[Q] Deleted home launcher, cannot navigate - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Long form:
I am using an LG Enlighten, not as a phone but simply something to connect to hotspots with, check my email, and such things. Since I was not doing anything vital with it, I didn't put much thought into backing anything up.
Now, irritated with the default web browser, Bing and suchlike, I downloaded a bloatware remover and deleted the browser, along with two or three programs that looked like Verizon bloatware. As it turns out, one of those was my home launcher.
I did back these apps up in the program itself, but that isn't much use since I can't even access the program without a home screen.
I realized what had happened when I pressed Back to get out of the app. Instead, it went to the last app I had used. And then the one before that, and before that, and so on. I tried to keep pressing back until it would take me to the market, where I could open up the bloatware removal app and restore the backups, but eventually I came to a black screen where I could do nothing at all.
I turned off the phone, and was unable to turn it back on without performing a factory reset. Now, the phone goes to the Activation screen, and I am able to connect to USB, but that's it. The escape sequence won't bring me to the home screen - the launcher is apparently still gone.
Do you know of any way to resolve this issue?​
Short form:
Is there a way that I can restore the home launcher?​

Search for the stock firmware and flash it...

Agreed. At this point, your best chance is to flash a ROM, if you're rooted.

Thanks. I take it that root carries through a hard reset?
Edit - I have to admit that I can't figure out how to access the bootloader on this phone. I had tried volume-down + camera, but that prompts a hard reset.

You could also try getting the launcher apk and push it via adb.I even think it doesn't have to be the stock launcher
Sent from my Optimus Me using xda premium

Related

[Q] Checklist before performing hard reset on Android 2.2?

I have an HTC Desire Z, and it's been acting strangely lately. I hear it play the startup sound when it's in my pocket, meaning the phone has crashed when I wasn't even doing anything. I suppose it's time for a hard reset. I'm very reluctant to do this, but when I missed an important call the other day because my "com.htc.phone" (or whatever) application crashed and I didn't notice, that was the last straw.
What is a checklist of things I should do before hard resetting? So far, I've:
1) Backed up SMS
2) Taken screenshots of all my home screens so as to put the icons back in the same place
3) Taken screenshots of the application settings screens so as to install all the same applications again
4) Taken screenshots of some of the other settings screens, so as to use the same ringtone, background, SMS beep, etc.
What are some other steps I should take? I'm scared that I won't get my phone set up the same way again. My phone is great right now, it's just how I like it - except for the crashes.
Is your phone rooted? If so, TitaniumBackup (TB) would be all you need. You can get TitaniumBackup, free and paid, from the market. TB can backup your screen settings according to the launcher apps. For example, I use Go Launcher and when I do a full backup of Go Launcher, it will backup icons positions and everything else that I have changed in Go Launcher.
It may not be necessary to reset your whole device if your just getting one or two processes force closing themselves. The first thing to check is see if you have installed an app that might be conflicting with system apps (try and remember the last time it was working correctly and uninstall apps that you've installed since then).
If this isn't the issue you can also try to wipe app data/cache for the app in question. I hope this makes sense
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Well, I'm not really sure what's causing the problem. My phone came installed with crapware, and lately I've found software installing itself on my phone without my knowledge. I know for a fact the "QQ Security" crapware the phone came with did indeed prevent my phone from functioning correctly.

Unable to install/uninstall/update anything!

I'm unable to install/uninstall or update my apps with google play. Uninstalling Google Play updates doesn't work either. Rebooting doesn't help. Reset my phone to factory defaults once, but after a while the problem cropped up again. Not sure if it has anything to do with some of the apps I've installed.
Another issue that maybe connected to the first one is that when i go into an individual app info, it says computing and nothing happens, no info no matter how long I wait.
Issue #3: The developer options are not accessible. When I press the Developer options, I just get a black screen and after a while it says Settings are not responding.
It's safe to say I really hate this phone's guts. I've had nothing but trouble with it. It's slower than molasses, and I've never installed a lot of apps on it, no cracked apps either, just highly rated free apps and paid apps. It does have a great screen. That's all good I can say about this beta phone. I can't wait to upgrade Note 2.
I'm on the stock rom 4.0.4
Any ideas, other than resetting it yet one more time?
Thanks!

