Gallery not opening

[shstacey]

I'm new to Android (picked up my Droid X last Monday), though I spent days reading this forum before deciding on a phone. I've been very happy with it, except for one minor problem.

After playing with the Camera for a while, I went looking for a camera app that was silent (because most of my pics are of my kids and my pets, who look when they hear the focus tone and the moment's lost) and installed Vignette, which I love. All was well until this past weekend, when Gallery stopped opening. When I tap on the icon, it flashes very quickly, then goes back to the home screen. I can access it through the camera itself, but not the Gallery icon. After searching around here, I tried checking the SD card and battery pulls, but no dice.

Yesterday I drove the half-hour to the Verizon store and the tech ended up having to factory reset the phone to make it work. After redownloading all my apps, it seemed fine.

This morning, I used Vignette to take a photo and shared it to Twitter. A little while later, I tried to open Gallery and it flashed and didn't open again. Besides the fact I really don't want to download all my apps again, Christmas is right around the corner and I'm the mom, which means I don't have a couple of hours to go back to the Verizon store. It's tempting to just live with it, since I can still access the pics through the camera, but I'm only one week into a two-year relationship, which is too soon to be overlooking flaws.

Is there a possiblity Vignette's causing this? And is there a way I can fix it without totally wiping my phone again?

I did search a bit and found this:

Saiyaman156 said: It looks like any time there is a directory with a picture file in it that the Gallery app can see, the app will crash. When I place the ".nomedia" file in to all directories with pictures in them, I am able to open the application.

I don't know what that means, unfortunately. I'd appreciate any help you can offer!

Shannon

(Oh, and under "About Phone" it says my Android version is 2.2.1, if that matters.)

(Edited to add: About an hour ago, i uninstalled Vignette, then did a battery pull. It didn't help, so I reinstalled Vignette.)

 

[project.in.process]

Welcome to Android!

i've had a fair amount of use with Vignette App, and haven't had this problem--though i am using an HTC Evo, so that would be the only variable.

however, as a quick option--perhaps try clearing the Gallery cache.
(menu>settings>applications>manage applications>All>Gallery>tap CLEAR CACHE)

this will cause the app to actually look through the SD card and attempt to find the picture files--as there is a possibility that the app is attempting to use some file path that is no longer valid and therefore force closing itself before allowing you to choose a picture album/photo

just a possibility--not a guaranteed solution. but at least it's one route to traverse.

(don't worry, clearing the Cache will NOT delete any pictures you have taken--it merely deletes the thumbnails which have been created for quick access by the Gallery--and will cause the Gallery to then look @ all pictures once again & refresh their file paths)

*curious: if you find a blank space on your home screen, attempt to place a Widget there which is a Photo Frame (should be a stock Widget by Motorola) or something of the sort that will scroll through pictures you have from a designated folder (in the Widgets Settings) on the SD card or internal phone memory. i'm curious, as you've stated you can still access the Gallery through your regular Camera App, if this feature will also work.

 

[shstacey]

Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, it didn't even give me the option to clear cache. It wasn't "lit" and nothing happened when I tapped it. I did tap "clear data", though (even though I don't know what that means), and it didn't make a difference.

I tried to add first Photo Widget and then Picture Frame Plus Widget, as you suggested, but when I tapped each, the phone just went back to the blank home screen without adding the widget.

The tech told me there's nothing wrong with my SD card (which makes sense because my pictures are there), but is there some way my card could be blocking widgets from accessing it?

I appreciate your help!

 

[dpiehl]

Same problem - Solution found?

Hi Shannon,

I have had my DroidX phone about a month and I'm having the same problem with Gallery as you reported last December except I am not running Vignette.

Did you find a solution?

Thanks!

Dave