Android Tips and Tricks

This is a Tips and Tricks page for Android.

Summary

This page is a repository of tips and tricks which may be useful in dealing with Android devices.

See also our post 5 simple ways to save your good old Android for some helpful tips on keeping your Android device working well.

Safe Mode

Safe Mode can be used for maintenance, e.g. uninstalling a troublesome app, when the device won't start up normally. See Restart your Android Phone in Safe Mode to Troubleshoot Problems for details.

... or if that doesn't work, power it on while holding both volume keys down.

Tip: booting in safe mode prevents apps from starting automatically, so it will give you an idea of how fast the device would run if those apps were removed:
useful in a "my device is running slowly" situation.

Note: booting in safe mode seems to remove any "live" widgets from the home pages (on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 at least).

Transfering pictures to OSX

Android has two transfer modes PTP and MTP over USB.

At one Restart Party, in PTP mode using Image Capture the thumbnails didn’t show, a generic thumbnail was shown for each picture. The screen shot on one website suggests it should just work, however no solution was found. It appears that USB transfer on Android has some unfixed bugs and the following page may be of interest to all those using Android.

Another solution may be to use the new file transfer AirDroid 3 application. This is described on this web page: Moving Files between your Android and Desktop Gets Easier with AirDroid 3.

Privacy

Google and others track many activities happening in Android. Martin Sauter had a go at ensuring his privacy is respected and explains the things that he does on his Android based device to keep his private data as private as possible in My Android Privacy Configuration

Hardware tips

Screen repair

• Consider replacing full digitalizer rather than only the screen. £5 extra might make a more successful change.
• when purchasing screen make sure you have the ear speaker from old device if working. If not order as well (note for MotoG users).
• most screws are very similar. It helps to disassemble on A4 sheet and circle location of screws relative to phone.
• aquaint yourself with different type of connectors. Dome pull up, some clamp,...
• sturdy plastic tipped tweezers are useful.

Software-related tips

Keeping an Android phone in good working condition is as much about the software as the hardware (if not more). If a phone is running slow, a number of different things may help, such as a spring clean involving uninstalling unused apps and freeing up space by deleting unused files. If there is a lot of accumulated cruft to remove, and you are confident that everything important is backed up, it may be simpler to start from a 'clean slate' -- either with a factory reset or a complete reinstall of the OS. A factory reset is less drastic, but there are a number of good reasons why 'flashing the ROM' (i.e. installing a new/different/updated version of the OS) might also be a good choice.

Spring cleaning your phone

The easiest starting point at freshening up a phone is with a basic spring clean of apps and files. If the version of Android on your phone is still officially supported, you should also ensure you have installed the latest Android updates - although this is more for security-purposes than in the interests of a speed boost. If your phone is running a version of Android that is no longer maintained (sadly, this is common on phones older than a couple of years) then you should consider trying to upgrade the firmware with a custom ROM.

Factory Reset

A 'factory reset' is a brute-force way to restore your apps, user settings and data to the state they were in when you first received your phone. As such, treat factory resets with caution -- always consider carefully if there is anything on the phone that you would be upset to lose. A factory reset should not affect files that you have downloaded to the phone's SD card, but it is still recommended to back anything up that you do not have backed up already.

Also consider issues such as two-factor authentication before you reset a device - you do not want to be locked out of any services following your reset. For applications where you have two-factor auth enabled, ensure that you have secondary options (such as a backup set of codes) available.

The factory reset process can vary from phone to phone (and from version to version of Android), so to find out how to do it for a particular phone the best thing to do is a quick search for the specific device - e.g. 'sony xperia z1 compact factory reset'. This should bring up a number of results with the device-specific instructions.

Finally, do check that a factory reset is recommended for your specific device - in some cases it may not be a recommended.

See this forum thread, Factory Reset what is it, and why would you? for more information.

Custom ROMs

Thanks to Android's (partially) open-source credentials, there is a large (and often confusing) ecosystem of alternatives to the stock version of the Android operating system that can be installed on a device.

You may have heard of 'flashing your ROM' - while this sounds strange, it essentially means installing a different operating system (OS) on to your phone. This is the same idea, in principle, to installing a different OS on your computer. In the Android world, though, for various reasons, it's a more difficult process.

