Cannot access settings at all - icon has disappeared - Samsung Galaxy S8+ Questions & Answers

Since updating my Samsung Galaxy S8+ a couple weeks ago, I noticed that I couldn't find the settings icon. Eventually I worked out that the COG could be found at the top right hand side when pulling down the menu, but it will only open up the "secure folder settings" and I can't do a thing from there. Is there a way that anyone knows of that I can get the Settings icon back? My phone has also been randomly shutting down without warning for the last few days and today there are apps that no longer open, with my phone telling me constantly that they have "stopped working". I can't access settings to do a back up or to restore my phone. Not sure what to do. Thanks for any advice!

From what it sounds like you still have can USE the phone,
I would download backup program like Titanium do the backup and then odin to stock as it seems your flash didn't go right or something go removed

Related

[Q] My screen has blacked out. What can I do?

OK, so tonight I decided to install the Atrix 2 Blaze mod. It installed without any issues.
After installing and verifying that everything worked, I then decided to use Titanium Backup to batch restore my apps. This appeared to work, and at the end of the process it told me to reboot. So I did.
Once it booted back up, I was greeted with the lock screen, as you'd expect -- but when I unlocked the phone, all I saw was a black screen and the notification bar on top. No wallpaper, no icons, no widgets, nothing. I could open the task drawer, I could make the soft keyboard appear, I could bring up the "open apps" window... but I can't actually do anything because the screen is freaking black.
But because the notification bar works, I can tell there are things going on. I see my phone checking for email. I see my phone battery decreasing. I see notifications when my google+ or twitter apps detect people are replying to threads I've been on. In other words, the phone appears to be working in every way except that there's nothing on the screen for me to interact with.
Has anyone seen this before? Is there a way to fix it? I hope?
Your best bet is probably just to flash the 2.3.5 Stock FXZ and start from scratch.
Sent from my MB865 using XDA
try re-flashing ?
looks like you loose your home launcher ..
I had the EXACT same problem, everything below the notifications bar was blacked out, i could bring up recent apps, but i couldn't even bring up the emergency dial pad at the unlock screen. Only difference is mine happened when i froze Go Launcher using Titanium Backup. I could tell it was still trying to run Go Launcher coz i could auto-rotate the screen.Sadly, the only option i had was to reset the phone and loose everything. I couldnt even backup my files coz i set USB mode to charge only so it never popped up on PC.
I reckon you restored an app that has a missing component/data and so it crashes at startup, maybe a home launcher, locker etc. Try making a backup then resetting your phone
Same problem here Ill try the fxy method,
any of you had solve the problem?

[Q] Black screen after uninstalling Nuance with titanium backup, impossible to flash

I think I killed my phone hahaha! Right when I need it for job interviews :silly:
So I rooted my phone, installed Titanium backup to uninstall useless applications on my LG optimus one (LGP500H). Started backing up everything and removing one application at a time, being careful. When I got to "Nuance", I thought it was a useless program for voice control, so I backed it up then uninstalled. Then before it finished (Or after, I don't know), "force close" messages kept looping and I couldn't get out. So I restarted my phone (managed to do this between two "force close" messages).
Surprise, my phone reboots, but to a black screen with only the notification area up top. When I lock then unlock the screen, I see my background, then I swipe to unlock the screen and it goes back to that black screen. Even the "Search" hard button does not show up anything. So all I can do is check my notifications, turn on/off the wireless, gps, data, sound. Nothing else.
So I decided it was time to install CyanogenMod, but found out you absolutely need to install ClockworkMod to reboot in recovery mode. So I'm stuck. Can't do anything, can't find on google how to flash CM without ClockworkMod, no idea what is the problem.
I even tried to reset to factory default, I get past the configuration screens to choose the language and the time, then it goes back to the black screen. So I need to completely wipe my phone and replace it with cyanogen mod, I think it's past trying to recover anything.
I saw one other guy with that problem on google and nobody really answered.
EDIT:
I think maybe I just found out that I might have deleted the home screen somehow? although I didn't delete anything that I wasn't sure of.
If anybody else has this problem and can't get an answer like me, I figured out the solution.
Send a message text to your phone from a friend's phone with a link to the market for any application. Then find Titanium backup and install it. you will be able to run it from the notification area, then find your backups, and reinstall them. Boo-yah!

