We have some locked down tablet leased out for our truck drivers to use. Every now and then, one of them will accidentally activate the talk back feature. We do not have access to the settings menu of the tablet to turn it off. I learned a few months ago that you could just hold both volume buttons to disable this feature which worked for a while, but is now not fixing the problem. Does anyone know how to turn off the talk back screen reading feature without going into the settings menu?

I have very little experience with Android, or any other mobile device operating system. I'm accustom to using Linux operating systems, where any time there is an update I can typically upgrade to the very latest version of the operating system without any roadblocks. I have Galaxy Tab A (Model SM-T550) tablet, that I've barely used the entire time I've had it, and I'm wanting to give it to my Godson as a gift. Before giving it so him, I wanted to upgrade it to the latest Android OS, so that he wouldn't be limited by any missing features that this tablet's older Android version might have. In the settings menu, I found a Software update feature and tried to update. This is what it said: The latest updates have already been installed: Current version: T550XXU1CQJ6/T550XAR1CQJ6/ When I go to "About Tablet", I see that this device has Android 7.1.1 installed and I read somewhere that Android version 10 was released in 2019. Is this the type of support that I can expect from Samsung when buying one of their Android devices? If so, this will be the last dollar they'll get from me. Is there any way to upgrade this Galaxy Tab A (Model SM-T550) to the latest Android, or at least a later version than 7.1.1? I'm very technically savvy on laptops and PCs, if you could direct me to a thorough guide, where someone has accomplished this, I could probably pull it off, its just that I've never really tried to do anything like this with tablets or mobile phones. Please advise me. Also, if this isn't doable, and I wanted to buy him a new tablet, which brand would be the best about always allowing upgrades to the latest Android? If there's a brand that does that, that will be the only brand I'll buy in the future.

On a Galaxy Tab A on stock ROM the last update was the June 1 2022 patch for Android 10 received from Samsung in Oct 2022 and also brought with it some Samsung updates. The update has introduced a serious error for me. When the tablet boots and whenever I access a file (e.g. when I save a file from the web browser) I receive the error android.process.media keeps stopping (i) App info x Close app as a popup in the lower area of the screen. When I click "x Close App" the error immediately re-appears. If I wait instead the error message is removed after a timeout of 10 seconds and then also immediately re-appears. Often, though after a few minutes the error message disappears. Clicking the "x Close App" a few dozen times will apparently not accelerate the end of the error loop, however. The next time internal or SD card storage is accessed by an app the error loop will start again. **How can I make this error disappear for good?** May I try to disable android.process.media? I mean **what does it do, do I need it?** What is the connection to Sec(ure) Media Storage? I used to have errors about Sec Media Storage, too but they have disappeared somehow. I have used the tablet for a few years and I have many files on it that I do not want to lose. So, any fix or suggestion **may not include a data wipe or reset of the tablet**. I cannot move files from Internal to SD Card storage - the file manager will just crash and the error message appear. MTP is also dysfunctional and no connection to the computer is possible. I have disabled lots of pre-installed apps I do not need or use but no new one when the error appeared. **EDIT 1:** Following the recommendation by mmmatey I went through all items in their list of steps to perform. Here are the results: - Deleted the Google Play Store Cache (Data cannot be deleted) - I cannot Reset App Preferences because it would literally take hours to re-set everything (also, none of these settings were changed when the system first appeared so it is perhaps not likely to help) - There is no Contacts app but I cleared the Cache of Contacts Storage (again, Data cannot be cleared) - I tried disabling Media Storage but it cannot be disabled - There is no Google Sync option in Settings so I could not change anything here - Media Storage holds the photos on the device so I won't be able to clear it without losing data I still need. Afterwards, I rebooted the tablet. **No change, sadly.** Digging through these options and setting shows to me again how many unneeded apps Samsung pre-installs. Also many unused items cannot be disabled and other things are locked. One would at least hope that then "everything works" because the user cannot change an important setting but this is clearly not always the case.

