HELP. Droid Incredible deleting apps by itself.

[olddroidincredible]

So I have a 3 year old Droid Incredible. The older it gets, the worse it responds to basic tasks. Today, I turned on my phone, only to get several error messages from Google related apps saying they have failed to start.

So I tried clicking on some Google apps, like Google Maps. The icon was replaced by this:

In fact, all of the Google related apps were like this. I tried selecting Google maps, only to get an instant force stop message. Soon afterwards, all of the Google apps disappeared, including YouTube. Google Play and Google Search widget have both been replaced by Failure to Load Gadget messages. I tried looking for any signs of anything Google related, with no luck. I restarted my phone, I cleared caches, and I unmounted and remounted my SD card for some reason. No dice.

I have a stock HTC Incredible. I have done nothing like unrooting to it. What could be the cause of the apps disappearing and how can I fix the issue?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central. No offense, but 3 years is ancient for a smartphone these days--it might just be failing. There's always the possibility that some of the recent updates to Google Play Services might be messing things up. You could try wiping the system cache partition (which is different from wiping individual app caches, and will not lose any important data):

1. Press and hold Power, choose "Restart."
2. When screen turns off, press and hold Volume Down and Power.
3. When the white HBOOT screen appears, use the volume button to move down to ?RECOVERY.?
4. Press the Power button to select ?RECOVERY.?
5. When the triangle and exclamation appears, hold the Volume Up and Power button at the same time.
6. Using the volume button, scroll down to ?Wipe cache partition? and select it.
7. Select "Reboot system now."

Thanks to Giskard on this forum, from whom I copied these steps.

 

[olddroidincredible]

Welcome to Android Central. No offense, but 3 years is ancient for a smartphone these days--it might just be failing. There's always the possibility that some of the recent updates to Google Play Services might be messing things up. You could try wiping the system cache partition (which is different from wiping individual app caches, and will not lose any important data):

1. Press and hold Power, choose "Restart."
2. When screen turns off, press and hold Volume Down and Power.
3. When the white HBOOT screen appears, use the volume button to move down to ?RECOVERY.?
4. Press the Power button to select ?RECOVERY.?
5. When the triangle and exclamation appears, hold the Volume Up and Power button at the same time.
6. Using the volume button, scroll down to ?Wipe cache partition? and select it.
7. Select "Reboot system now."

Thanks to Giskard on this forum, from whom I copied these steps.

Trust me, I know my phone is ancient, but Verizon won't give me an upgrade until February of 2014.

UPDATE:

The Wipe cache partition didn't work. I was greeted with a "the app youtube.android" failed to load message. Still no Google apps.

 

[B. Diddy]

Bummer! If your phone is failing, you could always look for a used or refurbished older phone that's compatible with Verizon to replace your Incredible, until you're eligible for an upgrade. Here's a deal for a Thunderbolt, only $75:

HTC Thunderbolt 4G, Android Smartphone with 1 Ghz Processor and 8MP Camera - For Verizon Wireless