Sony Xperia XA1 Tips and Tricks

To change the backlight screen timeout, drag down your notifications screen and press Settings.

Then select Display.

Then under Screen timeout you can set the screen time out duration.

You can also tell the phone screen to always stay lit when it is plugged in via USB:

Go to Settings – System – Developer Options. Then check Stay Awake.

Note: Developer Options is not always enabled by default. To enable, go to:

Settings – System – About Device – Software info . Then tap on Build number 7 times to enable this secret option.

While typing emails or notes, you can simply tap the space key twice and the phone will insert a full stop / period.

This option may need to be turned on in the keyboard settings.

This can be found in Settings – General management – Language and input.

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 – Cloud and accounts – Accounts – Google and then select Sync to pull the contacts from Gmail to your phone.

If you see the following errors:
Resting robot
Exclamation point (for rooted phones)
No command

This indicates that your phone is in Android Recovery mode and often appear when you try to recover or reboot.

To fix this, follow these steps:

1. Once any of the three appears, press and hold your phone’s volume up button for 10-15 seconds.

2. Next, without letting go of the volume up button, press and release the power button once. It will display a menu.

3. Navigate around the menu using the volume button.

4. Select Reboot System Now and your phone should be rebooting

Alternatively, you can do the following:

1. When any of the three appears, press and hold the power button for 2-3 seconds.

2. Then, without letting go of the power button, press and release the volume up button, once. It will display the same menu.

3. Select Reboot System Now and your phone should reboot.

If Reboot System Now doesn’t work try updating first.

If you are browsing a website and want to see the HTML source code behind the page, then Android doesn’t offer you the ability to do this by default.

There is however a handy App called View Web Source which can be installed. Whenever you want to view the HTML of a web page, you just press the Menu – Share – View Web Source.

You can then browse the code or copy the content into the clipboard.

There are some other Apps that are similar to this if it isn’t what you need. Try searching the PlayStore for HTML Viewer or similar.

If you want to setup new email accounts, like Yahoo or Hotmail, go to the Play Store and download your favourite email service.

Almost all of them have an App now, so the setup is much easier than in the past.

Install the App and follow the instructions to set it up correctly.

Then if you want to modify or view your accounts, go to Settings – Cloud and accounts.

Here’s how to pair your device with another Bluetooth device.

First you will need to turn Bluetooth on. To do this, drag your finger from the top of the screen down, to show your notifications menu. Then press Bluetooth so the icon is green.

Then press the Scan button and your device will start to scan for pairable devices.

Choose the desired device and press Accept. You may be asked to enter a PIN or Password.

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

Then select the Screen lock type that is currently selected.

You will be asked to unlock your phone, for security purposes.

Then on the next screen, scroll down and select the None option.

To store a phone number that you have received in an email, hold down on the number and you will be given the option to call, send an SMS or add the number to your contacts

If you are browsing YouTube videos on your phone and they appear blurry, then this is usually because of your connection speed.

If you are using 3G / 4G and you’re in an area of low signal strength, then YouTube will sometimes automatically reduce the quality of the video. Unfortunately this can make the video very pixelated and of poor quality.

If you are using the standard Android browser, then when the video is in full screen, press the back button. Then press HQ and start playing it again.

If you are using another browser, then press the Settings icon on the bottom right of the YouTube video. Then change the quality.

This may improve the quality, but it may also lead to buffering issues.

Another solution is to use a WiFi connection, if one is available.