'Application not found' for all apps on SD, why is that?

[Guy Corbett]

'Application not found' for all apps on SD

Hi guys,

I've seen a couple other posts with similar questions but my issue seems to be just different enough that none of those solutions work so I hope you all can help me.

I'm using a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact which recently updated to Android 5.0.2 and with the update Sony added support for moving apps to the SD card. I'd merrily gone ahead and moved everything I could to the SD and it was all working fine.

Last night I turned off the tablet, removed the SD card, put it in my PC, added some movie files then returned the card to my tablet. When I turned on my tablet again, all my apps on SD have lost their icons (they are just just the generic grey 'can't find app' icon) and they won't launch.

Other threads suggest deleting and recreating the shortcuts. I can delete the shortcuts but have no means to recreate them as the tablet is certain the app isn't installed at all. The missing apps don't appear in my last of installed apps in settings or in the play store. The only thing to suggest the apps ever were installed are the broken shortcuts and the fact that I can see their files are all on the SD card if I browse it.

I tried restarting, unmounting, remounting and removing the SD card to no avail. Reinstalling a couple of the apps fixed them though. Once reinstalled I moved them to the SD card and they work fine and havent broken again. However I still have tonnes of broken apps and reinstalling them all would take ages.

It feels like the SD card was maybe mounted at a different location, breaking all the links? Is that possible? Any suggestions?

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: 'Application not found' for all apps on SD

Welcome to Android Central! This is one of the major pitfalls of moving apps to SD--if the SD malfunctions or gets unexpectedly removed, it can break the app. Did you unmount the card before removing it (in Settings>Storage)? Try going to Settings>Apps, select one of those apps, and see if you can Move to Phone Storage again. If that works, then tap Move to SD card afterwards to see if that fixes it.

Otherwise, you may have to uninstall the app, then reinstall it again. I'm not sure if the leftover app data on the SD card will get incorporated correctly into the reinstalled app, or if it will get confused.

 

[Casey Tauberschmidt]

Re: 'Application not found' for all apps on SD

How do I move it back to internal storage if the "broken" app isn't listed as an installed app? To make things worse, I cannot tell which apps are even broken as they have no title and only show a generic icon. When clicking on the generic icon, i get a message stating "Application not found". How do I remove these generic broken icons from my app drawer?

 

[jthorpe1]

Re: 'Application not found' for all apps on SD

I had the same problem. Simple restart fixed it.

 

[Rhydz]

Re: 'Application not found' for all apps on SD

How do I move it back to internal storage if the "broken" app isn't listed as an installed app? To make things worse, I cannot tell which apps are even broken as they have no title and only show a generic icon. When clicking on the generic icon, i get a message stating "Application not found". How do I remove these generic broken icons from my app drawer?

I need to know how to fix this.. Exact same problem with tons of apps.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: 'Application not found' for all apps on SD

You move the apps back to internal storage BEFORE doing anything with the card. Once you have the error, you save all the files on the card (to a computer, to the cloud, your choice of destination), format the card and reinstall all the apps (from the Play Store).

Then back them up (you can use App Backup & Restore) to your computer, in case you need them again (or in case Google "improves" Maps again, making it even more useless, so you can install the older backup). Then move them to the card.

Moving an app to the card doesn't. It moves pieces of the app to different places on the card, leaving links to those places in internal storage. (Android looks for apps in internal storage, whether they've been "moved" or not.) If you move some of the pieces, the apps "disappear" as far as Android is concerned - they're not where the links say they are. At that point, even someone with years of hacking experience wouldn't try to "fix" it, he'd reinstall the apps. (I'm retired after more than 40 years of system development - hacking for companies for their own products - and if someone offered me a job like that - finding the pieces of the apps on the card and relinking them - he'd have to offer me so much money to even consider it that I'd know he wasn't intelligent enough to have that much money. [$600k/year wouldn't do it - I've already had 2 heart attacks, I don't need another one for that kind of pocket change.])

The proper way to get more storage than you have internally is to root the phone (changes have to be made that only root can make) and run an app like External 2 Internal SD (Root) (or learn Linux), so that the card mounts as sd0 and internal storage mounts as sd1 (the opposite of what normally happens). Then Android, still looking for apps on sd0, is looking on the card, downloads to the card, installs apps to the card, etc. The card won't last as long as the memory in the phone (that's made to take constant writing to - SD cards are meant to be written to occasionally and read from a lot), but they'll usually last as long as you want to own the phone or longer.

But no storage is failure-proof, so make sure anything you don't want to lose is backed up. (That includes apps, unless you don't mind wasting time re-downloading an app every time you have to.)

 

[Ihwan Ghazali]

It is easy brother, follow these simple steps:

1. go to setting>apps>all
2. find logo XPERIA Home
3, Click clear data

okay thats it..hopefully can help you..

add my facebook at (email address removed by Moderator)

 

[veterannz]

Thank you. Worked a treat

 

[Ihwan Ghazali]

welcome

 

[Satheesh Iyer]

It is easy brother, follow these simple steps:

1. go to setting>apps>all
2. find logo XPERIA Home
3, Click clear data

okay thats it..hopefully can help you..

add my facebook at (email address removed by Moderator)

Ultimate bro


This will work

Rooting booting shooting not required


Thanks alot

 

[steviec55]

genius, thank you.

 

[panox]

I went to setting => storage => unmount sd card
then clicked on mount sd card
all the apps worked again.

 

[elssaim1]

It is easy brother, follow these simple steps:

1. go to setting>apps>all
2. find logo XPERIA Home
3, Click clear data

okay thats it..hopefully can help you..

add my facebook at (email address removed by Moderator)

Thank you very much
It really works

 

[Cashburner]

I went to setting => storage => unmount sd card
then clicked on mount sd card
all the apps worked again.

Worked for me (removed the shortcuts though)

 

[techienerdo]

Hi there

When you say "logo Xperia Home" - I am not able to see anything with that name - is there another name it would be under?

Thanks
Si

 

[mohamed f]

it would be under the name " Xperia[SUP]TM[/SUP] Home" beside a logo of house

 

[mohamed f]

It is easy brother, follow these simple steps:

1. go to setting>apps>all
2. find logo XPERIA Home
3, Click clear data

okay thats it..hopefully can help you..

add my facebook at (email address removed by Moderator)

thank you so much