Errors in Program Shortcuts (Name/Icon) - UPDATE: Fix Available if Rooted

mercado79 · #1 (**permalink**) 11-04-2009, 10:03 PM

I'm at my wits end about this and was hoping someone might have some ideas as to how to fix this.

Basically, on two occasions, my phone has thrown errors that look like this:

Quote:

Sorry!
The application com.dalejefferson.newspapers (process com.dalejefferson.newspapers) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.
Force close

While annoying, it's not really that big of a deal to me. The problem is that when this happens, other shortcuts (both in the apps menu and on the various screens) get renamed.

The first time this happened, the "force close" error happened to the NY Times app. Afterwards, every time I'd try to open the program, I'd get the same error message. In addition to that, two other apps got renamed. Dolphin browser was one. It was renamed to "Login Sucess." Even weirder was that even though I had Dolphin set up as the default browser, the "Login Sucess." browser would ask me if I wanted to set it as the default browser. Strange. Another program that had it's shortcut changed was FB Reader.

So, what I did the first time was uninstall the NY Times app and decided not to reinstall it. I also uninstalled and reinstalled Dolphin Browser and FBReader. Everything seemed to work fine again.

That was two days ago. Then today a similar error happened. This time the program was Newspaper. I don't remember opening the Newspaper app (though maybe it was still running from earlier in the day). When the error happened, several apps got their shortcuts renamed including Dolphin again, FBReader again, AndOrb, Nubinews, and Newspaper. Here's what I see in the Programs list:

com.dalejefferson.newspapers,3.0.9
com.development.androrb,0.3.0
com.nubinews.fullreader,5.9
org.geometerplus.zlibrary.ui.android,0.5.27
Login success.,1.2.1

What the heck is going on?! I'm guessing I have some kind of corrupt memory and so I'm leaning towards doing a hard reset. That would be a pain, of course. So, I'm totally open to your ideas. Has anyone seen something like this?

mercado79 · #2 (**permalink**) 11-05-2009, 08:42 AM

I just saw that princem131 had posted a link to this thread:

http://androidforums.com/sprint-htc-...ero-icons.html

Looks like others are having this problem too. It appears to be related to updating apps. I'll definitely be sending HTC a bug report.

HTC Support via e-mail:
http://www.htc.com/us/CS_Mail.aspx

HTC Support via phone:
http://www.htc.com/us/CA_Hotline.asp...n=NorthAmerica
USA: 866-449-8358
Canada: 866-449-8358

**thacounty** · #3 (**permalink**) 11-05-2009, 03:23 PM

Happens to me when I soft reset. Google sky map is now end user license agreement haha. Weak Sauce!!

quiqnezz · #4 (**permalink**) 11-05-2009, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thacounty

Happens to me when I soft reset. Google sky map is now end user license agreement haha. Weak Sauce!!

Oh yep, forgot about that one too. Same with me.

mercado79 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-05-2009, 05:00 PM

I added my findings to the Android Forums thread mentioned above, but I figure I'll say it here too.

All the proposed fixes people mentioned do not work. I tried formatting the sd card, doing a hard reset and ONLY running stock Android home, avoiding updating any apps, installing one app at a time and doing a soft reset between installations, etc. And...it still crapped out on me. What's odd is that each time a different app throws a "force close" error and different shortcuts are affected. This time it was Google Listen that threw the error and Dolphin Browser wasn't affected (though it had been the other two or three times). WTF!! So very annoying. Thankfully, the official Android Developers Google group is aware of the issue. Here's to hoping they figure out a fix since HTC appears to be dropping the ball.

http://groups.google.com/group/andro...35153b8e39353d

mercado79 · #6 (**permalink**) 11-09-2009, 11:41 AM

Looks like now that our phone has been rooted, we're better able to see what is actually happening. Some kind of corruption in the app install cache.

Quote:

/data/boot-cache directory is corrupt

This may be a temporary fix, though I haven't had a chance to try it yet:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=581806

Quote:

That is it, you use -r not -rf. So the fix is as follows (I use Astro for getting the following information):

1) Use Astro and backup all your apps to your SD card.

2) The Astro Application Manager/Backup tool will list in red all the apps that it thinks are newer on the SD card than the phone thinks are installed.

3) For each of those apps select them and note the app installed name (first line, called "Name"). Usually com.xxx.xxx, etc.

4) Get a root shell to your phone (follow instructions elsewhere.)

5) cd /data/boot-cache

6) For all the names you generated in step 3 type

Code:

Code:

      rm -r *<name>*

e.g. taking Google Sky Map as an example this would be

Code:

Code:

rm -r *com.google.android.stardroid*

7) Reboot your phone.

All apps should now appear in their latest, correct, version.

Credit goes to gilroykilroy over at XDA.

miguelfp1 · #7 (**permalink**) 11-09-2009, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mercado79

Looks like now that our phone has been rooted, we're better able to see what is actually happening. Some kind of corruption in the app install cache.

This may be a temporary fix, though I haven't had a chance to try it yet:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=581806

Credit goes to gilroykilroy over at XDA.

worked great over here, although I had to "clean up" twice

princem131 · #8 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mercado79

Looks like now that our phone has been rooted, we're better able to see what is actually happening. Some kind of corruption in the app install cache.

This may be a temporary fix, though I haven't had a chance to try it yet:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=581806

Credit goes to gilroykilroy over at XDA.

Worked like a charm!

mercado79 · #9 (**permalink**) 11-09-2009, 02:58 PM

Well, things are moving FAST!

Here's the latest fix for this issue. Works perfectly for me.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582176

Basically, you're deleting the entire cache directory. Don't worry, it is recreated the next time the phone boots up. All icons look good, names are correct, etc.

Be careful! Using this command you will not be prompted with any warnings!

Code:

rm -rf /data/boot-cache

**thacounty** · #10 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mercado79

Well, things are moving FAST!

Here's the latest fix for this issue. Works perfectly for me.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582176

Basically, you're deleting the entire cache directory. Don't worry, it is recreated the next time the phone boots up. All icons look good, names are correct, etc.

Be careful! Using this command you will not be prompted with any warnings!

Code:

rm -rf /data/boot-cache

I am su all the time now that I finally got Modaco to work without force closing. 78MB free on phone after partitioning SD Card EXT2 for apps!! Woot... Anyway the main point I want to make is that I am adding this to the tips thread. Of course it will be a link so people can thank you and I want to add that it sticks after a soft reset which I didn't think would happen!! Thanks again and I am hitting the button haha.