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Okay, this has been bugging me for a long time. I've been around since the beginning of G1 and have never seen a solution to this. I'm out of town on vacation, so my updates and responses may be slow. I've found a partial solution for this. If you don't want to read the fluff, drop down to Partial Solution sections, but be warned, this is not perfect (yet). Below is a quick spilling of my guts on this. Please excuse any grammar mistakes and fragmented thought. I posted this in DEV because more research needs to be done by someone that knows how this stuff works. If we get this worked out, I'll update this post with whatever information is necessary.
This post takes for granted the reader has some knowledge of file management and manipulation, so I won't get too detailed with how to copy/move/delete files. There is a lot of information here and I know most won't read it all, but I'm trying to get all the detail into this I can think of in hopes others have ideas that we can share.
I DO NOT KNOW THE RAMIFICATIONS OF WHAT THIS DOES! ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOUR PHONE IS YOUR FAULT, NOT MINE! Etc... Etc... Etc...
Issue: After flashing/Odin/wiping, sometimes the Market takes about a minute to load as does the app and security info screens. The Top Paid button is missing and all that's available is Top Free and Just In. Installing an app takes quite a bit of time. It eventually clears up, but it may take up to a week.
If you restore Market preferences via Titanium Backup or similar app, it can speed it up, but in the long run, you may get cross referenced apps over time or Market problems in general. For example, I install app1 and when it's finished, I select it in notifications and it takes me to app3. Some apps are also missing from Downloads and have to be installed again for them to show up. I also experience Titanium Backup not linking the Market correctly if at all. How to fix that is below, also.
How I Tested: I renamed /dbdata/databases/com.android.vending which reproduced the problem reliably and gave me a working set of databases and .xml's to look at.
Partial Solution: Save a copy of /dbdata/databases/com.android.vending/shared_prefs/vending_preferences.xml and put it back after you've restored your apps and opened Market once (just to lay down the directory structure). There are other files that will get more "stuff" back, but because of issues I've had between vending.apk versions, I choose to restore just this one file. It doesn't seem to change much. You can look in it and find some interesting things, but I've found changing it does very little if anything. Changing local_db_sync_required didn't do anything and it just reverted back to "false" for me.
What you will find, is Market will run quickly again BUT, you have no links so none of your apps show as installed. Although it will probably sync over time, the point of my messing around was fairly instant gratification. Thus the next section.
New Problem: Market speed is normal, but no apps are linked. Hey, I use Titanium backup! Fix Market links works, partially. I have 226 apps backed up in TB (Yes, this is why I wanted to get this working) and when I fixed Market links, it found 167. I fixed them again and it found 9, then 17, then 6 etc... It repeated some apps and never detected others. I checked and some of the "fixed" apps did not show in downloads... So I started looking. Menu -> Legend showed me part of the issue. Smiley face -vs- green M. For some reason, some of my apps were not linking properly. Here's how to get that part working.
Partial Solution: Here's what I did in TB. I filtered by Status: Backed up and Type: User. Starting at the top of the list, I long pressed on the first "smiley face" which means it didn't back up the Market link and if it was "Attached to Market", I Detached it. View in Market and installed the app. When it was done, I backed the app up again and viola, green M showing it backed up the Market link. I did this many, many more times to fix my links. It worked in all occasions as long as I could find the app in the Market. Of course, some apps installed outside the Market cannot be fixed (duh), but all others worked fine.
I still have a problem getting everything attached in one shot. If I fix Market links in TB, I still get strange results, but this is as close as I can get and I found quite a few apps that have not been linked for so long, they were a few revs behind, so I'm happy with how far I've gotten.
Questions that will be asked:
- Why didn't you force attach to Market with TB? Because it didn't work. Some indicated it did, but they didn't show up in Market as installed, they didn't back up as linked and some even reverted back to not being attached and the forced button was available. The above is how I got around all of that.
- What about the other cool DB's and .xml? I didn't find that it was worth any possible issues to restore anything else except this file. That is probably what got me into this in the first place. Your mileage may vary. DB's usually need an update script if any changes are made. If that doesn't happen and the schema doesn't match, that's usually bad. That's why a lot of ROM's require a wipe. The old doesn't match the new...
