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Help Icon does not appear after install.

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Hi,

I have a PND (Personal Navigation Device aka GPS) running on Android 4.4.2

There was no "Contacts" icon and when I tried to synch my google account the contacts displayed an error (cannot synch) although everything else (app data, browser, calendar, Gmail etc) synched OK.

Thinking the contacts app may not have been installed by default I clicked on /system/priv-app/contacts.apk which seemed to install the contacts.

Now when I synch my google account the contacts appear to synch successfully (ie google account shows as fully synched) but I still don't have a contacts icon on my desktop. I have read that I can drag the icon from the App Tray but I do not appear to have an App Tray either.

I have tried clearing the system cache and restarting the device.

Is there a way (using file explorer?) that I can create a contacts icon on the desktop?

Thanks
 
I believe this being a navigation device and not being a phone, the structure of the OS is limited, compared to a typical Android phone. Seems not possible.
 
Thanks for the reply,

Sorry, I should have been clearer - the device is basically a (low cost) tablet running a Navigation app (rather than a bespoke GPS device running a "stripped down" version of Android) so I'm not sure about the relevance of the device not being a phone.

Surely there must be some way in which the OS "knows" which icons to display on the desktop. Not every installed app appears on the desktop so there must be a file or directory which contains the info?

Thanks again.
 
OK but you need to access your app drawer to access the installed apps. A file explorer will not do that. Settings only shows the list of installed apps but will not launch them. Is there a "home" icon on the lower portion of your phone?
 
I know a file explorer won't launch apps - I merely want to use the file explorer access the file or directory which tells the OS which icons to display on the desktop and then edit the file (I read somewhere that Android is based on Linux so I am assuming that my (somewhat dated) UNIX knowledge that Android will use a text file containing a list of apps).

There is no app tray (see my original post) or home button
The device is not a phone it is a PND (it is sold as a SatNav-GPS/DashCam) although to me it appears to be a low cost tablet

Thanks
 
Even if you installed a file explorer, you still cannot open or make a shortcut to the desktop with it
 
I'm not familiar with your device, but the OS definitely stores it somewhere, maybe someone else here can chime in?
 
I'm not sure about the relevance of the device not being a phone.

It may be that this particular 'build' of Android simply doesn't support Contact storage. Is Gmail installed, and if so do contacts appear when you try to compose a new email?

Also, can you post what is displayed in Settings/About... regarding the Android version? That may help.
 
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