIP applications, like a Skype call in particular.

Is there any way for me to compare two networks like this? I have two SIM cards and and an Android phone with CyanogenMod 7.2

# Answer
> 5 votes
You can always perform a speed test and check for packet loss( Speedtest.net, pingtest)

Alternatively, you can try calling the skype Voice Testing Service which should be in your contacts from before, and if it isnt there the username is echo123 i belive.

---
Tags: connection-issues, data-connection
---


title: Failed to find init.goldfish.rc

text:
# Question
Title: Failed to find init.goldfish.rc
adb shows that I have init.goldfish.rc present in the emulator device. I guess this file must exist somewhere in PC. However I could not find the file in the PC. Why it is so?

# Answer
Do an `adb pull /init.goldfish.rc` and the file will be on your PC :-)
> 1 votes

---
Tags: adb
---


# Question
Title: Manual Update: Exclude a certain apps from notifications
I have an application with a manual update available. I do not want to update it (I prefer the older one).

In the previous Google Market app (it changed, sorry I do not remember older version number) it was possible to exclude the app from further notifications.

With the current Google Market app I'm not able to do it anymore, and I always have the "You have 1 SW update available" notification on top screen (I have auto-update feature set).

How can I configure the Google Market app not to bother about that app anymore? (or at least until further updates, in the future).

Thanks in advance !

# Answer
> 1 votes
There's no real solution -- but depending on how much this annoys you, a work-around is available:

1. install AppBrain App Market. You can think of this app as an "alternate frontend" to the Google Playstore (and yes, it is no stand-alone market, as all updates/installs are re-routed to the Playstore-App).
2. log-in to the Appbrain Website with your browser and your Google-Account to initialize your account with Appbrain
3. now login with the Appbrain App you installed, and synchronize your installed apps.
4. Appbrain now shows you available updates to your apps. You can run them in a batch, or one by one, or can *decide one by one* whether you want to *skip just this update*, or *skip this (and all future) updates to this app* -- so it will not annoy you with updates you are not interested in.
5. start the Playstore App again, go to your apps list, open the settings, disable all update checks, updates, etc., and close it again.

Now the original Playstore won't ever notify you about *any* update whatsoever. Instead, you use the Appbrain App for updates. When looking for some new app, you can chose to use either of them. You might also decide to install the AppBrain Ad Detector along, and then probably will use the Appbrain App only -- as it helps you avoiding apps with excessive ads.

---
Tags: google-play-store, application-autoupdate
---


# Question
Title: How can I use passthrough/reverse-tether on the HTC One V with Ubuntu?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> How do you set up internet pass-through (reverse-tether) on linux?

I read that the phone needs to be connected to HTC Sync, thats not available for Linux. Has anybody been able to do a passthrough?

# Answer
> 0 votes
There are several Q&As already available here which probably help you in getting started. The probably most usefuls include:

There are also some apps available on the Playstore which could prove helpful, e.g.:

As far as it looks to me, reverse tethering alsways seems to require root. Also, if your computer just provides ad-hoc network -- without root (and some special tricks) most Android devices are not able to use that.

---
Tags: reverse-tether, htc-one-v
---


# Question
Title: Opening URLs in Tasker and get HTTP response and content successfully
I am currently doing an automation in Tasker wherein I can open URLs on browser one by one. So far, I have successfully opened URLs by putting the URL list in a text file and have Tasker access it. My problem is, I want to know if each URL has been successfully or better, get the site content? How do I do this? Even if a site has been successfully opened, HTTPR still returns -1. I don't understand why. I also don't know how to use HTTP Get. I'm using Android Emulator by the way. Please help! Thanks!

# Answer
> -1 votes
There's a nice German tutorial on AndroidPIT (same page using Google Translate), explaining this in detail. Moreover, you might want to check with the Q&A How to check success status of opened URL in Tasker?.

---
Tags: tasker
---


title: Mounting as USB drive before syncing?

text:
# Question
Title: Mounting as USB drive before syncing?
I'm going through the different alternatives to synchronize my ICS-based Samsung Nexus with Outlook.

While sync works fine over wifi, I'd rather use USB which The Missing Sync is supposed to be able to sync over USB, but the documentation seems meant for older releases of Android, and I don't know how to get the Samsung to work.

