Apps on SD card disappear after reboot, how can I get them back?

[Rukbat]

Adoptible storage (using the card as internal storage - whatever name you call it by) is a desperation measure - read the original papers. If the phone is unusably small (a total of 8GB of storage or less), you can extend the life of the phone a little - at the risk of losing data. (It also depends on the card - unless it's SanDisk or Samsung, you're buying from people who buy the chips from SanDisk or Samsung - so you might not be getting the best quality chips.)

 

[beachinmoney]

All we get as answers are questions like we are complete idiots I bought the Moto X Pure because everything I read said it was stock android and could do anything. Motorola are idiots. Don't bother calling them. They "accidentally" disconnect. Android thinks it's our problem. I would love to see a class action suit. Unfortunately we don't get any money from that but google and Motorola would have to pay big and I hope it hurts. I'm a huge Google fan or I was but that's changing. In fact I bought Alexa. Won't touch a Google product with a 10 foot pole. Their starting to think they are God.

If I sound pissed it's because I am. I would rather have my LG G3 back as well. I will never buy Motorola again.

 

[lip008]

I just had this happen to my Moto X Pure that a friend gave me. I was really hoping it would replace my shattered G Flex 2, but I don't know now if it can with it only being a 16 GB model. I've used their chat for support regarding replacement speaker accents that wobble a lot on this customized model. The only option they gave me was to send the phone in for repair for $125. I couldn't believe it. How about letting me purchase some new accents or giving me a fair repair price. My issue wasn't even listed on their drop down for defects that can happen to this phone. This was the first software related issue I've experienced and it is a show stopper. And I don't think using adoptable storage is a desperation thing. I don't recall seeing a warning when enabling it that my apps and data may be put at risk, but maybe I glossed over a warning?

I didn't pay for this phone, but I can already tell Motorola is trending in a direction that will keep me from purchasing anymore of their devices. I've had the original Moto X, a Moto G, and now the Pure.

The 5x now is overpriced from third party resellers and it only has a max of 32GB of storage. Now that the Axon 7 has an unlocked boot loader I was going to give a try once it gets a little cheaper. Maybe I'll give it a go over the holiday.

 

[acaby01]

That started on my samsung tablet a after a reboot sd card apps were greyed out and unusable. I went to settings applications and loaded all the apps there,backed out and all sd card aps are now loaded and usable. Might want to give it a try. Worked for me.

 

[lip008]

That started on my samsung tablet a after a reboot sd card apps were greyed out and unusable. I went to settings applications and loaded all the apps there,backed out and all sd card aps are now loaded and usable. Might want to give it a try. Worked for me.

Thanks for the feedback, but what happens if you reboot again? Every time I reboot I lose apps.

 

[gordon.young40.g]

Re: Apps on SD card disappear after reboot

After re-boot unmount then re-mount sd card,may need to do this a couple of times

 

[Andie708]

Here's a "solution" (was Re: Apps on SD card disappear after reboot, ...)

I found a useful workaround that "solves" the problem: I installed Omni Swipe and set its "favorites" to the apps that I'd moved to the sdcard. Omni Swipe remembered them after I restarted the phone, so problem "solved." Omni Swipe isn't a desktop replacement launcher like Nova (which I tried but Nova didn't solve the problem... in fact Nova was even worse than the stock launcher, which could launch the sdcard apps in its app drawer, whereas Nova didn't even list the sdcard apps in its app drawer). Omni Swipe is a launcher that pops up when the user swipes inward from a bottom corner.

There are probably other alternatives (pop-up or desktop replacement launchers) besides Omni Swipe that will remember the user's selected "favorites" after the phone is restarted. I tried a couple of desktop replacement launchers that failed to retain sdcard apps' icons on their desktops, before I succeeded with Omni Swipe. I hope other users with the sdcard problem will test other launchers and post their results here, in case Omni Swipe contains spyware, or some alternative is smaller or better in some way.

For reference, my phone is a ZTE Midnight Pro LTE running Android 5.1.1. The app drawer of the stock Android launcher includes the apps that were moved to sdcard and can launch them and can copy their icons to its desktop, but restarting the phone removes them from the desktop. (The sdcard apps are still in the app drawer after restarting, so re-installation of the apps from Play Store isn't necessary.)

 

[Andie708]

One more thought about Omni Swipe... to make it as unobtrusive as possible I disabled several of its "features" (SMS and GMail notifications, floating window, tap assist, low memory "cleaner," battery "booster," omni lock screen) and set it to pop up only if the stock launcher's desktop is in foreground when I swipe from the screen corner. I also run NoRoot Firewall (from Grey Shirts) and set it to block net access by Omni Swipe, which doesn't need internet access for this purpose.