- Why can't you backup Market with TB now that it is working well? I could and it would probably work, but I know it won't work forever because it didn't before. It also won't help someone else who is in a similar situation. I've been using TB (paid) since it came out and I love it. But, it's not perfect.
- Why should I mess with this instead of waiting for it to fix itself? You probably shouldn't. I've found that if I did a restore of apps, some NEVER go back to the Downloads section without a re-install. That's my concern.
- I don't have any of these problems, why are you posting this? Because I and others have. The universe does not revolve around you. Please move on.
- Why did you post this in Dev? As I said in the beginning, because we need someone who knows how this OS works so maybe a reliable workaround can be had for all. I didn't post in DEV for exposure, I posted here because I started it and I don't know where to go. Maybe a fix can be turned into an app or incorporated directly within a ROM. Who knows? I'm not a DEVing, but I am troubleshooting an issue within the OS.
One thing I've found that helps, is I kinda ignore if it shows up in Downloads in the market after a restore. I check for updates using AppBrain app, it finds all the apps on the phone whether they're in the market or not. Then, whenever an app is updated, it directs you to the market download page. If the market link was broken, that will say "Install" instead of "Update", but an install at that point will update properly, and you'll now have a working market link.
The main goal of having apps show up in the market, IMHO, is updates and uninstalls. Use the system uninstaller rather than the market for uninstalls, and use AppBrain to find updates. Works for me.
Thanks a lot for putting this up! I was banging my head against the wall last night, as I ran into this issue again and couldnt remember how I fixed it on my G1
zimphishmonger said:
Thanks a lot for putting this up! I was banging my head against the wall last night, as I ran into this issue again and couldnt remember how I fixed it on my G1
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yw
lotherius said:
One thing I've found that helps, is I kinda ignore if it shows up in Downloads in the market after a restore. I check for updates using AppBrain app, it finds all the apps on the phone whether they're in the market or not. Then, whenever an app is updated, it directs you to the market download page. If the market link was broken, that will say "Install" instead of "Update", but an install at that point will update properly, and you'll now have a working market link.
The main goal of having apps show up in the market, IMHO, is updates and uninstalls. Use the system uninstaller rather than the market for uninstalls, and use AppBrain to find updates. Works for me.
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I rarely uninstall via market. Have an app that throws me straight to the system uninstaller from the apps icon. I like appbrain, but it exhibits the same issue as the Market for me as far as detecting installed apps in some cases. I use the Market for updates and it works fine for me as long as the apps are linked. I think it has something to do with the hash getting messed up in the assets.db
I haven't seen any threads after reading through hundreds of threads about icon packs bettercut virtual desktop you name it still no flashable zips for icons??? Is this even possible I don't understand why it's so hard, themes have icons that work for the app drawer...The only way to change the icon is to decompile it and reinstall it without the right digital signature??? Is there a thread about this? I understand that adw has themes you can make which will switch your app drawer icons but thats not what I'm talking about...
Pneuma1985 said:
I haven't seen any threads after reading through hundreds of threads about icon packs bettercut virtual desktop you name it still no flashable zips for icons??? Is this even possible I don't understand why it's so hard, themes have icons that work for the app drawer...The only way to change the icon is to decompile it and reinstall it without the right digital signature??? Is there a thread about this? I understand that adw has themes you can make which will switch your app drawer icons but thats not what I'm talking about...
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This is what you're asking, right?
- Is it possible to create a flashable .zip (flashed from Recovery) that deletes icon.png from all installed applications, switching them out with alternatives provided in the flashable .zip?
It's possible, I guess. It could be done with the general applications that come with most ROMs. Keeping in mind that this is for one specific device, i.e the HTC Desire. But beyond that it'd be pretty hard to create a .zip that does the job. Again: Possible but, hard. I think we'll see other ways of switching out icons rather than a flashable .zip. I'm thinking an application of some sort.
