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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