Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro Tips and Tricks

Android 7 (Nougat)
Phone: Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro
Factory OS: Android 7 (Nougat)

Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie) & Android 8 (Oreo)
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To save an image in an email or in the browser, long press on the image and a menu will appear allowing you to save it.

For images inside text messages, you might have to press and hold on the message itself, rather than the image.

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

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

The phone will then ask for a new unlock pattern or PIN.

If it isn’t accepting your Google ID or password, then try the following options:

1) First, go to the following URL: https://myaccount.google.com/u/1/device-activity

Then when you see your device, select Revoke Access.

Then at the bottom of the page, you should see Generate New Application-Specific Password.

Enter a name and click on Generate Password.

A 16-digit pass code should be generated.

Enter this new password in your Android device, along with the correct Google ID.

2) If that doesn’t work, then go to: https://accounts.google.com/signin/recovery

Choose one of the recovery options. Then enter the email you used when you set up your device.

Follow the options depending on your situation and you should be guided through an option to get back into your phone.

If none of the above works, then you may have to hard reset / factory reset your device.

Before you do this, it’s recommended that you plug it in to a computer and copy across any files (particularly your photos in the DCIM folder). However it may not be possible to do this on some devices as it will be locked.

If you prefer a different voice when listening to the Google Maps voice navigation, you can select another language or accent.

To change this, go to Settings. Then select System – Language and input – Text-to-speech options. Then under the Preferred text-to-speech engine, press the gear icon.

From there, select Language and you will be able to choose from different languages or language variations.

A great new feature is dual shot which lets you take a picture of someone else with the rear camera, while simultaneously taking a picture of yourself with the front facing camera. The problem is this feature isn’t obvious to find as it isn’t included in the list of camera Modes.

To find it open your Camera App and you will see three icons in the top right corner. Dual shot is the middle icon of these. Press that and you both cameras will activate allowing you to shoot away.

There are a number of ways, as below. The first two of these may be disabled on some networks/carriers or Android versions however.

1) Go to Settings – Apps. Then scroll down to Contacts Storage – Clear Data. This option may not be available on all models.

2) Go to Contacts. Then hold and press on a contact. Then choose the All option at the top of the screen and select Delete. .

3) Go to Settings – Cloud and accounts – Accounts.

Then scroll down and select Google.

Next, change the slider so that Sync Contacts is disabled.

Then go to Gmail and delete all of your Contacts from there. Then re-sync your phone.

4) Download an App called ‘Delete All Contacts’ and use that as a last resort.

The methods above will delete contacts from the Phone only, not the SIM card.

Here are the top 5 tips to make your phone run faster:

1) Use only essential widgets on your home screen – each widget consumes memory and processing power which can slow your down your phone.

2) Uninstall apps that you don’t use – after a while your phone can get cluttered as some Apps are designed to always run in the background. If you rarely use an App, then uninstall it to free up memory and CPU resource.

3) Install Apps to your phone memory – if you have an SDCard, always install Apps to the phone memory, which can be accessed faster. If you have Apps on the SDCard, then move them back to the phone memory with an App called Move2SD available from the Play Market.

4) Use Static rather than Live wallpapers – Live wallpapers consume processing power and memory. Unless you really must have them, uninstall them.

5) Kill tasks occasionally – Some Apps will run in the background indefinitely unless you kill them. Most of them won’t cause a problem, but it pays to check your running tasks from time to time. Hold down your Home key and check the Task Manager. You can use Apps such as DU Speed Booster for this.

If you want to resize your home screen widgets, then press and hold on a widget for 2 seconds. If the widget is resizable, then an outline will appear around the widget. Simply drag the sides to resize the widget.

If the outline doesn’t appear or you can’t drag the lines, then the widget is a fixed sized widget.

While in the Camera App, there are two ways to zoom in or out.

First, you can use Volume Up and Down keys.

Secondly, you can pinch your fingers on the screen to zoom in and out.

Depending on how your device is setup, sometimes when Apps are installed, a shortcut icon is automatically placed on your home screens.

This can be annoying for users who want to keep their home screens clutter-free.

To stop then, go to the Play Store and press the Hamburger / menu icon in the top left.

Then choose Settings and untick Add icon to Home Screen

When taking photos or videos, tap the screen where you want to focus on.

The phone will automatically adjust the settings to improve the image or video