Well I've looked into that to only thing i've been able to come up with is adwex... Now how do they do it? Is it b/c your using that launcher so it can basically display whatever app drawer icon it wants? with the theme...How do themes for roms do it?
Pneuma1985 said:
Well I've looked into that to only thing i've been able to come up with is adwex... Now how do they do it? Is it b/c your using that launcher so it can basically display whatever app drawer icon it wants? with the theme...How do themes for roms do it?
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I have no idea how to theme ADW. Never used it.
ROMs come with standard applications. When people create themes for those ROMs they tend to theme the applications that come with it.
So complicated thought androids were made to be hacked whats goin on here...Guess its a lost cause!
Well, like you said, it's waiting to be done, these devices seem made for tweaking and hacking, so if you you really want it, try to figure it out!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Oh I desperately want it I just dont have the coding capabilities to do it lol otherwise believe me I would!
Pneuma1985 said:
So complicated thought androids were made to be hacked whats goin on here...Guess its a lost cause!
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You want to make a script that:
- Deletes icon.png from an .apk
- Removes and re-signs the .apk
That's a big goddamn pile of code right there!
This is not iPhone and if you're that fond of changing the app drawer icons you can do it manually, with each application, which is a *****. This seems very important to you so I urge you to actually do some reading and start this process yourself. We're a big community and we all contribute to make Android awesome. Just because there's no easy solution to mass changing icons doesn't mean it's a low-end operating system that can't be hacked. We've done more with Android than you could ever do with any other OS!
Icon-Pack-Changers came to Windows 7 just a brief time ago. That OS has been out for ages now. Have patience enough and wait for someone to make a breakthrough or do something about it yourself. Thinking it's a lost cause helps nothing.
Ok icon pack changer did not recently come to windows 7 they have been out since win7beta. Windows in itself is a completely different file system how it works is completely different and how to exploit its files is completely different. And lots of people love to hack windows because for the most part its a complete piece of garbage and its really easy to hack. I personally found a way to change system icons when I was still on beta and doing a pack change was as simple as hooking the code! You being a deviantart member you should know that icon packs for windows and the software to change them has been out forever on deviantart over a year now at least.
Ok back to the original post...
yes my basic point in posting this was... is anyone currently trying to solve this icon problem that anyone knows about? I understand that getting around this seems to be mind boggling. I was thinking about in a different way is there any way we could possibly do a digital injection of the icon file???? Sort of like how you can do digital injections of files in windows changing the code by injecting the file???Not sure if this would work but I guess the only way to test it is try it!
Pneuma1985 said:
Ok icon pack changer did not recently come to windows 7 they have been out since win7beta. Windows in itself is a completely different file system how it works is completely different and how to exploit its files is completely different. And lots of people love to hack windows because for the most part its a complete piece of garbage and its really easy to hack. I personally found a way to change system icons when I was still on beta and doing a pack change was as simple as hooking the code! You being a deviantart member you should know that icon packs for windows and the software to change them has been out forever on deviantart over a year now at least.
Ok back to the original post...
yes my basic point in posting this was... is anyone currently trying to solve this icon problem that anyone knows about? I understand that getting around this seems to be mind boggling. I was thinking about in a different way is there any way we could possibly do a digital injection of the icon file???? Sort of like how you can do digital injections of files in windows changing the code by injecting the file???Not sure if this would work but I guess the only way to test it is try it!
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You actually used more space to tell that the bet... The point is that icon pack changers wasn't even shed light on until some while ago. If you disagree then you're a Windows 7 God and all hail thy great knowledge of teh operating systemzzzzz.
No. All installed applications are signed digtially. If you break/remove the signature you're gonna have to re-sign it. There exists an application for this or you could base your script on APKManager. You cannot simply do a digital injection of an icon file unless you're running some sort of home replacement that caches the icons or something similar.
If you would have focused on the Android part of my comment and not the Windows 7 part you might have got that already.
Well seeing as I was looking at it from a windows user standpoint and not and android coders standpoint and seeing as I'm not an android coder and I just know a little bit about the android file system and a lot about the windows os. an injection doesnt break the digital signature at all ive already tested this on an apk file it's how winrar works when you open an apk replace a file and it still works the reason it works is b/c the file is still signed and your injecting a file into the apk! If that works why wouldnt an injection tool work.