[Q] What's going on: Weird issues - Unable to uninstall, download from Google play

This one is a weird one. I have not experienced this before.
My wife's HTC One X unrooted, factory unlocked from oversees, still under warranty. Latest JB available (stock).
Just the other day I went to clean up some of her redundant apps that I installed on her phone. All apps were from legitimate sources, Google Play.
Problem 1. I could not uninstall any app. The device would get quite warm, actually very warm. I would do a hard boot and sometimes I would then be able to uninstall the app, most other times no. I even have uninstaller apps and I tried using them and the app would go through the motions. it would seemingly uninstall the apps but it really didn't . On the times it would uninstall apps (it doesn't matter which app or how large or small) it often would take a long time.
Problem 2: Downloading apps from GP. I might be able to get away with downloading one app and installing it. However, most of the time GP would be stuck in "downloading', Again, if I do a hard reboot or even soft reboot, sometimes the download would start and you would see the small tray and down arrow. Most of the times, not. What is odd about this is that if I go to Google Play via desktop and remotely tell GP to install a particular app, it usually does without issue on the device.
Problem 3. I did a factory restore and after a few apps everything was ok. but problem would then develop again. I repeated the process to narrow down which app may be causing issue but I haven't been able to do so. Then, I did a hard reboot again and then the download would be very slow to start, several minutes then it would start up normally. I tried uninstalling an app and it too took a long time initially and then it was ok. However, in between this all, it was not. Even when going to SETTINGS, APPS, seeing info on the app (cache size, etc) would take a very very long time to populate.
The wife has her phone with her today at work, but for now it is operating as it should. However, I am very confident it will return to the way it was.
Does any one know what could be going on? Is this a s/w issue or hardware issue? Is there any way to test to see if the flash drive has bad sectors or is somehow damaged? Perhaps the HTC needs a brand new re-flash to the original ROM ?

[Q] Lost Amazon Reg on combo config?

Setup ROM slot 2 to have clean Amazon ROM, then did the HDXposed and Thor-Gapps patch to get Playstore working. Was working great.
Today, was about to read eBook, when I noticed I can't get access to Amazon any more. Instead of "<name>'s Kindle", it just says "My Kindle".
If I go into "My Account" in settings, I get a "this Kindle was not registered". However, touching the register button just blinks the screen. And needless to say none of the Amazon apps will open, or just shows the register button, which does nothing.
I can wipe the ROM and start over, but I'd like to do a little debugging first. So, what should I do? And is there a way to 'save' this Amazon reg info (Titanium? Nandroid? Other?) so I can just "restore" ? (kinda like those "rootsaver" apps, I imagine)
Found a way to fix it, strangely.
One night my HDX7 just acted REALLy REALLY slow. normally 30 fps game went to like 4 fps. Won't turn off. So I did the almost unthinkable... I held down the power button for 30 seconds to force a factory reboot.
After a few reboots... I was surprised to see it boot back into the launcher, not Amazon home. However, all of the apps that loads at boot have been disabled. No Xposed. In fact, some of the apps are gone too.
I tapped on "Home" (Carousel) expecting it to fail, but surprisingly, it worked, and it prompted me to register my device. So I did. I am back in! I'm in Amazon ecosystem again!
The only catch is I can't open Kindle reader directly from regular launcher. I had to launch carousel then pick a book. But otherwise Kindle works fine.
I quickly re-enabled Xposed, HDXposed, and the rest of the hacks and tweaks. I also had to redownload a few apps as somehow this reboot un-linked a few apps from the market, but otherwise, no big deal.
So there you go... if you lost reg, do the factory reboot, reg, then restart Xposed and HDXposed and the rest. And you should be up and running again. Sure beats redo the whole flash procedures.
Turns out this procedure doesn't do a full fix. Had multiple Play store errors. Ended up redoing the whole thing.
Sent from my XT875 using Tapatalk

