Hello.
My gfs phone (galaxy s2, rooted with siyah, stock rom) crashed today, and after a forced reboot lots of apps disappeared(this is a common problem it seems, although i haven't found a one-answer-for all fix yet). The apps in question(omg i can't candy crush!!or breed dragons) still have icons, but dummy one's with "sd" on them, so i'm assuming android somehow lost a sd card. Thing is, i can find the apps in /data/data, or at least i think so cause they're named as the missing apps in app manager and they're not empty, so they're not lost per se, just android forgot where to look for them or something.
Question: Is there a way to see where an icon points to, ie where it expects to find the data, cache and so forth? Maybe i can then change these pointers, or create a symlink to from the "real" /data to the one android expected..
Thanks
Related
I've tried and tried to get a number of questions answered here and on the Cyanogenmod forum, but either my questions are extremely advanced and esoteric, or everyone here is just users and developers are somewhere else.
So I'm creating this thread of Mysteries To Science, for all those questions you have which no one is able to answer. I've run Debian exclusively for 14 years and am used to having total control, and the lack of knowledge on Android here is perplexing. I have the Nexus One, but I think these questions apply to essentially all Android phones.
Here are my Mysteries:
Messaging Problem - I use ChompSMS. A couple weeks ago I stopped receiving text messages, about the time I removed the stock Messaging app using Titanium. I can send just fine, but I never receive them.
Anyone seen this problem? Does Chomp use its own system, or does it depend on Messaging? I reinstalled GApps thinking Messaging is there, but it's not. Is it a dependency, and if so where is it? If not, why do I no longer receive and what can I do about it?
App Shortcuts - I created a desktop direct messaging shortcut to call my boss, with a pic of an angry boxer dog. Made the pic as a gif and png with transparent background, although it is ending up as black on the desktop for some reason.
I assigned the pic as the shortcut's icon using Gallery, and I suspect that Gallery is converting the background to black, but I cannot find where app pics are stored either on the SD or /system.
App Sorting - Also like so many others, I have many many apps. I have always categorized my apps, since I started using Debian exclusively 14 years ago. To have all my apps dumped into a giant pile as they are in the N1, is irritating. I installed Apps Organizer, but it seems to want me to tag each app with a category, rather than basically making folders with categories such as Utilities, System, Multimedia, etc.
Is there any way to make folders for the apps?
Calendars - I am not sharing my personal information with That-Search-Engine-Everyone-Uses. (Yes, I've deinstalled all GApps except Market, and use exclusively AppBrain's app to install apps, but still haven't found a way to buy apps in a way I trust) Can anyone recommend a calendar app which is compatible with Linux and M$ calendars, yet doesn't sync with some Outside Authority?
Compass - The magnetometer in this phone is completely unreliable in my experience. Any stray magnetic field throws it off by 18 degrees permanently. The only way I've found to almost calibrate it is with the Compass app Calibrate function, but to run that before any other app which requires a compass is a headache. Is there something I'm doing wrong?
SD Card - What relation does the SD card have to the system? Why is it that when I install an app to the SD card, its widget is no longer available and its daemon will not run? Is there some way to add the SD card to the kernel's awareness for these purposes?
Factory Reset - If I back up system and apps using Titanium, and desktop and ADW settings using ADW, and export contacts, is that enough?
What are the data structures in Android? I know there's the kernel, and ADW is the full user interface, but where are contacts stored? Where are apps, /system/apps?, and if so where are their config files? Where are the desktops configured, and where are the shortcuts+icons stored? I can't find any such config files, and the only one I know of is the central system config file /system/build.prop.
How to recover my contacts? Apps installed in phone memory? Would a restore, restore whatever is ostensibly messing up the compass?
So given wherever these data structures are, what effect does a factory reset have? Exactly which data structures does it wipe/replace?
Quantumstate said:
Here are my Mysteries:
SD Card - What relation does the SD card have to the system? Why is it that when I install an app to the SD card, its widget is no longer available and its daemon will not run? Is there some way to add the SD card to the kernel's awareness for these purposes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android seems to boot from ROM before the SD card, once the OS is up and running then it starts to mount the SD card, so any widgets you have installed on homescreens while residing on the SD card won't load when first booting. You need to keep all of your widgets on the phones internal memory to stop this problem recurring. If you are having memory shortages you might want to consider using ROM Manager, partitioning your SD card and using an A2SD (App to SD Card) ROM that will install apps to the SD card instead of internal memory.
