Huawei P20 Pro Tips and Tricks

A useful feature of Android Lollipop is what’s called Screen Pinning. This allows you to lock your phone to one App. Perfect if you have a young child that you don’t want messing with your phone. Or if you want to lend your phone to someone to make a call, but make the call only.

To enable this go to Settings – Security – Screen pinning. Then go to the App you want to Pin and press the Multitask key. Then look at the most recent app and press the blue thumb tack icon in the bottom right corner.

To un-pin an App just press the Multitask key and the back key together.

To add a widget, simply long press on a blank part of one of your homescreens. Then select Widget. Scroll through the list of available widgets and choose one. It will be placed on your homescreen and you can move it around as you desire.

Drag down your notifications screen and press Settings. Then select System – Language and input. Then under Keyboards and input methods, press the little Gear icon.

From here you have various options including Haptic feedback, Vibration intensity and so on.

You can also adjust notifications for various functions.

Sometimes you may get a notification from a particular App and you would like to change the settings of that App.

To do this, pull down your notifications screen. Then long press on the Notification of the App you would like to see the settings for. Then select the gear icon. This will take you straight to the App settings. Now you can change app settings as per your desire.

If you don’t want to have to unlock your screen every time you take your device out of standby then go to Settings – Personal – Lock screen and security.

Then select Screen lock type and select None.

The most recent version of Android now comes with a built in Flashlight / Torch App.

To find this, simply pull down to see your notifications. Then on the top bar (where you see your settings for WiFi, Bluetooth etc.), scroll across until you see Torch.

To soft reset your phone press and hold the Power/Lock button for around 8 to 10 seconds. The phone will restart automatically.

If that doesn’t work, then remove the battery (if it has one). Wait 30 seconds and put the
battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the phone on.

Some devices also provide reboot option on pressing Power Button.

To delete or remove homescreen widgets, simply press and hold. Then drag the widget to the top-right corner of the screen and into the Trash icon.

If you have forgotten your custom unlock pattern, then don’t panic.

After 5 unsuccessful tries a button should appear saying ‘Forgot pattern’. Press this and you will be asked to enter your Gmail username/password.

The phone will then ask for a new unlock pattern. If you don’t have a Gmail account, then you might have to either call your carrier or factory reset your phone.

The most common and effective way to copy photos to your PC (from your Huawei P20 Pro) is to do it via a USB cable. Just plug your phone to a PC using a USB cable and wait for a notification to pop up on your phone.

This notification usually tells you that your device is charging. For some phones, it prompts the user to choose from several options. Just swipe down the notification and choose either “Transfer Photos” or “Transfer Files.”

For smartphone users who don’t see such notification, you may go to Settings → Developer Options → Networking → USB Configuration then tap on MTP (Media Transfer Protocol).

After that, check “This PC” on your desktop and see if there is a removable drive for your phone. The drive would be named as a Removable Device or it would bear the name of your brand or phone model.

Click on the drive and find the “DCIM” folder. This is where all photos and videos from your camera are stored. You can use the search bar function of the folder to find it quickly.

Using Google Photos to transfer photos on your Huawei P20 Pro
Alternatively, you can use Google Photos to copy photos from your phone to PC. This can be done when you sync and back up all your photos and videos on Google Photos. To do this, just follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have set up your Google Account on your smartphone.
2. Open the Google Photos app on your phone.
3. Then go to its Menu (you can find this at the top).
4. Find Settings then look for Back-up & Sync
5. Tap / check to turn on back-up and sync.

When you do this, all your photos and videos will be saved simultaneously to your Google Photos account (via WiFi). To retrieve these photos on PC, just turn on your PC and go to photos.google.com.

Then sign in with your Google Account, and you will gain access to all your backed-up photos and videos right away! You can click on any photo and download it to save it on your PC. Just click on “More Options” on the upper right corner of the photo, and you will see a download option.

Using Hi Suite to transfer photos
For Huawei phone users, you can use the HI Suite. This program is exclusive for Huawei users, and it provides an easy way to transfer different files from your phone to PC (and other devices). It also functions as a backup device for all data and settings on your phone, and it can be used to retrieve and copy photos to your PC. Just follow the steps below:

1. Connect your Huawei and PC with the use of a USB cable.
2. Go to your phone’s Settings and search for “HDB” on the top search bar.
3. Tap on “Allow HI Suite to use HDB.”
4. You have to agree on certain terms and policies to make use of the function.
5. To backup your photos and videos, tap on Backup and select the “DCIM” or “Camera” folder where your images are saved.

You can access all these backed-up files (including photos) on your PC through HI Suite. Just don’t forget to install HI Suite on your PC too!

Transfer Specific Photos Using Google Drive on the Huawei P20 Pro

1. Since you are using a Google phone you can transfer your photos first to Google Drive. To do this, tap on the GOOGLE DRIVE app on your phone to open it.
2. Tap on the plus (+) icon from the homepage of GOOGLE DRIVE
3. From here, you can start uploading the photos you want by selecting them from your storage device.
4. To download your photos to GOOGLE DRIVE, open GOOGLE DRIVE on your computer and log in to your account. Choose which photos you want and then from the given options, select to download them into your PC.

Transfer Photos from Google Pixel to a Computer using a third party application

There are also different programs you can use to transfer photos from your Google Pixel phone to a computer. These include Mobile Trans – Backup, Free Syncios Mobile Manager, ApowerManager, and Droid Transfer.

Transfer Photos using MobileTrans

1. Connect your Pixel phone to your computer using your USB cable.
2. Open the MobileTrans app on your computer and choose BACKUP.
3. Once your phone is detected, the snapshot will be shown on the screen.
4. Enable the PHOTOS option from the list of selected data types.
5. Finally, click on START and your photos will be moved to your computer.

Transfer Photos using Free Syncios Mobile Manager

1. Install and launch the Free Syncios Mobile Manager app on your computer. Choose BACKUP mode from the list of choices.
2. The program should turn to the GOOGLE PIXEL to computer transfer window.
3. Use your USB cable to connect your phone to the PC. There is a chance that you mey have to enable USB debugging mode on your phone to allow Syncios to connect.
4. Wait for the selected files to be fully transferred to your PC.

Transfer Photos Using ApowerManager

1. Download and open the ApowerManager on your PC and phone.
2. Connect your phone to the PC via the USB cable.
3. On the desktop version, choose MANAGE found on the top and go to the PHOTOS tab.
4. Choose the photos you want to transfer then click on EXPORT.
5. Wait for the photos to be transferred and remove the USB cable.

Transfer Photos Using Droid Transfer

1. Install the DROID TRANSFER app on your PC and phone.
2. Connect both devices by scanning the QR CODE found on the app’s interface using the TRANSFER COMPANION app on the phone.
3. Once both devices are connected, proceed to the PHOTOS tab.
4. Choose the photos you want to transfer and click COPY PHOTOS.
5. Wait for the photos to be completely transferred to your computer and remove the USB device.