Pneuma1985 said:
Well seeing as I was looking at it from a windows user standpoint and not and android coders standpoint and seeing as I'm not an android coder and I just know a little bit about the android file system and a lot about the windows os. an injection doesnt break the digital signature at all ive already tested this on an apk file it's how winrar works when you open an apk replace a file and it still works the reason it works is b/c the file is still signed and your injecting a file into the apk! If that works why wouldnt an injection tool work.
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If it works; Awesome. Share the wealth.
There have been other threads about winrar and its abilities to mod files in an apk thats nothing new ive seen several threads about it and your totally getting off topic man taking it away from the initial point of my post which was to see if anyone knew about a current project to mod app drawer icons. I never said I've been successful at changing an icon for the most part b/c there usually indexed files thus when you go to change them and open the file it changes to much from gimp to photoshop. My question has anyone else actually been able to change them on any level? I've seen others mod apk files with a number of different tools. Not necessarily image files b/c you break the signature on that end thats why i brought up injection and its possibilities... If I had been successful you think I'd be posting this NO ID BE POSTING HEY I FIGURED IT ALL OUT!!!!!!!Got you nay saying me
Injection tools do work I have injected files into digitally signed game files on an xbox and not changed the digital signature so saying that injection doesnt work is a load of crap! I was trying to think about it outside the box thats all and you really wouldnt know unless you tested it in the same environment! And seeing as I don't know how apk signatures work thats why I brought it up.
Pneuma1985 said:
There have been other threads about winrar and its abilities to mod files in an apk thats nothing new ive seen several threads about it and your totally getting off topic man taking it away from the initial point of my post which was to see if anyone knew about a current project to mod app drawer icons. I never said I've been successful at changing an icon for the most part b/c there usually indexed files thus when you go to change them and open the file it changes to much from gimp to photoshop. My question has anyone else actually been able to change them on any level? I've seen others mod apk files with a number of different tools. Not necessarily image files b/c you break the signature on that end thats why i brought up injection and its possibilities... If I had been successful you think I'd be posting this NO ID BE POSTING HEY I FIGURED IT ALL OUT!!!!!!!Got you nay saying me
Injection tools do work I have injected files into digitally signed game files on an xbox and not changed the digital signature so saying that injection doesnt work is a load of crap! I was trying to think about it outside the box thats all and you really wouldnt know unless you tested it in the same environment! And seeing as I don't know how apk signatures work thats why I brought it up.
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If you change anything in an .apk the signature is removed.
When the signature is removed the mod becomes temporary
The next time you reboot or anything like that the .apk will be "corrupt" or unusable.
If you modify an .apk with WinRaR you still remove the signature.
EDIT: Unless the .apks are all installed to /system.
But if they're installed to /data they'll be corrupt.
- Mod app drawer icons? .. That's not what I got from the OP and I even asked you what you meant and you nodded saying what I understood from your post was right .. Gah ..
Yeah I want to be able to mod app drawer icons lol thats what I was talking about Now I know that adw has themes but most of them look pretty crappy and rom themes do change them and there is the apk tool posted on xda main page that resigns files without the same signature. What about a work around to take the signature out of the file and reapplying it how big is the encryption on the signature?
Oh and another question are the adw themes just an overlay of the file how does that work?
I may just try to edit a adw theme if I can get a good template using apktool just resign it without the same signature adding my own icons in would that work?
Pneuma1985 said:
Yeah I want to be able to mod app drawer icons lol thats what I was talking about Now I know that adw has themes but most of them look pretty crappy and rom themes do change them and there is the apk tool posted on xda main page that resigns files without the same signature. What about a work around to take the signature out of the file and reapplying it how big is the encryption on the signature?
Oh and another question are the adw themes just an overlay of the file how does that work?
I may just try to edit a adw theme if I can get a good template using apktool just resign it without the same signature adding my own icons in would that work?
