Android Q&As: Copy/Paste In Android, Re-rooting Phone After Firmware Upgrade And More… (Week 4)

After a month of writing this series, there seem to be a some somewhat generic questions coming through. There also some very specific questions. However, if you could add the model of the device, which version of the OS you have and any other key information would be very helpful in helping answer your questions.

We will make an attempt to answer as many questions as we can each week.


A: In 2.3 and higher, you can copy text in a SMS or an email you are composing if you press and hold the text and select the action from the pop-up window. If you are talking about selecting text from a web browser, Opera Mini and NetFront Life Browser will give you this option. Otherwise, there are a few applications like Copy And Paste It (trial) that work great. However after the trial is done, there is a cost to keeping it.


A: The short answer is no, unless you have rooted your phone. There isn’t an easy way to downgrade your Android OS version without rooting your device. Once rooted, you can change the ROM to whatever is available to you. This includes experimental builds of new versions of not yet released OSes.

A: Different phones have different methods to root them. When a firmware update comes out, many times there is a “patch” to fix the exploitation in the software which allowed your phone to be rooted. There are sites like XDA Developer Wiki or CyanogenMod that have great walk through on rooting different devices.


A: Most commonly there is an application holding up the process and not letting your phone power down. Check that you have not installed any system maintenance app that is always running in the background monitoring your activity. If yes, check inside the app and see if there are options to prevent monitoring during powering off. I have also seen devices with slower processors or phones with low memory taking a long time to power down or power up. Take a look at your available space, perhaps this may be low. If so, try moving applications to the SD card or deleting some apps and try powering it down. Typically you want between 15MB and 30MB free. More free space is better though.




If you have questions you think might fit well with MTE’s next edition of “Ask an Android Expert,” send us an email at android-help [at] Alternatively, click on the “Ask Our Experts” banner on the right and fill in the form. Leave comments only to discuss the questions presented here. If you want to ask a question, use the aforementioned email address.