It says: "Before synchronizing with a USB cable, confirm that the Android device is mounted as a USB Drive on the computer", but doesn't explain what to do on ICS.

I tried either MTP or PTP, but still get the error "Unable to sync: no bluetooth, wifi, or USB connection is available".

Thank you.

---

Edit: I followed "Missing Sync for Android: Syncing via USB", but it fails syncing with USB:

1. The Androphone supports "USB Tethering", as seen in Settings \> Wireless & Networks \> More... \> Tethering & portable hotspot \> USB Tethering. Do NOT check the option!
2. Turn off the Nexus, remove the battery for 1 minute, put it back and turn the Nexus back on. Wait until it fully boots.
3. Connect the Nexus to the PC with the USB cable
4. If prompted to mount the SD card, choose "Charge only"; If it is mounted with no prompt, slide the Notifications section down and select "Charge only"
5. Open the Missing Sync application on the Nexus, click on the menu button (three, vertical points) \> Settings \> Unselect "Secure Sync". Close.

No "Secure Sync", only "Secure WiFi sync" which is checked by default
6. Click on Sync, and choose to sync via USB, and wait a few seconds for syncing via USB starts.

"Unable to sync, no bluetooth, wifi or USB connection is available".

Unpaired wifi, tried again: "Unable to sync, no bluetooth, wifi or USB connection is available"

# Answer
I'm using version 4.0.3 on a Samsung Galaxy S2.
To mount the internal storage and any installed SD card via the USB do the following:

1. Unplug USB cable.
2. Goto Settings -\> More... -\> USB utilities -\> Connect storage to PC and follow the instructions.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: sync, outlook
---


title: Run X11 natively via Chroot in Android?

text:
# Question
Title: Run X11 natively via Chroot in Android?
Is it possible to run X11 natively in Android via Chroot ? Without any kind of VNC ?

Thanks.

# Answer
So you are asking about a native Android X server? That's the only article on a native X11 I found so far. All others seem to work with VNC somehow.

Not sure how the current state of the linked project is, as I could find no additional information (yet).
> 1 votes

---
Tags: linux, graphics
---


# Question
Title: How accurate is the GPS in my Mobile Phone?
I was wondering how accurate is the GPS is in my HTC Desire Android compared to a dedicated hand held GPS unit or in car satnav?

The reason I ask is that I have read articles complaining that the iPhone's GPS is not very accurate and wondered if it applied to all mobiles.

# Answer
I have an HTC Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) that I had Google Maps installed on. Google maps gave me the number of satellites that it could see in parentheses at all times. When I used my phone's internal GPS, I would get about 4 satellites, when I would use an external Bluetooth GPS, I would get about 12 satellites. When I use my TomTom, I get about 7. The number of satellites is the biggest deal for getting good location; the more the better. I never tried an external GPS antenna on my HTC Kaiser to see if it was just the antenna that was the issue or if it was something else.

The program called "GPS Status" available from Google Play Store, will show you how accurate your GPS is at any given time. The number of bins with green bars in them is the number of satellites that your phone can "hear/see" at any given time and then it also gives you the accuracy in meters on the display.
> 18 votes

# Answer
The GPS chip used in the Android devices (usually SiRF Star 3/4) are of civilian grade. Civilian grade chips has some deliberate limitations in par with military grade chips. The civilian chips does have some intentional errors called "Selective Availablity".

Hence, whether it is Android or iPhone or Bluetooth GPS receiver or a dedicated unit which could be handheld or the one in car comes under civilian category which cannot be more accurate than 20 meters under the best possible satellite lock (of course, with AGPS it can be improved). Please check the Wikipedia article which says "...improving the precision of civilian GPS from 100 meters (330 ft) to 20 meters (66 ft)."

iPhone uses BroadCOM's BCM4750 chip and Android phones (Samsung Galaxy S2) uses SiRF Star 4.

Interestingly, a web page claims "The published steady state position accuracy of the BCM4750 is 2m.", which in my opinion could not be correct. In this research publication it is said as "iPhone 4 exhibits an offset (of about 20 metres)", which seems to be more scientific and correlates with the Wikipedia page.

