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[Problem and Solution] After GB Update, missing apps? Avoid reinstalling, try this...

Thanks, Robocuz. Your explanation of how to fix the missing apps after getting Gingerbread (my update was just this morning) was great. The Android Forum never fails me.
 
Thank you so eff'n much I don't know whether to hug you, adopt you, or... Well, you get the idea. You have posted a simple life (and time) saver for us diehard Droiders.
 
Holydoc said:
After getting the update this morning, I used Drew66's suggestion of just unmounting and remounting the SD card from the phone after a boot to get the APPs on my SD card back. It worked like a charm. I do realize that until Verizon updates this GB UPDATE that it is just a temporary fix. However Verizon has announced a new update to fix this problem:


http://support.verizonwireless.com/pdf/system_update/incredible.pdf

So with that in mind, I will just use the temporary fix until Verizon pushes the new update.

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

that's the update that CAUSED the problem
 
Haven't had any problem with apps on my SD card, but I am experiencing the typical "low storage space" bug constantly, and more disturbingly I get an error reading android.process.media force close every time I open an app, sometimes just at random. I can't play or access any media, even stock ringtones don't work. I've cleared all download caches and all the other tricks I've heard of and it does nothing. I haven't seen anyone on this or any other forums discussing this. Anyone have any suggestions? Think I may have got that 406 build and just need to hold out for the 408? Cuz it's been about 12 hours and these shenanigans are killing me. Think I should just root it and be done with the whole thing? Any insight would be welcome.
 
sdrawkcab25 said:
that's the update that CAUSED the problem
Click to expand...

No, AFAIK that's the update that will (hopefully) fix all our problems ( 4.06.605.3 is the buggy GB update, and 4.08.605.2 is the fix). I don't think verizon has the update sheet for the GB update that is being pushed out right now. Amazingly, big red is doing a terrible job communicating what's going on to it's consumers. How odd for them...
 
I was excited to have the update this morning but sad when all the apps on my SD card were unresponsive. Did the temporary unmount and mount trick from the phone's settings menu, and got them all back. But I'm glad I double-checked the forum tonight to know there was a permanent fix.

Plugged my phone into my computer and sure enough the app files were in the ".android_secure" folder on the SD card. Moved them to the ".android_secure" folder on internal storage and it works fine!

Thanks RoboCuz!
:):):)
 
fokinpikey said:
Haven't had any problem with apps on my SD card, but I am experiencing the typical "low storage space" bug constantly, and more disturbingly I get an error reading android.process.media force close every time I open an app, sometimes just at random. I can't play or access any media, even stock ringtones don't work. I've cleared all download caches and all the other tricks I've heard of and it does nothing. I haven't seen anyone on this or any other forums discussing this. Anyone have any suggestions? Think I may have got that 406 build and just need to hold out for the 408? Cuz it's been about 12 hours and these shenanigans are killing me. Think I should just root it and be done with the whole thing? Any insight would be welcome.
Click to expand...

Just got the SW update and am experiencing the same exact problems!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
No idea on the media problems. For the out of space, you might be able to take some of your apps and move them from the SD card to the internal, and then back to SD....this will cause the lib files to be moved off to SD as well; I think this was mentioned a bit in the thread earlier, so you can search and that might help. Fundamentally, it seems that the GB release "uses" a little bit more data on /data/data, so it is "easier" to run out of space, but it offers the ability to relocate lib data with the App2SD, so it can be somewhat solved...So I think that if someone never got the out of space issue with Froyo, they might see it in GB, but they might be able to solve it with moving apps around.

Good Luck
RoboCuz
 
RoboCuz said:
No idea on the media problems. For the out of space, you might be able to take some of your apps and move them from the SD card to the internal, and then back to SD....this will cause the lib files to be moved off to SD as well; I think this was mentioned a bit in the thread earlier, so you can search and that might help. Fundamentally, it seems that the GB release "uses" a little bit more data on /data/data, so it is "easier" to run out of space, but it offers the ability to relocate lib data with the App2SD, so it can be somewhat solved...So I think that if someone never got the out of space issue with Froyo, they might see it in GB, but they might be able to solve it with moving apps around.

