[Q] Apps on SDcard go missing? usually??

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Is anyone running into a problem with apps that have been moved to sdcard just disappearing? Most of the time I see little green droid icons all over my launcher (ADW), and lots of missing apps in the app drawer. I can reboot several times and eventually all show up.

I'm running ee4_debloated-v421 / 0730_charge_voodoo kernel / sdcard_patch. Am on my second handset (first one had a clicky button go dead). The earlier handset occasionally did the same thing.

I presume the sdcard is the culprit, as it is the common element. But I have popped it out, run fdisk and defrag all with no errors.

Any theories??

I had this happen when I first got my charge. How I fixed it was I took the SDCard out of my phone and put it into my flash media reader, and then did a full format using HP's Format tool with default device settings. It took a long time to do the full format, but after doing so, I didn't have any more issues with apps disappearing that were installed to the SDCard.

Full format, huh... (gulp) well it's certainly worth a try! I'll report back.

Thanks,
Larry

Originally Posted by ljcorsa

Full format, huh... (gulp) well it's certainly worth a try! I'll report back.

Thanks,
Larry

I know when the phone first came out, there were several users with SDCard problems. I'm not sure how others fixed them, but a full format and a half hour or so fixed mine

Well, I'm disappointed to report that the problem did not disappear :( Could it be the contents? I copied *everything* from the card before full formatting with the HP tool (which tooks hours as you said), then copied it all back. Same result... if I reboot enough times it will come up with all apps showing.

I've ordered a Class 10 card. Plan to use the HP tool on it straight away. What else would you recommend? Maybe move all the apps back to the phone? Would you start from a fresh load of the ROM?

Many thanks,
Larry

Originally Posted by ljcorsa

Well, I'm disappointed to report that the problem did not disappear :( Could it be the contents? I copied *everything* from the card before full formatting with the HP tool (which tooks hours as you said), then copied it all back. Same result... if I reboot enough times it will come up with all apps showing.

I've ordered a Class 10 card. Plan to use the HP tool on it straight away. What else would you recommend? Maybe move all the apps back to the phone? Would you start from a fresh load of the ROM?

Many thanks,
Larry

I know that DroidXcon over in the Android Central forums advises NOT to move apps over to the SDcard because of problems like you have experienced...the higher (class) speed card may help. I've noticed that on my stock class 2 card when I view a subdirectory that contains large wallpaper files using QuickPic or Gallery, the thumbnails will often "time out" and not display towards the end of the list unless I refresh the listing several times. I would assume it is for the same reason that recording video to the class 2 card will time out after a few minutes.

Good luck with the Class 10 card...keep us posted!!!

Well, the Class 10 arrived in time to try again, so formatted with HP Utility and copied all the saved files over. Same behavior.

If it's the sheer quantity of apps on the SD card and there is a timeout involved, that might explain it! Reformatting the card would effectively defrag it which would speed it up, perhaps explaining imnuts' observation. And if reading in all those apps at startup is not I/O bound but maybe CPU bound, that would explain my experience.

I'm going to try moving apps back to the phone just to see.

Wow, this is persistent. Moved all the apps from SD back to phone using TiB, which seemed to hang sometimes. Tried different access methods with no clear winner. Anyway, after a reboot, the situation was unchanged. Unreal.

So I am starting from scratch with a freshly-formatted Class10 card, a full data/cache wipe, and a new ROM: GummyChargedFE1.9.1. Haven't had a problem yet, but haven't restored anything to SD either. Proceeding cautiously.

Ok, I'm converted. GummyChargedFE1.9.1 solved this problem. Everything seems to run better. Added the V6 SuperCharger thing which tweaks minfree levels and much more, and the combination runs extremely well.

Biggest problem for me is that I'm satisfied... spent the last two years trying to get my "original" Droid to run well, then got the Charge, started over. What do I do for an encore?

Fast Boot option may be the culprit

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In case anyone is following this old thread ...

I did not need to install a new ROM

CUT TO THE SOLUTION BELOW -- SEARCH FOR ////

Some (not all) of my apps moved to SD (all by Titanium Backup Pro) have begun to disappear and (sometimes) reappear without warning after I began to add and delete large Virtual Machines created in QEMU from my 16GB SanDisc class 10 microSD card on my HTC Droid Incredible running rooted stock Verizon Android Froyo 2.2.3. I know this thread is far from my phone's "home base", but from what I can tell this problem with disappearing apps located on an sdcard is NOT determined by hardware or even Android version.

I also happen to use LauncherPro by Federico Carnales instead of the built-in HTC Sense launcher. I noted elsewhere on XDA that a user had suggested that because at least some (maybe all) launchers start before the SD Card that this may be a problem, especially if changes are made to the sdcard that the launcher did not perform, or was not active during their performance by other apps such as Titanium Backup. That fits my situation, because I unmounted the SD, physically removed it to a PC, and added/deleted large VM files to save (lots) of time. No problems of this sort before I did this, so there must be some connection.

I noted that other users have tried reformatting SD, substituting different brands of SD, using newer/older SD etc. None of these reliably helped. So I skipped these options.

//// The (simple!) solution I tried that SEEMS to work (only time will tell!) is buried in the main Android Settings (accessed from the Menu button while in Home screen). Under "Applications" there is a setting "Fast Boot" that I checked long ago and forgot about (it seemed like a good thing to do at the time). The text warns "Turn off to use some Market apps" (that shows the age of my 2-yr old used phone and Android OS -- ohmygosh!-- because it refers to Market rather than Google Play Store!) Anyway, I unchecked the option and rebooted the phone.

Yes, it took a bit longer to boot (maybe a whole minute!), but after waiting about another minute ALL my home screen apps had normal icons and loaded properly. Titanium Backup Pro batch scenarios confirmed there were no apps in a forced uninstalled state (i.e. I had not done the deed, the system somehow had done it or at least rendered the apps "invisible" to Titanium, which decided they needed reinstallation).

The only odd behaviour was that auto brightness was turned off after I unchecked Fast Boot and rebooted. Going into Android Settings > Display and rechecking "auto brightness" took care of that. No other oddities or strange behaviours thus far (but it has only been about an hour).

I will report back here on this thread only (Samsung Fascinate > Fascinate Q&A > What just happend? apps on sdcard) if anything else requires reporting. Silence implies success!
link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1873670

(I am copying this post to other relevant threads, but will not post anything further elsewhere -- only there. This is a bit arbitrary (although this thread appears to be the most recent active one on this topic), but I hope this approach pleases the XDA sysops/admins)