App Shortcuts - I created a desktop direct messaging shortcut to call my boss, with a pic of an angry boxer dog. Made the pic as a gif and png with transparent background, although it is ending up as black on the desktop for some reason.
I assigned the pic as the shortcut's icon using Gallery, and I suspect that Gallery is converting the background to black, but I cannot find where app pics are stored either on the SD or /system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Gallery in conjunction with Launcher Pro to display my custom dock icons it works just fine. It sounds to me like you're not making one of the layers transparent before saving it as a PNG.
Kalavere said:
Android seems to boot from ROM before the SD card, once the OS is up and running then it starts to mount the SD card, so any widgets you have installed on homescreens while residing on the SD card won't load when first booting. You need to keep all of your widgets on the phones internal memory to stop this problem recurring. If you are having memory shortages you might want to consider using ROM Manager, partitioning your SD card and using an A2SD (App to SD Card) ROM that will install apps to the SD card instead of internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, it -only- boots from the 'ROM' (firmware). Need to keep thos apps that have widgets and daemons installed on the phone, or else they won't work. This is what I'm saying. Am using A2SD as it's built-in to CM6, so must move those apps with widgets and daemons back to the phone. None of this addresses why the system can't load a widget from the SD after boot, nor whether there's a way to tell the kernel about SD widgets.
Kalavere said:
I use Gallery in conjunction with Launcher Pro to display my custom dock icons it works just fine. It sounds to me like you're not making one of the layers transparent before saving it as a PNG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Examining the images in Linux viewers shows the transparency. (checkerboard background) Viewing it in Gallery does not. gif and png both support transparent background, but it appears to me that Gallery does not.
Quantumstate said:
Messaging Problem - I use ChompSMS. A couple weeks ago I stopped receiving text messages, about the time I removed the stock Messaging app using Titanium. I can send just fine, but I never receive them.
Anyone seen this problem? Does Chomp use its own system, or does it depend on Messaging? I reinstalled GApps thinking Messaging is there, but it's not. Is it a dependency, and if so where is it? If not, why do I no longer receive and what can I do about it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suggest you break down the Mms.apk and look in there. It does have dependencies, they're written into a file inside the apk telling it where to send the message and where to check for messages. It also contains the user agent information. If you could some how pack that into chomp or another mms/sms app then you might be able to delete the stock app and push/install your choice messaging app to the system.
You no longer get messages (I assume) because when you're sent an sms/mms it sits on your carriers server while it sends a message to your phone (you don't see it) telling it that there's a message waiting to be retrieved. It's expecting a certain response about the phones state and type. If the format is incorrect or it doesn't get a response then the message just sits on the server. To send a message I believe it just uses apn settings to contact the server with 'wait for message' then the server responds 'ready' the phone sends it and all is well. It doesn't request the phones state and type and therefor the lack of a UA has no effect. Of course that's my understanding of how it works but I could be a little off here or there
Thanks KCRic. I did a factory reset and installed CM6.1-RC1, and now I'm getting texts. I find that this has happened to others too. I expected to get an avalanche of texts when I factory reset, but nothing. At least I'm receiving them now.
I'm surprised to read that files are actually modified on-the-fly inside apk's. This would explain alot of things. Is there a way to manually modify those files using some sort of apk tool?
Quantumstate said:
App Sorting - Also like so many others, I have many many apps. I have always categorized my apps, since I started using Debian exclusively 14 years ago. To have all my apps dumped into a giant pile as they are in the N1, is irritating. I installed Apps Organizer, but it seems to want me to tag each app with a category, rather than basically making folders with categories such as Utilities, System, Multimedia, etc.
Is there any way to make folders for the apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are using adw you can set up groups in the app drawer. Not quite the same as folders but pretty useful
Quantumstate said:
Factory Reset - If I back up system and apps using Titanium, and desktop and ADW settings using ADW, and export contacts, is that enough?
What are the data structures in Android? I know there's the kernel, and ADW is the full user interface, but where are contacts stored? Where are apps, /system/apps?, and if so where are their config files? Where are the desktops configured, and where are the shortcuts+icons stored? I can't find any such config files, and the only one I know of is the central system config file /system/build.prop.