However, all these talks are about hardware aspect only. It is the software that reads the input from chip, processes it and displays. If it is not doing a good job, well, still it spoils the show.

So, finally my answer would be again be a question "If all these civilian GPS devices cannot be accurate by more than 20 meters, does it mean anything to say X is good and Y is bad? ;-) "

**Update** Thanks to @Ropo I observe that Selective Availability is indeed removed. Here is the official statement, which says:

> Selective Availability (SA) was an intentional degradation of public GPS signals implemented for national security reasons.
>
> In May 2000, at the direction of President Bill Clinton, the U.S government discontinued its use of Selective Availability in order to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide.
>
> The United States has no intent to ever use Selective Availability again. In September 2007, the U.S. government announced its decision to procure the future generation of GPS satellites, known as GPS III, without the SA feature. Doing this will make the policy decision of 2000 permanent and eliminate a source of uncertainty in GPS performance that had been of concern to civil GPS users worldwide.

Please take a look at a question at StackOverflow as well.
> 6 votes

# Answer
Assisted GPS (AGPS) chips that you find in most cell phones require some assistance from the cell phone network (the towers) to get an initial fix. No matter how accurate they are, they won't work well without a cell tower in range compared to a stand-alone GPS chipset.
> -1 votes

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Tags: htc-desire, gps
---


title: Battery Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro

text:
# Question
Title: Battery Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro
I've a Sony Ericsson XPeria Mini Pro with Android 2.3.3. I noted that the battery ends really fast.

I don't have enable GPS service, Mobile data, Bluetooth. Only phone and wifi. In less than two days the battery is drill out. I don't listen music and I don't play any games.

I'd like to know if apps are closing correctly but I can't find any app which tell me which apps are runing (without mixing with the running services).

My guess is that may be the services (facebook, what's app, etc) are trying to connect and if I'm not connected to wifi there is no internet so they will keep trying and trying... Could it be the cause?

Thanks!

# Answer
> 3 votes
There's a list of things one can do to improve battery life. The easiest (attention, black humor) is turning the device off, next to switching it to airplane mode. In general these two things are not worth a consideration -- but with all things operable, I've seen no smartphone yet lasting more than 2 days. My old HTC Buzz currently makes it a week (7 days, and still 40%+ left) -- but it neither has a SIM card inserted, nor Wifi enabled (so you see, most energy goes for being permanent online; I just carry the Buzz as backup, since I didn't yet transfer all apps to my new phone). My Motorola Droid 2 ends up at about 70% at the end of the day (after about 17h runtime; so it would basically last ~2 days), and I'm not really doing that much.

But to provide something useful, here comes a short (and incomplete) list:

* One of the largest energy consumer is the display -- so this area is where you can save most:
    + make the display timeout as small as possible (and just as large as needed). 30s is a good value.
    + you probably do not need 100% brightness, so turn it down as low as possible. Handicap: if it is not bright enough when you need it, it's hard to find the appropriate setting. On some devices/ROMs some toggle-switches are integrated into the status area (if not, there are apps to do this), so you can blindly draw it down and hit the correct corner to toggle it up.
* at least on the Motorola Droid, there's one consumer clearly topping the display using twice as much: UMTS up/download. So if you do not really need to constantly transfer big data, or rely on UMTS as there's no GSM available (unlikely), switch 3G off and force your phone to GSM mode. Not relevant for data only, but also for talk (just with less energy difference).
* WiFi is also a main consumer -- even in standby. So when not needed, switch it off (same for Bluetooth).
* as we are in this category: Though often suggested, GPS standby is not worth mentioning -- as long as it stays standby. Only problem here are apps that will then make use of it for localized ads and the like. So if you rarely use GPS, just turn it off as well.