Good Luck
RoboCuz
Click to expand...

I moved my apps from the SD card to the phone and back. This was an interesting exercise since I did it one at a time using the Managing Apps menu. The total size of the app shown during this exercise was the amount of space the app takes up on the phones internal harddrive. For instance Google Earth was listed as 4.58mb and on the SD card. I moved it to the internal harddrive and it was something like 25mb. I moved it back to the SD card and it went to 188kb! Outstanding! Though that just occurred with a handful of apps, Earth, Angry Birds, Goggles, etc., it did end up saving a bit of space.

I also downloaded "App Cache Cleaner" and used it to clean up the cache that App2SD did not seem to delete. Finally I deleted all data for apps that I had not used for a while and did not mind losing my saved stuff.

Hopefully with 450mb left on my phone storage, I am ready for GB 4.08. *crosses fingers for next attempt*
 
LOVEDROIDS said:
So, I have this stupid OTA that has done nothing but mess up my phone so far. I've done every method listed to get the missing apps back... Nothing has worked. If it was just the apps, I could reinstall. But since the "update", I have had a continual warning of low storage space. I have had to remove apps just to make calls! Yesterday I had 182 apps with room to spare. Today, I have 64, and constant warning to remove more. Please help! I hadn't rooted because I assumed the OTA would be more stable. My perfectly reliable "incredible" phone is a glitchy mess and I'm heartbroken.
Click to expand...

Totally agree! All summer all I heard was the frenzy glee of Gingerbread coming to our Incredibles. Now that it is here, I hate it. Nothing but issues for me personally involving my apps, my GPS tray icon not going on when I turn on GPS, lockscreen getting stuck and my app tray remaining open when I launch an app. Previous software was just fine for me...just needed my old reliable Incredible to last until February when I get a discount for the Galaxy Nexus, but now I don't know.
 
Decided to do a factory reset even if annoying, but during the initial set-up I got a message to download that second patch (4.08.605.2) and everything is right as rain now except one issue.

Can anyone explain why the app drawer stays open after I launch & close an app? This doesn't occur on a friend's phone but does on mine. thanks
 
This is caused by trying to put more than 150 MB of data into the /data/data directory. This directory is mounted at 150MB and everything seems to add something to this directory. That is why deleting a larger app seems to clear it up for awhile. Facebook app puts an entry for every one of your contacts in this directory. I flashed the Verizon OTA update (modified ROM by Wildstang83) that came out in August, and I gained about 60MB of free space in the /data/data directory. I never had another out of memory error. Of course, that OTA was bad, and I am now afraid to update to this latest OTA.
 
jazzfreek said:
This is caused by trying to put more than 150 MB of data into the /data/data directory. This directory is mounted at 150MB and everything seems to add something to this directory. That is why deleting a larger app seems to clear it up for awhile. Facebook app puts an entry for every one of your contacts in this directory. I flashed the Verizon OTA update (modified ROM by Wildstang83) that came out in August, and I gained about 60MB of free space in the /data/data directory. I never had another out of memory error. Of course, that OTA was bad, and I am now afraid to update to this latest OTA.
Click to expand...

The first ota that's going out right now is the same as the august one. The second one is the fix. Or just wait for devs to release modified versions of this update.
 
I have just played with the newest (4.08.605.2) update on an unrooted phone, and it does solve this problem; it correctly mounts the android_secure from the SD card now.

Additionally, this phone had got the previous updates, and the user followed the directions in this thread to properly move the apps over to the EMMC storage. The update correctly moved those apps from the emmc storage to the sd card during the update. Please note, that means you need enough space in your SD card to move all that stuff back :)

Cheers
RoboCuz
 
RoboCuz said:
When you connect your phone to the computer, there should be two drives that show up. One is going to be your SD Card, where the .android_secure folder will exist and have lots of files probably in it.

The other drive, if you have already done the upgrade, will have a folder as well that will be likely empty or mostly empty. You want to move the contents of the folder from the SD card drive to the emmc or internal drive (the one that shows about 6.5 GB total space).