How to recover my contacts? Apps installed in phone memory? Would a restore, restore whatever is ostensibly messing up the compass?
So given wherever these data structures are, what effect does a factory reset have? Exactly which data structures does it wipe/replace?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried my backuppro for backing up your contacts and apps. There is a free version that will work for 30days. I personally never restore anything with TB, as it causes me no end of headaches. I use my backup pro to backup my personal data, ( contacts, sms, mms, dictionary, calendar etc ) I use applist to save a txt file with a list of apps i have installed. Then just reinstall the apps via market or diect push. This is just my personal o
I do this on a fairly regular basis ( trying different roms ) and can do it about 15mins
Hi guys, is it me, or Twitter and Foursquare are missing in the market?
I'm on the MIUI ROM and when i flash a new ROM the apps can be found any ideas?
EViO too
My experience is a bit different but probably related. I also can't see certain apps in the market, including Twitter and Foursquare.
I had a bunch of weird issues while running a recent build of Calkulin's EViO ROM and using the built-in Spare Parts settings "Old App2SD" and "Dalvik-Cache on SDCard" together. Everything was fine for a while but I replaced a few system apps with market versions. I started seeing errors while moving apps to the card and the market stopped being reliable. Updates wouldn't install with "package invalid."
I managed to fix some apps by deleting all traces of them in /data using Root Explorer. I did find a way to identify what I've the come to see as "ghost apps" and that's "aTrackDog." It alone, of a half dozen of app managers, shows these apps (grayed out.) All menu commands result in "app not found" or "app not installed" errors.
Update: It keeps creating several files in /data/data/com.android.vending/cache/. I'm going to see if they hold any clues. The log errors haven't helped much, except to make me wonder if there are other problems I'm not noticing. Log activity is a bit high.
I'm back...
I ended up resetting to a stable nandroid backup to fix the market insanity, but I think I can still offer some advice.
When I started getting similar problems again, I suspected using USB to access the SD card while running the Spare Parts "Old App2SD" function. I don't really understand why there's is data in the ".android_secure" folder when mounted in Win7, but there isn't through Root Explorer. I don't understand why Windows follows that symlink and Android doesn't.
I installed Darktremor's A2SD script from RA recovery and that seems to have made things MUCH more stable. That might fix other ROMs' dodgy app2SD settings. It doesn't change the symlink behavior though, I guess that's fine. Just don't touch the files in that folder.
I've backed up a few times with My Backup Pro and flashed ROMs, restoring data via the same program. It seems, looking at it now, that I have somehow managed to duplicate my contacts multiple times. I now have a huge number of contacts, many of them identical and I keep getting link suggestions for all of them.
Any ideas how I can clean this mess up? I've searched and found a few related threads in other forums, but none of them were quite this problem and none of them seemed to have any solutions.
It seems I'm also having a similar problem with apps. It looks like my apps that were moved to the SD card originally are still there, but not being seen by the system. My Backup Pro restored all my apps to the phone, and those are the ones it's using. If I move all those apps to the SD card, now I think I'll have two versions of those apps.
Is there any way to run something that can check my phone for these kinds of duplicates and consolidate things a little? I'm getting worried that I'll end up filling my phone up with useless repeats of things until it's just a pile of bloated crap...
I had a similar problem with my google contacts duplicating themselves for some reason. If duplicates are google you can go to google.com/contacts to edit them. There is a "Find Duplicates" button on the right.
I actually just found this as well. I tried it and resynced my google account on the phone and it doesn't seem to have removed them. Is there something I have to do to force the phone to get rid of the duplicates as well?
Not the right place for it, but figured since I have a thread going already I might as well ask here. I'm trying to Fix Permissions in ROM Manager, as I figure those might be pretty messed up after everything as well. But, even though ROM Manager has Root Access, it tells me an error occurred while "trying to run privileged commands." I have the paid version, I'm not sure why this is happening. Thoughts?
