Fix for Market apps not downloading or installing (image warning)

**Jerry Hildenbrand** · 10-19-2010, 02:51 PM

This is starting to become a big issue, so it's high time we whipped up a how-to about the permanent fix for the problem of the Market hanging during download or installation of apps.

I'm sure that there are other reasons this could happen, but the following should fix it for most users. It's not nearly as hard as it looks, and I'll try to toss some images in to help keep things clear.

What's happening
Since Froyo came along, we now have an encrypted folder on the SD card for application installation. I'm not 100% sure why or how, but the folder seems to be fouling up for a lot of folks. When certain apps are coded to be installed to the SD card by default (Angry Birds anyone), if your folder is wonky, it won't work. There's two fixes -- an easy, temporary fix, and a more involved semi-permanent fix.

The Easy Fix
When you try to install an app from the Market that won;t download or hangs at the installation, cancel the install. Then, on your phone, press menu--> settings --> SD & Phone storage. You'll see this:

Select the Unmount SD card option, then install your application. After it's installed, you can go back and Mount the SD card, or reboot.

The more permanent fix
While it's not too hard, if you're like me you get tired of doing things more than once. Here's a semi-permanent fix (semi because the folder can get all wonky again).

Open the Manage Applications screen (menu --> settings --> Applications --> Manage Applications) and select the far right tab that says "On SD card"

One by one, select each application and move it back to your phone's storage using the "Move to Phone" button.

Yes, it's tedious, but it's worth it in the end.

Once you have all your applications moved off the SD card and onto the phone's internal storage, open up your file manager (Astro is a good one if you don't already have a favorite, I'm using the open source file manager built into CyanogenMod in the example -- but they should all look very similar) and look for a folder named .android_secure.

This is the encrypted folder where all your applications used to be. Delete it. As long as you have moved all your apps back to the phone storage, nothing in that folder is needed for anything.

Reboot your phone. After it restarts, go back and place your applications back on the SD card. You should now be able to download and install apps that need to use the SD card again.

**igotsanevo4g** · 10-19-2010, 07:05 PM

Sweet. Gracias as always.

**ragnarokx** · 10-19-2010, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by gbhil

What's happening
Since Froyo came along, we now have an encrypted folder on the SD card for application installation. I'm not 100% sure why or how, but the folder seems to be fouling up for a lot of folks. When certain apps are coded to be installed to the SD card by default (Angry Birds anyone), if your folder is wonky, it won't work. There's two fixes -- an easy, temporary fix, and a more involved semi-permanent fix.

So this doesn't apply to any other OS versions? I'm on Eclair and I have this problem sometimes.

Edit: I'm guessing not since Eclair doesn't have App2SD

**TreyDaPrince** · 10-19-2010, 07:11 PM

Sounds good but I don't have any apps installed on my SD card and I still Gabriel this problem.

**icebike** · 10-19-2010, 07:22 PM

The "more permanent" fix presumes you actually have enough room on your phone to move them back to the phone.

Those phones with enough room wouldn't need to be moving to SD in the first place. So its a catch 22.

You can just as well uninstall these apps in the SD folder, as most apps store settings and working data somewhere else, and you can often re-install them after deleting the .android-secure folder and with virutally no re-configuring. They pick up where they left off.

**Wicket** · 10-19-2010, 07:44 PM

I've had this problem a lot lately along with low disk space warnings and yesterday morning all my apps on my SD card decided to disappear along with any app updates I had done.. I wonder if deleting this folder would have been a fix vs a full factory reset?..

**dousenator** · 10-19-2010, 08:02 PM

What if Astro says "error deleting file"?

Droid 2, not rooted.

**tasi** · 10-19-2010, 08:21 PM

Open a terminal app on your phone and enter the following commands

Code:

su
rm /mnt/secure/asec/smdl2tmp1.asec

Found this fix on XDA-Developers.com, that site is a God send!

**Zooks64** · 10-19-2010, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by dousenator

What if Astro says "error deleting file"?

I'm getting that with OI File Manager as well.

**roccom33** · 10-19-2010, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by tasi

Open a terminal app on your phone and enter the following commands

Code:

su
rm /mnt/secure/asec/smdl2tmp1.asec

Found this fix on XDA-Developers.com, that site is a God send!

Registered just to back this up. Found this a couple days ago elsewhere. Simple and just took a minute.

I assume you have to be rooted to do this (I am) with the "su" command, but if you aren't you can just mount to USB and navigate on your computer to that folder to delete the file. It will not show up in a file explorer on the phone for some reason.

**highc999** · 10-19-2010, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by dousenator

What if Astro says "error deleting file"?

I have the same issue (error deleting file). I am not rooted...help please!

**credo** · 10-19-2010, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by highc999

I have the same issue (error deleting file). I am not rooted...help please!

Same issue.

Sent from my Droid Incredible using Tapatalk.

**screamingmouse** · 10-19-2010, 11:33 PM

I have seen this problem and have gotten around it by going to: MANAGE. APPLICATIONS. From there I just delete the data for. Market and sign back in. Some times I have to tell it to auto update again but it's much less time consuming than other methods I've tried.

**Ms Charli** · 10-19-2010, 11:42 PM

What about apps that have been permanently removed but continue to show up as downloading. I have an app like this.

