For some reason whenever I exit an application, stock or added, when I hit the home button it gives me the white "HTC" screen for a couple of seconds before displaying the home screen. It doesn't do it all the time. I've moved all apps to the sd card that allow it. It's like its gonna crash and reboot then just barely doesn't. Anyone else have this issue or know how to fix it?
white "htc screen"
- Thread starter Coolhandsr
- Start date
I think everyone with the thunderbolt has this issue. I have it happen everytime I exit an application, so get used to it. Sense is Sense. Its bound to have it's issues.
Never happens to me either and no apps on SD card. With that said, it's not recommended to put apps to the SD card unless you're very low on internal storage space as that space is a lot faster than the SD card which allows the apps and phone to operate more efficiently. As such Sense crashing is NOT normal behavior. It's an indication of low memory or resources. So basically there is something else bogging the phone down which subsequently causes Sense to crash/restart. So Sense is not the culprit but a victim of the low resources.
This is known as a "Rosie Redraw" or the more generic "homescreen redraw" issue. There are a plentitude of threads and posts on the subject, as well as suggested fixes (if you are rooted).
Example: Virtually Eliminate Homescreen Redraws - Motorola Droid Stable Mod - CyanogenMod Forum
In short, if your phone runs short on memory while running an app, it will flush the homescreen, forcing it to have to be recreated after you exit the app (and free up additional memory). In the link above, the prescribed fix is to force the phone to lock the homescreen in memory.
This does not mean your phone is "about to crash", and is actually quite normal *if* you've been running memory-intensive apps, such as high-res games and such. If it happens more frequently than that though, it could indicate an unwanted memory hog somewhere....
^^^ All of this above ^^^
I'd even have to wonder if running apps from SD card requires more memory than running them from internal storage, which would compound the problem...?
Unobtanium
Well-known member
- Mar 20, 2011
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I get this occasionally. Often, it's when I am in a hurry to exit all the way back to the home screen, by pushing "back" repeatedly instead of just pushing "home." I have a few apps on the SD card, but mostly have moved them back to the phone for this issue.
Try installing app named Watchdog and see if it catches anything eating CPU or memory beyond what it should. I've removed a few apps because Watchdog kept catching them "running away" with resources.
I get that a lot here too. For me it seems to happen most when I install a new or updated app, and when "Apps2SD" tells me that I can move it to the SD card. Even if I don't - the mere fact that I've gotten that reminder on the notification bar means a sense crash is coming.
I did get a temporary reprieve recently, though, but a simple battery pull. It was a rather long one (phone sat here off, without a battery, for about 15 minutes) because I got interrupted while doing it, but for a long time after powering back up I did not get the "rosie redraws". They're back now, although not quite as frequent as they had been.
Coincidence? Dunno, and have no theories on why it happened, and have yet to try to recreate it.
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This may or may not be off topic, but there really shouldn't be a reason to move apps to SD.
If you go back not too long ago, a lot of phones had VERY little internal storage. I believe the OG Droid had all of 256 MB (Compared to the ~2.4 usable GB of the Thunderbolt), so as anyone can imagine, that space starts to get eaten up pretty quickly when you start installing apps. Moving apps to SD was a MUST if you didn't want to max out your internal storage capacity.
With the Thunderbolt however, it really seems highly unlikely that anyone could have *that* many apps that there's not enough internal storage (and if you do, it may be time to go through and evaluate what apps you need/don't need). I have 60+ apps on mine, and have 1.6 GB remaining, well over 1/2 of the total.
Some people may have very legitimate reasons to install their apps to the SD card, but I also feel many folks think they need to based purely on poor advice. This, for example, is a common conversation I may overhear at my office:
person A: "Hey, check out my new phone!"
person B: "What is that, an Android? Good luck with that, I had one of those before I got my iPhone, but it sucked! -- Be sure to move your apps to SD and install Advanced Task Killer!"
person A: "Really? Thanks, I'll do that..." [walks away questioning all life choices].
Fact is, that advice may have been poignant 2 years ago when "person B" owned an android device, but frankly, it's not relevant now.
End rant.
If you go back not too long ago, a lot of phones had VERY little internal storage. I believe the OG Droid had all of 256 MB (Compared to the ~2.4 usable GB of the Thunderbolt), so as anyone can imagine, that space starts to get eaten up pretty quickly when you start installing apps. Moving apps to SD was a MUST if you didn't want to max out your internal storage capacity.
With the Thunderbolt however, it really seems highly unlikely that anyone could have *that* many apps that there's not enough internal storage (and if you do, it may be time to go through and evaluate what apps you need/don't need). I have 60+ apps on mine, and have 1.6 GB remaining, well over 1/2 of the total.
