So I thought I'd make a general tips thread. I'd definitely recommend the "Improving swype accuracy" one

Sorry there aren't a lot here yet, but if you have any then please contribute your tips and I'll update the thread.

Apps and Widgets

Calendar widget
The calendar widget, from my perspective, is a bit rubbish. It's bulky, slow, and not very configurable. I use Smooth Calendar (https://market.android.com/details?id=se.catharsis.android.calendar&feature=search_result). It's configurable, looks pretty and is FREE.

Remove samsung apps to speed up device and remove clutter


Ok here is what I did to get that quadrant score and improve battery life. "Slim" down your rom by: Removing junk you dont want in the stock firmware. If you want the best better life I recommend you root first (Required) then use titianium back up. Filter the system apps. And first freeze what you think you want to remove and reboot. No error messages? Good, unistall them. Repeat this till you remove all you want or don't need. I will make a list safe to remove application list soon of what I removed. But just be careful, if you really mess up your rom you will to reflash! You've been warned.

A list of safe to remove apps can be found here (http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/4811-Safe-to-remove-applications-list), though make sure you only remove the ones that you don't mind losing.

It's recommended that you freeze rather than uninstall.

thanks to Briggs for this one (http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/4784-Quadrant-score-3828-points-on-my-own-quot-slimed-quot-official-rom)

Display

Improve image clarity

Untick "Auto adjust screen power". This seems to do something odd with the contrast when enabled

Quick Change Screen Brightness
If you turn off auto-brightness in Settings - Display, then long pressing the notifications area and sliding left and right will increase/decrease the screen brightness.

Input

Improve Swype accuracy

You can improve Swype's accuracy greatly by going to Settings>Language and keyboard>Swype and setting "Speed vs accuracy" all the way to the right ("error tolerance"). The only reason this is an adjustable option as far as I can tell is that Swype's response time is supposed to drop with the setting this far to the right, and may do on lesser phones, however on the SGSII it's as responsive as ever.

Rooting

How to root the Galaxy S II (http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/4563-root-the-Galaxy-S-II-via-SuperOneClick)

thanks to Briggs for this one

Overclocking

You can now overclock the already fast enough SGS II. ONLY do this if you know what you're doing. Personally, I won't be doing it as I think the SGS II is fast enough as it is and don't want to damage my phone.

Overclocking the SGS II (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1075061)

thanks to soraxd for bringing this to my attention

Other tips

"Secret codes"

thanks to soraxd for this one (http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/4701-Galaxy-S-i9100-Secret-Codes)

Access your messages more quickly from lock screen

Oddly if I get a text and swipe the message bar on the lock screen, it takes a couple of seconds to load the messaging app. If I unlock the screen normally then tap the messaging icon, it's immediate. Not a great "tip" seems like more of a workaround for what I'd call a bug.

Factory/Hard Reset:
Recovery mode - Turn phone off, press and hold Vol Up + Home + Power. The Volume keys navigate the menus and Home actions your choice
Dialer - enter *2767*3855#
Accessing through menu - Settings - Privacy - Factory data reset.

Search Function:
Press and hold the menu key

Screenshot:
Press the home key and power button together

Voice Commands:
Double press the home button to auto open

Web Browser user agent switch
In the browser type about:useragent into the address bar, hit enter, it will come up with a list of user agents - choose desktop to have the browser stop defaulting to mobile versions of websites.

Does smooth calendar snyc with google calendar ? Ok here is what I did to get that quadrant score and improve battery life. "Slim" down your rom by: Removing junk you dont want in the stock firmware. If you want the best better life I recommend you root first (Required) then use titianium back up. Filter the system apps. And first freeze what you think you want to remove and reboot. No error messages? Good, unistall them. Repeat this till you remove all you want or don't need. I will make a list safe to remove application list soon of what I removed. But just be careful, if you really mess up your rom you will to reflash! You've been warned.

Edit: Good thread, stuck!

