How to Boot Any Rooted and Non-Rooted Android Device into Recovery Mode

Almost all Android devices come with a recovery feature that allows you to do many task, such as install custom ROMs, wipe data, delete cache files from partitions, etc.

Recovery mode is very important on Android device to fix booting issue. If you have forgotten your password or unlock pattern on your device, you can also use it to perform a factory reset. This will delete all of your phone’s data and restore it to the default settings.

Booting into recovery mode is simple. All you need to do is just turn off your device and then reboot it by holding down some keys combination during boot sequence and your device will enter into recovery mode.

The key combinations differ depending on the device model. Here are some examples:

• Samsung Galaxy Series: Volume Up + Home + Power
• Galaxy Nexus (Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10): Volume Up + Volume Down + Power
• Motorola Droid X2: Volume Down + Power
• Devices With Camera Buttons: Volume Up + Camera

If your device isn’t on the list and none of the above methods work, you can search on Google using the keywords “how to boot <your device model> into recovery mode”.

Alternatively, you can use a third-party app called Quick Boot to access the recovery mode. The app lets you boot your device into recovery with just a few click. This will be extremely helpful if you don’t know the key combination to enter into the recovery mode on your android device. However, it requires root access which means you need to root your device. (Readhow to root an Android device.)

How to use Quick Boot (Reboot)

1. First download and install free Quick Boot(Reboot) app from Google Play Store.
2. Once installed, launch the app and you will see 4 different options; Reboot, Recovery, Bootloader and Power Off.

1. Choose the ‘Recovery’ option from the app screen and your device will reboot into Recovery Mode automatically.

How to get out from Recovery mode

To get out from recovery mode, press volume up or down buttons until you have ‘reboot system now’ highlighted, then press the power button and your device will reboot back to normal.

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How to Easily Install CM ROM with the Official CyanogenMod Installer

Cyanogenmod is one of the best and most widely-used custom ROMs in the Android world. It supports the most devices out there and offers a variety of features & enhancements that are not found in the official Android based firmwares of vendors.

Normally, installation of a custom ROM involves various steps like downloading files, flashing a custom recovery, booting and more.

Fortunately, the team behind CyanogenMod have offers an easy solution for installing the ROM called CyanogenMod Installer. All you have to do is just install the app on both the Android device and Windows computer, and follow the easy instructions, and the installation process will be done for you automatically behind the scenes. The best thing of it is you don’t need to root your devices. Now, let’s see how to install CM ROM using Cyanogenmod Installer.

Requirements

• Supported Android device. Check the supported device list here.
• USB debugging enabled. (Learn how to enable USB debugging mode here).
• CyanogenMod Installer for Android and Windows.

Note:
Before get started, make sure to backup all your important data and current ROM. This because the installer will reset your device to its factory settings during the process, and that will result in a full wipe of all your device’s contents.

Installation Procedure

1. Connect your device to the PC with your USB cable, and then launch the CM installer on your Android device. You may be prompted to enable Camera (PTP) mode for your USB connection. Tap ‘Continue’ on the installer and the check the mode in the settings.

2. Now, run the installer in your Windows computer. It will automatically update the installer and then detecting your device.

3. If everything goes well, you will see a message stating that your device has been successfully detected on your device screen. The installer will now start downloading its goodies.
4. Once done, you’ll be prompted to install the ROM. Just double-check that you have everything backed up to an external SD card or your PC, and when you’re ready, click theInstall button.

5. During this installation process, your device will reboot several times. Just make sure the USB connection is stable and follow any instructions that may appear there. In a few minutes, the CyanogenMod will successfully installed on your device.

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How to Backup Everything on Rooted and Non-rooted Android Phone

Whether you want to root your Android phone or install a custom rom, it’s recommended to firstly backup your phone data. By backing your phone, so that if something does go wrong, you will not lose all of your data that you have most likely spent months or years accumulating. Now let’s find out how to backup everything, including apps, contacts, messages, photos, settings and more, on rooted and non-rooted Android phones.

How to Backup on Non-rooted Android Phones

1. Backup apps, contact, and phone settings

For users who want to backup your phone without using third party apps, you can use Google account to backup your apps, contact, settings, etc. To do it, go to Settings -> backup and reset. Make sure ‘backup my data’ and ‘automatic restore’ options are checked, and on the ‘backup account’, select the Google account to which you’d like to sync your data. Then go to your Google account and check all the ‘sync’ options available. Now, your data will be restored whenever you set up your phone with that same Gmail account.