Some people may have very legitimate reasons to install their apps to the SD card, but I also feel many folks think they need to based purely on poor advice. This, for example, is a common conversation I may overhear at my office:
person A: "Hey, check out my new phone!"
person B: "What is that, an Android? Good luck with that, I had one of those before I got my iPhone, but it sucked! -- Be sure to move your apps to SD and install Advanced Task Killer!"
person A: "Really? Thanks, I'll do that..." [walks away questioning all life choices].
Fact is, that advice may have been poignant 2 years ago when "person B" owned an android device, but frankly, it's not relevant now.
End rant.
Pete, question. Is there a demonstrated reason why installing to SD is an expressly bad thing? I do understand what you're saying and see your point, but I don't know that it's been proven yet that it causes these Rosie redraws. Are there other reasons why it's bad?
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2
Honestly, I have no idea if it causes redraws or not. Also, I'm not saying it's a "bad" thing...just unnecessary. Apps will load and run faster running in internal memory, so it just seems like why move them to the SD card if there's no good reason to do it? That's my take.
"Bad" is subjective.
I consider it "bad" for three reasons.
1) Many apps do not specifically state if they are compatible with installation on the SD Card. So, if you move these apps over manually you are a test pilot. Often it causes trouble with the app. Additionally, very often it breaks any Widget they may have came with.
2) Technically, it's pretty much a given that SD Card access is slower than internal memory access.
3) From what I have seen, there is plenty of space on the Thunderbolt's internal memory. Why not use the best and fastest storage you have?
I have about 120 apps installed, all on internal memory, and I have not yet used even half of the internal memory.
-Frank
Moving apps to the SD in and of itself may not be the cause, but it appears to be a major contributor as that is a common thread of those reporting the issue. Also there is one more potential negative to moving an app to the SD card; whenever the SD card is un-mounted (ex. when connecting the phone to a PC via USB), the app's files are basically disconnected from the phone and the app will no longer work until the SD card is remounted, that's assuming the app recovers gracefully from that disconnect.
I myself don't understand the desire to put an app on the SD card these days as newer phones have quite a bit of internal storage that you'd really have to be installing either a ton of apps or very large ones to even attempt to fill it up. As Pete has said, it seems to be more of a carry over from older phones that didn't have as much internal storage.
That's exactly why I moved them to the sd card. I was an unfortunate blackberry storm user before I got my t bolt. Next to no internal memory there. I'll check the apps that make sure nothing is hogging the cpu. If that doesn't work ill start dissmising the less used apps and move others to the internal off the card. Thanks all!!!
Really - I didn't know that. I actually have experimented with that with a couple of apps that had widgets I wanted to test the usefulness of and didn't notice any difference whatsoever. I would have to assume then that there have been some measurements of some kind taken that I haven't seen. And if you see difference with the naked eye then you've got a faster eye than I do, for sure.
My take is different. We're talking app storage/installation here, so in my mind it's logical to not have to clutter up the memory space that's used for running the apps, caching, and working storage. It really doesn't matter to me what the memory capacities are - just because I have more on the Bolt than I did with the Eris doesn't mean I have to try to use it all up. If an app fails to load properly from SD - and I can actually trace the problem to that - then I'll load from internal, no problem - really not a big deal. Some apps, too, obviously have to run from internal. But I find the Bolt has enough CPU power that I don't notice any speed difference one from one location versus the other.
And related to a comment from another message - I don't connect the phone to a computer anywhere near often enough to make that an issue when it comes to SD use for apps. And, when I do, I'm not on the phone - I'm on the computer.
But aside from the debate on where to store apps, the more I think about this the more it does seem that the Sense redraw issue does seem to be related to the use of the SD card. As I said in another message, I see the problem very reliably when I'm in the Market (ok, Store, whatever) and installing either a new app or an update to one.
Think I'll use Apps2SD to move everything OFF the SD, at least temporarily, and see what that gets.
To me, it just doesn't make much sense to move apps to the SD card and risk the potential issues that may happen. I'd equate it to the 320GB hard drive in my PC that I'll never fill up. There really is no benefit to connect another storage device to the PC and install applications there. Just use the primary storage for the OS and applications as it's intended. Secondary devices are best used for data. 
I am not suggesting I'm an expert on the subject...not even close.
My only point was that it had been suggested that perhaps the OP's problem was related to running apps off of SD card, and assuming that was the case, that there was really no reason to move apps to SD in the first place. I also feel that while there may be legitimate reasons to want to move apps off to the SD card, many may just be doing so based off of misguided or poorly given advice.
Keep in mind as well that internal storage and RAM are two separate things. Moving apps to SD doesn't increase the amount of RAM available for running processes.
My only point was that it had been suggested that perhaps the OP's problem was related to running apps off of SD card, and assuming that was the case, that there was really no reason to move apps to SD in the first place. I also feel that while there may be legitimate reasons to want to move apps off to the SD card, many may just be doing so based off of misguided or poorly given advice.
Keep in mind as well that internal storage and RAM are two separate things. Moving apps to SD doesn't increase the amount of RAM available for running processes.
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