Does smooth calendar snyc with google calendar ? Ok here is what I did to get that quadrant score and improve battery life. "Slim" down your rom by: Removing junk you dont want in the stock firmware. If you want the best better life I recommend you root first (Required) then use titianium back up. Filter the system apps. And first freeze what you think you want to remove and reboot. No error messages? Good, unistall them. Repeat this till you remove all you want or don't need. I will make a list safe to remove application list soon of what I removed. But just be careful, if you really mess up your rom you will to reflash! You've been warned.

Cheers!

And yeah, Smooth Calendar is just a widget that represents information from your calendar. It even boots up the normal calendar when you click it, it's just a nicer widget than the ones provided. Can you remember which apps you removed? I've removed a few but still haven't attained that glorious 3800 mark!

My Additions (for stock firmwares/homescreens):

Factory/Hard Reset:
Recovery mode - Turn phone off, press and hold Vol Up + Home + Power. The Volume keys navigate the menus and Home actions your choice
Dialer - enter *2767*3855#
Accessing through menu - Settings - Privacy - Factory data reset.

Search Function:
Press and hold the menu key

Screenshot:
Press the home key and power button together

Voice Commands:
Double press the home button to auto open

One of my faves..
Screen Brightness:
If you turn off auto-brightness in Settings - Display, then long pressing the notifications area and sliding left and right will increase/decrease the screen brightness.

Thanks NZTechFreak for this one...
Web Browser:
In the browser type about:useragent into the address bar, hit enter, it will come up with a list of user agents - choose desktop to have the browser stop defaulting to mobile versions of websites.

Add 'em to the first post and delete this one..:)

Hi for some reason i cannot create a new thread, im not sure if its because i just signed up to this forum but anyway
, i just recieved my Samsung Galaxy S2 and have had fun navigating it, but could anyone tell me if there is a way to put a password or code on certain applications? such as on messages and the notes for example? or is it only possible to do the full phone lock via the code or pattern?
thanks

you can use application protection from android market to lock message and notes.

superdawg

I use smart app protector (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sp.protector.free&hl=en) and it is very good, make sure you go into settings and remove it from the app drawer and protect task manager etc. and it's a pretty secure solution.

Hello, My first post here. i bought Galaxy s2 only Yesterday. But i have noticed that red color appears too sharp or you can say too oversaturated. Also faces of people in images look red than, normal skin color. How to adjust this? Any suggestions will be welcome.

Hello all
I've had my phone about 2 weeks now & I'm really impressed. I have a question if anyone can help:

Is it poss to delete stuff like music/game/social hubs WITHOUT rooting the phone? I ask because right now I don't feel competent enough to try it (& considering the contract I have it on runs for 2 yrs, let's say I'd be "sad" if I turned it into a fat bookmark so early on in its life). Thing is I have Android Booster, as it was recommended to me, & every time I use it to close down apps etc, hey presto the Hubs reappear. If I have to root to get rid of 'em, I'll live with them...for now, tho I expect they're just draining battery.

BTW - I'm new here so apologies if I've posted in the wrong place

Thnx

If you want to delete any system apps then you'll require Root to remove them

Most apps that come pre-installed on your phone are system apps.

Hi doomed,
Thnx for responding to what must have seemed like a really dumb, elementary question! Much appreciated.
Have a good one & cheers
Ginge

Hi there,
I'm new to smartphones and have some (probably really dumb) questions on the SGII.
Firstly, errr... how do I hang up calls? Currently I am having to press two buttons - one (the home button) to light up the phone so I can see the buttons and the second to actually hang up the call.
Secondly, sometimes the light on my phone dims for no apparent reason. I'll be playing with it then it will dim slightly. Sometimes the full brightness returns, sometimes it doesn't. Is this a battery saving feature? Any ideas to remove it?
Finally, how do I alter the layout of my phone? I currently have a really basic set-up whereby I only use 1 of the 7 screens and all it is is a list of icons. I want it to look way cooler than that, i.e. like on the SGII homepage: http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxys2/html/. I want to do things like have my hotmail set-up in a whole screen, Facebook set-up in another full screen. Have a Google toolbar and weather ap as my first page, just like that link. How do I play with the layout? I can't seem to find it anywhere, though I expect it would be a piece of cake for those familiar with smart phones!
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)