[Q] twlauncher and android.process.acore unexpectedly stopped.

Hello and thanks for your efforts! I recently got a Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G SGH - T769 for T Mobile but as I have Verizon I can not use it, so I decided to use it as a toy basically. I did a factory data reset then successfully rooted it using blaze-root-kernel.tar, blaze.pit, and using Odin 1.85 and everything was working fine. I installed Titanium Backup pro, backed up entire phone which was basically just the stock apps, just for the purpose of removing bloatware and if necessary restoring them later. My daughter got ahold of my phone, went into Titanium and froze, and uninstalled the contacts app. I restored it but because it was frozen it did not appear in my applications window. Of course I tried defrosting it but when I would check it still wasn't showing up. Also I noticed that the phone app was gone too. Im not sure if she deleted them, I guess it's possible. I tried rebooting after restoration, nothing. So I did another factory data reset, which I read in a few places would not harm my phone to do so after it's been rooted. After the factory reset it had all the animations and went to screen that says touch the droid to start. I touched it. It said to sign in to google account I hit sign in button and the screen went black and kept showing messages saying twlauncher has unexpectedly stopped and another saying android.process.acore has unexpectedly stopped. I re-performed the rooting process ( blaze-root-kernel.tar, blaze.pit, Odin 1.85 )stil nothing. Any how now when I turn on my phone the lock screen works but when I swipe everything goes black again and the messages (unexpectedly stopped) appear every few seconds. I can however see and pull down notifcations bar menu and play with wifi, bluetooth, gps,etc. Its actually connected to the house wifi right now. I can also long press the home button and pull up recent applications menu (its empty) and I can also enter task manager from here. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Any help is greatly appreciated!