I could almost write a book on this, as there would be so much more to be mentioned. So just some little additional hints concerning apps which might be of assistance:

* Battery Saver has an interesting concept: Running a service in the background, it regularly checks the systems report on the strength of cell and Wifi signal (the system updates those data either, so that's no costly action). Finding one (or both) of them too weak to be useful (e.g. if you're sitting in a bunker, or some Faraday box), it switches them completely off -- and checks in intervals whether it makes sense to turn them back on. This is especially useful if you often experience "dead zones", where your cell radio would then power up to max, desperately trying to find some cell tower. And talking about "limiting your smartphone experience" makes no sense here: you either get no contact, as thee's no signal ;)
* JuiceDefender is available in multiple versions (ranging from basic to plus to ultimate), and some hold it very high. It tries to save energy in several ways -- the best known being to "stutter" your data, by switching off all background sync, only permitting it in intervals. It offers much more possibilities, also depending on the version used.

Again, these are only very basic hints -- there's much more one could do. So you could use some Profile apps like e.g. Tasker or EasyProfiles, Timeriffic or Llama -- to adjust your settings based on different situations. So you can e.g. put your Android device to airplane mode when you sleep (time based), adjust screen timeout when reading ("when runs"), switch Wifi off/on when leaving/returning home (location based), and many other things. Guess you've got the idea :)

**EDIT:**

If you're still awake at this point, and like to read more, checkout What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?

---
Tags: 2.3-gingerbread, battery, battery-life, sony-xperia-mini-pro
---


# Question
Title: Why did auto-sync start to upload that much?
It's been a month now that the auto-sync option on my phone makes it upload 30 MB per day *(in addition to my usual upload/download rate)* and still download only a few hundreds of KB. It blew up my quota in only 10 days so I had to deactivate it. The only app that I installed at that time was the Google Doc app.

I recently reactivated the auto-sync and I unchecked the doc sync in: `Settings > Account > my account`, but I'm still uploading 10 spare MB per day. I only kept Gmail, contacts and calendar syncing *(just as before)*.

**My questions are:**

* Do you know what can cause this, why it changed without any visible reason ?
* Are there third-party apps using the Android auto-sync option to enable/disable their own syncing process ?

**Note:**

I use 3GWatchDog Pro, and this spare MB are shown under "Android System" so it's not very helpful.

If relevant, my device is the Motorola DEFY

# Answer
# Background

There are several applications that use the auto-sync feature from Android to regularly update their contents. In fact, according to the Google documentation, you can configure synchronization options for any of your apps.

Auto-sync is used to allow applications to synchronize data on their own schedule. This can be disabled, and accessing each application, you can manually sync its data.

Take note that automatic data synchronization is disabled if Background data is unchecked.

Some examples of accounts that can be found here are Google; DropBox; Viper; Facebook.

---

# Configure general sync settings

To access the list of accounts currently using auto-sync, thus enabling or disabling the auto-sync for each one, you need to:

1. Tap your device "home" button;
2. Tap "Settings";
3. Tap "Accounts & Sync".

From here you can see your accounts using auto-sync, what define whether they are allowed to auto-sync or not:

indicates that some or all of an account’s information is configured to sync automatically.

indicates that none of an account’s information is configured to sync automatically.

---

# Upload/Download

Depending on the accounts using auto-sync, they can send as well as receive data. As your account data grows, the data synchronization uses more KB to keep your information up to date on your device and on the host.

While synchronization doesn't transfer all the information back and forward, only transfer the "new stuff", since the last sync their may be a large amount of data to be updated on one side, thus causing a large transfer of data to take place.

---

# References
> 4 votes

---
Tags: 2.2-froyo, sync, motorola-defy
---


# Question
Title: Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1 on Galaxy Nexus showing droid
I've been testing the Galaxy Nexus with JB 4.1.1 and this is what happened yesterday. Has anyone seen this screen?

# Answer
> 10 votes
That screen means your device is in "download" mode, which allows it to be reflashed using Samsung's Odin utility (or the open source alternative Heimdall). It's accessed by holding the volume down button when powering on your Galaxy Nexus.

Also, to clear up some confusion, this is **not** Fastboot mode - that is different. You access fastboot mode by holding down both volume up and volume down while powering on your device, and it also gives you access to a bootloader menu which you can scroll through using the volume rocker. The image on the screen is also different, and your device will not respond to fastboot commands in Odin mode. This is what the fastboot screen looks like - as I noted, you can see that the most obvious difference is that the background image is not the same:

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, bootloader
---


# Question
Title: Why did my phone lose the ringtone configuration?
I've assigned a default ringtone and one other ringtone to my wife. She called me two days ago and the phone played the Galaxy SII ringtone. Next day, somebody else called me, and the same happened.

