Lenovo Z5 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.

Android manages Apps very well and some Apps do not have the option to close them specifically. Normally the App will stay running in the background and only close when many other Apps have been opened.

If you do want to close or terminate an App, then press and hold the Multitasking key on your phone. On some devices you may need to long press the Home key. Then you can swipe the Apps off the screen to close them.

Even after doing that, there may be some apps still running in the background.

To close these apps, go to Settings and open Application icon, from here you can open applications list and tap on any app you want to close.

From here simply tap on force stop and application will stop working in background.

The most common and effective way to copy photos to your PC (from your Lenovo Z5) 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 Lenovo Z5
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 Lenovo Z5

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.

If you are browsing and have zoomed in or out and the column you’re reading doesn’t fit the screen properly, you can pinch to zoom in. Then double tap on the column. The column will then be reformatted to fit the screen width.

Recent Android versions use a special mode that hides all Android related visuals. The mode is called immersive mode and it essentially means certain Apps have the whole screen available.

Sometimes this can be annoying however and you want to see the time, signal strength or batter indicator.

To temporarily leave immersive mode, simply drag down your notifications screen and the phone will exit immersive mode so you can see other features.

Android has an interesting new feature called Talkback which is designed for blind and low vision users.

The feature is an interesting way to navigate your phone however.

Simply go to Settings – Personal – Accessibility – Talkback to activate it.

Then your phone will give you an ongoing narration of its various functions.

If you find that a particular App is sending you too many notifications, there is a quick way to disable these.

When you receive the notification, pull down the notification screen. Then long press on the notification, then Go to Settings/More Settings, from here you can turn notifications ON or OFF for that particular App.

If you want to access certain features of your device that are only available to developers, then you want the Developer options setting.

On most devices, this feature is hidden so you will need to pull down your notifications screen go into Settings. Then scroll down to About device.

Then you should see Build Number. This needs to be pressed a total of seven times. You should get a message at the fourth press. On the seventh, you’ll get another message saying that Developer Options are unlocked.

To change your default font, go to Settings – Device – Display – Font. You can also change the font size here also.

Another option is to install the popular Go Launcher EX App. Then once this is installed, download their GoLauncher Fonts App.

To lock your screen while you are watching videos, simply press the power button.

This will disable the touchscreen buttons while the video is playing, but it won’t turn the screen off like the lock key normally does.

Note, this will only work on video files that you are playing that are stored on your phone. It won’t work for videos played within websites, such as YouTube videos.