Can I get some help with New Owner questions?

[Zac_AUS]

New Owner questions

Hello,

I just got my S4 and I have a couple of questions (sorry if they seem repetitive - but I have looked on the internet).

- Wallpapers. I'm struggling to find a dark wallpaper for my phone. Can anyone point me in the right direction? When saving the wallpaper do I save it to the Gallery to access later?

- In the messaging app (Samsung's), when I start typing a name in, I get email addresses of people that I have emailed. I deleted the emails but they are still there. What can I do?

- Security. Since this is my first smartphone, I'm concerned about privacy and making sure that my device has no viruses. I'm currently using the app Lookout. Is this sufficient?

- I'm trying to dedicate what app to use to locate and control my device. I wouldn't be connected to the internet all the time so that rules out Android Device Manager. I was looking at Cerberus anti theft app. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also I have two factor authentication on, so would I need to turn it off and get a new number if my phone is lost/stolen?

- What can google back up on my phone? I'm looking for a simple solution to back up my apps, contacts, sms, calender and settings. I was also looking at Google Keep for notes. Does anyone have any experience with it?

- When Google Calender is offline, and I make some changes, will it sync it back when it connects to the internet? Does Samsung's calender back up?

- What password keeper to use?

- Are there sounds that I can download to replace the default ringing, messages and notifications. Where do I need to put the file so the phone can make it default?

Thank you for reading

 

[Rukbat]

Re: New Owner questions

- Wallpapers. I'm struggling to find a dark wallpaper for my phone. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Zedge. Android Central. Google (search dark android wallpaper.)

When saving the wallpaper do I save it to the Gallery to access later?

Well ... there's no such place. Gallery is an app. It doesn't have its own folder, it shows all picture files that Media Scanner found. Save the wallpaper wherever you want it. I have mine in a folder named wallpaper in the DCIM folder on my SD card. Just so I know where my wallpapers are. The phone will find them anywhere, and you can set any picture as lockscreen, homescreen or both, wallpaper in Gallery (Menu/Set As).

- In the messaging app (Samsung's), when I start typing a name in, I get email addresses of people that I have emailed. I deleted the emails but they are still there. What can I do?

You get contacts that match what you're typing. If you don't want them as contacts, delete them - in Contacts.

- Security. Since this is my first smartphone, I'm concerned about privacy and making sure that my device has no viruses. I'm currently using the app Lookout. Is this sufficient?

I prefer Avast, AVG or Kaspersky. (If you're using a Samsung phone, you have to disable scanning in Lookout, or it'll eat your battery for lunch - basically, you can't use the app for anything in a Samsung phone at this point. I don't trust people who release apps, then tell you to turn the app off if it has a major bug. I'd rather uninstall it and trust someone I know writes good software. I've used Avast, AVG and Kaspersky [on different computers and phones] for years with no problems.) Also run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Not all malware is viruses.

- I'm trying to dedicate what app to use to locate and control my device. I wouldn't be connected to the internet all the time so that rules out Android Device Manager. I was looking at Cerberus anti theft app. Does anyone have any experience with this?

You can't locate the phone without an internet connection. It doesn't matter which app you use, you can't transfer data over the voice channel, you need a data channel, and with cellphones, that's the internet. (If you have a voice connection, you should also have a data connection - which is th internet - so Android Device Manager should work.)

Also I have two factor authentication on, so would I need to turn it off and get a new number if my phone is lost/stolen?

I believe so, but you can do that from any computer. Turn it off, locate your phone, turn it back on. Or use an app that takes a picture of anyone trying the password and getting it wrong 3 times and sends it to you, as well as allows you to locate your phone. You don't need a paid app - there are many good free ones. (Samsung locates the phone from their website too.)

- What can google back up on my phone? I'm looking for a simple solution to back up my apps, contacts, sms, calender and settings. I was also looking at Google Keep for notes. Does anyone have any experience with it?

I don't trust an automatic solution - I've lost too much data to them over the decades (I've been in the data business since before IBM built the System 350.) I back up my apps with App Backup & Restore and my app data with Helium (Helium will back up the apps too, but AB&R backs them up as apk files, so I can install one app if I want - by just pressing the apk file in a file manager.) I copy my pictures, documents, etc., to my computer and two cloud accounts manually. (Why two? If California slides into the Pacific during the next huge earthquake, my other cloud account is on a server in the midwest.) Many cloud accounts are free and many give you a LOT of storage for free, so having the entire phone (a nandroid backup of the entire ROM, even) isn't something you have any excuse to not do. Remember, a file you don't have backed up (and as far as I'm concerned, to at least 2 different places) is a file you don't need. You can recover a deleted file - you can't recover files from a phone that a truck ran over when you dropped it.

I use SMS Backup & Restore to back up my texts. Emails are on the server, so I don't bother. I keep text files of things I'll need for a long time. Contacts are all Google contacts, so they're backed up at Google Contacts. (I use Cozi as my calendar, and it's backed up with Helium.)

- When Google Calender is offline, and I make some changes, will it sync it back when it connects to the internet? Does Samsung's calender back up?

Anything you sync to Google - Calendar, Contacts, etc., will.

- What password keeper to use?

I use Keepass2Android Password Safe with the data file on Google Drive (and kept locally on the phone - it also syncs). I use KeePass version 2 on my laptop and desktop, using the same file on Google Drive, so if I add or change a password on one device, it's changed on all of them. You can do the same thing with any password safe that has a Windows or Mac (depending on your computers) version.

- Are there sounds that I can download to replace the default ringing, messages and notifications.

Try ZEDGE™. Don't get lost - I think they have every ringtone ever created - and then some. And you can use Ringtone Maker to cut and level-change any audio file to make a ringtone or notification or alarm tone out of it.

Where do I need to put the file so the phone can make it default?

Ringtones in the Ringtones folder, notification tones in the Notifications folder, alarm tones in the Alarms folder.