Help All Home Screen Icons disappearing

[bryan333]

I have exactly the same problem, I have a Droid 1 running 2.2; build FRG22D. I had this problem on 2.1 as well.

In my opinion, I feel that this issue has something to do with:

1) Lack of memory -- too many widgets / apps running at the same time. I do presently use Advanced Task Killer, but there is no effect (no help).

2) Dock mode -- I use a Blackberry holster (belt hip) which has a magnet. The annoying magnet puts the Droid in Dock Mode (rather annoying). When I remove the phone from the holster, I have to manually exit the dock. At which time, the icons are gone for 10-20 seconds.

I have also noticed the icons disappear when opening / closing the keyboard. I have to assume that the issue is simply some type of a memory problem.

Rebooting the device has no effect and should not be required. Android simply needs to address the problem to ensure proper reliability and stability of the device, anything else is unacceptable.

 

[R_Sparkk]

yup - what happens is hat the widgets are live, always on, and (from my own experience, this may not be accurate) they eat a lot of memory up - so when yo come out of an app all of a sudden all your widgets are waking back up - and the home screen appears to freeze (although if you let it sit long enough, they *should* come back, as long as the Home screen hasn't actually FC'd).

I deleted many apps on the 3/5 screens that I use and the change immediately affected my home screen. I went from about 21 across all three to 15 across all three, with 8 shortcuts being on the main homescreen (oh, this isn't including Google Search Bar) pre and post deletions.

Nice! Hope it stays.

 

[R_Sparkk]

Still no home screen problems. Seems to be working fine, phone lags as it did normally before. But at least I have my home screen.

-R

 

[Imemine]

I have had my Motodroid since November 2009 and love it. But it seems ever since the 2.2 upgrade when I change from email to home screen or any program to home screen, it takes 30 seconds or longer for the icons to come back onto the screen. It didn't bother me at first but now that I don't have a landline, it would be nice to have it show the icons faster so I can make a phone call if I need too quickly.

I know it's from the 2.2 update because I noticed it immediately. It just bothers me more now.

any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Arch_Angel]

I have had the same problem on and off again for the past few months. I have a MotoDroid1 running 2.2 and seem to have found a fix (at least it hasn't happened for a while now).

I have used both Launcher Pro and ADW as well as the stock home app for Droid, and the icon disappearing problem happened for ALL the launchers.

The problem would primarily occur when I had a an app running (Google Maps, Navigator, HandScent.... take your pick) and would switch back to my home screen. My icons would disappear for about a minute then magically pop back in.

I have since changed my wallpaper to use an image with a 640 x 480 dimension..... that's it.

Ever since I have made that change - my icons have not disappeared at all - and my launcher seems to be running a touch faster (could be my imagination thought - lol) I have various widgets running and am using LauncherPro with 6 screens and multiple apps in memory at any one time.

If anything changes I will re-post but for now things seem to be running smoothly.

 

[Imemine]

Thank you for the information. I will try that but how did you change the size of the wallpaper.

I'll let you know if it helps my problem.

 

[Imemine]

I installed that Launcher pro and what a difference. Its wonderful so far so good.

I'm not sure how to use all the features but seems to have helped considerably.

thank you so much

M

 

[iTypewriter]

I don't think it's a docking issue, as I rarely dock my phone, but have been noticing this issue on my Motorola Droid since the installation of Android 2.2.2. Whenever I open my keyboard, all of my apps disappear from the home screen as well as the main app list for upwards of 30 seconds.

Today I went into Verizon to ask them about it, and after showing the technician my problem, his response was, "Well, this (the Droid 1) isn't one of the newer, high-powered phones, so it'll be slow. That's how your phone is supposed to work."

All I could do was stand there is disbelief. Was he actually trying to play this off like it was SUPPOSED to do that? Does he think I'm an idiot? I've had this phone for a year, it's been having this problem for a week.

Right now I am less than impressed with both Verizon and Android. I agree with bryan333, anything short of Android releasing an update that fixes this is unacceptable.

 

[Ricochet]

I'm seeing a slightly different 'vanishing icons' issue on a Droid 3, running 2.3.4. However, the only ones which disappear are from apps which have been moved to the Internal Storage (built-in SD Card) area. The other apps' icons remain on the home screen.

The disappearance occurs after each reboot & sometimes after undocking. (During a dock with PC mount, all apps on the Internal SD Card appear to be "uninstalled" with their homepage icons missing but, so far, they have returned once the phone's undocked).

SD Card apps also vanish form the Dock bar, to be replaced by a white "?" mark. I haven't noticed any vanishing behavior when opening the hardware keyboard.

I'm guessing that these icons aren't cached in the phone's main storage & internal storage probably isn't mounted when the home sceen's being put together.

Moving these apps back to main phone storage solves this issue.

Resetting the Home service is a temp workaround:

1. Undock the phone
2. Go to: Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications
3. Choose the "Running" tab
4. Use the Menu key to set the filter to "Running services" (if necessary)
5. Select the "Homescreen" service
6. Press its "Stop" button