Hi there,
I'm new to smartphones and have some (probably really dumb) questions on the SGII.
Firstly, errr... how do I hang up calls? Currently I am having to press two buttons - one (the home button) to light up the phone so I can see the buttons and the second to actually hang up the call.
Secondly, sometimes the light on my phone dims for no apparent reason. I'll be playing with it then it will dim slightly. Sometimes the full brightness returns, sometimes it doesn't. Is this a battery saving feature? Any ideas to remove it?
Finally, how do I alter the layout of my phone? I currently have a really basic set-up whereby I only use 1 of the 7 screens and all it is is a list of icons. I want it to look way cooler than that, i.e. like on the SGII homepage: http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxys2/html/. I want to do things like have my hotmail set-up in a whole screen, Facebook set-up in another full screen. Have a Google toolbar and weather ap as my first page, just like that link. How do I play with the layout? I can't seem to find it anywhere, though I expect it would be a piece of cake for those familiar with smart phones!
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)


On any of the home screens, press and hold until you see Add to Home, select widgets, scroll through the available widgets until you find what you want, tap on it and it will be placed on the screen your currently on.

the market says: smart app protector is incompatible with SG2. Are you sure it runs on SG2?

Me. too. Got a blank screen and the post I sent never appeared ...

Ian


Hi for some reason i cannot create a new thread, im not sure if its because i just signed up to this forum

1. you can change this in settings, when you are the hoime screen click on left button and goto call settings and click on the enabling power button to end call. so next time you want to end a call just press power button once and call will end.
2. this is the auto adjustment of the screen brightness, this is enabled you can disable this by going to settings. the original poster on this thread talks about a cool trick to adjust sceen brightness, so look at that for future adjustments once you have disabled the auto screen brightness adjustment.
3. as per richardj- just touch the middle of the screen without icons, and it will pop out and then use intuition, delete etc

when I tap market aps a sign popps up , attention a network error has occured reentry or canccel and return to previous screen, reentry does nothing went to 02 assistant said she had same prob and go to kies and update did no different help

when I tap market aps a sign popps up , attention a network error has occured reentry or canccel and return to previous screen, reentry does nothing went to 02 assistant said she had same prob and go to kies and update did no different help

I had this problem the other day. But I flashed a new Custom ROM (As it was time to update:)) and all is well now.

Have you tried a factory reset.

guys, I just signed up to this forum but can't create a new thread for some reason? I've having problems with an unresponsive/laggy S2 :( Need help!

guys, I just signed up to this forum but can't create a new thread for some reason? I've having problems with an unresponsive/laggy S2 :( Need help!

Read the new user section for help with posting posts.

Just moved from iphone.

One of the things I liked was the ability to touch the top of the screen it would scroll all the way to the top automatically (useful in Twitter or Facebook)

Can this be done on SGS2?

Voice Commands:
Double press the home button to auto open


Can this be disabled.............. This function makes me want to throw my phone against a wall!!!!!!! :mad:

Just moved from iphone.

One of the things I liked was the ability to touch the top of the screen it would scroll all the way to the top automatically (useful in Twitter or Facebook)

Can this be done on SGS2?

Also interested in this one.......

Just moved from iphone.

One of the things I liked was the ability to touch the top of the screen it would scroll all the way to the top automatically (useful in Twitter or Facebook)

Can this be done on SGS2?

