How To Droid tips, tricks, and easter eggs

[tolas]

I have the same issue with the phone. I want to hear a notification for my texts but I don't need my phone to beep everytime I get an email. Hopefully there is a way to fix this.

Yep, there is. You just need to set the notification, ringtone in the app itself. Go to the phone app or messaging/sms app or email/gmail app, click the "menu" button. Go to Settings. You can do all your notification/ringtone settings here. If you want it to just show up in notification bar with no sound, just set the ringtone to "silent"

Viola!

 

[DroidRX]

I just learned that there already is a task killer built in to 2.0! Go to Home Screen>Settings>Applications>Running services.

From there you can stop any app/task.

Actually the native task killer is under: Settings>Applications>Manage applications>Menu button>Filter>Running.

From there you can select a running app and it will give you an option to "Force stop". I just tested it with WeatherBug and the little temp icon at the top left promptly disappeared after doing that.

Hope that helps.

 

[AbeFrohman]

For those that don't like the slider thing every time you want to wake the phone, get this APP. Set it to "awake stay" mode, and just like that......slider gone. I love this feature cause it's annoying to me that I have to press the lock button AND the slider to unlock the home screen.

When you want to lock the screen again, just hit the top button.

 

[athflying]

The only thing i don't like about this phone is the notifications. I wish it were set up like my blackberry (i cant believe i am saying something on a blackberry is better). I want to set up different profiles with a different option for each event. I cant believe this was left out. I dont really know how to set it up for class and church and work.

But don't get me wrong...this is an awesome phone!

As others have pointed out, but it seems to be getting overlooked. Under Sound and Display, that is the default universal notification tone. To change notifications for different events, you must go into the app that creates the notification and change it there.

As far as I know, no way to setup profiles without a 3rd party app. I don't recommend Locale because it can be confusing and flaky. I would try an app called Power Manager. I think it's 99 cents, but worth it. You can set up profiles based on your phone being on AC power or battery or just set up profiles and switch b/w them manually. Once you create the profiles, you can make shortcuts for them to place on the homescreen. Everything from ringer to screen brightness can be set or each profile.

 

[athflying]

I don't want to have to re-crop mp3's that are already edited/cropped. I have perused the options that let you change the messaging notification sounds since my last post. I'll look into RingDroid, but I'm not overwhelmed about having to get another app (even if free) just to import an MP3 as a ringtone. That functionality should be default. I've been able to do that shit since my v3 RAZR like 5 years ago... 5 years and millions of dollars later I had hopes that phones would have passed this point in functionality.

All you have to do is copy the MP3 to your SD card, go to the music player, play the mp3 and hit menu...hit "select as ringtone" or something close to that. The mp3 will now appear as a ringtone choice.

 

[athflying]

i seen that. The facebook app automatically added all my facebook friends to my contacts, but for some reason wont let me update that contact listing with their cell numbers. kinda annoying.

That's because you are trying to edit information that is being supplied by Facebook. If you want to add to that, you would need to create a contact with the number you want to add, then join it to the Facebook contact. Once they are joined, the info you supplied and the Facebook info will appear as one.

 

[cadGweep]

You can save yourself some time and button pushes by storing your voicemail password along with the voicemail number. Then when you press the voicemail shortcut in the Phone Dialer, it will go straight through.

Go under Menu > Settings > Call Settings > Voicemail Settings, and set the number to: *86,,XXXX#
where each "," represents a pause
XXXX = your pin code

I sorta winged it since on my last phone I used "P" for pause, but Android won't allow me to enter letters no matter what I try. So I could be wrong about using "," but I tried it and it works!

 

[athflying]

Home screen rotation not working is not a bug. In stock Android form, it isn't supposed to rotate. When I rooted my G1, it was possible, but until the Droid is rooted..probably not gonna change.

 

[Reniassance_Man]

All you have to do is copy the MP3 to your SD card, go to the music player, play the mp3 and hit menu...hit "select as ringtone" or something close to that. The mp3 will now appear as a ringtone choice.

Adding Custom Ringtones to Contacts
You can also go to your contacts, tap the contact you want to add a ringtone to, hit the "menu" key, and then tap "options". From here you can simply change the contact's ringtone. For the life of me, I can't figure out why this is in the "options" menu all by itself instead of in the "edit contact" menu, but at least I was able to find it.

 

[Kappy79]

There have been allot of questions on how to save favorites for navigation. I found a solution, while not perfect, it will get the job done.

Long press on the home screen > "Shortcut" > "Directions"

From there you can put in an address, and select car, bus, or walk, and there is a check box for Turn-by-Turn Directions. If that is checked, when you click on the shortcut, boom, it takes you strait to Navigator and calculates your route. You can label the shortcut, and choose a few different icons too.

Too avoid "favorite destination" clutter on your home screen, you can easily add a folder and stick them all in that.

Hope that helps!

Having said that, has anyone found a way to re-name a folder

 

[Barbara]

There have been allot of questions on how to save favorites for navigation. I found a solution, while not perfect, it will get the job done.

Long press on the home screen > "Shortcut" > "Directions"

From there you can put in an address, and select car, bus, or walk, and there is a check box for Turn-by-Turn Directions. If that is checked, when you click on the shortcut, boom, it takes you strait to Navigator and calculates your route. You can label the shortcut, and choose a few different icons too.

