[Q] Is it possible to remove phone functionality without affecting general use? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Having recently upgraded my phone I found myself with a Razr Maxx that no longer had phone service. Deciding not to use my brand new phone for workouts (runkeeper, or music playback while lifting) I basically re-purposed my Razr to function solely as a GPS tracking, wifi enabled, media device. The only bothersome quirk I've noticed about deciding to do this is that it's always running on Cell Standby with 0% signal time which seems to eat away at the battery. Putting the phone into Airplane mode apparently also kills GPS because Runkeeper won't grab a signal while it's on, but as soon as I turn it off I can find a lock immediately.
So, that's where I came up with my question of topic. Is it possible to remove apk's via Titanium Backup, or even strip them from the rom file prior to flashing, so that my phone would retain Bluetooth, Wifi, and GPS functionality while completely removing all Phone, APN, and MMS dependencies?
I tried removing all of the APN, Phone, and MMS apks from a rom prior to flashing and everything seemed to work just fine except I couldn't get a GPS signal lock.
For this to be a plausible avenue of exploration, I absolutely have to have GPS, Wifi, and Bluetooth. If those three aren't possible, then I guess I'll need to look for another solution; possibly something I haven't considered yet.

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Disabling Phone Service Completely? (root?)

Ok dumb question, but does anyone know how I could go about completely disabling the phone service portion of the Eris so I can give it to my kid as a super PDA and gaming device? I assume this would require root access. Before my eris I used a Sony Clie PDA and was happy with it until the Eris came out. Once I retire my Eris for the Incredible or something more powerful I dont just want to throw the Eris away (recycle). Anyone have any clues?
I do know you can disable 3G, and use airplane mode, but airplane mode kills wifi, and bluetooth completely. There must be a way to do use part of airplane mode without killing the wifi/bluetooth completely.
Not hard
It's really not too hard at all. The phone will work if you simply deactivate it's esn from verizon. You can then use all the other features almost like an ipod touch.
There are some more extreme methods but this will work perfectly...
I'd just disconnect the phone from Verizon's network, root it and go with a custom ROM. That way, your new-found PDA has an emergency-phone built-in. Disable 3G/1x data in the phone's settings and call it a day.
Since it's for your kid, having that emergency-phone built-in may not be such a bad idea.
Airplane Mode
or go into ##PST, and you can do a lot of damage to the settings.
Airplane mode does not kill wifi entirely. It turns it off but you are able to turn it back on whilst having your radio turned off. Not sure if bluetooth works the same way since I don't use it for anything.
I have an Eris with a bad ESN from craigslist (looks like someone flashed 2.1 leak on it) and I use it primarily as a music player/gmote/vlc remote in airplane mode with wifi on.
Oh yeah and the battery lasts for days like that unless I do heavy music listening.

{Q} Can you shut down all but the most basic processes?

I am just looking for a way to essentially disable everything but the android OS itself and the camera.
I am camping way out of reception range and need as much juice out of my battery as I can get. So I don't need any Phone, Contact, Messaging, Data, Synch, or anything like that, really just a Camera, and maybe the ability to turn on the GPS if it will even work.
I tried keeping it turned off but turning it on when I needed it took a long time and seemed to use up more juice than just leaving it on and in sleep mode.
I know I could go into Titanium and "Freeze" everything but I think that would take forever to do and undo.
Any ideas or suggestions?
turn on airplane mode (which disables all wireless features including network, so no incoming/outgoing calls, no messages, etc)
auto sync/background data can be turned off in settings>accounts&sync settings

