[Q] Apps disappear after moving to SD

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Hi all,

I've searched the internet for hours trying to find a solution to this problem but found only similar problems with icons disappearing, not whole apps, icons and all.

I got a new 32GB micro SD card moved all apps that could be moved to it. After reboot all links to those apps disappeared from home screen and from app drawer. Through application manager I was able to see the apps but when trying to move them back to the phone notification appeared that the application is missing.

Some moved applications will run before reboot, some won't but all will disappear after being moved to SD card and phone rebooted.

I tried resetting the phone and starting from scratch but the results were the same.

Does anyone have a work around or an idea?

Thanks.

This happens because the apps that disappear are on MicroSD. When booting the phone the launcher starts before the SD card is scanned. so the launcher doesn't sees the apps and thinks they are missing.

So what you have to do is the following, force close the launcher. you can do the following:
settings>Applications>Manage applications>all>SE Home > and press "Force stop"

this will relaunch the SE home and all the apps will be back

Thanks for a quick reply Comodoor but unfortunately restarting SE Home doesn't fix the issue for me. The apps are all gone. If I go back to application manager and have a look at apps installed on SD I can see an entry like: com.appspot.swisscodemonkey.appbrain taking up total of 32kb (which is kinda too little) and an option to move it to phone but then a notification: Failed to move application. The application does not exist.

Did you changed your SD card without copying everything? Because moving apps to SD card creates a folder where the apps are in. If you delete this folder all the apps will be gone.

In Linux and Mac don't see this folder because it's hidden for them. the folder is called ".android_secure" you have to copy this file to

Thank you commodoor for your help, the mystery seems to be solved for now. I tried my old 8gb card and it seems to be working fine. Obviously the new 32gb card is faulty.

Originally Posted by commodoor

This happens because the apps that disappear are on MicroSD. When booting the phone the launcher starts before the SD card is scanned. so the launcher doesn't sees the apps and thinks they are missing.

So what you have to do is the following, force close the launcher. you can do the following:
settings>Applications>Manage applications>all>SE Home > and press "Force stop"

this will relaunch the SE home and all the apps will be back

Thanks a lot commodoor! this issue is annoying me. Never realized that the solution is so easy. Even the SE customer service personnel does not know how to solve this issue. Thanks again=)

ICS403 app disappear after a reboot

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Hello all,

I want to reopen a discussion that I consider that is not well concluded or solved, and I don’t see any opinions in XDA, for a problem that I think many people already had in the pass, but because we have handy backups, we restore the things and no need to waste time discussing it.

For some time that I have been reading the problem of apps disappearing, after moving to sdcard followed by a reboot, and the fault always go to the user (forgot to copy something) or to the external sdcard, like the case discussed here in the first posts.

I see here a talk between commodoor, cech and leolion38, blaming a faulty 32gb sdcard, but I don’t understand why the blame, because when we press button <move to sdcard> in application manager, it moves to the USB storage app and not to the external sdcard.

Now going to actual facts, and respective problem:

- My phone details are Galaxy Note with ICS 403 rooted with CF5.6+CWM;

- Everything stable working correctly, any kind of problem;

- I have an external sdcard, but I didn’t moved anything to the external sdcard;

- I moved applications to the sdcard (internal USB) using button <move to SD card> in application manager;

- After I can see that in line “USB storage app” the amount increased from 0 Bytes to whatever Bytes;

Now the conclusion and respective problem:

When I make a phone reboot, the app disappeared and a grey shortcut appears in the place of the previous app shortcut, and in application manager tab “All”, I can see several grey icons beginning with com.whatever, corresponding to the app that disappeared.

This already happened to me in GB236, but I also blamed a cheap copy 32GB sdcard that I had bought in the market. I was an android beginner user and I thought that when we move the app to the sdcard, we were moving to the external and not to the USB (the sdcard was good and I putted it in the garbage, problem of not trusting in hardware copies) .

Can someone help me discover what causes this problem and how to solve it?

Thank you in advance.

Problem also happening moving applications using Titan Backup.

After restored the applications that were missing and before a reboot, I had to move applications again to the internal phone memory.

My opinion is that only the app installation is able to put/install itself in the sdcard, we cannot move it using application manager or other software, even if it says that app can be moved.

The final shot I gave was following the above idea of commodoor, making an FC to SE Home, because I didn’t find it, I made an FC to System UI, I think it’s the similar in ICS. Not worked and the grey icons continued there, I had to delete them.

One detail, if I press the grey icons android says that application is not installed in phone.

I think it’s needed some kind of app refresh in the system, because when I delete the grey icons, android asks me if I want to uninstall the application, of course I do that because if not, when I restore application that garbage continues there.

App disappear

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I continued my study around my problem, and I read some more XDA threads and I could not find a reason for the disappearance of the applications.

I suggest to the administrators of XDA if possible, maybe an impossible huge work, to compile in only one place all the threads about this subject, with the most important opinions, and in a common place because it happens in several different equipment.

Well the problem now! After erasing USB and the problem continuing, I decided for the Wipe/Factory reset making fingers, because I have the emmc problematic chip.

My congratulations to chainfire and CF56 because everything erased, phone restarted like new with normal questions, and after even the SuperUser was maintained with root. No doubt chainfire knows about development.

The problem was solved with wipe, only one time I had to shutdown phone for the app grey icon appears correctly.

But now other doubts came to me:

- Moving apps to sdcard they are going to the internal or to the external sdcard?

- What are the uses of all the partitions we have?

- We have in Galaxy Note 16GB internal memory, how it’s splited?

- Why USB storage not mixed with the 2GB phone memory?

- What is that Misc inside USB storage, and why all remaining space its affected to?

If someone knows how to answer this doubts, please explain them to me.

Thanks.

Finally solution found:

Uninstall Stericson permissions pro and Stericson Busybox, crap applications that damage everything, create mysterious crashes, loops, grey icons and applications stop working after phone reboot.

CH SGnote using XDA premium