Too avoid "favorite destination" clutter on your home screen, you can easily add a folder and stick them all in that.

Hope that helps!

Having said that, has anyone found a way to re-name a folder

Yes. With the folder open, press on the word "folder" at the top of the window. A box will come up with Rename.

 

[joscon]

How do you Copy / Paste text from email?

Edit: I should have searched first, but here's the answer. http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/14944-cant-copy-paste-email.html

Slide open the keyboard, hold shift and slide your finger across the text you want copied to the clipboard.

 

[v-6 nolo]

don't think anyone mentioned this yet, but you can add a folder of just your facebook contacts, it will keep all them together and puts in any number for them, i like this so i have access to those numbers but they are not in my contact list. Just long press on home and add folder, facebook is one of the options.

 

[Phases]

FYI..

Here are a few created today while mocking around on the Droid

Setting Up Yahoo IMAP: Motorola Droid - Setting Up Yahoo Mail IMAP | Mobile Technology Deals and Help

How To Do Screen Capture: Motorola Droid - How To Capture Screenshot | Mobile Technology Deals and Help

Lotus Notes Sync w/ Droid: Android Sync Lotus Notes (CompanionLink Software) | Mobile Technology Deals and Help

iTune Sync: Motorola Droid Syncing Music With Apple iTune | Mobile Technology Deals and Help

Yahoo Mail On The Motorola Droid | Android Phone Fans

 

[mattparmely]

not sure as i elected not to do this right off the bat, but if you unsync facebook i would imagine you can remove contact info.

I got it. You just have to go to your contacts and hit the list button on the phone (next to the home button on the face) and then it will say options I think its called. Unmark your facebook username.

 

[hondapro]

I dont know if anyone noticed but there is an awsome widget that came with the phone to turn on and off wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, sync and change brightens. No need for the third party ones, just long press on a home screen, add Widget Power Control. This phone is awesome!

 

[jer.lawrence]

"Password" to unlock

I don't know how useful this is to anyone else, but my office wanted me to have a password on the phone since I get work emails on it that sometimes contain sensitive information.

From the home screen, select Menu > Settings > Location & Security > Change unlock pattern

You can set it so that someone needs to know your specific pattern in order to unlock your phone. It's not much, but it is better than nothing. It's also very easy to setup and easy to use.

 

[j2j3]

Found this out and thought it might help:
To set specific ringtones for contacts touch contact the menu key -> options -> set ringtone.

To set specific notification sounds:
Open activity (i.e. messages, gmail, etc) -> menu key -> settings -> scroll down until you see select ringtone.

You can even set different notifications for different gmail accounts. Just follow the above in each account separately.

I currently have my wife under a different ring tone, messages under one, and all of my emails under separate rings so I can tell what's up without looking.

 

[darrinaltman]

Not specific only to Droid but a great trick if you use Google Calendar. Open Google Calendar on your computer and go into settings and then mobile setup. Put in the phone number for your Droid and complete the setup. This will send a sms to your Droid from short code 48368. Now whenever you want to set a new calendar item you can simply send a sms to that Google short code and it will appear in your calendar. For example, text to 48368

 

[jolenemae21]

Did you try the trial version? I ran that for about 12 hours over the weekend. You can't modify the profiles in the trial version, and I found that in battery mode, my screen was staying on, which of course sucked the life out of the battery. Just wondering if you saw the same issues in the trial.

I have Locale installed, but the major shortcoming of that is that it uses GPS to determine your location. Getting reception in your house is unreliable depending on where the satellites are and your phone having a clear shot to them.

I just downloaded a free app called "profiles" as I have been looking for something like this also.. It seems it will be able to do all that!

 

[ryanerb]

Tip: (maybe already said)

Hold down the camera button on the right hand side of the phone (gold button)(on the side, not on the front). If you hold it down for a few seconds, it will pull you up to the camera. Then, use the same button to take a picture, rather than the soft keys. Thus, all this taking a picture can be down without any touchscreen

 

[landis73]

Not much on this tip, but it may be more than a person had before. If you go into Settings > About phone > System tutorial

Gives you some information you may not know.

 

[TRLMAN]

I found it annoying that you had to go through the settings in order to change your ringer from loud/vibrate/silent. I downloaded this great free widget called Ringer Toggle Widget which can sit on your home page and switches between loud/vibrate/silent with a hit of a button.

You can also use the volume buttons on the top right side. When you go down, it will eventually get to vibrate then no ringer at all.

 

[ladybadger2007]

I save pics by touching and holding the pic it pulls up a menu with option save to sd it worked for me. hope this helps. o and the question mark is in the symbols on the screen keyboard and on the slide out it's under the P no alt required. My location keeps pulling up at will while it is surprisingly accurate it is also annoying any ideas thanks

 

[Zed]

Turn Off Droid:

To completely shut-down the Droid (without removing the battery) press and hold the top power button. This brings up a menu that gives 3 options. Silent Mode, Airplane Mode, and Power Off.

Hold down the same power button to turn it back on.


(my first smart phone...I am very happy I took the plunge)