Two simple questions from a new user...

[Chuxter]

Question #1
I get this message and don't understand it:

Question #2
I have downloaded the HTC One User Guide, but can't find an explanation of the various symbols/icons that appear in the top line. Some of them are intuitive, but the ones on the left have me stumped:

More than an explanation of each of them, I'd appreciate a link to a document that explains them. I'm guessing there are others that don't appear in this picture? If no document exists [or you don't know of such a document, then explain away.

TIA...

 

[Ollie]

USB Debugging gives you an administrative like access to your phone. Unless you are planning to run terminal commands through ADB or want to root your phone it really isn't necessary.

The icon on the far right is the NFC icon. You can disable NFC in your settings app. The triangle icons look to be like failed downloads from the app store. I have a similar icon that comes up when I lose internet during Play Store updates. The icon all the way to the left means you have more notifications than the status bar has room for.

If you slide down your notification bar you will see more of them.

 

[Chuxter]

LOL. I had to look up "ADB"; "Android Debug Bridge". Nope, I don't need that.

I had to look up "NFC" also. That looks interesting.

Yes, the triangle symbols were caused by my inadvertently adding a second e-mail address that wasn't a gmail account. When I removed that email address, Google again started syncing [there were several things in the queue] and one by one the triangles evaporated.

I tried to "slide down my notification bar" and had great difficulty until I started OFF the screen and swiped slowly. I think "swiping slowly down over the notification bar" explains it better. Why are these things not covered in the HTC One User Guide? I searched for "Notification Bar" and found zilch. The Guide does talk about "sliding the Notifications panel open", but it doesn't sound like the same thing, as it refers to things that will be there that are inconsistent w/ what I see on my phone! Any idea what the "Notifications panel" is? I have a suspicion that the Guide is out-of-date and that the "panel" is what we are calling the "bar" and that what appears when it is opened has changed...

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Yes, it's sometimes called the notification panel (usually when it's open). It's also sometimes referred to as the notification shade (also mostly when it's open). When it's closed, it's generally called the notification bar.

Once you get used to opening it, you'll find that it's not really necessary to swipe it that slowly.

The best the guide can do is show you the icons that the manufacturer put in for their specific functions/warnings/etc.

As soon as you start using apps (like email/gmail as you figured out), those apps will have their own icons. When you open the notification panel/shade/bar, most of them will have a brief description of what they are.

Hope that helps clarify a little, and feel free to ask more questions as you're getting into the groove.

Also, if you press/hold the power button and volume down button at the same time, it should take a screenshot on that particular phone, if you'd rather that than snapping a pictures with another phone/camera. Handy.

The fact that you're getting a popup about USB debugging intrigues me though. Did you get this phone used?

And one more thing, Welcome to the forum!

 

[Ollie]

YouTube will probably tell you more about that phone than any other source.

 

[Chuxter]

Yes, it's sometimes called the notification panel (usually when it's open). It's also sometimes referred to as the notification shade (also mostly when it's open). When it's closed, it's generally called the notification bar.

Once you get used to opening it, you'll find that it's not really necessary to swipe it that slowly.

The best the guide can do is show you the icons that the manufacturer put in for their specific functions/warnings/etc.

As soon as you start using apps (like email/gmail as you figured out), those apps will have their own icons. When you open the notification panel/shade/bar, most of them will have a brief description of what they are.

Hope that helps clarify a little, and feel free to ask more questions as you're getting into the groove.

Also, if you press/hold the power button and volume down button at the same time, it should take a screenshot on that particular phone, if you'd rather that than snapping a pictures with another phone/camera. Handy.

The fact that you're getting a popup about USB debugging intrigues me though. Did you get this phone used?

And one more thing, Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the welcome, Jonny!

Your explanation of the various names for the bar/panel/shade makes sense, but our evolving language makes it really difficult at times! This is one of those times for my wife and me.

We have come from a long experience with iPhones [shudder] and both got quite disgusted because iOS doesn't let users do diddly. I decided to try Android. At the moment, I'm in the doghouse because my wife is struggling to come to terms w/ our new phones. Sure, it's only 4 days now, but neither of us had done ANYTHING except try to do "simple" things on our new phones. We have dishes and clothes to wash. It's gonna get cold in 2 days and we have plants to move inside and others to cover. In short, we have let life slide while we struggled with Androidism. :-(

The contrast between iOS and Android is vast. I personally wish there was something in the middle. iOS is too locked down. Android is too broken open. Apple introduces too few models of iOS devices; the Android world introduces too many! I get the impression from reading and watching on the Internet that an Android phone is more of a "toy" than an iOS phone. An Android phone is to a great extent a "hobby" as users "play" w/ them. I have other hobbies and don't really have time for another one.

My wife stayed up late last night futzing w/ the HTC1. This morning she told me that she had to reset it and start over; it had gotten so screwed up, NOTHING worked anymore. Thank goodness we have separate offices in the house!

