Hi all, noob here with a question. I've searched high and low but can't find an answer.
A short bit of background....Today for the first time I decided to set up my work email on my SGS II. My phone asked me to change some of the security rules associated with the phone. I accepted and it set about encrypting phone storage and usb storage. As a result of this my phone went haywire. Constantly force closing various apps hundreds of times. I was unable to use the phone for hours but eventually got in to delete the email account. Once I'd managed to do this the phone automatically decrypted itself.
As a result though, no widgets on my phone load. I've tried battery pulls but this hasn't worked.
Does anyone have any ideas before I have to do something drastic like delete and reinstall each app?
Thanks.
Android 2.33
I9100XXKE7
Gingerbread.XWKF3
Have you removed the widgets from your homescreen and then added them again? That normally solves widget issues.
If you have then yeah, uninstall and reinstall. It'll only take a minute for each one so it's hardly the end of the world. Just a pain in the arse.
Thanks, simple solution, should have tried that before!
It is an utter pain because most of my widgets and short cuts are invisible- using circle launcher and wave launcher.
I shall get to it now!
Just updated to European ICS earlier. As expected, it reset my home screen layout and app drawer sorting. Irritating but fixable.
I spent a not-inconsiderable amount of time reorganising things how I like, folders and widgets etc. I made sure to backup TwLauncher's data using Titanium when I was done just in case.
So a bit later, I try to view an image in "My Files" with the gallery app, and it closes instantly saying the "media scanner running". No worries, I've seen that before, except... it isn't running. Nothing is scanning my media files as far as I can tell. So, I hold in power and do a reboot, thinking that'll clear the problem.
Boom. When the phone reloads, my home screen is once more 'stock', and what's worse, trying to open applications leads to a blank screen for about 5 minutes, at which point it loads up and once more, everything is all just stock / alphabetical.
Can someone tell me what's going wrong, and how I can avoid it happening again, so I don't waste my time reorganising? (Please, no clever reply of "What's going wrong is you're using TouchWiz")
Much appreciated,
Matt
I notice the bar at the top that shows battery life and signal strength always disappears. Any way to have that stay on permanently?
I don't think so, but if you want to see the notification bar that contains the battery life and singla strength whenever, just swipe down from the top.
jsnkc28 said:
I notice the bar at the top that shows battery life and signal strength always disappears. Any way to have that stay on permanently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is from something that I wrote on WP Central a few days ago:
The philosophy of Windows Phone is pretty much "stop worrying and let the system take care of things." That's why status bar icons disappear from view except when they have something exceptional to tell you (no signal, low battery, etc). That's why there's no task manager (because tasks don't need to be managed). That's why there's no quick-access WiFi on/off switch (just leave it on and let the system manage things).
It takes a while to get used to this way of not actively having to do things to make the phone work. That "while" is probably longer for the former Android users because they are typically used to doing a lot more and thus have to let go of a lot more administrative duties than iPhone do. (As a former Windows Mobile user, it was hard on me, too. But I have accepted not pulling my battery frequently and not flashing new ROMs every few weeks to get new features.)
The main thing I wanted was the clock. Its such a pain in the butt when I am surfing the web or doing something in an app and I want to know the time I have to exit the browser or app to see the time and then re-start the browser or app again. Hopefully in the future they can at least have the option of the clock being there all the time or someone comes up with a workaround.
Partial work-around
jsnkc28 said:
The main thing I wanted was the clock. Its such a pain in the butt when I am surfing the web or doing something in an app and I want to know the time I have to exit the browser or app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Developers get the choice of whether to show the status bar or not. Panorama-style apps (like the Games and Pictures/Photos hubs) typically turn it off while Pivot-style apps (like Email or Settings) leave it on. Panoramas are typically graphically-rich and developers kept the bar hidden to not interfere with their layouts. Again, it is the developer's choice. I just noticed that the Office hub for WP8 does show the bar, so maybe the time will turn.
IE likely hides it so that more of the screen can be used for the web page being viewed. (Having the page scroll behind the text and icons on the status bar would be weird.) That said, there's an easy way in IE to temporarily show the status bar. Tap the "..." at the bottom to bring up the menu. Better yet, start to drag it upward a bit and then down -- this will show the status bar, but not pop up the whole bottom menu.
Thanks for the IE tip...works very well!
I travel a lot and would be nice if we can see status bar when not to make a phone call or checking time
Personally, I like not having it on the screen all the time. I prefer more viewing space than seeing other stuff clutter up the edges. Just my personal preference.
jsnkc28 said:
The main thing I wanted was the clock. Its such a pain in the butt when I am surfing the web or doing something in an app and I want to know the time I have to exit the browser or app to see the time and then re-start the browser or app again. Hopefully in the future they can at least have the option of the clock being there all the time or someone comes up with a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure what your lock settings are - but if you have pin/password that is enabled a few minutes after the screen is turned off (can be adjusted from Settings menu) then you can just turn off the screen and turn it back on. You'll see the start screen with time information and a swipe will bring you back to your app you were browsing.