I created a non-admin new user on this tablet. It initially prompts to select Samsung system apps, e.g. Samsung branded calendar, calculator, etc. I didn't care about any of those so, with the exception of camera (because I know camera apps can be tightly bound to specific devices) I disabled them all. I setup the whole profile, google apps, other apps, logged into to them all, y'know, all the "new setup" stuff. Unfortunately, I discovered that this camera app can only launch the Samsung Gallery system app. Fine, I'll allow that... But how? There seems to be absolutely no way to enable this app after initially disabling it. The admin profile can't reselect the system apps for the other profiles anywhere. The new profile can't install it from the Galaxy Store. I acquired the APK, but the install failed (yes, unknown sources was allowed). What the heck? I really don't want to nuke this profile because of this annoyance. Anyway other things to try? Is there a compatible and/or better camera app?

When I try to start my device it's in a boot-loop. And I also can't access the recovery menu (which you can enter with Power + Home Button + Volume UP). So I can only enter the download mode. Thanks!

Does anyone know how to reset a forgotten pattern to a Samsung Galaxy Tab A. My sister has forgotten the pattern and cannot access the tablet. Can you guys help me.

My Samsung Tab A (2016) shows my storage almost full, but the numbers do not come close. I've run various cleaners, deleted everything not used, put most of my files on the Cloud somewhere, and still almost 14GB are unaccounted for. My settings does not have a "storage", it has "Device Maintenance." I've found no way to clear all caches at once, so do it app by app. I have tried everything I've found on the web, various programs, still get warnings my space is running out. I almost replaced with the next model year (2019) but fear the same thing will happen. I use it as a e-reader, but all my books are in the cloud, on my SD card, or are removed from my device after reading.I rarely use it as a camera, and don't store any image I don't use. Am I spazzing for no reason? Screenshot of my "storage" tab.

After an update from Android 6.0.1 to Android 7.0 on Samsung Galaxy Tab A (SM-T580, WiFi only), I've lost the USB tethering function. I need an update to recover this function which is very important for me because I use this tablet only to connect to the remote control of a drone via USB tethering. Without this function, this tablet no longer serves me and the drone too.

I selected all the folders of my Internal Storage, and the details say it is 11.64 GB. But, on the left bar, it shows Internal Storage [31.17/32.00 GB]. Screenshot of My Files application of my phone: " class="img-fluid rounded" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin: 10px 0;" loading="lazy"> **ABOUT DEVICE** " class="img-fluid rounded" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin: 10px 0;" loading="lazy"> " class="img-fluid rounded" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin: 10px 0;" loading="lazy"> " class="img-fluid rounded" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin: 10px 0;" loading="lazy"> **QUESTIONS** 1. How is this possible? 2. I can't download any application and install it. How to free the *HIDDEN STORAGE*?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A with S pen. I am trying to add additional alarm sounds to the list used by the native alarm clock app provided by Samsung, as these lack personality and often fail to wake me. I copied all the ringtones from my phone to Dropbox, and then exported them to the Ringtones folder with the Dropbox export feature. Of the sixty-odd ringtones so exported, exactly four appeared in the alarm clock list of available sounds. I can discern no pattern in the ringtones so appearing. All 60 are all of the same file type, .mp3s. They are not especially long or short, nor large or small. They are neither clustered together under any file sort view nor evenly spaced. I have played all the files with six different player apps, all such apps that I have installed. With one exception, every app played all the files without difficulty. The exception is the Sound Picker, invoked via the plus sign at the top of the clock's list of alarm sounds. The Sound Picker shows the four ringtones the clock sees, and four more, again with no obvious pattern; also a bunch of short snippets of some lecture that I do not recognize. The sound picker allows me to add exactly one of these new sounds to the clock's list. Adding another removes the one previously added. I am completely befuddled by this and have no idea how to proceed further. Any insight or diagnostic suggestions welcome.