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Sure. I just don't know of any tool that can modify an .apk without removing and re-signing it.
Haven't checked out anything regarding ADW, so I can't be much help. But dissecting a theme might be a good idea.
Yeah I tried that I resigned the file right and installed the apk now the apk works just fine after multiple reboots it's just it didnt change the file lol.. Even when i go back in and open the apk the file is changed just doesnt appear on my screen to be changed even after removing the data of the theme??? Cant understand it really. I know the file doesnt have the same signature I checked it.
here is the thread about apk tool http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=640592
Pneuma1985 said:
Yeah I tried that I resigned the file right and installed the apk now the apk works just fine after multiple reboots it's just it didnt change the file lol.. Even when i go back in and open the apk the file is changed just doesnt appear on my screen to be changed even after removing the data of the theme??? Cant understand it really. I know the file doesnt have the same signature I checked it.
here is the thread about apk tool http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=640592
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Your icon.png didn't change? Are you sure you changed the correct one?
- Double check in /data that you don't have multiple .apks (Might be one of them is name apkname-1.apk).
No i just checked it and I'm positive it's the same file theres only so many pngs that are hdpi so it's basically like just look and find it in the res file no other similar images...And I even went to the extend of naming the apk something different so I would know it's installing the proper apk and still nothing on the image end has changed? And its basically pretty simple I'm trying to change the phone apk icon in the theme just as a tester hasnt worked thus far? phone apk still works even after resign but again nothing has changed. An after thought but another thing that would be cool is being able to edit .9 images without going to the ends of the earth or so it seems lol. And I notice people metamorphing which also seems to solve the problem of signed files? Just need more metamorphs
I have to admit that I've been playing around with this idea as well. I don't have any serious coding experience so I've been taking apart adw themes and theme engine themes for CM7. They manage to change app drawer icons without taking apart the apk and resigning.
It's possible to take a theme engine theme and just replace the icons you want (keeping the correct file name of course) before resigning but from what I've seen it will only make a difference to the icons included in the theme which are usually just gapps etc.
Only low tech workaround I can think of is modifying a theme that changes a lot of icons or editing one of the xml files so that you can add your own icons to the package. I'm not sure which file in an apk does this and I know very little about editing them in general so I gave up there. But from seeing iPhone themes it is a bit disappointing that for such a locked down system it's really easy to theme their icons. My rage about it keeps me up at night.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Okay. Please excuse me if this seems very rudimentary, or it's already been done, or anything else along those lines. I've done a lot of searching for any method to accomplish this, but haven't found anything.
So, this is in regards to that #$$&%!? ghost voicemail icon that shows up for sprint MIUI users who unwittingly transitioned from dumbphone to smartphone and left voice messages in the old inbox. If you do this, your phone will be stuck with a "new voicemail" notification that cannot be permanently cleared without swapping back to the dumbphone and clearing those VM's.
I understand that this method is *not* that difficult. Hell, I even have my old phone with which I could fix this. However, the issue for me is that this remains the only method of getting rid of this annoyance. I mean...come on. This is a hacked-out version of an open-source telephone software with a massive amount of community support. The only fix we've figured out involves two flashes and deactivating the phone?
So, I had the simple idea of just blanking out the damned icon.
I was due to install this week's build of MIUI anyway, so I downloaded the .zip onto my computer, and found framework-res.apk in system/framework/. Inside the res/drawable-hdpi/ folder is the file stat_notify_voicemail.png.
You then simply extract that file, open it in a photo editor, delete the contents, and save it again as blank .png file. Re-insert that into framework-res, stick that back into the MIUI .zip, copy it to the phone, and flash as usual.
This will take care of the icon for *most* themes.
However, I happened to be using the blackice theme, which has it's own themed icon.
In hunting for a working DL for my blackice theme (RIP Megaupload), I found that with one of the latest MIUI updates, the camera icon on the lockscreen broke because they switched .apk names. So, perfect time to update blackice too.
I downloaded ver 2.3 from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3j8i5ekpxmrek37 (credit to Cgvelmax)
Then did the same repack to the framework-res file inside the zip and stuck it in sdcard/miui/theme. Loaded the theme up, and viola...no more icon.
