Sony Xperia E Tips and Tricks

Android 4.1.1 (Jellybean)
Phone: Sony Xperia E
Factory OS: Android 4.1.1 (Jellybean)

Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie) & Android 8 (Oreo)
Or view tips for all Android versions

To add a widget, go to the homescreen and press the Apps icon (the circle with 6 dots). Then you will see a list of your Apps with the word Apps and Widgets at the top. Press Widgets, then you will be presented with a list of available widgets.

To add a widget, press and hold on it and then position it where you want.

To quickly hide the on-screen keyboard, press the Back button

While viewing your list of Contacts you can swipe from Right to Left to send a text message to the selected contact.

This might not work on all models.

To put your phone into night mode, go to your Clock application and press the screen once which will dim the screen.

Then press and hold on the screen and the clock will turn blue. This is Night mode.

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 Home key on your phone. Then you can swipe the Apps off the screen to close them.

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card).

To perform a hard reset, or factory reset, then there are a number of methods to try:

1) From the home screen, press Menu – Backup and reset – Factory data reset – Reset phone. It may ask for a password. Then select Erase everything

If the phone is totally unresponsive, even after a reboot, then try the following methods.

2) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons together. Then, while holding these, press and release the Power button (keep holding the volume buttons). The phone should turn on and a menu will appear. Press the Volume down button to navigate to the Recovery option. Press the Volume Up to select (if that doesn’t work, use the Power button to select). A yellow triangle and an Android logo will appear. Press the Volume Down and Volume Up button together and a recovery menu should appear. Use the Volume buttons to move to the Wipe data/Factory reset option and then press Power to select. Again, use the Volume Down key to choose Yes and press the Power button again to select.

3) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Down button. Then, while holding, press and release the Power button. A menu should appear. Use the Volume down key to go to Clear Storage. Use the Power button to select the option. Then when asked to confirm, press Volume Up for Yes.

4) While the phone is off, press and hold down Volume Up + Home + Power buttons at the same time. Then release the buttons when you see the Logo. Use the Volume Down button to go down and the Home or Power key to select. Choose the Wipe data/Factory reset option. Then Select Yes to delete all user data. Then choose to reboot the phone.

5) A final method is to enter the code into your phone’s dialer: *2767*3855# This method will not give you an option to reverse the process, so be careful! This method will only work if you can boot into your phone.

While in your Browser App, press and hold the Back button.

This will show your browser History and Bookmarks.

Jelly Bean now comes with an Equaliser so you can adjust your bass and treble.

Simply open a music file using the Music Player App. Then go to Settings – Equaliser.

Then simply drag the sliders up and down to adjust the bass and treble.

If you get tired of receiving sales calls or want to block a particular number, then you can set up auto call rejects on your device.

Often you will get calls from unknown numbers. Depending on how cautious or curious you are, then normally it’s good practice to ignore such calls. If you don’t want to answer, but you’d still like to know who the call is from, then you can simply Google the number and there are a number of websites which lists phone numbers with details about the company of the caller. From these sites you can easily see if the call you received is from a dodgy company or not.

Once you have establed that you want to block or reject the call in future, then open your normal Dialler App. Then go to Logs and find the number you want to block. Long press on the number and select Add to reject list.

From now on you will see that you recieved a missed call, however the phone will not ring and you won’t be bothered by the caller.

To manage or manually enter numbers on your reject list, then again open your Dialler App. Press your Menu key and select Call settings. Then Call rejection. Then selet Auto reject list to see your reject number list. You can also manually add numbers from here

Sometimes while typing long text or SMS messages you will get a message saying Converting to multimedia message. This won’t normally cause a problem, however some users do not want to send a MMS message.

There are a number of different settings to deal with this, however there isn’t really a way to prevent the phone from converting to an MMS. The reason for this is that any message over 480 characters cannot be sent as an SMS message. They must be sent as an MMS. The is a restriction of SMS messages in general, similar to the original limit of 160 characters.

What you can do however is ensure you get alerted when you have reached 480 characters. Then you can decide to send the message as an SMS and continue your conversation on a second message.

To check this setting is on, open your Message App and press your phone’s Menu button. Then select Settings and scroll to Multimedia message (MMS) settings area. Ensure you tick MMS alert. You will now be told when your message is being converted to MMS.

You can also change the settings for Creation mode which lets you restrict messages that go over a certain size. If you select Warning or Guided, you should get further warnings when your message is really large and may not be handled by the network.