I'm learning a lot from helpful people, like you. For example, that "trick" about holding volume-down and power to take a screenshot is typical of the devious nature of the Android world. Saturday night, I sat beside the son of an old friend; he's a 20-something "kid" w/ an Android phone. He showed me a "trick": Instead of pressing keys on the keyboard, he moved his finger in a complex way...he drew a yellow line on top of the "keys". The phone interpreted the keys under the yellow line as a word and it appeared in the text box! I was astounded, not at the fact that it did this, but 1) that I had not read about it anywhere and 2) that anyone would spend time to write the code to do something useless like this! If it has any practical value, it escapes me.

About the USB debugging...

Our phones are brand new from the AT&T store. When I called HTC CS [which BTW have been spectacular!], Matt told me to click on "OK". He said that I wanted this turned on. I have read elsewhere that a dumb guy like me wants it OFF. I don't have a clue. It is apparently something that happens when I connect the phone to my PC? It apparently doesn't really have anything to do with "debugging"? I get stressed when my tools are not understandable!

I want a phone that does only 10% of what the HTC1 will do. I want it to get out of the way and let me live my life. For example, both my wife and I have tried MANY ways to emulate the simple "Notes" app on our iPhones. We both use it to store the list of drugs that we take daily. SO far, we haven't found anything that works the way we want it to [or even works at all]. Yes, we have tried Evernote. I've gotten it to the stage where I think I must trash it [again] and start over; has to do with e-mail addresses and passwords not being accepted! All of the apps we find are much too feature laden! I want something that will:

• Let me create notes on the PC, which has a much better human interface than a smart phone.
• Not store my notes on a Cloud; I want them stored in the SD card on the phone.
• If I make occasional changes to the notes on the phone, I want to be able to xfer them to the PC.

So far, we have found nothing like this. I'm shocked that an Android phone doesn't have a native facility much like this! BTW, when we used the HTC Sync Master, it didn't transfer the Notes to the HTC1 from our old iPhones. I researched how to do this online. Several sites had the same process. It involved using iTunes and Windows Explorer together. Nope, didn't work. The result was that ALL of my notes vaporized. I recreated one important note on the PC, but have not yet found a way to transfer it to the SD card or found a way to look at it on the phone.

Day-by-day, the old iPhone looks better and better. Sigh...

Sorry for the long, rambling reply...I needed to vent.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Hang in there! One of the greatest things about Android is it's openness, but it can definitely take some getting used to.

USB debugging won't hurt anything if it's on. The only way it can hurt anything is if you get into the things Ollie mentioned previously, which I have full faith you won't, so do as the CS rep suggested.

I wouldn't necessarily say that android is a "hobby" or something that you HAVE to "play" with. My parents are in their mid-sixites and they simply use the phones for the simple little things they want to be able to do. My dad does have a tech background, but compared to my "power-use" status, he's barely scratching the surface.

That's the beauty of the system though. It's got the bells and whistles, but you don't have to ring and blow them.

As for a note app that syncs, but doesn't use the cloud, that's a tough one, but I'll look into it for you. I would think there's SOMETHING that can do what you want, but I'll warn you that the cloud is the hot thing these days. I personally have embraced the cloud fully, but I understand your reservations and desire to keep your data where you can see it. Do you have a wifi network setup at home? This will impact your choices if/when I find something for you.

As for the keyboard feature you mentioned, that's been something that android has had for 4+ years, thanks mostly to a third-party keyboard app called swype. Others have emulated it and improved on it, but that's also something that you don't have to use if you don't want to. It's definitely got a learning curve. I personally find it to be very quick and useful (I use a similar keyboard called Swiftkey) versus tapping each letter individually, but again, that's the beauty of android. It's got tons to offer, but you don't HAVE to use it. iPhone just got the ability to use third-party keyboard apps with the latest update, so they've actually got that feature as well if they download one of these.

There's a lot you can do, but you definitely want to take baby steps. I'm glad you've found this community and I hope you'll stick with it. We've got plenty of very patient and helpful members and I'm confident that we can get you to a point where you're comfortable using your device in a way that best suits your lifestyle.

 

[Chuxter]

My issue is it APPEARS that the bells and whistles are getting in the way. Both my wife and I have inadvertently gotten the phone in a mode where nothing worked. So far, that seems to be because we activated some feature that we didn't know. Once it was the Accessibility mode on my wife's phone. It was talking to her. Single clicks didn't work. Finally, just by futzing around, we found that a double click worked. We took the phone back to the AT&T store where we bought it and the gal there immediately knew what was "wrong". It took her only a couple of minutes to turn off the Accessibility mode.

My problem is that my wife swears that she did not go into Settings > Accessibility and We took this feature! It got activated some other way! We took her phone back to AT&T and complained about them selling us the worst phone in the building! The guy was very patient w/ us and turned off all the Accessibility stuff. I'm suspicious that the "Accessibility Shortcut" was the guilty party? He also turned off TalkBack.

We have 10 more days to decide to keep the HTC or swap it out for something else.

The wife just informed me that she had lost all her contacts! She has no clue HOW she did that. She had stupidly cleared out her old iPhone [we planned to sell them], so they are not in it anymore. They may be backed up on her PC? This migration is turning into a horror story!