M8 Lollipop Nightmare

Hey all,
I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about the lollipop update that just got to our Verizon variants of the One M8. My phone is completely stock, has never been rooted or s-off. I got the lollipop OTA update yesterday and after 45 mins of installing I couldn't wait to see how lollipop would improve my user experience on my phone. Short answer: it didn't AT ALL. The long answer is written out below.
1. Notifications
I don't really like the lollipop update to the notifications bar (1 swipe for notifications, 2 for settings) but its really just personal preference. However, with the update, you can no longer check your notifications directly from the lockscreen. You can't even see the icons of the new notifications at the top without unlocking your phone.
2. Lock Screen
Lock screen widgets are gone with the update. You also no longer have the option of swiping to the left for BlinkFeed, now its just a straight unlock that brings you to the page you last had open. No way to get to the homescreen directly like earlier. Now what the update did that really pisses me off is that you can no longer control your music from the lockscreen. With KitKat, you could skip tracks, and pause the song directly from the lockscreen. Now with the update you can't do any of those. You can't even swipe down from the lockscreen to see the media playing. Literally all you get is the album image of the song playing on your lockscreen. Yeah, just the image, you don't even get to see the name of the song playing.
3. Longer Boot Time
The boot time is longer now. Also once I get past the HTC and Verizon logo's while booting I get a dialogue box that says "Android is upgrading" before it goes to my homescreen. I'm not sure if this the case with everyone but it has happened to me everytime I reboot.
4. Just general unpleasantness
Recent apps takes longer to show all apps (I use grid view). Its quite minor and only noticeable if you compare it with a phone on KitKat but its still annoying. The Google Play Services update was also really annoying and it made my phone hang while it updated. The update also removed the World Clock Globe feature which was kinda cool, especially when I traveled. Again this is minor, but the update should improve the user experience not remove existing features.
Anyways, this is just my take on the lollipop update and it could be different for everyone. I, for one, am seriously considering downgrading back to KitKat (if its possible yet). I really hate it when an update takes my device in the backwards direction.
What did you guys think of the update?
I haven't had any issues with Lollipop on my M8. I've been running Lollipop on my Nexus 7 for months, so I'm already used to it. After getting familiar with it, I prefer it to KK. The slow boot time is probably due to the fact you has "fast boot" enabled on the previous version of Android. HTC has removed it from Lollipop.
UPDATE:
Going to Sound & Notification > When Device is Locked > Show all notifications fixes the notification grievances that I had listed.
just_lou,
I don't think FastBoot is the issue. I had it disabled when I was running KitKat. The issue is the dialogue box of "Android is Upgrading" that still shows up (I just rebooted to see if it shows and it did). I'm not sure if this will go away after a while or not.
tmtmaats said:
UPDATE:
Going to Sound & Notification > When Device is Locked > Show all notifications fixes the notification grievances that I had listed.
just_lou,
I don't think FastBoot is the issue. I had it disabled when I was running KitKat. The issue is the dialogue box of "Android is Upgrading" that still shows up (I just rebooted to see if it shows and it did). I'm not sure if this will go away after a while or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are showing this repeated it means you either have an app installed that isn't art capable or your cache is corrupt. Backup and factory reset. You should not see that message on every boot.
Still think 4.4.4 is wayyyyy smoother than 5.0. Visually.... 5.0 is nice but its only a few you touches. I'm not impressed. Waste of an update. I'm on 5.0 ROMs which help but I miss my 4.4.4 snappiness lol.
dottat said:
If you are showing this repeated it means you either have an app installed that isn't art capable or your cache is corrupt. Backup and factory reset. You should not see that message on every boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok I thought it shouldn't appear every time. so I went ahead and factory reset my phone after checking to make sure a backup was present. the most recent backup was about an hour before I updated to Lollipop, so I thought it would be fine in terms of having all the essential data. I used HTC Backup for the process.
Now after the reset, HTC backup can't find the backup when I click "Restore from cloud". All I see is "none" under the "Restore from Backup" option. Now I know for a fact that the backup file is saved on the cloud, I used Google Drive.
Is the phone unable to read that backup because it was done when the phone was running KitKat? If so, then begins the long task of restoring everything one by one.....
tmtmaats said:
ok I thought it shouldn't appear every time. so I went ahead and factory reset my phone after checking to make sure a backup was present. the most recent backup was about an hour before I updated to Lollipop, so I thought it would be fine in terms of having all the essential data. I used HTC Backup for the process.
Now after the reset, HTC backup can't find the backup when I click "Restore from cloud". All I see is "none" under the "Restore from Backup" option. Now I know for a fact that the backup file is saved on the cloud, I used Google Drive.
Is the phone unable to read that backup because it was done when the phone was running KitKat? If so, then begins the long task of restoring everything one by one.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No that should not be an issue. I have used it forward and backwards. Open play and then go back to HTC backup. Possible it's not looking in your Google account at all yet.
dottat said:
No that should not be an issue. I have used it forward and backwards. Open play and then go back to HTC backup. Possible it's not looking in your Google account at all yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I opened the Play Store and tried again. Backup still didn't show up. Then I deleted all the accounts on the phone and re-logged in. Still didn't show up. I went ahead and did another factory reset, reinstalled the HTC backup apk, logged in and opened the play store and tried to restore again. HTC backup still didn't find my backup. Then I double checked to make sure that I was using the right account with which I had done the backup. After confirming that, I tried once again deleting all accounts and signing in again and still nothing.
Finally, I tried to sync the account manually and then try. Still nothing.
I have used HTC backup in the past, and it worked fine to restore everything. Just this time it isn't.
Is there anything else I can try?
You know you can swipe right when locked and screen off to get blinkfeed right? Just have to decide now before you turn on the screen if you are planning to go to blinkfeed I guess.
I get my audio controls for Spotify on the lock screen too... With controls to play, pause, next. Just double tap the screen.
The grid recent apps seems to take longer because it's multiple screens of recent apps.
Just a quick tip but you can access your pulldown quick settings menu with the double finger down swipe when the screen is on at the lock screen. Useful for switching to silent or airplane mode without unlocking or using the volume hardware rocker.
That being said, my battery life isn't so great anymore and my GPS is skewed now (I'm always about 30-45 degrees of in the direction I'm facing).
Instead of using that crap "blinkfeed" launcher use the Google Launcher form the play store.