Now, obviously, this is an imperfect method. The notification is still in the noti area, and if you have other notifications, the space will be obvious. I'm just happy that I don't have to look at it every time I use my phone.
So, here is the modified version of Cgvelmax's edit of Blackice. I take absolutely no credit for doing anything other than swapping the one file out in the theme.
http://www.mediafire.com/?k85faok0ncrt3tx
If I have time, I'm going to try to get into the xml and see where the icon is called. Hopefully, I can modify it so that the entire notification takes up no space at all, or a 1x1 spot or something like that.
edit: thanks man!! worked perfectly!! i cant wait for you to find out how to remove it from the swipe down notification bar now. Thanks
so much!!!!!
Hi,
I did check other threads but I couldn't find anything directly related to this. I run my Galaxy S on an official firmware and don't have any mod installed. Well, aside from having it rooted.Firmware version is 2.3.6 xxjw4.
For a few months now, I feel the phone is getting slower and slower but now is becoming ridiculous. I mean, too many times it might take up to 5 seconds just to unlock the screen or get into the contact list. I have very few apps installed and I think I make a light use of it... basically, I use it as a phone, I use the calendar for appointments and I browse the internet. That's pretty much it. I use the full Opera browser though, and that's a heavy one. I also know about the need to sometimes unmount the SD card.
So anyway, my question is this... might it be the case that this phone is getting old and its hardware can't cope like it used to with its software? Or could it be some other problem that I don't even know how to ask about or check?
Cheers!
Maybe its time for you to flash a custom ics/jb rom? For ics , i recommend SlimIcs: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1488096
Mongopusher42 said:
Maybe its time for you to flash a custom ics/jb rom? For ics , i recommend SlimIcs: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1488096
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At the beginning when I started to have this phone, I was using stock rom, I could not cope either with the tendency of this phone to micro-freeze and developpers brought a tweak called "lagfix" it saved the world for this phone... no more freeze due to non efficient memory management.
Now it's standard on any custom rom, so yes... go for a custom rom.
Badzoo said:
At the beginning when I started to have this phone, I was using stock rom, I could not cope either with the tendency of this phone to micro-freeze and developpers brought a tweak called "lagfix" it saved the world for this phone... no more freeze due to non efficient memory management.
Now it's standard on any custom rom, so yes... go for a custom rom.
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Thas wassup
Thanks guys and I'm sorry to acknowledged your answers so late... I thought I had set it to instant notification but I apparently didn't!
Yes, I remember the lag-fix thing, it did wonders for this phone.
I'll try the custom rom because this is just getting insane... just today it took me a good full minute to go from checking emails to get out of there to get into my contact list and return a missing call. I would go with a Galaxy III but the thing is a bit huge and second it's still at a novelty price. I'm sure I can get one much cheaper in a couple of months.
Well, thanks so much once more and I'll let you know how it goes! :good:
Done, much, much faster!! But the interface looks ... Nothing is familiar anymore, have to go through it all over again :laugh:
Kutusov said:
Done, much, much faster!! But the interface looks ... Nothing is familiar anymore, have to go through it all over again :laugh:
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try this MIUI v4 the interface is much easy.
Samtan4326 said:
try this MIUI v4 the interface is much easy.
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Well, currently I had to revert to a xxjw4 as somehow all my contacts wouldn't be backed up. Strange thing really as it started by showing up the right names on my contact log but they would be replaced by just the numbers. I made several attempts to restore those via Titanium Backup Pro but they wouldn't stick. Couldn't find any reference to this anywhere except a single post on a forum by someone complaining about the same problem and the answer was that those with be retrieved by Google sync. Not in my case...
I haven't given up yet but for now I do need those for work so I had to go back. Funny thing is that it's no longer lagging as it was, maybe because of all the wiping data and system and cache I had to go through.