So, I assigned the ringtones again, but I was wondering if this happens often, does it happen to others, is there a reason it happened to me (did I do something wrong)...

Probably it's a bug. Last night, the OS updated itself, and the ringtones were not affected.

# Answer
I don't know if it could be your case, but if your phone is connected to your computer with UMS (USB Mass Storage) enabled along having a custom ringtone stored on your SD card (/ringtones folder) instead of MTP this will give you this kind of problem.

The phone will use a default ringtone since it cannot access the SD card files, because the UMS mode requires exclusive access to the mass storage.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: samsung-galaxy-s-2, ringtone
---


# Question
Title: Can I customize the list of text messages that I can send when I slide to 'Text' instead of 'Answer' for an incoming call?
I love the ICS feature that allows you to select 'Text' instead of 'Answer' or 'Ignore' for incoming calls, but I would love to be able to set what the options are for outgoing texts. Is this possible?

I am running ICS on a Droid RAZR MAXX.

Thanks!

# Answer
1) Go to Phone app

2) Tap Overflow Menu (triple verticle dots) \> Settings

3) Tap Quick responses
> 7 votes

# Answer
Just want to point out that it's a little different from the accepted answer on my phone, although I couldn't have found it without the accepted answer.

On mine, I:

* Go to the phone app
* Went to settings
* Quick responses

Hope that helps.
> 1 votes

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Tags: 4.0-ice-cream-sandwich, sms, customization
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# Question
Title: Minimized Apps: Do they consume more battery?
If I keep one or more app minimized in my Android Phone (Samsung Galaxy Y) will my mobile's battery will be consumed faster than if I had not minimized any application at all?

# Answer
> 7 votes
If an app does not run in the foreground, it is usually "frozen"; this means, its memory structure is kept (so you can "recall" it faster, and no additional I/O + CPU is needed to restart it) -- but gets (almost) no CPU-cycles assigned. There might be some exceptions when it needs to *do* things while backgrounded, but usually that would require the app to use a "service".

Thus, the "overhead" is minimal -- compared to the need of restarting it every time the user needs to access it. As for memory, the Android system is quite efficient in maintaining it: To explain it in easy terms, apps are put into different groups having different "priorities". Together with some other criteria, this decides which app can be killed if the system runs "Out Of Memory": The OOM-Killer (again, "Out Of Memory Killer") comes into action then and checks: Obviously, essential system processes should not be killed at all, the users foreground-session (which he is working in) should be the last to consider. But "closed" apps are first candidates, "background apps" the next, and not-so-essential services come after those.

Again, that is a simplified way to put it -- in reality, this looks a bit more complicated :)

**BUT:** if you think of task-killers to "improve battery life": Forget about that before starting to think about. They are usually rather contra-productive, as they work against the system. Few exceptions apply in terms of a malfunctioning app (e.g. consuming all your CPU and there's no other way to stop it).

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Tags: battery-life
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# Question
Title: What is the application space limit on Galaxy Nexus?
Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a 16GB internal memory and no external sdcard. I'm wondering if that means I have 16GB (or at least the free space left of that memory) to install applications?

# Answer
> 8 votes
Yes you have full 16GB for apps+data together in a single file system. You won't have to do any moving to SD card any more.
Google merged both partitions. It's just one big file system now with sections for the former parts. It's completely transparent, so no worries for you.

* Formerly: /data and /sdcard were separate partitions
* Galaxy Nexus / Nexus 7 and others running Jelly Bean: One single partition for both, i.e. no need to decide how to divide the space for both any more.

To make it more generic:
The partition layout will however not change for former phones (most probably), so devices which got upgraded to 4.x+ will still have separate file systems for both /data and /sdcard. If your device has an additional micro SD card this will also be separate still.

By the way: This is the reason why there's no USB-thumbdrive functionality any more for the Galaxy Nexus (because /sdcard is not a single partition any more and also there's no FAT32 formatted partition internally (except for SD cards if existent))

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Tags: samsung-galaxy-nexus, app2sd, storage
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