How do I stop a system update while downloading?

I have an HTC 10. I have heard so many horror stories on significant battery drain issue after the Oreo update so I have not updated to Oreo yet. I have read somewhere the issue has been resolved on Android's end but there is no more update on the HTC end to incorporate this update for the HTC 10. So every time the Oreo system update prompt came up I did not allow to update to proceed. I had it set to update only on WIFI and always ask me prior.
This morning I must have accidentally hit OK when the prompt came up while I was scrolling the screen for something else and it started to update. I immediately turned off WIFI but it continued the download with my mobile data. So I turned off mobile data as well on my phone. Right now I am at:
Software Update: 3.16.617.2 (1.32GB) Download is paused because your data connection was lost.
Shows a status bar at 3%.
I cannot find a way to cancel or stop this download and subsequent update. Is there a way?
I tried long press on the download screen, the Updater only has options of: Block all, Show silently, On the lock screen, Override do not disturb, all having to do with notification presentations but nothing to cancel the download altogether.
I went into Settings > Apps and popped up Device Configuration and did a FORCE STOP. that didn't do anything. There is an option there to UNINSTALL UPDATES but I didn't touch it since the update hasn't started yet and not sure if this app even deal with system updates.
Just tried a Wipe Cache Partition and rebooted. The system download is still being queued. There is no way to stop this?
I am surprise it will continue to download this huge file even with WIFI off. I had it set to not download any updates unless WIFI, but I guess now I understand it means this is only checked when download started, once it started it will download on my cellular network if WIFI goes out of range? This is a poor design.
Now if I let it download, is there a way to stop the update once the download is completed?
I went ahead and turned on WIFI to allow the downloading to complete. Once it completed it asked me about installing with two options:
Install Now
Install Later
I selected Install Later and it gave me a choice of being reminded again in:
30 minutes
1 hour
2 hours
4 hours
So I selected 4 hours and dismissed it for now. It will ask again in 4 hours, I assume there is no way to dismiss it for a month or a year.
So now I have two questions:
(1) Is there a way to disable this reminder prompt?
(2) Where is this downloaded file? Can I find it with a file manager and delete it? and if it is deleted will it trigger an auto download again or will it go back to just prompting me to download once in a while like before?
miamicuse said:
I went ahead and turned on WIFI to allow the downloading to complete. Once it completed it asked me about installing with two options:
Install Now
Install Later
I selected Install Later and it gave me a choice of being reminded again in:
30 minutes
1 hour
2 hours
4 hours
So I selected 4 hours and dismissed it for now. It will ask again in 4 hours, I assume there is no way to dismiss it for a month or a year.
So now I have two questions:
(1) Is there a way to disable this reminder prompt?
(2) Where is this downloaded file? Can I find it with a file manager and delete it? and if it is deleted will it trigger an auto download again or will it go back to just prompting me to download once in a while like before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There may or may not be a method to disable the update notification but it will require root. You'll probably have to figure out how to disable the notification for yourself.
Try doing a Google search for:
"Disable update notification (your model number)"
Or
"Disable update notification on android"
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
well,it just get better and better LOL.
I didn't want to install the system update, but it happened, accidentally. I was out and about, and was in a middle of texting someone, and for a split second while I typed, the system update screen popped up. Since I was in the middle of typing, it took my typing as a confirmation to "Install Now" and began the update. Never mind I only had 31% of battery left at that time and never mind I was not even home and needed the phone. I just can't imagine Google never even bothered with a "Are you sure you want to update now?" prompt. Incredible.
So after it finished the update, a good 30 minutes later, it rebooted, then did more updates, rebooted, and eventually, it started up again, and a lock screen pattern dialog popped up. I put in my pattern and it says it is not recognized. I am certain the pattern is the one I set. Yet something caused the correct pattern to not be recognized. So now I no longer can access my phone. It says I have 28 more tries before it deletes all phone data.
So now I am totally crippled without a chance to even back up all my data.
Anyone know of a way to bypass the lock screen pattern?
