This is a duplicate, but I cannot find a way to delete it.

[RVDowning]

This is driving me nuts. On Android 6.0. rebooting the phone is causing several apps to de-install. For example it always de-installs colornote and it generally de-installs Google which removes the Google search bar. Today it also deinstalled paypal, and Garmin connect. it seems that in all cases it replaces the installed apps' icons with the Android icon which itself points to nothing.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[ocnbrze]

like uninstalled completely? or are we talking about just from the home screen? they are no longer in your app drawer?

 

[RVDowning]

Uninstalled completely. They are no longer in the app drawer.

 

[ocnbrze]

how often are you rebooting your phone? i rarely reboot my phone.

and expect to have more issues like this as your phone is pretty old now, and these types of things will occur more often.

the only thing i can think of doing is factory reset the phone or flash a firmware update.

 

[Hadron]

You haven't moved these apps to an SD card by any chance? If there is a problem with the card, including something that just delays mounting too long, then any apps moved to it will be broken. The "android" icon on the home page just means that the launcher cannot find the app that shortcut is pointing to (you also get the same icon if you make a shortcut to an app that doesn't have an icon of its own).

If these are all apps that have been moved to a card then it might be time for a new card. But without more information I can't be sure (we'll only be certain if replacing the card fixes it, so even if everything points to it being a problem with apps on the card there will be a risk that this won't work).

 

[RVDowning]

I don't have any apps on my SD card. Only thing there is my music and my backups.

To answer the other question I listen to music from my phone when running. But I have been getting what seem to be interrupts getting fired that cause a brief pause in the music every few seconds or so. I kind of makes listening to music worse than not having music. I have never been able to find out what is causing this. But, rebooting my phone every day clears whatever it is.

I use LG backup every day now before I reboot the phone, but I've never done a restore. Not sure how long that would take vs just reinstalling several apps.

I wouldn't be adverse to getting a new phone, but don't know what to get. I kind of wonder if this issue I am having is somehow intentional, trying to become annoying enough that the user will buy a new phone. It could be due to some upgraded system software. This makes me think that I shouldn't get another LG phone. I wouldn't want to reward them for causing this problem. But if I get some other kind of phone, then I guess I need some other kind of backup. Could I use the LG backup to do a restore on some other manufacturer's phone, like Samsung for instance?

Also, I'll never get another phone where the SD card is not accessible without having to take the case off.

 

[Hadron]

It's not likely to be something deliberately caused by an update. Firstly, that would be commercial suicide. for the reasons you've given yourself, and secondly because you are still on Android 6: you've not had any system updates for a long time .

But random uninstalling of apps that are in internal storage is not an encouraging sign - internal storage is more reliable and longer-lived than microSD cards, but if you are seeing things like this I can't help wondering whether you are starting to have failures?

I would not bet on a manufacturer-specific backup being able to be restored to another manufacturer's device. But most manufacturers these days include setup/transfer apps to copy data from your old phone (usually via WiFi), and those are designed to copy from different manufacturers.

As for a phone where the microSD isn't accessible without taking the case off, surely that's a matter of the case design? Most cases do cover the microSD slots of phones. Unless you mean the phone casing, in which case don't worry, all phones these days are sealed units where you remove the microSD (if it has one) the same way as you remove the SIM, using a little tool (or paperclip) to pop a tray out. You will struggle to find a phone where you can take the back off to change the battery, never mind one where you have to do that to change the microSD card

 

[RVDowning]

For my LG G4 I have to take the back off to access the SD card. I have critter cams outside that take pictures of all kinds of animals that come by during the night, and it would be nice just to be able to pop the SD card out of the cam and put it in my phone just by popping out the SD card that contains my music. I don't want to have to take the back off of the phone to do so.

I also tried restoring using the LG restore function. That was a bit of a waste of time. It took about an hour and when it was finished it actually said that it was incomplete and wanted to know if I wanted to do it again. I said no. But I still had to reboot my phone afterwards and it still managed to delete those normal apps so that the backup hadn't really accomplished anything. I still had to restore the four apps that were deleted the way I have been doing.