 

[Jonny Kansas]

There's a chance that an app brought her into the accessibility settings to enable something that it suggested using.

For new users, I'd recommend staying out of the settings altogether except for sound (to set ringtones), networks/wifi (if you connect to a wifi network), security (if you'd like to set a pin or password to unlock the phone), & maybe display. I'd keep out of the rest until you're a little more familiar.

As for her contacts, there's a chance they're just hidden. Open her contacts app & press the menu button. From there, select "Contacts to display" and make sure "All" is selected. If they're not there, I'd check the PC for sure. If you setup a gmail/Google account, you can sync contacts to that account, so they'll always be backed up. This also makes switching amongst android phones a breeze.

Ultimately, the choice is yours to make. If you feel like android is too much for you, you're entitled to think that. If you decide to give android a real chance, know that we're here for you & as someone else (Ollie, maybe?) mentioned, you can find lots of videos on YouTube that might help give you step by step directions to accomplish some things.



Sent from my Note 4

 

[Chuxter]

Starting with "As for all her contacts..." I get quite confused. You say open the "Contacts App". I can find no such app. The contacts are in the "Phone App"! Assuming that is what I was to do, I struggled with the ID of the "Menu Button". I Googled it and it appears that it is different on various phones and OS versions. It appears that the latest Menu Icon is 3 vertical dots? Assuming that is what I was to press, it displays a drop-down menu. That menu doesn't have a "Contacts to display" item. It doesn't scroll, so I'm stuck at this point. I even looked inside each of the 8 items in that drop-down menu and didn't find any way to select "All".

I Googled "Android Contacts App" and found "Contacts +". She doesn't have that app. I read about it and it looks as though it probably has an "All Contacts" setting. Is this what you suggest she get?

I have looked at videos a bit, but many of them are obviously several years old and Android has changed a lot. The screens don't look the same, so for a beginner they are more confusing than enlightening!

 

[Jonny Kansas]

My apologies. No, you don't need a new app. As I said, my phone is a Samsung, so it's going to be a bit different. I have an app in my app drawer called contacts. It opens up the phone app to the contacts tab. As long as you're in the list where her contacts SHOULD be, you're in the right place.

Again, my phone will differ from yours, because Samsung & HTC have both tweaked the software in their own way. But, when I'm in my list of contacts & I press that menu button that you mentioned (kudos to you for doing your research), I have several options. Contacts to display was right in there on my previous phone. Now, I have to tap settings there to find that option (& one more step).

What options does pressing that menu button give you?

Sent from my Note 4

 

[Jonny Kansas]

This may also help, I found this advice on another forum where someone else had lost their contacts on an HTC one.

"Go to phone app.Top left is accounts (google, phone, facebook, etc.) and tap it. It should let you see which account you have your contacts stored. Select it and there they be!"

I haven't used an HTC phone in quite a long time, so I'm unfamiliar with the changes they've made.

Did you manage to look into whether her contacts were still synced on the PC? If they're truly give from the phone, that will be the next step.

Sent from my Note 4

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I also just stumbled upon this great resource thread for new users. I didn't have a chance to dig in to each of the links they provided, but there's at least one that pertains to switching from ios (iPhone) to android. Not sure if there's anything in there that will help with some of your issues, but I figured there might be some beneficial information there for you.

New To Android Check This Out Android Forum at DroidForums.net

 

[Chuxter]

My apologies. No, you don't need a new app. As I said, my phone is a Samsung, so it's going to be a bit different. I have an app in my app drawer called contacts. It opens up the phone app to the contacts tab. As long as you're in the list where her contacts SHOULD be, you're in the right place.

Again, my phone will differ from yours, because Samsung & HTC have both tweaked the software in their own way. But, when I'm in my list of contacts & I press that menu button that you mentioned (kudos to you for doing your research), I have several options. Contacts to display was right in there on my previous phone. Now, I have to tap settings there to find that option (& one more step).

What options does pressing that menu button give you?

Sent from my Note 4

When I get that drop-down menu, the items are:

• AT&T Address Book
• Delete contacts
• Send contacts
• Manage contacts
• Open account settings
• Settings
• SIM Capacity
• Edit tbs

The obvious item to select is "Manage contacts". When I select that item, the obvious next selection is "Blocked contacts", but it doesn't have anything blocked.

Flash: She stayed up late and got her contacts back. How?

1. Uninstall iTunes...she could not download the new version until the old one was gone! And the old version would not recover the backed up Contacts!!!
2. Download the latest iTunes.
3. Recover contacts that were backed up.

She is happy [for the moment]. I am happy for the moment.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Glad she got it figured out.

As I stated, our phones will be different, but I found "Contacts to display" listed under settings after tapping that menu button. Not that it matters since she was able to get them back, but just for future reference. There should be an option somewhere for it.

Anyway, if you have more questions/come across other issues, don't hesitate to search the forum or post a new topic (thread) if you can't find anything already discussed.

Posting a new thread will help attract others, rather than having questions buried in a long thread and will help others help you and/or find answers to similar questions later, as long as there's not already a thread posted on that given topic.