Kutusov said:
Well, currently I had to revert to a xxjw4 as somehow all my contacts wouldn't be backed up. Strange thing really as it started by showing up the right names on my contact log but they would be replaced by just the numbers. I made several attempts to restore those via Titanium Backup Pro but they wouldn't stick. Couldn't find any reference to this anywhere except a single post on a forum by someone complaining about the same problem and the answer was that those with be retrieved by Google sync. Not in my case...
I haven't given up yet but for now I do need those for work so I had to go back. Funny thing is that it's no longer lagging as it was, maybe because of all the wiping data and system and cache I had to go through.
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if you backup your contacts try using file explorer to restore back by click on the xxx.vcf file, the contacts will restore back after you select the vcf file , good luck.
Samtan4326 said:
if you backup your contacts try using file explorer to restore back by click on the xxx.vcf file, the contacts will restore back after you select the vcf file , good luck.
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Ah, so that's the file, thanks!! It kept asking me for a vcard on the SD card which didn't made much sense I'll have to try it during the weekend, even after rolling back I've spent the day with all those little problems you forget about fixing, like trying to take calls while driving and the phone not recognizing the bluetooth earpiece...
Moving to custom rom
I too had 2.3.6 xxjw4 on my SGS GT-I9000. Changing to a custom rom has given my phone a new lease of life! I moved to RemICS-UX, which is an ICS rom (perhaps not suitable for yourself as bluetooth not functional and development has moved on to Remics-JB, a jelly bean rom).
Beware of moving directly from stock to jelly bean custom rom. Many have run into trouble doing this. The wisdom from above is to move from stock to ICS before moving to a JB rom.
As for contacts, I previously set my phone to back up and sync my contacts to my Google account (Setting->Accounts & sync). Then, when the phone reboots after rom installation, Google syncs all my contacts back to my phone. Of course, I do nandroid, Titanium, and MyBackup backups - belt and braces!
Also don't forget to back up your efs folder with its imei details in it. Some people have lost their imei details when flashing, and this may save you the trouble of reflashing xxjw4 to recover it.
My phone is supposed to synch with my Google account and does it more often than I would wish! I feel it noticeably slows everything down when it's synhcing away. Even so, it was unable to get my contacts back. I'm really not sure what happened because when it booted up after recovery, I did had most of the right names on my contact log but a then they were replaced by the numbers only. Contact folder was always empty too...
BTW, where is the xxx.vcf located? Can't find it anywhere....
vcf backup
Kutusov said:
...snip...
BTW, where is the xxx.vcf located? Can't find it anywhere....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You create the vcf file prior to flashing. Go to Contacts->touch menu button->choose 'import/export'->choose 'export to storage'. You will be told the name of the vcf file and its location (in my own case 'mnt/sdcard/00001.vcf'. You can open the vcf file with a text editor and even make a backup on external card. To restore after flashing, go to Contacts->import/export->import from storage.
Oct-Al said:
You create the vcf file prior to flashing. Go to Contacts->touch menu button->choose 'import/export'->choose 'export to storage'. You will be told the name of the vcf file and its location (in my own case 'mnt/sdcard/00001.vcf'. You can open the vcf file with a text editor and even make a backup on external card. To restore after flashing, go to Contacts->import/export->import from storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right! :good: Just shows how much I know about this stuff
Quick update... re-read everything that was posted here and few other guides and tried to upgrade the ROM all over again during the weekend. I paid special attention to what you (Oct-Al) said about upgrading first to ICS from stock. I don't know the name of ROM but I've used the one that has a ICS333-2.0.1 and a gapps file. All went smoothly but, again, no contacts. The synch thing with Google doesn't work for me also. Synched everything to my account but nothing stays there. I probably have a lot of settings turned off as I tend to opt for maximum privacy and I even disabled that chat thing on my gmail acc.
But now that I know how to create the Vcard I'll give it another try. If all fails I guess I'll just have to fork up some money and get me the SIII although I think that phone is too big. Handled one the other day and it's great with youtube, browsing the internet, etc but carting that thing all day on your trousers' pocket shouldn't be all that nice...