[Q] update.appfansworld.com in Chrome browser

I am getting an annoying spam/popup whatever in my Chrome browser. It's very deceiving and I've tried restarting Chrome, the phone, clearing cache but it still pops up all the time. It's from "update.appfansworld.com" and gives me an initial message about memory being low or something. Attached is a screenshot. Anyone know how I can get rid of this?
If this is an app.
Go to settings > application manager
Find the system ui upgrade app and uninstall it.
Is it a popup? If so try an ad blocker. Or figure out what site's giving you this junk.
If your user agent string is reporting as android (in Chrome it is) they can tailor ads to look like "updates".
If you get the "memory slowed" message hit cancel or the back button.
Sent from my Verizon NC5 Galaxy S4 w/ GEL and Xposed
Fixed this problem on my phone by going into the App Info for the Chrome App and Deleting All Data. Just had to resign into Google, and it has not come back so far.
Update.... Went one week with no pop up. Got one again from app fans world. Com again last night. Not the UI one though. This one said my browser crashed, which it hadn't. Spent several hours trying to get it to repeat, but it never did, nor did it today. Just as a final check, I ran Malwarebytes, and found only one instance of malware on my phone, but not thinking it was actually malware. It was the root uninstaller file for Smart Ram Booster Pro. I uninstalled the app anyway as I don't really use it. Will give an update on this in a week or so. Looking online, this is becoming a widespread issue.
jakel1.jf said:
Update.... Went one week with no pop up. Got one again from app fans world. Com again last night. Not the UI one though. This one said my browser crashed, which it hadn't. Spent several hours trying to get it to repeat, but it never did, nor did it today. Just as a final check, I ran Malwarebytes, and found only one instance of malware on my phone, but not thinking it was actually malware. It was the root uninstaller file for Smart Ram Booster Pro. I uninstalled the app anyway as I don't really use it. Will give an update on this in a week or so. Looking online, this is becoming a widespread issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried deleting data in the chrome browser but that didn't prevent it from coming back. I'll look forward to a solution if you find one.
After clearing the data under app info it stopped for a week for me. It was popping up every other page almost before that. Now, it popped up again just once, and I did a couple weeks worth of browsing in a couple hours after it did, just to see if I could get the pop up again to inspect it better, but it just won't come up again. I don't know if it is gone, or will pop up again sometime later. Weird.
I have been following a guy on the Verizon forum dealing with this. He was going to run his phone in safe mode, and try activating one 3rd party app at a time, using Terminal to see if he could find an app that was causing this. That didn't work though as while in safe mode with no 3rd party apps activated, it still happened. He is now going to reset his phone, reinstalling apps one at a time to see if he can find an app causing it. This will take more than a week though, as he will take time to test chrome for awhile after each app is installed. One thing to note is that the app.fansworld.com site was only created 12.18.14. It could be any app you installed slightly before to any time after that date, or even any update installed then. I am almost thinking it is something to do with Chrome, as I don't install anything except from the Playstore, and only a thing or two that I can remember during that time frame. I am going to both uninstalled all chrome updates, and try a different browser, to see if it still happens. If it does, I am going to factory reset my phone, and see if I can fix it.
jakel1.jf said:
I have been following a guy on the Verizon forum dealing with this. He was going to run his phone in safe mode, and try activating one 3rd party app at a time, using Terminal to see if he could find an app that was causing this. That didn't work though as while in safe mode with no 3rd party apps activated, it still happened. He is now going to reset his phone, reinstalling apps one at a time to see if he can find an app causing it. This will take more than a week though, as he will take time to test chrome for awhile after each app is installed. One thing to note is that the app.fansworld.com site was only created 12.18.14. It could be any app you installed slightly before to any time after that date, or even any update installed then. I am almost thinking it is something to do with Chrome, as I don't install anything except from the Playstore, and only a thing or two that I can remember during that time frame. I am going to both uninstalled all chrome updates, and try a different browser, to see if it still happens. If it does, I am going to factory reset my phone, and see if I can fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assumed it was a chrome thing since that's where it always pops up for me. I guess I could try another browser...
I did click on the page (clicking cancel or update does the same thing) as I figured I will be reseting my phone anyway. No matter how many times I click on it, all it does is redirect me to the Dolphin Browser page on the playstore. This makes me really suspicious because the developers of Dolphin Browser wouldn't ruin their extremely good reputation by doing this. I think the redirect is a cover for something else. Maybe a keystroke logger, or something just as malicious. Rolling back Chrome didn't get rid of the page that pops up. No popping up with new browser so far, went with Maxthon, but it is early. Really starting to think a complete wipe and reset is necessary. After all, the pop up is only what we are seeing, what else might be going on we can't.
Quick question... Have you downloaded any (.flv or.m2v specifically) video files during the time frame? Read a recent article about hackers using them to exploit vulnerabilities. Right now it is suggested not to download those 2 file types at all.
Factory reset my phone, which was a small hassle, but it has fixed it, and the other small bugs and slow downs that appeared at the same time. Back up your files... Pics and such you want to keep, and reset. Your phone should automatically re-install all your apps, although you will have to redo some of your settings. After you save your files to wherever you want, I saved them to my pc, just go to settings.. Then back up and restore.... And select factory reset or reset phone, however it is listed. Your phone will then be like brand new, and you will only have to re-set up a few things as most things will reinstall by themselves with their previous settings. Like I said, a small hassle, but it fixes the problem, and you again know your phone and data is secure.
It started doing it again today. Reset didn't work. Talked to the guy on verizon forum, and he is going through all files to locate it's origin. Will just have to wait until he is done. FYI--It started happening in other browsers too.

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