[spacemanspork]

I'm actually putting this in here as a problem AND solution for others (not myself) because this problem drove me nuts and I did as much research as I could online but didn't find the answer anywhere and had to contact HTC directly. So I figure I'd put it here so other people don't have to struggle the way I did. And also if I have to do this again I can look it up instead of thinking "I KNOW I FIXED THIS BEFORE! BUT HOW?!"

The sad thing is the phone WORKED just fine. But then I factory reset it and it started to have this problem.

What is the problem?

You can't reach the home screen. It'll pop up a window saying HTC Blinkfeed has stopped. From here you can report the error or cancel. If you report the error it'll show you what it'll send (if you ask it to) and then send it. Then it'll pop up the "HTC Blinkfeed has stopped" error again. If you hit cancel, it'll pop up the window again. You cannot access the home screen or any apps because that pop up window will always return.

Possible solutions:

1. From the pop up window, do a TWO finger swipe down from the top. It should bring the window shade down. Pick settings. Go to apps, go to all, try to force stop and clear data on HTC Blinkfeed. You can't disable it regrettably (grayed out). This didn't work for me. You can also do a factory reset if needed. If you use the two finger method, the pop up might happen again but you can do the two finger swipe down and then cancel the pop up.

2. Safe Mode. You can boot into safe mode and hopefully from there you can install a new launcher. To boot into safe mode, do what you do to power off the phone EXCEPT when the menu pops up, tap and HOLD your finger on the "Restart" option. It'll boot into safe mode. This did not help at all for me. The same issue existed for me in Safe Mode.

3. Recovery mode. You can wipe the cache and other data and perform factory reset. To go into recovery mode, hold the power button and the volume down button for a long time, until it starts to reboot/screen goes black. Let go of the power, keep on holding the volume down. It'll then go into a menu. Use the volume keys to move up and down and power to select. You can go into recovery mode from here. Once in recovery mode (it takes a little while) it'll show a red symbol. I believe you push volume up and then maybe hit the power button once from here and it'll show you a menu. This lets you wipe caches and do a factory reset. This might help some people. It did not help for me.

So I had to hit up HTC for help. The tech ran over all the things above that I tried and of course none of them worked. So they went the final option.

The final option is to force upgrade the software through your computer. Instructions are here (http://www.htc.com/us/support/htc-one-t-mobile/news/), but in shorter form.

Step 1: Download HTC Sync. Install it.
Step 2: Download the software update. It's 1.5 GB big and linked at the bottom of the page I linked above.
Step 3: Connect your phone to your PC.
Step 4: Start up HTC Sync. Verify your phone is connected. You need the HTC software to recognize your phone is connected. Your computer may recognize your phone but that's not good enough, HTC Sync has to show that your phone is connected.
Step 5: Run the software update file (takes about 10 min)
Step 6: When it's done, turn on the phone again. It'll upgrade your Android apps (take a long time) and you'll finally be working.

This was frustrating for me since HTC Sync kept on telling me my phone wasn't connected even though my PC and phone showed I was connected. I had to reboot my machine after installing Sync. And even then it took me connecting/disconnecting my device a few times before Sync told me it was connected. But yep, now it finally works again.