Why are my apps disappearing?

[Homeuser66]

Ok, so I searched and found similar posts for Tablets and other devices. I'm starting this one for the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Model: SGH-T989
Android Ver.: 2.3.5
Baseband Ver.: T989UKID
Kernal Ver.: 2.6.35.11
Build Number: GINGERBREAD.UVKID

I haven't Rooted or Modded my phone in any way. I just got it 12 days ago. This has been happening now for a few days. Might be a conflict with some apps? or what?


Recently, I have lost some apps. So far about 4 in total. I would use it, then the next time I go to use it,a day later, or a few hours, it appears ghosted out and if I touch it, it would say, "you do not have this app installed". I didn't move it to my memory card either. I would have to re-download it again, and my files are still there after the re-install.

Does any one else have this issue?

Does any one know why this is happening?

I am attaching a few screen shots so you know what I am talking about.

 

[Devourz]

Missclicked quick reply with thanks -_-


Anyhow, that usualy shows if you moved your apps to external sd card, ive seen it on some phone after boot ups while it takes some time to read them depending on sd card usualy slow one. But if you dont do that, and use no sc card, maybe faulty usb storage? Just like faulty flash disc ? cant hold information and just ghosts on you.

not 100% sure tho just assuption.

 

[Homeuser66]

Thanks for the reply! I do have a SD card installed, but I only have my music, pictures and Documents on there...no apps..I'm toying with the idea to restore the phone back to original out of the box status...I'm wondering if something got corrupt..I have pulled the battery and SD card and reinstalled them..It's randomly happening and to different apps..this is actually the second time it happend to angry birds...

 

[chocodough]

It happened to me once as well. I don't have any apps installed on my SD card, but I had about 4 apps that did exactly the same as you.

I did a factory reset and all seems well now. I am not sure what the heck that was all about though. I don't have an answer for this problem either.

Also one thing I happened to notice by accident, when I do a factory reset, after the phone boots up, for like a few seconds it comes up with a notification box with a message and didn't get a chance to read it. Not sure what it said. But I noticed it the 2 times I did factory resets.

Although the issue with the ghost apps hasn't returned for me, it makes me wonder if I got a bum phone. I dunno.

 

[Homeuser66]

Although the issue with the ghost apps hasn't returned for me, it makes me wonder if I got a bum phone. I dunno.

I'm going to hope that it wasn't a bum phone and just some sort of software conflict, seeing how you've restored twice and it hasn't returned..

Question: Did you have to do a restore for the same problem, twice? or different reasons?

 

[chocodough]

I'm going to hope that it wasn't a bum phone and just some sort of software conflict, seeing how you've restored twice and it hasn't returned..

Question: Did you have to do a restore for the same problem, twice? or different reasons?

Ya that really irked me doing it twice.

I did it once cause I wanted to go fresh with everything. Then after I got all my stuff reinstalled, I copyied all my pictures on my SD card, and then I noticed those icons dissappeared.

I wasn't sure what happened, so really mad, I ended up doing another factory reset to start over again, thinking like you that I might of had something corrupted.

So far so good, but it does make me wonder what it was that caused it. Cause the icon makes it look like the apps were installed on the SD card when none of mine are.

BTW, in your program list, are your Movies, video maker and videos icon black and white? I thought that was weird that they are B&W when all the other icons are color.

 

[Homeuser66]

Ya that really irked me doing it twice.

Ouch! Do I need to know anything before I perform this?...like what to save/back up?

 

[chocodough]

Ouch! Do I need to know anything before I perform this?...like what to save/back up?

Not really. I keep a list on paper of all the apps I usually install on my phone. All my contacts are on my gmail account.

It's just a drawn out process setting up everything over again from scratch. I don't backup apps, I prefer the fresh approach.

 

[chocodough]

Well here is when it happened to me.

First off, I was not originally aware that you have to go under Wireless settings and enable USB transfer to copy stuff back and forth. I am used to the phone asking what you want to do when you plug it in.

So that being said, when I plugged the phone in, it said MTP mode I believe. If you click on the phone in explorer, it showed the phone memory and the sd card. So I started copying all my pictures to my SD card. Half way through it stopped and said the device stopped responding. I unplugged the phone, went into settings and formatted the SD card.

That is when I noticed I had like 4 apps that were ghosted with the SD card symbol saying they were not installed. That is why I thought I might of corrupted something, being that I never installed any apps on my SD card.

After that I noticed that setting under wireless which turns on USB mode to copy stuff back and forth. I did a factory reset, then used the USB mode and copied all my stuff and everything has been fine ever since.

I don't know if it was a coincidence or not. But I guess copying files in MTP mode shouldn't be done eventhough it still shows up in explorer.

I hope someone else chimes in here with any ideas or a reason why this happened. Even though everything is fine now, and it might of been a fluke, I was wondering if I should exchange my phone or not, being as I don't know if it was a phone issue or not.

 

[RicoonDK]

Well here is when it happened to me.

First off, I was not originally aware that you have to go under Wireless settings and enable USB transfer to copy stuff back and forth. I am used to the phone asking what you want to do when you plug it in.

So that being said, when I plugged the phone in, it said MTP mode I believe. If you click on the phone in explorer, it showed the phone memory and the sd card. So I started copying all my pictures to my SD card. Half way through it stopped and said the device stopped responding. I unplugged the phone, went into settings and formatted the SD card.

That is when I noticed I had like 4 apps that were ghosted with the SD card symbol saying they were not installed. That is why I thought I might of corrupted something, being that I never installed any apps on my SD card.

After that I noticed that setting under wireless which turns on USB mode to copy stuff back and forth. I did a factory reset, then used the USB mode and copied all my stuff and everything has been fine ever since.

I don't know if it was a coincidence or not. But I guess copying files in MTP mode shouldn't be done eventhough it still shows up in explorer.

I hope someone else chimes in here with any ideas or a reason why this happened. Even though everything is fine now, and it might of been a fluke, I was wondering if I should exchange my phone or not, being as I don't know if it was a phone issue or not.

Don't know what the other posts are about lol, too lazy. Anyways I only copy files in MTP mode... havent had any problems, but if the SDcard you formated was the built-in, then there could be a chance of the apps having data stored...in which you just removed - leaving them corrupt.

 

[Homeuser66]

I hope someone else chimes in here with any ideas or a reason why this happened. Even though everything is fine now, and it might of been a fluke, I was wondering if I should exchange my phone or not, being as I don't know if it was a phone issue or not.

Instead of quoting your whole post, I just took a bit..

I'm chiming in again..What you said/did makes sense..I wiped my phone clean to the "out of box" settings..and I didn't do it with the normal, Menu>settings>Privacy..ect...I actually did a Hard Format and Cleared all my cache...

Spent all day at work on my downtime, adding all my apps back on..so far everything is working as intended..I'll notice what happens when I plug it in to my comp and use Samsung Kies to sync my phone with my comp..but I never saw anything like that come up when I was syncing it before...will notice next time...