Not an ideal situation but a workaround. I personally never had to do this FWIW.
My battery status and time are permanently displayed due to a bug and it's killing me.
Came after the 1308 update and won't go.
I am also on 1308 and this didn't happen. R u sure it is OS instead of some app related?
manicotti said:
This is from something that I wrote on WP Central a few days ago:
The philosophy of Windows Phone is pretty much "stop worrying and let the system take care of things." That's why status bar icons disappear from view except when they have something exceptional to tell you (no signal, low battery, etc). That's why there's no task manager (because tasks don't need to be managed). That's why there's no quick-access WiFi on/off switch (just leave it on and let the system manage things).
It takes a while to get used to this way of not actively having to do things to make the phone work. That "while" is probably longer for the former Android users because they are typically used to doing a lot more and thus have to let go of a lot more administrative duties than iPhone do. (As a former Windows Mobile user, it was hard on me, too. But I have accepted not pulling my battery frequently and not flashing new ROMs every few weeks to get new features.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree. WP8 does a great job of handling all the little tasks that seem to take up so much time on other phone OS.
I never worry about battery life and all that stupid stuff. I can get nearly 2 days on a single charge with Wi-Fi etc. constantly on.
Any battery drain issues are usually down to 'rogue' or badly written apps hogging all the resources. Never had a problem with my Lumia 920. Superb phone!!!
manicotti said:
This is from something that I wrote on WP Central a few days ago:
The philosophy of Windows Phone is pretty much "stop worrying and let the system take care of things." That's why status bar icons disappear from view except when they have something exceptional to tell you (no signal, low battery, etc). That's why there's no task manager (because tasks don't need to be managed). That's why there's no quick-access WiFi on/off switch (just leave it on and let the system manage things).
It takes a while to get used to this way of not actively having to do things to make the phone work. That "while" is probably longer for the former Android users because they are typically used to doing a lot more and thus have to let go of a lot more administrative duties than iPhone do. (As a former Windows Mobile user, it was hard on me, too. But I have accepted not pulling my battery frequently and not flashing new ROMs every few weeks to get new features.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are awesome
manicotti said:
This is from something that I wrote on WP Central a few days ago:
The philosophy of Windows Phone is pretty much "stop worrying and let the system take care of things." That's why status bar icons disappear from view except when they have something exceptional to tell you (no signal, low battery, etc). That's why there's no task manager (because tasks don't need to be managed). That's why there's no quick-access WiFi on/off switch (just leave it on and let the system manage things).
It takes a while to get used to this way of not actively having to do things to make the phone work. That "while" is probably longer for the former Android users because they are typically used to doing a lot more and thus have to let go of a lot more administrative duties than iPhone do. (As a former Windows Mobile user, it was hard on me, too. But I have accepted not pulling my battery frequently and not flashing new ROMs every few weeks to get new features.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously, this was written over a year ago, but I just happened to stumble upon this thread as I was looking for a way to pin the status bar icons.
In general, I agree with the statement about the Windows Phone philosophy. As someone who's long admired but only recently started using a WP8 device (Lumia 925), here's one area where the reality deviates from the philosophy in a very frustrating way: neither iOS nor Android require a user to determine which background tasks stay running and which ones needs to be shut down.
I get aggravated every time I see the "too many background tasks running" message, reminding me that I can only have so many running. Then I have to go to the Background Tasks menu item from setting and figure out which ones I want blocked, and then decide if I always want them blocked or if they should be revived the next time the app is started. I've seen this happen on the Lumia 925 (running GDR3), as well as on the much newer Lumia 1520 (GDR3, Lumia Black) that I owned for a couple weeks.
As a user, I don't want to have to remember / decide that kind of crud. I expect the OS to handle that stuff for me, so I'm surprised that in the year 2013, on an OS that is not in its first iteration, we have an issue like this. Currently, iOS and Android both handle this seamlessly, by suspending or freezing the application, or closing it as necessary. And yet, when the user goes back to the list of "open" apps, they can quickly switch back to the desired app. Frozen ones pick up where left off, and closed ones relaunch.
Let me be clear - I'm not being critical of manicotti here, just stating that we've yet got a long way to go.
While we're on this matter, I have searched but not found a satisfactory solution, and am tired of always remembering to exit apps by "back"ing my way out of them. Is there a better alternative or a solution thread that someone can point me to?
Thanks,
AJ
It's funny that you quoted that piece today. My original words there were a copy of something that I had written on WPCentral back in 2012. I just wrote something else on WPCentral that addresses one of the points that you raised. The full thing is at http://forums.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-8/255956-3.htm#post2276267, but the key part is that:
One of my big complaints with it is the term "background tasks" itself (in the Settings app) to refer to tasks that are scheduled to run every once in a while. The general public already has a different understanding of that term (i.e., tasks that are in memory and doing things while not currently displaying on screen). Given that the term already has a meaning, Microsoft should not have tried to redefine it. They recognized this from the developer's perspective and called the things "periodic tasks," which is what they are (started periodically and then shut down -- all independent of the main app that contains such "applets").I went on to complain about how this misuse of terms confuses users, that developers don't generally go out of their way to compensate for Microsoft's screw-up, and then propose a better UI for the Background Tasks page that conveys to users what they need to know about which tasks are running occasionally, which are not, and why.
ucfbeta92 said:
Obviously, this was written over a year ago, but I just happened to stumble upon this thread as I was looking for a way to pin the status bar icons.
