Samsung Galaxy J5 Tips and Tricks

Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Phone: Samsung Galaxy J5
Factory OS: Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)

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Sometimes you will want to prevent your device from displaying or indexing folders on your Phone storage or USB storage.

To do this, simply rename the folder and place a . (full top / period) before the file or folder name.

This can be done through the Files App or by plugging your device in to your computer and renaming it there.

Smartphones that are always connected to the internet are great, but if you have a data plan that is capped each month, then you will want to keep an eye on how much data you are downloading. Fortunately there is a built in feature to monitor this.

Go to Settings – Connections – Data usage. From here you can set a limit and set the usage cycle (e.g. a from and to date).

If you press the Menu key or More at the top of the screen you will also see a number of features such as restrict background data usage (although this will prevent some Apps from working).

Android now comes with some great battery management built into the OS.

Pull down your notifications screen and select Settings.

Then go to Battery and you will see some useful stats such as the time remaining.

There are also two other options:
– Power saving mode and
– Ultra power saving mode

Select one of these to really make your phone last the distance.

Be warned that these can limit your device quite considerably as certain features will be disabled in order to conserve battery life.

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If you already have an Android phone, then simply ensure each of your old Contacts are stored on Google (rather than the Phone memory). This means your contacts are stored on Google’s servers under your Google/Gmail login. Then once you get the new phone, log in with your Gmail account and your Contacts will be automatically synced.

If you do not have an Android device, you need to find a way to Export your old contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file and save this to a PC. You may need to install the correct software for your phone first in order to do the export.

Then, if you don’t have a Gmail account, sign up for one.

Once that’s done, open Gmail. Go to Contacts, then press More – Settings – Import/Export Contacts. Then import the CSV to your Gmail contacts.

Then on your phone, go to Settings – Personal – Accounts – Google and then select Sync to pull the contacts from Gmail to your phone.

Android has a useful feature called Talkback or Voice Assistant which is designed for blind and vision impaired users.

The feature provides voice feedback as you navigate your phone and will also tell you what you can interact with as you tap areas of the interface.

To enable this, go Settings – Accessibility – Vision – Voice Assistant. Change the setting to On.

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

The Play store contains thousands of great Apps, but sometimes you’ll want to restrict access, particularly if you have kids and are concerned about what they can access.

First, open the Android Play Store App. Then press the Hamburger / Settings icon and then scroll down to Settings.

Then select Parental controls and turn these on.

Create a PIN code and then confirm the PIN and press OK.

Then you’ll see a number of categories including Apps & games, Films, TV, Mags and Music.

You can select each of these individually and then choose an age rating that is appropriate for users of your devices.

To find out information about Signal Strength, Network Information, Remaining Battery Time and Battery Usage (by Application), drag down your notifications screen and select Settings.

Then under System, select About device and choose Status.

Here you will find a wealth of valuable technical information about your phone which may help with diagnostics and network troubleshooting.

If you see the following error:
Unfortunately, the process android.process.acore has stopped

Then follow these steps:
1.First, go to your phone’s main Settings and select App Manager.

2. Then, tap on the menu button usually at the top right left.

3. Select Reset App Preferences.

Alternatively, you can also disable all apps and enable them again one by one until you find the app that has been causing the error.

If none of the above works, you can do a Factory Reset or reboot, instead. Be warned you may lose all of your data when performing a Factory reset.

If you find yourself woken up by notifications, text messages or incoming calls, then there is a handy feature called Blocking mode.

To enable this go to Settings – Do not disturb.

Next, select Enable now or Enable as scheduled.

The latter option will give you options to set the time period for your Do not disurb.

You can also add exceptions to allow notifications from certain contacts that you don’t mind bothering you.