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.
Related
I can't seem to find anything that touches on this, so I thought I'd go ahead and ask.
My girlfriend (who is in another state at the moment for a couple months) is concerned someone has 'hacked' her phone.
As much as I know right now, she had her phone sitting on her desk and it came on, out of sleep, bypassing her pattern lock and started automatically downloading and updating her Maps app. She does not have her phone rooted or modded in anyway, just some additional apps (none that deal with app management) and as far as I know (I have a Samsung Vibrant) there are no 'automatically update' option in any of the menus.
Anyone have any idea? I know this is very little information, but it's all I can grab right now and I had a few minutes.
Thanks in advance for any responses!
jwrichards1982 said:
I can't seem to find anything that touches on this, so I thought I'd go ahead and ask.
My girlfriend (who is in another state at the moment for a couple months) is concerned someone has 'hacked' her phone.
As much as I know right now, she had her phone sitting on her desk and it came on, out of sleep, bypassing her pattern lock and started automatically downloading and updating her Maps app. She does not have her phone rooted or modded in anyway, just some additional apps (none that deal with app management) and as far as I know (I have a Samsung Vibrant) there are no 'automatically update' option in any of the menus.
Anyone have any idea? I know this is very little information, but it's all I can grab right now and I had a few minutes.
Thanks in advance for any responses!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to be sure, she has an Eris, correct? I only ask because if her Android Phone (since it's not rooted) is not an Eris then it could have Android OS 2.2 (Froyo), and the Android Market for Froyo does have an option (she would've had to toggle it on somehow) to autoupdate individual apps.
If she definitely has a unrooted Eris and therefore running 2.1, it may still be possible that she installed the Market from 2.2 (there are various sources to do so), although it doesn't sound likely from your description. She would be aware if she did that, too.
I would double check to make sure she has the phone set to only install apps through the Market:
Long-press Menu
Settings
Applications
Make sure that "Unknown sources" is unchecked.
I don't know if it would still be possible for a malicious app to be installed with it unchecked, but it should definitely reduce the probability.
I've seen weird things happen on all sorts of electronics/computers/phones so unless something else suspicious happened, or she has good reason to believe someone did something to her phone in person that would allow them to do things to it remotely, then I wouldn't sweat it yet.
I originally used security software on my phone, but I haven't for a long time.
If she wants to be certain nothing has invaded her phone, then she could do a factory reset:
Long-press Menu
Settings
Privacy
Factory data reset
This will erase everything that didn't come with her phone. Without root access, noone could've done anything permanent to it.
When she boots the phone after the reset, and puts her Google email and password in, Google will automatically restore her Contacts and Calendar (takes several minutes if a lot of data), but she would have to either manually reinstall and reconfigure her apps, or use a backup program like Titanium Backup, or My Backup Pro. MBP is much slower but recent versions have gotten faster and overall I've had better success with it than TB, but many people swear by TB so it just depends.
Good luck.
Hi,
This is going to be such a "noob" question & I apologize in advance.
I have an Orange UK branded HTC Desire HD running stock firmware & NOT rooted. Since the fairly recent 2.3.5 update with Sense 3.0 I have found that I am regularly seeing Sense restart upon exiting an app and returning to the home screen. This is not related to a particular app, as it can happen when returning to home from ANY app. My wife is seeing the same behaviour on hers too.
Having posted on both HTC's & Orange's Facebook pages, I have been advised in no uncertain terms that as a first step I should perform a factory reset.
This is something that I have not done since I got my DHD (my 1st Android - plenty of hard resets on WM ). I have had a bit of a tidy up - clearing unnecessary data, uninstalling apps I don't use, etc. Pretty much ready to reset (but aware that there is SOME data that I will lose). However, there is one thing that I am unsure about...
I have previously moved a number of apps to the SD card. If I leave them there, will the existing data be recognised upon reinstalling the apps? Or will it cause me problems? Or will the existing data just be orphaned? I.e. should I move all apps back to the phone before performing the reset?