**EKFone1** · 10-20-2010, 02:11 AM

I also had the problem on my HTC Desire with Froyo. Same solution as screamingmouse above: Go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Market > Clear data & Clear cache.

Sorted out the problem for me.

You might have to uninstall the app(s) before following this procedure (they may still show "installing" after uninstall) and re-install afterward, but ymmv.

**DaSpitter** · 10-20-2010, 02:59 AM

Hey guys...screamingmouse from above and a few others...if you clear the cache from the Market app in the manage application settings...will it still show your old purchased apps that you don't currently have downloaded on your phone or will it "forget" that you have "purchased" those apps?

Jonathan

**IIJBII** · 10-20-2010, 05:02 AM

I'm also not rooted and receive the error when trying to delete this file.

Anyone find a solution to delete this file for users who aren't rooted?

**brian450r** · 10-20-2010, 06:49 AM

I'm also having problems with this on my Droid 2. Spent over an hour at tech on Saturday before he finally said eff it & sent me a new phone. I'm still having problems downloading certain apps unless I unmount my sd card. Has anyone tried formatting the card? I left the office late last night & didn't have a chance to back up my files to try it

**Runningwarrior08** · 10-20-2010, 07:23 AM

Originally Posted by DaSpitter

Hey guys...screamingmouse from above and a few others...if you clear the cache from the Market app in the manage application settings...will it still show your old purchased apps that you don't currently have downloaded on your phone or will it "forget" that you have "purchased" those apps?

Jonathan

The purchased App is linked to your Google account, not the Market. So yes they will still be there

! I also use the same method when mine will not download, clear the cache and data and then reboot...Tedious but it usually works.

**FictionWeLive** · 10-20-2010, 10:22 PM

I really hope someone can help me. I have an Incredible running hboot 0.92 and radio 2.15.00.09.01. I have tried this with 10+ different CM6 nightlies as well as CM6.0.2. I have formatted my SD Card 2 times and even tried 2 different cards. No matter what method I try to do, my apps always hang on installing. I have deleted .android_secure 15 times, many different ways. When I go into all applications and click Market, it says calculating forever. So it will not let me clear cache. I can only clear data and force stop, which I've tried. I am desperate to get this fixed as my phone is nearly useless without it.

P.S. Also tried with ShadowRom 0.2.1... same issues.

Thanks to all who offer help!

**Hardcase** · 10-21-2010, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by icebike

The "more permanent" fix presumes you actually have enough room on your phone to move them back to the phone.

Those phones with enough room wouldn't need to be moving to SD in the first place. So its a catch 22.

Amen. Another fix is to cancel the download in Market and then restart it. It seems that one app will hang up the whole process. I have found that selecting the app then canceling can cause Market to crash. By long clicking on the app in the downloads list, it gives an option to cancel the download. This seems to be a more stable way to cancel, then restart the download.

**milominderbinde** · 10-21-2010, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by Hardcase

Amen. Another fix is to cancel the download in Market and then restart it. It seems that one app will hang up the whole process. I have found that selecting the app then canceling can cause Market to crash. By long clicking on the app in the downloads list, it gives an option to cancel the download. This seems to be a more stable way to cancel, then restart the download.

That is a great tip! Thanks!

**Saphroxx** · 10-22-2010, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by FictionWeLive

I really hope someone can help me. I have an Incredible running hboot 0.92 and radio 2.15.00.09.01. I have tried this with 10+ different CM6 nightlies as well as CM6.0.2. I have formatted my SD Card 2 times and even tried 2 different cards. No matter what method I try to do, my apps always hang on installing. I have deleted .android_secure 15 times, many different ways. When I go into all applications and click Market, it says calculating forever. So it will not let me clear cache. I can only clear data and force stop, which I've tried. I am desperate to get this fixed as my phone is nearly useless without it.

P.S. Also tried with ShadowRom 0.2.1... same issues.

Thanks to all who offer help!

I have exactly the same issue. I can't install anything through market, Titaniumbackup or even a file manager. The only possible way is to manually type "adb push" commands in commandline. When I check Settings/Applications all apps listed there show "Calculating". All this is happening even after a full wipe of /data, cache, dalvik, battery and rotate settings,...

Even when I nandroid restore to a previous working stable ROM, I have all my apps back, but still can't install anything new, and again Settings/Applications shows "Calculating" for all apps.

I tried fix_permissions scripts for different recoveries (Amon_RA, ClockworkMOD) I reflashed to the latest version of Amon_RA to be sure to have a working busybox version etc but still no luck...

I'm getting really desperate here.

I'm on Nexus One, CyanogenMOD6 nightly 219, radio 4.06

**imex99** · 10-25-2010, 04:24 PM

Getting same error and only fix for me is to delete the market data and cache.... Works for a few days and breaks again, hopefully we find out what's causing this and get it fixed!

**Hardcase** · 10-25-2010, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by imex99

Getting same error and only fix for me is to delete the market data and cache.... Works for a few days and breaks again, hopefully we find out what's causing this and get it fixed!

I had that happen to me this weekend. A program downloaded and froze during the install. There is no way to cancel the installation after the download is complete. I did the same as you: cleared the Market data and cache using the applications manager. It cleared that program out and it went forward.

This is becoming a serious flaw. In some way the Market download/install freezes every time. Canceling the download is easy enough, but having to clear the data/cache is a huge pain.

Google needs to fix this!!!!