If you prefer to use third-party apps, I recommend My Backup. This is a lite version of MyBackup Pro, which is a paid version of the app. This app is by far the most easy-to-use backup app for non-rooted device. You can backup your phone data to SD card or to cloud service at no extra cost.

2. Backup photos, music, and videos

As Google does not have a native backup service for photos, music and videos yet, so you’ll have to backup them manually by copying it to your computer or external hard drives.

3. Backup text messages

If you’re just concerned with your SMS messages, you can use a free app called SMS Backup+ to backup your text messages in the cloud. The app will automatically backup your SMS, MMS and call log entries to Gmail and store them under a new label ‘SMS’.

How to Backup on Rooted Android Phones

If you’ve rooted your phone then you can easily backup your apps, text messages, settings, etc, by using a backup app. In this case, I recommend you to use the Titanium Backup app. It is the most powerful Android backup app available in the market today. In addition to backing up the data to SD card, it can also backup to the cloud service like Dropbox, Box and Google Drive. Here’s the quick tutorial:

• Download and install Titanium Backup app here.
• Once installed, launch the app and press ‘Allow’ once a Superuser Request window pops up in your phone screen.
• On the top of the screen, select the ‘Backup/Restore’ tab.

• Click on the app you want then select ‘Backup’. Wait for it to prompt that the backup was completed successfully. Depending on how many applications you have installed, this process will take several minutes.

• The backups are stored in the ‘TitaniumBackup’ directory on your SD card.

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How to Install a Custom ROM on your Android Phone using ROM Manager

Installing a custom ROM is a great way to get the most out of your Android phone, but you need to find the right custom ROM for your device. Once you’ve found a custom ROM that’s right for your needs. The next step is to install it on your Android device.

There are different ways to install a custom Rom on an Android phone, like flashing in recovery mode or using an app, but the easiest way is through an app called ‘ROM Manager’.

ROM Manager is a must have app for Android root users who regularly tinker with their device’s ROMs. The app lets you flash your recovery to the latest and greatest ClockworkMod recovery. Besides that, it will help you to manage and install your custom ROMs and backing-up your current ROM.

It has both free and premium versions. The paid premium version includes additional features like automatic backups, web connect and incremental ROM downloads.

How to Install a custom ROM using ROM Manager

1. First, download and install the ROM Manager app on your Android phone.
2. After installing, launch the app and from the main menu, tap on ‘Flash ClockworkMod Recovery’.

3. You’ll be asked to confirm your phone’s model. Select your phone’s model and your phone will reboot and flashing CWM.
4. Now, before you go installing any custom ROMs, I suggest you to back up your current ROM. To do that, tap on the ‘Backup Current ROM’.

5. Give the backup a name and then click OK.

6. You will be asked to allow ROM Manager superuser access, tap on ‘Allow’ to grant this. The backup process can take a little while, so make sure you aren’t expecting any important calls.
7. Once done, reopen ROM Manager and tap on ‘Install ROM from SD card’

8. Find the folder where you placed the .zip file in. A box should pop up with three options like the image shown below.

9. Tick the ‘Wipe Data and Cache’ and ‘Wipe Dalvik’ boxes, and then click OK. The phone will now reboot and start installing your custom ROM. This might take a little while, sometimes up to 15 minutes, so be patient and don’t panic if the device appears to have frozen.

Once the phone has booted up, you will be prompted to enter your Google account details. Congrats, you have successfully installed a new ROM and you now have a brand new ROM to explore!

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Get Android L Style Notifications on Your Android Device with Floatify app

One of the most interesting features of Android L demos in Google I/O 2014 is the newly designed notifications, where a notification floats on top of everything else on your screen and you can either swipe it to dismiss it or tap it to respond. You will also be able to interact with them.

If you’re one of those who can’t wait till Android L becomes available or your device is not getting the Android L update, there’s an app called Floatify that can give you a preview of what it will be like.

Floatify is a new Android app that brings the same Android L style notifications to your Android device. You don’t need to root your phone to get the new notification system. The only requirement is the device must be running on Android 4.3+ or above because the older versions don’t support the floating feature.