Backup contacts database
Kutusov said:
Right! :good: Just shows how much I know about this stuff
Quick update... re-read everything that was posted here and few other guides and tried to upgrade the ROM all over again during the weekend. I paid special attention to what you (Oct-Al) said about upgrading first to ICS from stock. I don't know the name of ROM but I've used the one that has a ICS333-2.0.1 and a gapps file. All went smoothly but, again, no contacts. The synch thing with Google doesn't work for me also. Synched everything to my account but nothing stays there. I probably have a lot of settings turned off as I tend to opt for maximum privacy and I even disabled that chat thing on my gmail acc.
But now that I know how to create the Vcard I'll give it another try. If all fails I guess I'll just have to fork up some money and get me the SIII although I think that phone is too big. Handled one the other day and it's great with youtube, browsing the internet, etc but carting that thing all day on your trousers' pocket shouldn't be all that nice...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is another option! How confident are you with SQLite databases?
If you look in data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases you will find a database called 'contacts2.db' together with some other stuff. If you use Root Explorer (available from Play store - but not free) you can inspect the database with the internal SQLite viewer and confirm this is the database you want. Back up the folder and its contents before flashing.
Oct-Al said:
There is another option! How confident are you with SQLite databases?
If you look in data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases you will find a database called 'contacts2.db' together with some other stuff. If you use Root Explorer (available from Play store - but not free) you can inspect the database with the internal SQLite viewer and confirm this is the database you want. Back up the folder and its contents before flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny that posted this just now I was loggin in to give an update. :laugh:
So I've tried a couple more times and ended up with some problem with the external SD card that wouldn't mount and, stupid me, that's where I had the Vcard file.
Anyway, as I have all the files downloaded I'm pretty fast as trying different things now and I've just realized that all hell brakes lose AFTER I try to recover apps + data with Titanium Backup. Flashed CM9 as a pre-requisite to Slim Bean and everything was fine. I could even retrieve my contacts. But after running TB and rebooting I end up with a never ending sequence of failing processes like gmail, media, android something (they are so many and they pop up so fast I can't even read some of them).
So I'm now fairly confident I can do the upgrade but I'll have to do it in the old fashion (to me) way. I'll have to flash the ROM and then download apps by hand, one at a time.
I'm liking so much the looks and ways of Android 4.xx that there is no way I'm going to give up now :silly:
Well, all done now!!! Running Slim Bean 2.3.0 perfectly, with all the contacts. Everything seems fine, except for my calendar that I can't retrieve (there's always something). Not a big deal aside from the birthdays...
So thanks a lot to you all!! :good:
...well, final update...
I started to have a lot of stuff force closing after restoring a back-up from Titanium Backup. Stock Rom settings and data aparently don't go well with the custom Rom.
Anyway, now sorted... ordered myself an HTC One X :victory:
SOLVED: If you choose restore from backup option at initial set up everything works fine.
hi guys,
i switched to Sense 6 yesterday but i have the same problem with the guy i paste below.
Hope someone could help.
Cheers
"Hi,
First post here so hopefully I get this right. I have a HTC one which I have owned for about 10 months now, best phone I have ever had bar a couple of problems. In particular a microphone malfunction which was repaired FoC by HTC last week, nice!
Now I am setting the phone back up, I am trying to restore the settings from the htc account using Dropbox. I know I backed it up right, I checked before I did the factory reset when it was sent away, and the backup files definitely exist as when I log on to Dropbox it has a file named HTC Backup with files in it all dated over the last few weeks.
When I do the initial switch on after the phone was returned, I put all my details in and the searched HTC restore but didn't find a backup file. I can't work out why this is? After some research most places say after you put your HTC account details in it will ask for your Dropbox login, but for some reason it isn't doing this.
I have tried coming out of this setup screen, and doing it manually by putting in login details to Dropbox first and then doing the HTC login and making sure it uses the correct storage space, but it still not showing it up. It's like they aren't talking to each other properly.
I am a bit concerned I am going to lose all my settings. This backup file hasn't been touched so I know its not that. Is there a certain place the file should be in Dropbox, currently it is under 'apps' and then a folder called 'HTC backup'?
Any help would be great as this is getting a bit stressful
Thanks"