Then you just eject the drives and unplug the phone, and reboot. You should be all set.
Click to expand...


Robo....I tried to move from the SD card to the Internal drive, but an error popped up saying "remove the write protection or use another card". Anyone know why my internal 8gig drive would be locked or how to remove that? BTW, I know how to do that usually by going into properties, but that did not work here.

Would love to fix this prob by just copying the files from SD to Internal .android_secure folder, but could use a bit of help.

Thx
Jim
 
RoboCuz said:
I have just played with the newest (4.08.605.2) update on an unrooted phone, and it does solve this problem; it correctly mounts the android_secure from the SD card now.

Additionally, this phone had got the previous updates, and the user followed the directions in this thread to properly move the apps over to the EMMC storage. The update correctly moved those apps from the emmc storage to the sd card during the update. Please note, that means you need enough space in your SD card to move all that stuff back :)

Cheers
RoboCuz
Click to expand...


Not working for me....and I have 4.08.

Bummer
 
LBI Guy said:
Robo....I tried to move from the SD card to the Internal drive, but an error popped up saying "remove the write protection or use another card". Anyone know why my internal 8gig drive would be locked or how to remove that? BTW, I know how to do that usually by going into properties, but that did not work here.

Would love to fix this prob by just copying the files from SD to Internal .android_secure folder, but could use a bit of help.

Thx
Jim
Click to expand...

Jim, I am not sure what you are trying to do here. Once you have 4.08, the moving of apps to SD will move them to the SD card, and not internal storage. It sounds like that happened, and now you are trying to move them to the internal space? I don't really understand what your trying to accomplish, so I don't know what isn't working, sorry.

Once you have 4.08 (assuming it successfully installed), your apps that have been moved to SD will have been relocated from the emmc (internal) storage to the SD card. You can't move them back again; that's how it is designed to be.

Did your update fail? Are the apps missing right now? What symptoms are you trying to solve?
 
RoboCuz said:
Jim, I am not sure what you are trying to do here. Once you have 4.08, the moving of apps to SD will move them to the SD card, and not internal storage. It sounds like that happened, and now you are trying to move them to the internal space? I don't really understand what your trying to accomplish, so I don't know what isn't working, sorry.

Once you have 4.08 (assuming it successfully installed), your apps that have been moved to SD will have been relocated from the emmc (internal) storage to the SD card. You can't move them back again; that's how it is designed to be.

Did your update fail? Are the apps missing right now? What symptoms are you trying to solve?
Click to expand...


Fully updated but still can not access my prior apps that were on my SD drive. Figures mine would not work fully. Looks like I will have to reinstall each if you do not have a solution.

Jim
 
LBI Guy said:
Fully updated but still can not access my prior apps that were on my SD drive. Figures mine would not work fully. Looks like I will have to reinstall each if you do not have a solution.

Jim
Click to expand...
So if you connect the phone to your computer, and mount both internal and SD card drives, do you have anything in either .android_secure folder on either drive? After the 08 update, all the files should be in the SD card folder...if they are in the emmc, you should move them. If they aren't in either, you are probably (unfortunately) out of luck.

Good luck
 
RoboCuz said:
So if you connect the phone to your computer, and mount both internal and SD card drives, do you have anything in either .android_secure folder on either drive? After the 08 update, all the files should be in the SD card folder...if they are in the emmc, you should move them. If they aren't in either, you are probably (unfortunately) out of luck.

Good luck
Click to expand...

The files look the same as before the 4.08 update... The ones in my SD card are not being recognized, meaning phone does not see the programs. It does read all my pics and other things though on the SD card. Just not in that android.secure folder.

Jim
 
Funny... I STILL can't update to this. I'm on the 5th, 6th, maybe 10th time where it prompts me "System Update - Install Now? Install Later? Cancel?"

I click "install now", it counts down from 10, and then just sits there. No installation or reboot takes place. "System Update" in settings says "up to date", but the version is still the old 4.06.605.3, and so it repeats every couple of days, with another update prompt.

Any fix for this? (though from the sounds of it, this "fixes" things I'd rather not have fixed... kinda got used to the phone being able to use the internal storage space for apps)
 
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