Once installed and enabled, when you receive a notification, a summary appears on the lock screen. You can tap on it to see the full notification, or swipe to dismiss. You can also add bulk actions, like dismiss all notifications, to your home screen, to make life easier.

The app let you customize the style of notification, like where the pop-up will appear, animation, background, etc. You can also change the notification background color, size, position, opacity, text, icons, and more.

If you find notifications annoying when you’re playing a game or watching a video, there’s a ‘Smart Blacklist’ option that lets you disable notifications for selected apps. These notifications will reappear as soon as you close that app.

This app has both free and paid versions. The paid version will unlock all features like Smooth animations, Unlimited text filter words, Quiet hours, Wake screen on notification, Custom timeoutsettings for popup, Privacy settings for apps, Icon pack support, Backup & restore functionality, and much more.

If you want to enjoy the new Android L style notifications on your device, then Floatify is the best app for you.

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Turn Your Android Phone Into a Portable Scanner With CamScanner App

These days you can use your Android phone to do just about anything and scanning documents is no exception. With the phone’s built-in camera, you can easily scan any documents by photo shooting.

While taking a photo of your document may suffice for most, but it doesn’t offer OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capabilities which converts scanned paper documents, or images into editable and searchable data in accessible formats like PDF file. And therefore, you need the help of a third-party app which can scan an image into a PDF file.

One of the most popular mobile document scanning apps is Camscanner. It is a powerful android app that enables you to scan and digitize documents, images, and anything you want using your mobile phone camera. Simply take a picture of any paper documents, and the CamScanner can auto-crop image, enhance image quality and create a PDF file.

You can change the scan quality and brightness to export the best possible result. The scanned documents can be shared via Email, uploaded to Cloud, and printed via Internet. You can also manage them by tagging or searching.

CamScanner is available in Free and Paid version. The free version watermarks your scans and has advertising in the app. The paid version removes the watermarks and advertising.

There is also a tablet friendly version of this application, called CamScanner HD, which turns your Android tablet to a portable scanner. It supports tablet with Android version 3.x and higher.

Other CamScanner features:

• Advanced Document Editing
  Make annotations on documents with a full set of editing tools. Also adding customized watermarks are made available to mark your own documents.
• Collaborate on Documents
  Want to get feedback on your documents? Invite friends or colleagues to collaborate on documents. They can view, comment and exchange ideas on documents in groups.
• Secure Important Documents
  If you want to protect confidential contents, you can set passcode for viewing important documents; also, while sending document download link, you can set password to protect others from seeing it.
• Quick Search
  When you have plenty of documents, you can use Tags to categorize and easily find them. In addition, OCR for Search helps you find texts inside image and notes. Just enter one keyword, you can quickly find the document you want.
• Sync across Platforms
  Sign up to sync documents on the go. Just sign in with your smartphone, tablet or computer (visit CamScanner website), and you can view, edit and share any document.

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How to Password Protect Your New Google Play App to Prevent Unwanted Purchases

Google Play Store, or previously known as the Android Market, is the official app store for Android device that contains both free and paid applications. If you have linked up your credit card or Google Wallet to your Google play then you can easily purchase apps or in-app purchases within no time. But this might be a downside if your children gets hang of your phone and purchases any applications without your knowledge.

Fortunately, Google has a hidden setting to enable password protection and prevent accidental or unwanted purchases from the Google Play Store.

Previously, the app could only be set to require the password after a 30-minute window expired. But after being sued by a mother in New York whose child spent $65.95 in in-app purchases from an Android game without her permission, Google has pushed out an update to the Play Store that prompts for a password every time a purchase or in-app purchase is made.

So here is how to configure the new feature. Please note that you need to have Google Play Store version 4.6.16 or above for that. If you do not have it yet, you can update it by tapping the Build version in the app’s Settings.

• Open the Play Store app.
• Tap the Play Store icon -> Settings.

• Under “User controls” section, you’ll find the “require password for purchases” option which is set to 30 minutes by default.

• Tap on the option, and select “For all purchases through Google Play on this device”.
• Enter your password when prompted
• That’s it!
Now, whenever anyone tries to purchase an app, book or movie from your Google Play Store, they’ll need to enter this password. This also includes in-app purchases as well.

If you want to turn off password protection on your device, just follow the same steps above but this time choose ‘Never’ in the “require password for purchases” option.

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