Thanks in Advance
Saving them SD leaves a bit on your phone, so that wont help. Just back them up with your google account!
The apps and system data will be wiped regardless of it being on the sdcard or not. You can perform a manual backup by enabling debugging and using adb to pull the apps from your phone to your computer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Ok, thanks RTContent. I think that answers my question. So I needn't worry about moving stuff back, which is good.
I have no experience of using ADB. Would this backup just the APKs? Or the settings & user data too?
AlwaysDroid: "Just back them up with your google account" - Not sure I get what you mean. Are you referring to the way Google Play will auto restore apps from your install list? TBH, I was banking on this working correctly. Hopefully it will only reinstall those that were on the device, and not ALL previously installed apps. Especially as some of those were from my tablet only.
Not sure that now is the time to start dabbling with ADB, so will probably just go ahead with the reset and lose non synced app data.
Thanks.
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!
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 ?
Hello guys and thanks for reading this. I'd like to require your knowledge and collect your expériences, opinions about wether or not I should root.
1 / So here's the deal, what I wish for is a device with which :
-I could prevent selected apps from launching in the background by themselves (see attached picture - i never asked for any of those to launch - seriously the phone was on for only 5 minutes or so) in a one time configuration process. For example, I'd block Facebook but let Messenger do its thing freely.
-I could completely uninstall the following apps : Hangouts, Google+, Gmail, News & Weather, Chrome, Play books, Play Music... Basically everything Google except Maps, YouTube & The Play store..
2 / I Wonder, if it's possible to accomplish (some of) those things by rooting but without flashing another rom. What I mean is, can we change the governor, install super SU, other tweaking solutions... but at the same time keep the stock rom as it is whith all the apps installed as they are... and simply applying tweaks on top of it?
3 / Also, never have I once went back to factory settings, since day one, and I can feel that some apps take a bit longer to load. When receiving the SENSE 5 / 4.2.2 update, I could definitely sense a big boost in responsiveness in the OS but it now feels like before the update. Maybe it's due to those background processes, starting and ending by themselves? Or because the internal memory chip is beginning to die (I did use the phone like an animal in its early days by doing things like downloading torrents and unzipping files between 500mb-5gb) and still do sometimes. And I rarely uninstall apps. I have like 200 (every shortcuts included - like settings, help,... so basically 170 apps maybe?) and i need them at least every once in a while, so I'm the preventive type, not a hoarder.
Here are 2 attached pictures :
-the first one showing you those unwanted background processes.
-the second showing you the storage status
Enough with the background, what are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
true2you said:
Hello guys and thanks for reading this. I'd like to require your knowledge and collect your expériences, opinions about wether or not I should root.
1 / So here's the deal, what I wish for is a device with which :
-I could prevent selected apps from launching in the background by themselves (see attached picture - i never asked for any of those to launch - seriously the phone was on for only 5 minutes or so) in a one time configuration process. For example, I'd block Facebook but let Messenger do its thing freely.
-I could completely uninstall the following apps : Hangouts, Google+, Gmail, News & Weather, Chrome, Play books, Play Music... Basically everything Google except Maps, YouTube & The Play store..
2 / I Wonder, if it's possible to accomplish (some of) those things by rooting but without flashing another rom. What I mean is, can we change the governor, install super SU, other tweaking solutions... but at the same time keep the stock rom as it is whith all the apps installed as they are... and simply applying tweaks on top of it?
3 / Also, never have I once went back to factory settings, since day one, and I can feel that some apps take a bit longer to load. When receiving the SENSE 5 / 4.2.2 update, I could definitely sense a big boost in responsiveness in the OS but it now feels like before the update. Maybe it's due to those background processes, starting and ending by themselves? Or because the internal memory chip is beginning to die (I did use the phone like an animal in its early days by doing things like downloading torrents and unzipping files between 500mb-5gb) and still do sometimes. And I rarely uninstall apps. I have like 200 (every shortcuts included - like settings, help,... so basically 170 apps maybe?) and i need them at least every once in a while, so I'm the preventive type, not a hoarder.
