Apps show up as com.snapchat.android and 00,00B

[ivodc]

Hey my S3 has this weird problem. Apps from the SDcard suddenly don't show up on the homescreen and "all apps" menu anymore. In the application manager it still sees them as com.facebook.android / com.snapchat.android etc. (instead of just Facebook or Snapchat) but they don't have an Icon and are 00,00 bytes. How could I get the apps back? I already removed cache, rebooted the phone, removed the apps but it is then impossible to download them again due to an error.. Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

[Rukbat]

In the application manager it still sees them as com.facebook.android / com.snapchat.android etc. (instead of just Facebook or Snapchat)

Because the name of that particular app is com.whatever.

but they don't have an Icon and are 00,00 bytes. How could I get the apps back?

1) You moved them to the SD card? Then something else happened (an update, maybe?) Android isn't designed to run apps from the SD card, so things like this will happen. An update is not under obligation to not move apps on the SD card but if it does, the link is now pointing to empty storage, not the app.

I already removed cache, rebooted the phone, removed the apps but it is then impossible to download them again due to an error.. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Have you gone into Application manager and uninstalled the apps (even if there's an error), then tried to reinstall them from the Play Store?

If that didn't work, and assuming you don't back up your apps (if you did, just run the apk file for the app), and you cleared system cache, about the only 2 fixes I can think of are restoring a backup of the entire data partition (or a nandroid backup) if you have one, or a factory reset, then reinstall all your apps and data. (Back up all the remaining ones first, of course.) And stop moving apps to the SD card. It's for data storage, not app storage. (Moving a picture and changing its directory entry doesn't cause a problem. Moving an app without rewriting the link to it [and, while Linux allows this, Android doesn't account for it, because it's not designed to run apps from the SD card] effectively removes the app's code from the phone, while still telling the phone that the app is installed.)

 

[ivodc]

If that didn't work, and assuming you don't back up your apps (if you did, just run the apk file for the app), and you cleared system cache, about the only 2 fixes I can think of are restoring a backup of the entire data partition (or a nandroid backup) if you have one, or a factory reset, then reinstall all your apps and data. (Back up all the remaining ones first, of course.) And stop moving apps to the SD card. It's for data storage, not app storage. (Moving a picture and changing its directory entry doesn't cause a problem. Moving an app without rewriting the link to it [and, while Linux allows this, Android doesn't account for it, because it's not designed to run apps from the SD card] effectively removes the app's code from the phone, while still telling the phone that the app is installed.)

Thanks, I did uninstall them at the app manager and try to reinstall them but it didn't work and unfortunately I don't have a backup of the apps