Yes, if you use 3 fingers to swipe up or down, it will quickly scroll to the top or bottom of a menu (like FB friends list or phone contacts) source: Tip: Galaxy S II/Tab 10.1 TouchWiz, multi-touch quick scroll (http://bit.ly/pxgLgX)

This website also has a nice Galaxy S II tip collection as well: Samsung Galaxy S II Tip Collection [Up to Date: 30 Tips!] (http://bit.ly/oPp118)

I am having problems with my menus as when I press the middle button a different menu comes up instead of the normal home page. Can someone please help me out with this problem as I have been trying for hours to sort it out but cant seem too. Its the menu where the clock and weather appear and underneath the music, photos apps appear too

thanks

hI, I am a newbie, but would really appreciate tips (and other new Galaxy Sii users would too I am sure) on what to turn on/off in order to conserve battery life, as I only get 7 hrs use (10am - 5pm) daily, with maybe only max 10 minutes online web reading news on train! wifi is off, ditto bluetooth, gps, brightness to auto. Email accounts sync to my phone also.

Additionally there is reputed to be an update to version 2.3.6 from 2.3.4, but my phone says 'no update available'. Can I access it from anywhere else?
Many thanks in advance!

Don't know if anyone has said this but you can hide folders by putting a . infront of it (thanks to Guide on hiding files (http://www.mobilephonetipsandtricks.com/2011/09/how-to-hide-files-on-samsung-galaxy-s2.html))

Hey guys I just got my s2 3 weeks back and i started having problems with the playing of videos in the internet. Youtube and other videos on apps like news n stuff work without problems but as soon as i try watchin videos from other website for example worldstarhiphop.com they dont play!! Im not quiet sure why i tried using differnt browser apps opera,firefox and the s2 browser which is already installed... can anybody help me with that?
thc alot
hman

Realize this may not be the exactly correct place for this......

But is it possible to improvise an LED by creating an all black screen (maybe a screen lock wallpaper) that is all black except for a small colored area when appropriate to indicate if you have mail, missed SMS or missed call?

Hello everyone,
I have a small problem, I bought a new Galaxy s2 and a samsung 32GB (class 10) micro sd. I was very happy installing some gameloft games and some apps WHEN the phone says it doesnt have space. I checked the Storage options and it seems that the phone created a new folder for my SD card and named it "external_sd". That means, My SD card is allmost empty and I cant install more things because the internal is full...

I searched this on google, and some people say to install Astro others say app2sd etc etc BUT none of them solve the problem because the phone still thinks that the "SD" is the SD folder(actually haves that name) that is inside of the internal storage.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I even tryed to move the Gameloft folder to the "external_sd" one, and I had to DL everything again... Maybe there is a way but I .. I simply cant see how. The device is not rooted. Maybe if I wait for ICSit will fix that, or not?

Thank you.

Example from another Gs2http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6097/6305931179_9631ca3287.jpg

p.s. I am posting this here because for some reason I cant make a new thread o.o

The external sd file within the phones sd folder is the link to the external sd card. Putting files in the external sd folder does not fill up the phones internal sd memory.
You may need some game files to be within phone sd for faster access but there should be an option in the game settings to save content files to the external sd.

Edit: Just checked and I have Gameloft's MC3.
If you go to Settings > applications > find your game and select.
You should have the option to move to sd - that is the external sd card.

Yes, but whenI click to "send to SD card", it actualy sends the 1.5GB files from the game to a folder called SDcard, that is in the internal storage.
Thatsmy problem, even by clicking on "send to SD", it sends to a diferent folder but still in the internal memory. :/

I'll have a play and see what happens and come back to you.

Had a look and did this using Astro:
1.Tried Settings > applications to send game to sd.
Went through process (very quickly??) but on checking the file had not moved.

2. Using Astro found Gameloft file in Android > data
Selected file and Move
Went to external_ sd and pasted
Files moved succesfully. If you have a number of games this will take some time and may be quicker to connect to PC to transfer.
Went to start game and informed that an additional file needed to be downloaded.
The downloaded file went back to the phone sd, so back to square one (well almost)

Yeh, thats my problem too! :( Ever if I use Astro or use the OS options to move the files, they still stay on the internal part (and if I move the files I need to re-download them...).

