First-time smartphone user has issues with Chinese phone

A

AC Question

I had no experience with smart phones but thought it was time. Unwilling to pay a lot or be on contract, I bought an unlocked, rooted Star W550 5.5" Android 4.2.2 phone from China. I had no idea the Android ecosytem was so entirely different from my Windows experience.

One issue is linking to my laptop. I have installed current USB 3.0 drivers for my Acer Aspire laptop but when I plug in the phone, USB Safely Remove shows:
The device has been loaded
Linux File-CD USB Dev...
J:
and no drive shows up in Explorer.

So then I tried installing apps on the laptop with Bluestacks to be moved to the phone. After inserting the phone's SD card into the laptop, I used Bluestacks with ES File Explorer and AppMonster to back up apps and drop them into SD card | Android | data.

When I move the card back to the phone, I see I have to research more about the apps than I remember, since e.g. Maple Player is in com.sqr5.android.audioplayer. Most folders have no apk file but when I find one that does, tapping the apk file gives:
Parse error | There was a problem parsing the package.

I very much appreciate any suggestions.
 

wizzrah

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I had no experience with smart phones but thought it was time. Unwilling to pay a lot or be on contract, I bought an unlocked, rooted Star W550 5.5" Android 4.2.2 phone from China. I had no idea the Android ecosytem was so entirely different from my Windows experience.

One issue is linking to my laptop. I have installed current USB 3.0 drivers for my Acer Aspire laptop but when I plug in the phone, USB Safely Remove shows:
The device has been loaded
Linux File-CD USB Dev...
J:
and no drive shows up in Explorer.

So then I tried installing apps on the laptop with Bluestacks to be moved to the phone. After inserting the phone's SD card into the laptop, I used Bluestacks with ES File Explorer and AppMonster to back up apps and drop them into SD card | Android | data.

When I move the card back to the phone, I see I have to research more about the apps than I remember, since e.g. Maple Player is in com.sqr5.android.audioplayer. Most folders have no apk file but when I find one that does, tapping the apk file gives:
Parse error | There was a problem parsing the package.

I very much appreciate any suggestions.

Hello! Welcome to Android Central.

First things first.

This might not be a problem with Android itself, but with the phone. Generally, chinese phones are lower quality, especially brand names that are not well known. This is not always the case, but in general, is the case.

Try seeing if enabling USB Debugging in the settings will allow proper mounting on the computer.
 

W550

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Same result with USB 2 port.

What about the issue of getting apps from BlueStacks. Is there a better way of getting apk files? And what can I do about the fact that all of them result in parsing errors on the phone?