If I have to factory reset in order to access my phone again, will the reset bring back Android 7 (original delivered version of the phone) or will it be Oreo (new updated version)?
miamicuse said:
well,it just get better and better LOL.
I didn't want to install the system update, but it happened, accidentally. I was out and about, and was in a middle of texting someone, and for a split second while I typed, the system update screen popped up. Since I was in the middle of typing, it took my typing as a confirmation to "Install Now" and began the update. Never mind I only had 31% of battery left at that time and never mind I was not even home and needed the phone. I just can't imagine Google never even bothered with a "Are you sure you want to update now?" prompt. Incredible.
So after it finished the update, a good 30 minutes later, it rebooted, then did more updates, rebooted, and eventually, it started up again, and a lock screen pattern dialog popped up. I put in my pattern and it says it is not recognized. I am certain the pattern is the one I set. Yet something caused the correct pattern to not be recognized. So now I no longer can access my phone. It says I have 28 more tries before it deletes all phone data.
So now I am totally crippled without a chance to even back up all my data.
Anyone know of a way to bypass the lock screen pattern?
If I have to factory reset in order to access my phone again, will the reset bring back Android 7 (original delivered version of the phone) or will it be Oreo (new updated version)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to keep all of your data intact, root the device, then try this:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2620456
Or this:
https://www.theandroidsoul.com/change-remove-lockscreen-pattern-pin-password-adb-android-oreo/
Or, you can factory reset via recovery, it will wipe all of your data though.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
I have found myself in almost the same situation as the OP.
Like the OP, I don't want to upgrade to Oreo, but somehow did something that my phone interpreted as asking it to start downloading the update. Since my system update is set to download only on WiFi, turning off WiFi stopped the download at 0% done.
*Unlike* the OP, my phone is still in the state of having not yet downloaded the update, so I'm still (for now) securely on Nougat. But my notification bar icon now shows the animated download arrow, and the notification shade shows my system update as "Queued". I'm guessing that this is causing extra battery drain, and it's also really annoying.
I've tried a web search on cancelling a scheduled Android update, and found some interesting information suggesting that I stop the DMClient app. But this wasn't specific to either my phone or to a 7-8 upgrade, and I couldn't find an app by that name installed on my phone. I think I found something else recommending that I stop the Google Play services app and clear its cache. I *do* see that app, but I don't feel like experimenting with random web advice, and so thought I'd check here.
Here are two questions:
1) Is there anything I can do to stop my phone from trying to download and install the Oreo update?
2) If I do a factory reset, which Android would I be on after the reset?
Thanks for any help!
LLGreenGuy said:
I have found myself in almost the same situation as the OP.
Like the OP, I don't want to upgrade to Oreo, but somehow did something that my phone interpreted as asking it to start downloading the update. Since my system update is set to download only on WiFi, turning off WiFi stopped the download at 0% done.
*Unlike* the OP, my phone is still in the state of having not yet downloaded the update, so I'm still (for now) securely on Nougat. But my notification bar icon now shows the animated download arrow, and the notification shade shows my system update as "Queued". I'm guessing that this is causing extra battery drain, and it's also really annoying.
I've tried a web search on cancelling a scheduled Android update, and found some interesting information suggesting that I stop the DMClient app. But this wasn't specific to either my phone or to a 7-8 upgrade, and I couldn't find an app by that name installed on my phone. I think I found something else recommending that I stop the Google Play services app and clear its cache. I *do* see that app, but I don't feel like experimenting with random web advice, and so thought I'd check here.
Here are two questions:
1) Is there anything I can do to stop my phone from trying to download and install the Oreo update?
2) If I do a factory reset, which Android would I be on after the reset?
Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the marshmallow firmware for your device via PC using your devices specific flashtool. It will remove everything and put you back to what you had before triggering the update.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Droidriven said:
Flash the marshmallow firmware for your device via PC using your devices specific flashtool. It will remove everything and put you back to what you had before triggering the update.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response, Droidriven.