Incorrectly using 3G when on wifi

Has anyone else noticed their Lumia using 3G when it shouldn't be e.g. at home with a working wifi access point?
Mine has done this a few times and because WP7 is so clean and simple it's pretty hard to see what's actually going on - there's no data counter. And to make it worse the data icon shows in the status bar even when wifi is on. Ideally it would show one or the other.
Yes, I notice that too. It could be a bug.
BlitterTwisted said:
Has anyone else noticed their Lumia using 3G when it shouldn't be e.g. at home with a working wifi access point?
Mine has done this a few times and because WP7 is so clean and simple it's pretty hard to see what's actually going on - there's no data counter. And to make it worse the data icon shows in the status bar even when wifi is on. Ideally it would show one or the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, I think it uses 3G when the phone is locked, as the phone seems to disconnect from Wi-Fi when you lock the phone. Another bug that probably needs addressing.
Yes! This affects me too.
It switches to 3G randomly when I'm on wifi and kills my data without me realising (or shows failed page loads when I have full wifi reception).
It also turns off wifi whenever I lock phone which seems to disrupt/cancel all push messages! Push messaging just isn't working.
So is this problem unique to Lumia 800?
i've noticed this too. it'll also present me with wifi hotspots to connect to, including ones it should be connected to.
as of now, i don't know whether it's an issue with locked or unlocked handsets. my handset was bought unlocked with no branding, but i've noticed some of the bugs i'm having don't seem to happen on network locked/branded handsets.
It's not a Lumia thing, it's just how WP works. Turning off wifi to save on battery use I guess. Android has the same default setting, although it allows you to change it.
I can understand it using 3G for background processes, like you say Android does the same thing.
What I can't understand is it using 3G when I am using the web browser on the phone, and the Wifi icon is lit at the top of the screen.
Rusty! said:
It's not a Lumia thing, it's just how WP works. Turning off wifi to save on battery use I guess. Android has the same default setting, although it allows you to change it.
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Click to collapse
That's not the case actually, before the firmware update I used to get my notifications, after the update, I don't, I think Nokia did it on the firmware update.
Which firmware was this working in btw?
Oh and turning off WLAN when you have an active connection does NOT save power. It only saves power when there isn't an active connection because the 3G uses more for retrieving background data (eg. regular email, social networking updates) and *much* more for retrieving heavy data. I have tested this on numerous Nokia phones.
^ i got the opposite result - normally i have WLAN turned on at all times, because it always connects to wifi at home and at work. my battery lasted much longer (it lasted the night with 39% left, as opposed to going flat sometime in the night) with just the 3g turned on.
I noticed that wi-fi only stays on after you lock the screen if the phone is charging. Otherwise it cuts the conncetion. Very annoying indeed if you are downloading big games over wi-fi. However I get my notifications and emails just fine in any case. Remeber though, windows phone doesnt support proper push, hence why they cant get skype to recieve calls in the background. Facebook and whatsapp push always comes about 3-4 minutes later than needed.
Another thing that i have been testing for a while on various phones (nokia n9 included, not the lumia because it's too unreliable) and also got mentioned in this tread is wi-fi vs 3g consumption.
So my results are:
with 3 emails 15-30 mins sync or push for one, at least one push service eg, facebook, vkontakte whatsapp etc (where possible)
i concluded that if you just leave the phone there for a day in standby and dont use it, it drains quicker with wi-fi on. Everytime. Every phone.
However when using the internet eg. browsing for half an hour etc. wi-fi uses a lot less battery than 3g.
So only use the wi fi when you need it and switch it off for background tasks. (WP7 does that anyway, for a reason)

[Q] Q. - Use Airplane Mode WITHOUT Disabling GPS?

My Droid Razr Maxx is my third Android phone in three years. My last phone (Samsung Droid Charge), when I put it in Airplane Mode, it did not disable the GPS -- which is exactly the way that it should work IMHO. Anyway, I use my phone as a GPS unit in remote wilderness areas which are miles from the nearest cell tower. On a 15 hour hike, it's a ridiculous waste of battery life to allow the phone to keep searching for a cell tower that it's not going to find (or even worse, finding a 1x tower connection that is very weak and intermittent). I need to be able to turn off all cellular communication (voice and data), but leave GPS running. On my Droid Charge, just putting it in airplane mode would do that, but on the Maxx, Airplane Mode also kills the GPS.
On a rooted Maxx with 100% stock ROM, is there a way to modify this?
I think that the easiest solution in your case would be removing the sim card.
Tapatalked
geesoos said:
I think that the easiest solution in your case would be removing the sim card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion, but not very practical. I need a software solution. The SIM is tiny enough that I'd lose it about the 3rd or 4th time that I did that. But thanks anyway for replying.
use the power control widget to toggle it on/off, after switching to airplane mode
putting ur phone to airplane mode disables gps but there is nothing stopping you from re-enabling it while in airplane mode
SoonerLater said:
My Droid Razr Maxx is my third Android phone in three years. My last phone (Samsung Droid Charge), when I put it in Airplane Mode, it did not disable the GPS -- which is exactly the way that it should work IMHO. Anyway, I use my phone as a GPS unit in remote wilderness areas which are miles from the nearest cell tower. On a 15 hour hike, it's a ridiculous waste of battery life to allow the phone to keep searching for a cell tower that it's not going to find (or even worse, finding a 1x tower connection that is very weak and intermittent). I need to be able to turn off all cellular communication (voice and data), but leave GPS running. On my Droid Charge, just putting it in airplane mode would do that, but on the Maxx, Airplane Mode also kills the GPS.
On a rooted Maxx with 100% stock ROM, is there a way to modify this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use a Smart Action to disable whatever you want instead Airplane mode.
Just set an action: Meeting, Driving, Taking a snap.. (use the time trigger)
Then set
Disable wi-fi, 3g, background sync, etc.
Cheers
Or instead of airplane mode just shut of all radios with phone info app
I just tried Airplane Mode and looked in GPS settings, they were all on. I opened maps and it located me within a few seconds. Am i missing something??
EDIT: I am on a rooted MAXX, 100% stock rom.
I just tried it on my Maxx and switching to Airplane mode did not turn off GPS !!!

