Apex Launcher: No Labels for Icons Within Folders

[larrytxeast]

I've been using Apex Launcher for awhile. It's hard to believe, but only today did I start utilizing folders. I did so when I was making a lot of driving directions shortcuts (where you can just tap an icon on the homescreen & instantly get directions to a specific place) and wanted a way to have all of those as "sub-icons" within 1 icon.

To my unpleasant surprise, I noticed that in Apex Launcher, the text labels weren't being displayed for these icons--which is especially a problem because all of the icons were identical. I tried everything with respect to changing the folder settings in Apex, including shrinking the size of the icons, figuring that more "white space" would help. Nope. There was PLENTY of space, yet even so, the labels STILL wouldn't appear. Apparently, there is absolutely no way to have them appear.

Why, why, why? That's just asinine.

It, all by itself, caused me to switch to Nova Launcher, which easily imported my Apex settings and layout etc. I noticed that Nova DOES show the labels for the icons. That, to me, makes Nova better than Apex, by a 352 to 37 margin, or something like that. It's too bad, because I preferred Apex in other ways (such as being able to re-map the home button, once you're home, to do other things such as activate the Apex menu and the way that this menu contained functions such as "lock desktop," it's quicker to lock/unlock the desktop that way vs how Nova does it).

Why, why, why, does Apex not allow you to display the text labels for the apps/shortcuts within its folders?

 

[funkylogik]

Id say thats something to email the dev about mate

 

[larrytxeast]

Id say thats something to email the dev about mate

I did. I started this post so that someone else would know about this, in case it matters, and to see if anyone else had come across this and what they thought of it. To me, it's awful, and appalling. I can't believe it's setup this way.

Yes--again, I did contact the developer.

 

[funkylogik]

Cool cool mate.
Tbh ive never used apex but that does sound like a pretty bad feature to leave out of the app i agree mate

 

[larrytxeast]

I WAS WRONG. I reinstalled Apex, using the newest Google Play version (vs the .apk I had from months ago), and the labels were there.

It must have been some setting I had wrong, not sure what, because I imported the previous Apex's settings, and it exhibited the problem again. I then cleared out everything, and then imported the previous Apex's DESKTOP but NOT the settings--and the labels are back.

So, apparently, it was some setting I had made, not sure what or where, though.

So--I guess I'll resume using Apex again. I like it a bit better than Nova, since you can re-map the home icon to activate the Apex menu (once you're at the home screen), and because options like "lock desktop" are there, whereas locking the desktop (or unlocking it) is a more long-winded affair.

Then again--backup up and restoring the Apex data is a bit harder to do (which comes up if you re-do your phone or change phones etc) and isn't documented anywhere on any forums I could find. I made a post of my own a few months ago documenting how. (http://androidforums.com/threads/ho...-data-after-a-phone-wipe-instructions.879907/)

Also, I've discovered that there is no way to re-sort the folder icons in Apex, and no way to add a new app/icon while the folder is open. You can drag an icon that exists on the home-screen, or create one on the homescreen and then drag it in, but in Nova there's a "sub-menu" that lets you resort the folder icons and ALSO lets you add a new one, even if it's not already on the homescreen.

So, I guess, in the end, I'm still leaning towards Nova since its handling of folders is still better, at least from what I've seen. Even so, I was wrong in saying it didn't show the labels for the icons, it does--I just had a setting wrong (not sure which one).

 

[Mr. Lucky]

I've discovered that there is no way to re-sort the folder icons in Apex, and no way to add a new app/icon while the folder is open. You can drag an icon that exists on the home-screen, or create one on the homescreen and then drag it in, but in Nova there's a "sub-menu" that lets you resort the folder icons and ALSO lets you add a new one, even if it's not already on the homescreen.

You don't mention whether you are referring to folders on one of the homescreens or within the app drawer. Regardless, I think you still have an issue with some setting within the launcher. I just tested it both ways. If you open a homescreen folder, simply long-pressing and dragging will allow you to rearrange the icons within (or were you expecting a 1-tap sort option?). Opening a folder in the app drawer provides additional options. Pressing the overflow (3 vertical dots) icon will reveal choices for Edit, Sort, and Remove. Edit allows you to change the folder title (or remove it), and has check boxes for each installed app AWA an option for retaining the apps in the drawer (versus having them exist solely within the folder). 'Sort by' has six choices. Dragging an app drawer folder to a homescreen retains the customization you performed in the drawer, but you lose the overflow options and can only drag/drop rearrange at that point. The one exception I've found about dragging folders from the drawer to homescreen is that it will not inherit the sort by "Mostly used" option (i.e., it will not dynamically re-sort based on usage of apps within the folder… like it does in the app drawer).

 

[larrytxeast]

Oh okay. I'll follow up on this at some point to see. I couldn't ever get it to work properly trying it on my own. Prior to using folders, I liked Apex better than Nova, which I had tried for a bit in the past. (The two are often compared, as they're a lot alike.) For now I'm running Nova and am fine that way.

 

[pb16]

I had the same problem or a similar one. I had several icons for different playlists that I wanted to put in a folder. When I tried doing that, all the icon labels disappeared. Finally I realized the folder background was white and the icon labels were white, and that was why I couldn't see the labels. I solved the problem by changing the folder background to Dark as here: Apex settings/Folder settings/Folder background style/Dark. I could then see the labels.