All Widgets disappear from HomeScreen and menu list after restart.

[experimancer]

I have an (vanilla) Android Nougat 7.1.1 Nokia6 phone.

I had to restart the phone because of Blutooth connection problems and after restart all Home Screen widgets were gone (including Clock, Calendar, Chrome, Firefox and several others) from the HomeScreen. They also vanished from the Widgets menu list so I can't add them back.

How can I get them back and how is it possible that those Widgets disappeared from the Widgets menu too because of Bluetooth connectivity problems..!?

How can the HomeScreen and Widgets menu list be fixed without factory reset?

Is there a way to reinstall those affected apps (Clock, Calendar,Chrome) so that all data and settings are restored from backup (that I have in my G-drive) cause I think that might make applications widgets to appear in the menu at least?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Welcome to Android Central. I've moved your thread to the Nokia 6 forum so that more people familiar with this device will be able to assist you.

What launcher are you using on your device?

 

[experimancer]

No launcher. Those Nokia 3,5,6 phones are basically running vanilla Android Nougat 7.1.1 with all the latest updates.

Also, I'm quite sure this is not phone model specific cause I've seen similar Widgets disappearance problems reported in many manufacturers phones, usually in Android Nougat, but in Marshmallow, too

 

[experimancer]

I found this article from the web where the problem of "Widgets not showing up in the list" is exactly the same I'm suffering from, but fix stopping the Launcher doesn't work in my case.

The launcher in Nokia6 is probably the Launcher3 app and I forced it to stop and when it automatically restarted those widgets were still missing from my HomeScreen and from the menu list.

https://yalantis.com/blog/the-dark-side

 

[LordBhorak]

I just restarted my Nokia 6, because Tethering wasn't working and got the exact same problem. I even cleared the Launcher3 data, because that was given as one solution to this problem. This is hugely irritating, because I actively use 2way authentication widgets, Spotify widget and few others.

 

[LordBhorak]

I managed to fix the problem. I restarted my Nokia in safe mode by holding down the volume down button during startup, then went to the app settings, chose Launcher3->storage and deleted cache. After restarting again, the widgets worked again.

 

[batkingnz]

Had this problem too. It also stopped me from long pressing on the home screen and couldn't long press on the app drawer. Talked to Nokia support on the phone app and the person there was clueless and couldn't even seem to understand what the problem was. They told me to individually clear the cache of every app on the phone... funny.

I ended up factory resetting but it will try your solution if it happens again.

 

[experimancer]

Thanks @LordBhorak for your replys. Gotta try that Launcher3 cache cleaning, but why does it have to be done in Safe mode? Or did you try in Normal mode first and it didn't work?

Yes @batkingnz, I've had the same experience w/ Nokia Support (especially the chat ppl there). They never seem to understand even the most trivial technical issues or actually know anything about the phone hw or sw. Not once have I got useful info from them.

Maybe this is a generic problem in Android Nougat, or it is an implementation problem on that Launcher3 code that handles the Home Screen and Widgets (IDK whether it is vanilla Android code or custom Launcher by Nokia/HDM).

Cheers,
-experimancer

 

[experimancer]

Thanks, did that cache cleaning also erase everything from the Home Screen (s) so that you had to setup them from the default one or did it stay intact and w the Widgets restored there too (and in the Widget Menu list)..?

 

[batkingnz]

Same thing yet again after turning it off while charging. Tried the safe mode trick and it didn't work. Ended up force closing the launcher (not in safe mode) and it came back ok. You will need to put all your widgets/apps back on the home screen.

Hope they fix this if and when they bring 7.1.2 update.

 

[LordBhorak]

I did the data clear the first time, because the cache clear was greyed out. Data clear resets your home screen, but it didn't help with the problem. I was trying some other stuff with the safe mode, but noticed that the cache clear was available. Cache clear shouldn't "reset" your home screen... At least the apps that I had placed there after the data clear were still there. Widgets weren't naturally, but probably would have been, if I hadn't done the data clear.

 

[experimancer]

Ok, tried that Launcher3 cache cleaning, booted to Safe Mode and clicked to Settings > Apps > Launcher3 > Storage > Clean cache, restarted and hey it worked! All the app Widgets came back to Menu List, from which I could add them back to Home Screens to those same locations they got erase because of a restart/Bluetooth issues..

This had to be done in Safe Mode, tried to stop Launcher3 and erase cache in Normal mode, but that did nothing.

In the end, this probably is not Nokia6 specific but all Android Nougat's suffer from it but if the Launcher3 code is Nokia/HDM custom code then how can we make them know about this issue, so that they could fix it in the next Nougat or System update. The next Android Oreo is also close to be made available to phones like Nokia and others, maybe it'll be fixed there..

Thanks a lot @LordBhorak and @batkingnz

 

[batkingnz]

Might try tweeting them about it so it's at least out there. Glad it all worked out for you. I've been playing with arrow launcher/Microsoft launcher and actually find it better for now.

 

[batkingnz]

Fast work HMD!! 7.1.2 is now available. Will monitor to see if the issue is fixed and update this thread if necessary.

 

[Etienne Pernot]

Hello

I had the same problem on Nokia 6 / Android 7.1.1. I've just applied the migration to 7.1.2: this actually solves the issue perfectly: All the widgets are now back as available. Problem solved on my side.

 

[Etienne Pernot]

Hello

I had the same problem on Nokia 6 / Android 7.1.1. I've just applied the migration to 7.1.2: this actually solves the issue perfectly: All the widgets are now back as available. Problem solved on my side.