Moto G5 apps can't find data, database

[Mbun2]

My Moto G5 + reset itself - I know others have had this problem.

Now, MANY of my apps can't find their database anymore. I've taken the sd card out & back in, & even cloned it to a new card & put that one in. Shopping List, the lists are gone. Pocket can't find my passwords. Health Log is gone, meaning the app doesn't have the former database. Money Manager data is gone. 250+ Solitaire doesn't save any settings, every time I open it it's back to the default. Cognitive Diary can't restore data. On & on.

Please help!!

 

[Rukbat]

That's what periodic backups are for. If you didn't make any, try a factory reset. If that doesn't fix it, reflash the ROM.

And start making backups.

 

[B. Diddy]

I moved this from the Android Apps forum to the Moto G5 forum, since the former is intended for developers to promote their apps.

Had you formatted the SD card as Internal Storage? If so, and if the phone did a full factory reset, then the card is useless, since the encryption key was unique to the phone before the reset. When you reset the phone, it wipes out the encryption key, so the data on the card becomes inaccessible.

 

[Mbun2]

I didn't format the card as internal.

I didn't make backups since it was saving to a card. I thought thats what I had a card for, as external storage. The files are on the card, the apps just arent seeing it.

The phone did its own factory reset. That's what started the whole problem.

So what do I do now? Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

Describe how the phone did the reset -- did you get presented with the whole Setup Wizard afterwards? If so, then all installed apps should have been wiped off the phone. If you reinstalled those apps, hoping that they'd still be able to access the data they had previously saved to the SD card, then in most cases, I don't think that'll work. @Rukbat can probably answer this better, but I suspect the apps are looking for the files that they created themselves, not the files created by some prior instance of the app.

 

[Mbun2]

I think it did the whole setup wizard. Motorola thanked me for getting a new phone. None of the apps were there, but they returned when I put my Google password in. Then I kept getting messages that apps were stopping. I had to uninstall & reinstall most of them.

 

[B. Diddy]

When you say the apps returned after entering your password, do you mean they were there immediately, or they reinstalled? I suspect they were automatically reinstalled, based on the list of apps that was backed up to your Google account. If they were reinstalled, then the old data on the SD card might be confusing them. What happens if you unmount the card and remove it?

 

[Mbun2]

The apps work, but no data in them still.

 

[B. Diddy]

Right -- the problem is that the data was essentially orphaned on the SD card when the phone reset. I'm not sure if you can link it back up to the app.