In general, I agree with the statement about the Windows Phone philosophy. As someone who's long admired but only recently started using a WP8 device (Lumia 925), here's one area where the reality deviates from the philosophy in a very frustrating way: neither iOS nor Android require a user to determine which background tasks stay running and which ones needs to be shut down.
I get aggravated every time I see the "too many background tasks running" message, reminding me that I can only have so many running. Then I have to go to the Background Tasks menu item from setting and figure out which ones I want blocked, and then decide if I always want them blocked or if they should be revived the next time the app is started. I've seen this happen on the Lumia 925 (running GDR3), as well as on the much newer Lumia 1520 (GDR3, Lumia Black) that I owned for a couple weeks.
As a user, I don't want to have to remember / decide that kind of crud. I expect the OS to handle that stuff for me, so I'm surprised that in the year 2013, on an OS that is not in its first iteration, we have an issue like this. Currently, iOS and Android both handle this seamlessly, by suspending or freezing the application, or closing it as necessary. And yet, when the user goes back to the list of "open" apps, they can quickly switch back to the desired app. Frozen ones pick up where left off, and closed ones relaunch.
Let me be clear - I'm not being critical of manicotti here, just stating that we've yet got a long way to go.
While we're on this matter, I have searched but not found a satisfactory solution, and am tired of always remembering to exit apps by "back"ing my way out of them. Is there a better alternative or a solution thread that someone can point me to?
Thanks,
AJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AJ,
I generally hold down the "back" button until the window shrinks down and I can click the X in the upper right corner to close the apps.
Seems to work for most apps for me.
I have had this bug on my phone for the last two or three updates now (stock rooted EMC2) ...from time to time, usually about once every three days, when I unlock the phone it will be completely blank except for the wallpaper and the dock divider, with no widgets or app icons whatsoever.
A reboot gets everything back to normal.
It usually happens of course at crucial times, for instance when I suddenly see something that I have to get a quick snapshot of, unlock the phone and ....nothing there.
It does probably more often than not happen when I use the lockscreen app widgets to unlock the phone.
I have never heard of this bug mentioned before, so was wondering if anyone else has the same problem.
It has me considering just giving up with samsung's buggy firmware once and for all and flashing CM.
why not post in the help section?
because i'm not asking for help, i'm referencing a bug that is occurring with my device and would like to know if I am the only one or there are others, or if anyone is aware of such a bug, if a mod wants to move the topic he is welcome to
questions go in the Q&A section
Dear all,
I hope someone can help me with this problem:
Yesterday my phone has crashed (shutdown because of low battery, after charging for a while I noticed that the battery went to 0% during charging and then turned off again - not sure what happend). After charging for some time I turned it on again and I noticed that some data seem to be missing.
For example:
The chrome browser seem to has reset itself, meaning all opened tabs and history is gone. I don´t have the option to re-open the last tabs. My last titanium backup (the phone, Galaxy Note 3, is rooted and unfortunately still runs Android 5 because Samsung did not provide any updates after Lollipop) lays a few weeks in the past and I had some, for me, very important tabs opened for research in the last few days.
I looked at the /data/data/com.android.chrome/app_tabs/0 but it seems during or after the crash Android or Chrome just deleted or overwrite tabX and tab_state. Also the history file seem to just got deleted or overwritten.
I would like to know, can anyone imagine a way (maybe trough adb and testdisk, or else) to get the deleted or overwritten data of Chrome back? I tried some apps and software for pc to recover data, but they all seem to focus on pictures and stuff like that.
So is there some hidden storage (as long as the system had not overwritten this block) where I could get a chance to find the history file and tab file from before the crash?
I already tried to recover some data by google/myactivity but it only shows when I used chrome, not which pages I have visited. At the moment I´m working on a very important project and would apprechiate if someone could help me get back my recently found rescources. I did some research on computer and on the phone, to but unfortuantely don´t have enabled tab-sync accross devices.
I have frozen chrome with titanium backup to avoid make things even worst and try to use my phone as less as possible to avoid data get overwritten (as long they are still anywhere on the phone, hopefully).
Thanks in advance, I hope I get some useful answers. As mentioned before I already tried the conventional ways and this is the reason I ask the pros now. I know such important researches should not have been done on the phone or even make sure to backup maybe daily, but it is like it is, so please don´t judge me for this.
BR
GP
I need to recover pictures that was in my trash over 3 weeks ago from my Lg k20 plus
What should I do or can it be done?