[Q] [pseudo-solved] Device occasionally loses Internet connection for WiFi & cellular

[Q] [pseudo-solved] Device occasionally loses Internet connection for WiFi & cellular
The Problem:
I recently upgraded to the Motorola Moto X Pure Edition and have got almost everything running smoothly except for one thing - every so often, (between 2 and 8 days) the device will completely lose its Internet connection for no apparent reason, displaying the little exclamation point next to either the WiFi or cellular signal strength indicators. It usually happens after transitioning between WiFi and cellular (leaving home, arriving home, etc.).
Once the device enters this state, no amount of toggling WiFi, data, or flight mode will allow the problem to be resolved. The device will simply refuse to cooperate with any type of Internet connection at all, even though it still has an IP address, as reported by the ifconfig command in the terminal. No addresses, local or otherwise, can be pinged.
Rebooting the device always brings it back. Clearing the cache and dalvik cache seems to make it last a bit longer, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Troubleshooting efforts and device configuration notes:
A web search turned up nothing at all, although two other people in the original thread on the Moto X Pure Edition Q&A forums revealed that I'm not the only one with the problem. My device is running the stock, Android M Rom, (rooted) but others have reported the same issue with a non-Motorola Android N ROM as well as on the stock un-rooted Rom.
This leads me to believe that the issue isn't Rom-specific, and may not even be device specific. With all this in mind, does anybody have any good tips for troubleshooting this? Any ideas for what could be causing it or how to fix it?
Thanks!
TL;DR? Device loses all Internet connectivity on all connections, usually after transitioning between Cellular & WiFi, on stock-rooted Rom, problem reported on stock and non-Motorola Roms as well. Software or settings conflict suspected.
Update: Hard reset; problem solved. No cause was ever uncovered. See post 7 for all the details.
Internet loss breakage Logcat
Here's the Logcat, if that helps. I tried getting a complete one, but had to cut it off after close to 45 minutes, so there still should be plenty there to go off of.
Any ideas?
Anybody? Any ideas at all? I'll even accept shots in the dark at this point. Made it a record-breaking <9 days, but the problem came back again, even with "Cellular data always active" switched off.
anything? anyone?
Ran into the issue again today, even having left WiFi manually turned off. Any ideas on this? I'll even take shots in the dark. Anything short of hard resetting and reinstalling apps & reinstating settings one-by-one.
Internet dropped out again...
Had the issue again today, but this time caught it "as-it-happens" (as I have only once before). This time, I woke the phone up and saw the exclamation point over the WiFi signal strength indicator, but was still able to use the LTE data connection. Resetting the cellular radio put a stop to that as well.
Any ideas at all? I'm taking complete and total shots in the dark at this point too.
Still losing Internet connection on WiFi, then cellular as well
Same deal again today. Any ideas at all? Anything I can do short of pulling the plug and hard resetting?
Hard reset; fixed
Well, I ultimately pulled the trigger and hard reset the device. The problem appears to have permanently vanished, but we will unfortunately never know its cause.

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