I actually figured out a way to stop the phone trying to download the update, which I'll describe below, but first I have two questions about the solution you offered: Is there a reason you said to flash Marshmallow firmwaer rather than Nougat, since the update I'm trying to avoid is the one to Oreo? And, if I did that, how would I get back to Nougat?
But I said that I figured out a solution, and I hope that it may help if someone else finds themselves in my situation. Here is what I did:
1) I determined that the app trying to perform the update on my HTC 10 is a system app called "Updater"
I found this by long-clicking on the notification shade item about the update, and selecting more information. The phone displayed notification options for the Updater app.
2) I cleared cache and data for the Updater app
I went to Updater's app info page via via Settings >> Apps >> All apps. Updater is a system app, so I had to use the kebab menu in the upper right corner of the All apps screen to tell the phone to display system apps. Once there, I went to the "Storage" screen and cleared cache and data.
3) I restarted the phone, and "cleaned up" after what I had done
When my phone powered back on after the restart, there was *nothing* at all related to a system update in the notification bar. I turned on cellular data (but left WiFi off), and went to Settings >> About >> Software Updates. The phone checked for a few seconds, during which I could see (behind the "checking" popup) that the box for downloading only over WiFi was clear. This made sense, since this setting must be an option for the app I had just wiped. After maybe 15 seconds, the phone displayed a screen offering me the 3.16.617.2 system update. I used the back button to close that window, which left me on the screen where I could re-check the option to download system updates only over WiFi. Naturally, I re-checked this option.
That's it. My phone is now once again displaying a notification bar icon offering me the Oreo update, but it no longer thinks I told it to proceed with this update. I have been on WiFi a couple of times since doing this, and the phone has not tried to start the download.
I'm guessing that I could get this notification bar icon to go away by hiding notifications for the Updater app, but have not yet done so.
Thanks again, Droidriven, and I hope what I figured out is helpful to someone else.
LLGreenGuy said:
Thanks for the response, Droidriven.
I actually figured out a way to stop the phone trying to download the update, which I'll describe below, but first I have two questions about the solution you offered: Is there a reason you said to flash Marshmallow firmwaer rather than Nougat, since the update I'm trying to avoid is the one to Oreo? And, if I did that, how would I get back to Nougat?
But I said that I figured out a solution, and I hope that it may help if someone else finds themselves in my situation. Here is what I did:
1) I determined that the app trying to perform the update on my HTC 10 is a system app called "Updater"
I found this by long-clicking on the notification shade item about the update, and selecting more information. The phone displayed notification options for the Updater app.
2) I cleared cache and data for the Updater app
I went to Updater's app info page via via Settings >> Apps >> All apps. Updater is a system app, so I had to use the kebab menu in the upper right corner of the All apps screen to tell the phone to display system apps. Once there, I went to the "Storage" screen and cleared cache and data.
3) I restarted the phone, and "cleaned up" after what I had done
When my phone powered back on after the restart, there was *nothing* at all related to a system update in the notification bar. I turned on cellular data (but left WiFi off), and went to Settings >> About >> Software Updates. The phone checked for a few seconds, during which I could see (behind the "checking" popup) that the box for downloading only over WiFi was clear. This made sense, since this setting must be an option for the app I had just wiped. After maybe 15 seconds, the phone displayed a screen offering me the 3.16.617.2 system update. I used the back button to close that window, which left me on the screen where I could re-check the option to download system updates only over WiFi. Naturally, I re-checked this option.
That's it. My phone is now once again displaying a notification bar icon offering me the Oreo update, but it no longer thinks I told it to proceed with this update. I have been on WiFi a couple of times since doing this, and the phone has not tried to start the download.
I'm guessing that I could get this notification bar icon to go away by hiding notifications for the Updater app, but have not yet done so.
Thanks again, Droidriven, and I hope what I figured out is helpful to someone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I actually, meant to say nougat, lol.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

Categories

Resources