EDIT: Didn't want to keep bumping this thing, but I found the app Contact Remover to be a big lifesaver in a few ways. Specifically, I had 75 blank contacts that were just sitting there for some reason. This app allowed me to select multiples and delete them easily, in a way the People app wouldn't! https://market.android.com/details?id=com.octabode.dcfd
Silas0220 said:
It seems I'm also having a similar problem with apps. It looks like my apps that were moved to the SD card originally are still there, but not being seen by the system. My Backup Pro restored all my apps to the phone, and those are the ones it's using. If I move all those apps to the SD card, now I think I'll have two versions of those apps.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is actually something I've been wondering about myself.
Most of my apps are on my SD, and I'm preparing to flash a new Rom, for the first time ever (aside from the rooting process, that is).
Seems I recall something similar occurring post-root, with apps I had on prior.
I'm thinking I should move them back on to the phone, do a new backup, then flash the new Rom, restore, and then move them back to the SD.
Inspire 4G ¦ XDA Premium
I have a Samsung Galaxy S I9000 phone originally on three but now debranded, unlocked and rooted.
Once I had sorted out problems with payments to the Android Market all apps, bar one, have installed successfully.
The one recalcitrant app, the Alan Rogers campsite App, fails to install with the error message insufficient space on the phone. Now I am sure that there is sufficient space.
To double check I did a Factory Reset and tried to load this app first thing - same result.
I has been suggested that I look in the data folder in the root directory, find com.create.arg and then delete it.
I looked in root/data but could not find it.
I looked in root/data/data and found many folders with similar names but not that particular one.
Can anyone offer me advice on how to install this app?
Note. The app installs happily on other android phones but does appear to have some difficulties with the Galaxy S
you have no space left on /data, if you're using CM7 /datadata.
Move some apps to the SD card to make room, preferably large ones
Hi folks
I hope this isnt too obvious, I have searched for an answer and looked around quite a bit before posting and I think its a new question!
Im fairly new to android, and have a galaxy s2 running cyanogenmod7 and a kindle fire running ICS.
The Galaxy s2 has an SD card, and Ive noticed a lot of folders in there from apps I installed once, had a look, then deleted. An example of this is foursquare - I used to use it a lot with my iphone 4, but havent really enjoyed the android experience and to be honest Im a bit tired of the general experience so I uninstalled.
My question is, what is the best way to remove them? Should I just delete them? How do I know that they are actually not needed - the foursquare example is fairly obvious, but what if it was called something obscure like fsq? How would I know?
On a PC, you can get utilities which scan and advise you whether folders are redundant - is something similar available for Android?
As you can tell, I switch roms etc quite quickly and am likely to carry on doing so until I get the set up that is right - I dont want my filespace filling with rubbish! I know I could do a complete reformat but that seems a drastic step and isnt always possible.
Phil
I just asked my self this question the other day, if you delete an app folder and you still have the app instaled the app should automaticaly put its folder back in the SD card, its pretty much automatic. But not all the time, if you erase everything on your SD card and put it back in your phone, your phone will automaticaly put the files in the SD card, so its the same with apps, if the folder is gone then it will put a new one back in it to make it function correctly, I'm not sure about system stuff, I normaly don't touch that stuff like CWM folders
HTC Wildfire S (VM) "S-Off" "Rooted" "Overclocked 700 Mhz" Stock Rom
Android311 said:
I just asked my self this question the other day, if you delete an app folder and you still have the app instaled the app should automaticaly put its folder back in the SD card, its pretty much automatic. But not all the time, if you erase everything on your SD card and put it back in your phone, your phone will automaticaly put the files in the SD card, so its the same with apps, if the folder is gone then it will put a new one back in it to make it function correctly, I'm not sure about system stuff, I normaly don't touch that stuff like CWM folders
HTC Wildfire S (VM) "S-Off" "Rooted" "Overclocked 700 Mhz" Stock Rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this, its useful info. I think Im going to just make backups then delete a few folders at a time. I cant do that much damage, starting from scratch wont take me too long if I completely mess things up!
Phil
There is no automatic way to detect which folder on the sdcard (/mnt/sdcard/) belongs to which app.
You will have to google each folder or look into it and hope it will give you a clue to which app it belongs.
If the folder would have been created in /mnt/sdcard/Android/data/packagename...
It would have been automaticly uninstalled.
This problem inspired me to write the App "SD Maid" which helps you clean up the phone. Unfortunately it doesn't delete those folders either, as there is just no safe way to determine to which app it belongs... for now...