Android apps, widgets, and external Storage

[ernbrdn]

So I am noticing today that a few of my apps have stopped functioning in the manner that they were intended too. For example ever since I have moved Evernote to my external SD card the widget has been unavailable to be placed on my HTC home screen. The same goes for GO Facebook chat, in fact that app never has had a widget that it was advertised to come with on my phone.

I did some research and found the API in revision 8 that allows developers to have apps stored on the external storage, and it does mention that when the card is mounted as a mass storage device the widget will stop functioning until the home screen is restarted. ( Usually by a reset or possibly a force stop and restart) That does not seem to be the case with these apps, possibly more, I am not sure.'

Has anyone else noticed this, and if you have is there a work around other than installing everything in phone memory just to make sure you get full function out of the apps you install and pay for?

 

[ernbrdn]

Ok I suppose I'm the only one with this problem. lol Figures

 

[terpitude71]

rule of thumb with apps to sd is dont put any apps on your sd card that use a widget, otherwise the app wont function properly. use your sd card for stuff like games.

 

[ernbrdn]

Thanks for the advice, I will do that from now on. Hopefully in the future this will all be resolved.

 

[takeshi]

...and don't put anything needed immediately on start up on the SD card (whether it's a widget or not). The reason is that the SD card is not immediately available on startup. Watch your notification bar next time you power up/reboot and you'll see.

Also don't put anything that you need to use while your SD card's mounted to a PC on the card.

 

[OnePalmAddict]

So what if I am running out of space on my Evo? I have moved virtually every app that allows me to do so to the SD card. However, I keep getting the low storage icon on my notification bar. From what I gather from reading about others, I don't think I have an unusually large number of apps. In fact, with all my apps, pics, files, etc., my SD card was under 15% last tine I checked, but my main memory percentage was in the high 80's/low 90's.

I would like to keep Evernote and certain others on my device, but it seems I get the warning whenever I get down to around 40MB of so left.

Any advice?

Thx!
ME

 

[OnePalmAddict]

BTW, as best as I can remember, I moved Evernote to the SD card some time ago. However, last night when I woke up for work and put my dead phone on the charger and subsequently powered it up, I got an error message in place of the Evernote widget, something I have never seen before. So I removed the widget (the error message, actually, since the widget was no longer there) and re-added the widget.

Fast forward a few hours and I noticed the same error appear in place of my Evernote widget. So again I deleted it and attempted to re-add it...only to find that I no longer had an Evernote widget listed at all in my widget list! Even weirder was that Evernite was no longer listed s one of my apps! So after some head-scratching and experimenting, I surmised that maybe this had something to do with A) the fact that Evernote was on my SD card, and B) the most recent Evernote update, which I seem to recall being fairly recent (BTW, I did read at least one review that mentioned the disappearing widget issue).

So the first thing I did was check the Market to see if there were any comments about this issue (and, as I said, I did see one without having to look very far back). However, when I went to view all my app downloads, EVERNOTE WAS NOT EVEN LISTED! I did a general search for it and when I found the app listing, it was listed as 'Installed' (as expected, but why wasn't it in my list of downloads??) and I verified that I did, in fact, still have it on my SD card. (So to recap thus far, no Evernote widget or app listed in my app tray, but it was showing 'Installed' and I confirmed it was on my SD card.)

The next thing I did was move Evernote back to my phone. Now it shows in my app try, shows in my listed apps in the Market, but still no widget for it is available to add to me home screen.

This is all very bizarre to me, so I'm hoping for some logical and REASONABLE explanation, but more importantly I am seeking a solution.

Thanks for any help that can be provided!

ME