Resolve the "failed to sync Contacts" issue.

If you're having trouble to push your Gmail contacts to your Android phone, try the following steps:

1. Backup your Gmail contacts. Go to your Gmail contacts page, click More actions and then select Export... to download a copy of your current contacts.
2. If you update some contacts information on your phone after it failed to sync, you need to manually update the changes to your Gmail contacts online.
3. Make sure you Gmail contacts have all updated contact information.
4. Erase all contacts on your Android phone. Go to your phone Settings > Applications > Manage Application. Go to All tab and search for Contacts Storage. (Tips: you can search the list by pressing the search button on your phone.) Open Contacts Storage and click Clear data.
5. Once it's done, you can wait for next update or go to Settings > Account & Sync and click Sync all to force immediate update.

Now, the contacts on your phone should be identical to the one on your Gmail.

HTC EVO 4G Gingerbread upgrade

ROM:
Fresh EVO (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1046622)
Download version 4.0 beta 3 and then use "Fresh Updater" to upgrade to beta 4.


Radios:
EVO_Radio_2.15.00.04.08 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715485)


Steps:

1. Make sure all apps are up-to-date. Go to Android Market, update all.
2. Backup your system and user data files using Titanium Backup.
3. Full NAND backup. Reboot, run recovery tool and backup.
4. Make a copy of the NAND backup to a computer. In case something happen to the SDCard! While in recovery mode, you can turn on USB-MS mode which will make your phone acts like an external hard drive.
5. Copy the ROM and Radio files to SDCard while you're in USB-MS mode.
6. Wipe your phone, clear caches.
7. Flash the ROM file.
8. Boot into the new ROM, Skip all setups.
9. Run "Fresh Updater" to upgrade to beta 4.
10. Complete the upgrade and back to Android OS.
11. Download Titanium Backup from Market.
12. Run TB and restore backup. *I ran into an issue while restoring the backup. I have too many apps and the system ran out of internal storage. I have to manually move some apps out of the internal storage using "move to SD" option.
13. Verified the backup is complete.
14. Reboot to finish the install.
15. If the restore is good, make a NAND backup again and than flash the Radios.
16. Optional:
1. Go back to recovery tool, run fix app UID script.
2. Personally, I don't have the Fresh EVO Rom boot animation. So, I replace it with the standard HTC boot animation.

Fixing Sprint MMS problem

I was unable to send or receive MMS messages since I got my EVO 4G last year. I didn't spend too much time resolving this issue because I didn't use MMS that often. I only sent picture via email. Anyway, today, I came across an old thread at Android Forms and member Packdog posted a simple solution to fix the MMS problem. I gave it a quick try and it worked! Thanks Packdog.


Steps to fix the MMS issue by updating the APN settings:

1. Download APN Backup & Restore app from Market.
2. Open the app and click Backup APNs button.
3. Your APN settings should be exported to a xml file in /sdcard/ApnBackupRestore folder.
4. Make a backup of the xml file.
5. Modify the xml file to match the following settings
6. Open the APN Backup & Restore app again but this time click Restore APNs. Pick the xml file that you just modified.
7. Reboot your phone.
8. DONE!

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<apns count="1">
  <apn name="Production" numeric="00000" mcc="000" mnc="00" apn="1" user="null" server="null" password="null" proxy="null" port="null" mmsproxy="null" mmsport="null" mmsprotocol="2.0" mmsc="http://mms.sprintpcs.com" type="mms" />
</apns>


Fixing streaming issue after build 3.70.651.1 upgrade

After I upgraded my EVO to build 3.70.651.1, Google Listen failed to stream any podcasts over 3G network. I can only do it over wifi. Since then I had to switch to Stitcher to listen to my podcasts. Until today, I saw this thread in xda developers forum by accident. Apparently, people in Sprint didn't want user to stream data over 3G network. So, in the update they set the HTTP PD Proxy to one of their proxy server. This allows them to control over what kind of data can go through the 3G network Anyway, here is fix I copied from the thread. You need to know your MSL number which you should be able to get by download the MSL Reader from the market.


Here is the steps to unset the proxy setting:

1. Dial ##3282#. This will bring up an app named EPST
2. Pick Edit Mode when you receive a prompt.
3. It should ask for a passcode. Enter your MSL number as the passcode.
4. Now, you're in EPST - Edit Mode.
5. Select Advanced to go the advanced settings.
6. Scroll down to the bottom and you should see the properties for HTTP PD Proxy
7. Unset the HTTP PD Proxy Port to 0
8. Unset the HTTP PD Proxy Address to 0.0.0.0
9. Press Menu button and select Commit Modifications

Now, you should be able to stream data over 3G network again.

Android Boot Sound and Animation files

For Rooted Devices:
Boot sound: /system/media/bootsound.mp3
Boot animation: /system/media/bootanimation.zip


Non-rooted devices:

Boot sound: /data/local/bootsound.mp3

Boot animation: /data/local/bootanimation.zip

Android Hardware Key Mapping File

This is the file /system/usr/keylayout/supersonic-keypad.kl that contains the hardware key mapping. To disable a hardware key, simply remove or comment out the entry in this file.


Here is a copy of the HTC EVO key mapping file.



key 107   ENDCALL           WAKE_DROPPED
key 116   POWER             WAKE_DROPPED


key 115   VOLUME_UP         WAKE
key 114   VOLUME_DOWN       WAKE


key 217   SEARCH            WAKE_DROPPED
key 158   BACK              WAKE_DROPPED
key 139   MENU              WAKE_DROPPED
key 102   HOME              WAKE_DROPPED

My EVO 4G upgrade log

Just upgraded my EVO 4G from "VirusRom" to "Sprint Lovers" ROM. This ROM is based on the latest HTC build (3.70.651.1) with the stock kernel. While upgrading the ROM, I also upgraded all firmwares. Here is latest software version on my EVO 4G.


ROM: Sprint Lovers 2.2 3.70.651.1 (12/21/10)
Baseband version: 2.15.00.11.19
WiMax: 4.6.2.3v27167
Kernel version: 2.6.32.17
Build number: 3.70.651.1
PRI Version: 1.90_003
PRL Version: 60674


Removed apks
NASCAR
Sprint NFL Live
Sprint TV
Sprint Navigation
Sprint Zone
FriendStream.apk
SprintTVWidget.apk
Stock.apk
com.htc.FMRadioWidget.apk

com.htc.FriendStreamWidget.apk
com.htc.MusicWidget.apk
com.htc.NewsReaderWidget.apk
com.htc.StockWidget.apk

HtcFMRadio.apk 
HtcFootprints.apk 
HtcFootprintsWidget.apk
NewsReader.apk
PVMtpServiceStart.apk
PVWmdrmService.apk
teeter.apk
htcbookmarkwidget.apk