How to get apps back?

[Drunken christ]

Looking for a bit of help! I smashed the screen on my HTC Desire a while ago and sent it off to get repaired. The phone has come back repaired but all my apps have gone as well as my customised home screen. Downloaded app brain through the market but all my apps have gone off there as well. Some of them had been moved to my SD card and all my photos, etc are still there but can't access any of the apps at all.

Any idea on how to get them back?

 

[amlothi]

Apps don't entirely go to the SD card. Only partially.

It sounds like the system memory of your phone was wiped. So, the part of the apps that needed to stay in system memory is gone.

You'll need to reinstall all of the apps. Unless you made a backup

 

[John Jason]

Apps don't entirely go to the SD card. Only partially.

It sounds like the system memory of your phone was wiped. So, the part of the apps that needed to stay in system memory is gone.

You'll need to reinstall all of the apps. Unless you made a backup

How do you back up all your installed apps? And everything else, for that matter. And having backed everything up, how do I restore it all to a new phone?

 

[Android>Apple]

2 programs. Both require ROOT ACCESS so if you don't have it you can't do this:

Titanium Backup will back up your apps and associated data. It will back up pretty much everything except like call logs and SMSs.)for SMSs you could use SMS Backup and Restore if you need them).

A Nandroid backup(google to find out how to make one tons of guides out there) is a different animal. It backs up literally EVERYTHING however it can only restore literally EVERYTHING as well. Its an all or nothing app, but it's good for keeping a backup of your whole phone for cases like yours.

In both cases, these apps save to the SD card so as long as you have it, you can change to a whole new phone and it's like you never lost the old one!

Oh and if you aren't rooted and dont wanna be, you can at least re-DL your purchased apps from the app market via the "My Apps" screen there.

 

[amlothi]

Oh and if you aren't rooted and dont wanna be, you can at least re-DL your purchased apps from the app market via the "My Apps" screen there.

In my experience, though, the Market doesn't remember the FREE apps that you had installed previously. Which is quite annoying, as I expect most people use 90% (or higher) FREE applications and very few paid.


John,

Without root, there are many programs that can backup APK files of all of your apps. 2 problems with this. 1) Your settings and data within that program are not saved. It's just a clean install. 2) The market link is broken when you do this. (The paid version of Titanium backup can restore the market link though.) This means you won't get notified of updates.

 

[sitlet]

In my experience, though, the Market doesn't remember the FREE apps that you had installed previously. Which is quite annoying, as I expect most people use 90% (or higher) FREE applications and very few paid.


John,

Without root, there are many programs that can backup APK files of all of your apps. 2 problems with this. 1) Your settings and data within that program are not saved. It's just a clean install. 2) The market link is broken when you do this. (The paid version of Titanium backup can restore the market link though.) This means you won't get notified of updates.

I believe you are talking about appbrain. It will backup a "list" of all your installed apps, so when you get a new phone, you just redownload appbrain, and it will give you that list again.

But as others have said, the only TRUE way to backup apps (and their associated data) is to be rooted and use Titanium Backup or make a nandroid backup.

 

[takeshi]

Appbrain doesn't back up APK's if that's what you're saying.

 

[amlothi]

I wasn't talking about App Brain. I can't use it because it is apparently blocked. It must be some radical anti-government website.

 

[Deleted User]

Another option for future use is Listables. It can create a list of your installed apps along with links to the Android Market for them. That way, if you have wiped your phone, you can use the list to go to the Market page for each app and click "install". Kind of tedious but if you don't have root, that is one way to go.