I wonder if someone knows how to fix this.

Yeh, thats my problem too! :( Ever if I use Astro or use the OS options to move the files, they still stay on the internal part (and if I move the files I need to re-download them...).

I wonder if someone knows how to fix this.

Hack here, but requires root.
http://www.jayceooi.com/2011/10/02/how-to-move-gameloft-games-data-to-external-sd-card/

Hi
New to the forum and I have a Galaxy SII
Recently upgraded OS to Ice Cream Sandwhich and noticed a few changes seems all good but when I receive a photo in a SMS I can't save it like I was able to before where you only had to save the attachement. Now I don't have that option under the menu button and therefore I can't foward the message save to PC or anything else I could before.
Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone have a solution?
Thank you

I posted here because for some reason it wouldn't let me post in the Solution Help Forum.

Do you mean sms or mms?
Are you using the stock application or one from the Play Store?

Hi
New to the forum and I have a Galaxy SII
Recently upgraded OS to Ice Cream Sandwhich and noticed a few changes seems all good but when I receive a photo in a SMS I can't save it like I was able to before where you only had to save the attachement. Now I don't have that option under the menu button and therefore I can't foward the message save to PC or anything else I could before.
Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone have a solution?
Thank you

I posted here because for some reason it wouldn't let me post in the Solution Help Forum.
When you receive the picture you can press once (on the preview) and it will open in full screen mode, or if you press and hold on the picture preview it will pop up the options to forward, delete, save attachments etc.

Sorry to post here, but I can't start a new thread ... when I click to post the screen goes blank and the address line changes to '.....dismiss'
The permission box says I can post, but I've tried several browsers and it still won't let me. How can I fix this? Thanks.

Also, it won't let me contact admin.

Have you read the new user section, there's a whole thread dedicated to posting a new thread?

Yes, I read it before posting, then again when it failed. Can't see that I'm doing anything wrong, and the permissions box says I can start threads. As soon as I submit, I get a blank screen and the url changed to http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/profile.php?do=dismissnotice.

Do you still have the pink banner across top of the webpage?
Try filling out more of your profile?

Been registered here long enough not to follow the thread anymore.

Yes, I read it before posting, then again when it failed. Can't see that I'm doing anything wrong, and the permissions box says I can start threads. As soon as I submit, I get a blank screen and the url changed to http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/profile.php?do=dismissnotice.

Did you ever get this figured out? I'm having the exact same issue.

EDIT: for anyone else who might have this issue, clicking the X in the pink banner and filling out more of my profile worked (I did both so not sure which is required).

hi i got a same problem,, i had installed jelly bean but it is eating too much battry,, so i tried to istall the old version again ,,, it seems stuck for 40 min i force shud down turn it off an take out the battry and try restart the phone,,, but i am not able to re start it,, can any one help, is my phone is dead or i can still able to do something about it,, plz help /
plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hi all,
this is the 1st time I join the forum, hope this is the right channel.
I'm facing a problem for arrange the app icon whereby I have to do it manually from page to page after I delete some of the unuse app in order to look systematically.
Is there any others way that its will automatically well arrange once I delete some of the used app icon.
Please advice and thanks for your help.

Hello, I just converted my galaxy s2 shw-m250s to i9100. Everything went fine except for the gyroscope. And I don't have plans to upgrade it to jellybean, but will it fix it?

Hello, I just converted my galaxy s2 shw-m250s to i9100. Everything went fine except for the gyroscope. And I don't have plans to upgrade it to jellybean, but will it fix it?

You converted the phone? You took out all the internal components/hardware of an i9100 and transferred them to shw-m250s?

What's wrong with the Gyroscope? Does it work at all? Have you tried calibrating it?

No, not the hardware. I converted from shw-m250s to i9100 using odin. The gyroscope has been the problem of us s2 users, they say its a software issue.