Flashing your ROM usually involves: finding a working ROM for your device; rooting your device; and installing the ROM. None of these is particularly simple. As such, it is worth considering the other options of administering first-aid to your device before trying to flash the ROM. That said, there are many other valid advantages of flashing your ROM that you might consider -- such as needing to move away from an out-of-date version of Android; to privacy concerns; to greater independence and control over your own possessions; and perhaps a preference for open-source over proprietary software. See 6 Reasons You Need to Be Using a Custom ROM for more information.

Finding a working ROM

Finding a working ROM is arguably the hardest part of the whole process. Whether or not your phone has a decent, recent ROM is entirely down to whether the community has taken on the task of supporting your device. It can be a bit of a minefield. The best place to start your journey is at https://forums.xda-developers.com, and searching for your device name in the search bar. You should find a sub-forum dedicated to your device.

From here it is usually a case of searching through threads for the latest information on which ROM is the best one to use.

You may have heard of CyanogenMod -- this was the original mainstream and most widely used custom ROM. Due to various shenanigans, CyanogenMod (CM) has recently been renamed to LineageOS. Other ROMs also exist - such as Android Open Kang Project (AOKP), or Android Ice Cold Project (AICP). Often these are usually forks of CM, or forks of the official Android (e.g. Copperhead OS). CyanogenMod itself is based on the open-source elements of the Android firmware. As such, different versions of CyanogenMod and other derivatives are based on a particular base version of the official Android. (For example, LineageOS 14.1 is based on Android 7.1 "Nougat".)

When looking for a custom ROM for your phone, it makes sense to look for one that is based on the most recent version of Android, but bearing in mind the newer versions are not always as stable. For security reasons, you should always try to install a ROM that is based on a version of Android that is still officially supported. If the Android version is still officially supported, then it still receives security updates - but do keep in mind that those security updates have to be incorporated into the custom ROM by the ROM maintainer - this is usually the case, but is always worth checking. A ROM-based on a supported Android isn't always available -- but you may find a ROM of an unsupported official version of Android where the maintainer tries to incorporate and backport security patches.

Usually the ROM maintainers will keep a list of what features of the phone work with the ROM. It's quite common to find that some features don't work, or only partially work, with a ROM, particularly those based on a version of Android that the phone manufacturer has not released for your device. Sometimes the issue might not bother you, depending on how you use your phone, and sometimes it might be a dealbreaker for you (e.g. the camera doesn't work.)

ROM Checklist:

• Based on supported Android base version?
• Security updates incorporated into ROM?
• How much of your phone works with the ROM?

Rooting your device

In order to flash your ROM, you'll first need to root your device (or unlock your bootloader and install a custom recovery - we'll stick with rooting for now). In a nutshell, rooting means gaining administrator privileges to the device in order to allow you to do whatever you want to it.

Gaining root access isn't without repercussions, so only do it if you are comfortable with what it means for your phone. As Uncle Ben told us, with great power comes great responsibility. It will also more than likely void any warranty you have, if you're still within one, and make you a persona non grata with any official tech support.

AndroidCentral has a good article - Everything you need to know about rooting your Android - that covers what rooting means, and some points to consider before you do it.

Rooting can be very specific to each manufacturer and each individual device - so the best advice again is to do a search for your specific phone, e.g. 'rooting sony xperia z1 compact'.

Flashing the ROM

Once you have your ROM, and your device has been rooted, you can flash your ROM.

Here be even more dragons than before. There's a chance you might brick your phone (i.e. put it into a non-working state, so it becomes as useful as a brick) if something goes wrong when you are flashing the ROM. Quite often there's a way to recover from such a disaster, but it can be frustrating, time-consuming, and a little bit scary. Even when you get the flashing to work, you might start up your phone and find that some apps no longer work for you properly. Or parts of your phone might no longer work. You might eventually find, that after 3 hours of flashing blood, sweat, and tears (hopefully no blood) that you are better off reverting back to where you were beforehand.

Having said all that, when it goes right, flashing can leave you with a device that is fresher, snappier, more up-to-date, less bloated, and generally nicer all-round.

Either way, always, ALWAYS, make a comprehensive backup of what is on your phone before you attempt to flash a new ROM. You should already be backing up any important files and documents that you keep on your phone (e.g. photos), but on top of that, before doing any flashing, you should take a NANDroid recovery backup. This is a full image of your phone that you can use to restore back to should anything go wrong. Find out more at What Is A Nandroid Backup and How Exactly Does It Work?

Again, the details of flashing the ROM can vary from device to device. A search is your friend here (e.g. flashing sony xperia z1 compact, or often you will find a step-by-step guide on the XDA forum thread where you found the ROM in the first place.