I make heavy use of my tablet for research & typically have 200 to 500 tabs open. So I have been looking forward to the alternate grid layout and to Chrome Tab Groups for Android, which would make my life a lot easier. However these features, which I understood to be activated by default as of Chrome 88, do not seem to be available from my instance of Chrome (version 89). I have the file folder-style row of tabs across the top. I have neither a switch to grid mode button nor the hollow square with the number of open tabs inside. I have enabled the flags for tab grid layout, tab groups, tab group continuation, and tab group UI improvements, and restarted Chrome several times, all with no change I can see. I couldn't find anything on the Google help site that offered any glimmer of hope -- nor of discouragement. I can not even think of anything else to try. Help! I am running Chrome under Android 10 on a Galaxy Tab A. Oh, one more thing. I doubt this is relevant, but when I first got this tablet from Amazon, it took some work to convince it that its home was not in Mexico. Maybe there are still some Mexico-base settings causing a problem? Just a long shot.

System update was recently completed. After the update, the tablet now requires a pattern to sign in but one has never been used on this device. It also requires a pattern to turn off or reset so a hard reset can't be performed. I managed a soft rest (power + vol down) but that's only made things worse as now it's not logged in to a google or samsung account so remote erasures can't be done either. It's also won't bring up any sort of 'forgot my pattern' dialog, it just keeps showing a 30 second timer after every 'wrong' attempt. Is this a known issue? How to I get around it? I'd prefer to save my data, but a complete factory reset is still an acceptable solution.

I recently obtained a new galaxy tab A and have been noticing that touching small buttons in certain places is particularly hard (specifically the "read more" button in youtube comments). After doing some experimenting with the developer options that show touch information, I found that the touch screen didn't want to register touches in vertical lines all across the screen. In particular, when swiping diagonally the registered line meanders to avoid moving horizontally then jumps across to follow my finger, like I'm pulling it across a washboard. Two lines in particular at dx 331.7/332.7 and dx 943.2/944.2 seem to catch the pointer like a cliff. **Is this a software/firmware issue?** Or is this digitizer screwy despite being new? Can this be fixed with a factory reset, or not installing a recent patch, or updating firmware? I've seen this behavior in an older tablet (Memo pad 8) but much worse, so much so that tapping on one of these lines would register a tap on either side of the vertical line, and scrolling would often create double taps. That issue manifested while playing a rhythm game, so I assumed some hardware cracked.

On a Samsung SM-T290 (Galaxy Tab A 8.0") with Android 10, there is regular user account and also a restricted profile for users to use in order to restrict what apps can be used. In previous versions of android, the restricted profile could unlock the tablet. However, in android 10, I can't seem to switch to the restricted profile user on the lock screen, unless the regular user account unlocks it first. Is there a way to allow the restricted user account to unlock the tablet, so the main user doesn't have to login/unlock it first?

Good morning. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 a.k.a SM-T290 and I would be pleased if someone tell me how to get root access to it. Already have tried the method described in: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-a/how-to/how-to-root-tablet-a8-2019-t290-t4119487 https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-a/how-to/root-sm-t290-tab-8-0-2019-t3965624 And neither with the first method or the second was able to root my device. Thanks in advance.

I have Samsung Galaxy Tab A and I put a pattern lock on it, but sometime later, I forgot the pattern. I've looked it up and the only options to recover are to have the tablet off, but I can't turn the tablet off without the passcode. How to recover access to it?

The only options I get are cut, copy, paste, and select all. I can easily find the clipboard on my Samsung phone using almost all of the suggestions here, but not on my nook tablet A. Can anyone help me discover where this data is to retrieve?

My Samsung Galaxy Tab A just upgraded to Android 7.1. My battery life decreased dramatically after the update. What used to give me days of battery life now only lasts me hours. I checked my battery stats, and this is what I found: Bluetooth was using most of my battery, but Bluetooth isn't even enabled! What is causing this immense drain of battery from a feature that hasn't been enabled?

I forgot to enable the OEM unlock while rooting a Galaxy Tab A 280 following the guide at XDA-developers . Now the phone is only displaying a ***FRP error*** on boot and shuts down again. Download mode is working, but needs the correct ROM. I downloaded one ROM from sammobile , but installation resulted in the same error. *Where is the correct ROM to download?* (Or is it possible to OEM unlock in this state?) If it helps, the serial number is R52H81KCSVW.

As far as I know Kingo and CF-AUTO root are not compatible with the current time galaxy tab A. Any suggestions? Side Note TWRP and CWM are not compatible with my device