restoring layout after flashing ROM

[Philip k Dick]

I have been on an earlier build of AOKP for a while (pre ribbons, I think early march) and was waiting for milestone 2, last week I decided to update to the latest (then 24 5 13) nightly. Got it all working nicely using TiBU, (as I thought) and made a new nandroid.

Then today, I noticed that when I try to save a bookmark to home screen (I use Firefox and Nova launcher) nothing happens. Tried rebooting and removing/reinstalling both firefox and Nova. Tried restoring Nandroid. Still same problem. The bookmarks seemed to be saving intermittently to the stock launcher, but not always. I definitely had Nova set as default,
Eventually I restored to a nandroid of the earlier build and it worked again.

I wondered if it might be a bug with the nightly.....seemed unlikely its not like its an experimental feature. Then I remembered: After flashing, I have got into the habit of restoring my Nova launcher TiBU backup first, (app and data) and this gives me a template of my layout and shows me what apps I need to restore. So far it has worked well but this time it caused TiBU to hang. When I rebooted it seemed to have worked so I filled in the rest of the blanks and carried on.
I am thinking that this might have screwed things up in this odd way, so next time I flash a ROM, (probably 30 5 13 nightly) I will have to get my layout and bookmarks back manually.
Has anyone got any tips or methods to share about how they quickly restore their home screen layout after flashing?

 

[Philip k Dick]

SORRY I'm a total dumbass I always realise the answer to my own questions soon as I post them. You can back up your layout from Nova settings can't you?

 

[digitalslacker]

Yup!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Philip k Dick]

That makes things easier, its getting fairly painless to flash a new ROM now.

 

[Philip k Dick]

GODDAMMIT! Flashed latest AOKP nightly and first thing I did was restore Firefox and check I could create home screen shortcut. All seemed fine. I proceeded to restore all apps and then Nova layout. All hunky dory until tried to bookmark page today. Nothing. Weirdly the shortcuts appear when I switch to default launcher. I have switched to Apex launcher but I am totally baffled.

 

[GedBlake]

GODDAMMIT! Flashed latest AOKP nightly and first thing I did was restore Firefox and check I could create home screen shortcut. All seemed fine. I proceeded to restore all apps and then Nova layout. All hunky dory until tried to bookmark page today. Nothing. Weirdly the shortcuts appear when I switch to default launcher. I have switched to Apex launcher but I am totally baffled.

This is isn't the first time I've seen this Nova/Bookmarks peculiarity mentioned...

Bookmarks get confused about launcher homescreens - xda-developers

Although I'm an Apex fan myself, I've had play around with Nova... and bookmarks (created with AOSP browser, Chrome, Opera) will not get dropped onto the Nova home screen - upon reverting back to Apex, I find the half dozen or so 'missing' bookmarks there... on an Apex homescreen!

So I think there's a bug in Nova.

Rgrds,
Ged.

 

[Philip k Dick]

aah good glad its not just my device

 

[PlanetPluto7]

I've been using "Backup and Restore" for the apps. Just copy the backed up folder to a PC; after ROM install "Backup and Restore first and copy the backup directory back to the tablet. Setting up the home screens again is a pain. I take all the apps in a catagory and put them in a folder in the area that is on every screen for distribution to the home screens. I'd like to find something more automatic too.

 

[Philip k Dick]

both apex and Nova (and no doubt other launchers) have the function to backup layout and settings, it will save it on your SD card so isn't affected by ROM install. once you have flashed a new ROM, restored all your Apps with TiBu, simply go to Apex settings and restore layout. It is very easy and works perfectly. Any missing Apps will show as little android man, you can restore from play store.
Now I have pro TiBu and this, getting my tablet sorted after a flash is fairly painless. You may need to restore widgets manually still