Here are 2 attached pictures :
-the first one showing you those unwanted background processes.
-the second showing you the storage status
Enough with the background, what are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's a challenge then "I'm a proud owner since January " Well , welcome aboard the sailing ship of the HOX+
Well for starters, everything you said can be acheived by root WITHOUT installing a custom ROM. That actually answers all your questions, HOWEVER, keep in mind, that the first stage of rooting , will require you to WIPE all your data during the stage of unlocking the bootloader. So , your music , apps,pics all will be wiped, and you won't be able to backup your apps the first time. So I hope it's still worth it .
For starters read this guide I wrote : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=46057784 about the difference between different stages, if you can't understand the forum is full of other threads that explain the same thing.
Moving on,
The list of apps you will need is as following:
1-Super SU or SU whatever is a necessary ofcourse.
2-Xposed framework (google it, its not on the play store) Function:
Its a program that you will need to install other tweaks to your phone. Its basically a manager for those tweaks incase you want to turn one off.
Thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1574401
3-Xposed Framework > Downloads > "BootManager"
Its a module (thats the term for those "tweaks") that allows you to setup the programs that you dont want to boot. Sadly It doesn't have a full list of apps, but its useful nonetheless.
3'-Greenify:
The reason I named it 3' was because its an alternative for BootManager. Greenify hibernates the apps , making them not run in the background, but when you open the app it wakes up, so its not similar to "disable" function since you can still open the app to work on it.
4-Titanium Backup
Now thats a program I must install everytime I switch roms, if you read the thread you will know whats it's use, but let me sum it up. You backup all your apps and progress and when you switch roms (since everything is wiped again) it restores everything back.
ALSO: It allows you to totally uninstall all the apps even stock ones, but TAKE care not to uninstall anything messy, advice: backup everything before you uninstall.
5-Xposed Framework > Downloads > "Sense5 Toolbox" :
It allows you to make tweaks for the stock rom, rearrange quick settings, add new ones, change lock screen ..etc. Really worth it.
6-Xposed Framework > Downloads > "Recent apps RAM":
When you open up the recent apps lists, there will be a bar at the top displaying the ram used and free ram. When you see that less than 100mb left, then thats when you know the phone will lag. Just clear all the apps and it should be fine
7-Xposed Framework > Downloads > "Recent Apps kill all Button":
The only thing missing in sense is the ability to kill all apps without manually swiping up on each app in the most recent list. That enables a button for that.
IMO: Rooting was the best move I have ever made, and since we have S-ON, then you can't really brick your phone. So life is good.
Anyway, I hope I helped and that you will live a long life with that HOX+
Many days later, thaaaaaaank youuuuuuu!
So I read your thread on the link you proved provided (again thanks), read and seen videos and tutorials about titanium backup, and also read about - and tried Xposed + sense5 toolbox without rooting just to get a glimpse - and it's both easy to use and ergonomic. Of course I couldn't get any benefits of it yet since still not rooted, but hey, you've pretty much served me all the steps on a golden plate.
Also, as a warming up session, I did a factory reset and neck, I backed up everything before doing so and all I lost was my games data + 1 or 2 phone numbers + my text messages. Overall not a big deal + reinstalling everything took nothing more than a couple of downloading hours.
What's left for me is to test out greenify and the other module (boot something) or any other alternative, I'll figure it out you've already done more than enough.
As for the main task, rooting and getting super user access, again I now have enough info thanks to you + the stickies + the whole one x+ section.
I am so grateful for your time. After years with windows mobile and window phone 7 (and 8 months of unrooted use of my hox+, this is new to me and now it seems nothing but easy.
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda premium