HTC Sense died

[goofdad]

So ... last night my 9 yr old son was playing a game on my Eris. He asked if he could install a new game from the Market as long as it was free, and I told him sure .

After a bit (I was playing WoW with my older sons, so not sure how long) he handed my my phone back and Sense UI was gone :-( Back to the standard Android UI, 3 home screens instead of 7, no "Phone" button at the bottom, etc, etc, etc.

I called Verizon, who forwarded me to HTC, who basically said if I rebooted the device and it didn't come up, all they could do was hard reset the phone. Honestly, I wasn't too stressed over this, as I've only had the phone 2 weeks, all my apps are backed up (except whatever my son installed last night), so I figured the worst I'd have to do was recreate my bookmarks, reset my home screens, etc. Yeah, it would suck, but no biggie. I was kinda in a hurry, 'cuz I had somewhere to be and wanted a worknig phone last night, so I figured that I could reset, get back up and running, and re-customize at my leisure.

Boy, was I wrong! While most of the inconveniences were minor (i.e. my recipe app didn't save my custom recipes through that process ... now on the market for one that does, just in case, although I'm not sure I'd want to test it ...), I spent the next 90ish minutes on the phone with Verizon because the phone refused to reconnect to their network. I even had one rep tell me they were going to give up and replace my phone under warranty! The tech who finally got me on told me "visit androidforums for tech advice rather than call in next time, you'll get better advice" ... which I knew, and should have done, but like I said I was kinda in a hurry, and I was hoping not to have to wait for a forum. Yeah ... stupid ...


tl;dnr version:
->HTC Sense UI crashed and I couldn't figure out how to get it back up
->Called VZW like a fool and reset my phone
->Spent over an hour getting it even reconnected to the network, let alone recustomized.

So...next time this happens ('cuz I'm keeping the 9yr old ... lol), what should I do to try and restart Sense UI?

--
goofdad

 

[Caddyman]

yeah, go to

settings>apps>manage apps

find "home"

click it

click reset defaults

click home button (the button at bottom of screen)

IT SHOULD ask if you want to complete with Home or Sense

pick use as default, and sense

done.

 

[goofdad]

Caddy, you should be answering phones for VZW ;-) lol.

See...knew I should have come here last night. Damn...that was faster than the freaking HOLD time on the first call!

Thanks a zillion. I'll file that away in my toolbag so I don't lose it next time.

--
goofdad

 

[Frisco]

yeah, go to

settings>apps>manage apps

find "home"

click it

click reset defaults

click home button (the button at bottom of screen)

IT SHOULD ask if you want to complete with Home or Sense

pick use as default, and sense

done.

Wow. Great information.

I don't need that now, but I'm writing that in my "Eris Tips" log.

 

[Caddyman]

happy to help

 

[rigamrts]

don't go killing your son yet cause it'snot his fault app makers have yet to catch up with compatbility with all phones yet LOL. but you can go to settings>applications>manage applications choose home at the bottom of the screen hit clear defaults then choose htc sense and hit the check box for use by default. that should fix your sense issues.

now with the force closes if you have adance task killer clear the cache and remove also do the same with the app he installed restart the phone and this should fix it. might take a few restarts but should work. if not a hard reset is the only way. you will not lose your paid apps cause they are linked to your google account and that phone just reinstall and have fun hope this helps

 

[goofdad]

Believe me, I'm not even the least bit upset at my son. When I adopted my first 4 kids (my wife's), I promised to make sure that things were things, and bound to break, and that family would always be more important. I now have 4 more of our own plus one foster kid (if you came to 9, congrats, you can count...and yes, I know what causes that!), all still at home, and I work really hard not to break that promise. Some days are harder than others (like last night), but I haven't failed yet!

I did start cursing and being upset in general last night, but made sure to hug him and tell him it's the stupid technology's fault, not his. He was upset, too, but we're good now. He understands that winblows crashes ... heck, his DS crashes occasionally. I'm AM upset that neither Verizon (who I wasn't expecting much out of) nor HTC (hello? I kinda was expecting them to get it right) gave me this info last night, but...not his fault. I'm ticked that Verizon took 1hr + to get me back to even being able to call out, but again ... yeah. In the meantime, he actually restored all my apps through Astro! He had a great time, and it made him feel better while I was waiting on hold with the VZW idiots.

I'm totally going to let him play with the new toy, totally trust him not to break it, etc. But...also...totally wanted to be prepared next time so I didn't have to deal with Verizon!
--
goofdad
Droid Eris ... Absolutely love it!
VZW/HTC tech support ... not so much ...

 

[jreed2560]

Its issues like this that give customer service a bad reputation. Verizon offers very little in training on new phones that come out(They train on the basics like specs and features they deem "cool"). They pretty much leave it to their employees to learn about the devices on their own. I know when I worked there I was the one teaching everyone the things I learned on forums like this and HoFo. Its not the employees fault. Many of them don't work for VZW because they love wireless. Its a great company to work for and they have amazing benefits. I (atleast in my store) was one of the few that actually did it because I had a passion for that field. Anyway sorry to hear about your issue. It really sucks you got a CSR from the former category, but again that doesn't make them a bad person or an idiot. Its good that you have learned a valuable lesson and will check here next time. Its what Verizon employees who are "in the know" do!

btw 9 kids! I have three girls and I wanna pull my hair out everyday!

 

[goofdad]

Never blame the techs. Lack of training and information are seldom a technician's fault. Been an engineer for many years, and know and work closely with a lot of support techs. The general feeling always boils down to:

Corporate (as an entity) --> Idiots
Individuals --> Usually competent, often bordering on brilliant

To quote "K" in Men-in-black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

Actually, most of the Verizon techs I worked with last night were spot-on. The first one knew within 30 seconds of my opening my mouth that he was lost, and forwarded me to HTC (who really should have been able to help). After resetting the phone and encountering more problems, the second one quickly came to the conclusion that it was beyond his expertise, and forwarded me on to a supervisor. Much of that hour+ was spent on hold.

Still wasn't fun, but truth be told I'm happier with Verizon's tech support than HTC's.

... and ...

I actually don't even know what having 3 kids is/woud be like. I jumped from -0- to -4- pretty much overnight, which made the decision to have a big family basically a given at the onset ;-)

--
goofdad

 

[weihl165]

Sense has also force closed on me, and I have yet to get it up. Everything on the phone works fine, I only have the 3 screens, but find it much easier adding sortcuts and everything. What am I really missing without the sense working? The few extra scenes?

 

[Caddyman]

the cool widgets and the 7 screens, kinda a big deal for me, others not so much, whatever floats your boat or finds your lost remote.

 

[goofdad]

the cool widgets and the 7 screens, kinda a big deal for me, others not so much, whatever floats your boat or finds your lost remote.

QFT!

I wouldn't have gone thorough the hassle last night if I didn't want my cool widgets and 7 screens back. I've played with my wife's Moto ... and google nav is WONDERFUL ... but I still wouldn't trade her my Eris for her Moto! I've fallen in serious like with Sense ...

--
goofdad

 

[Baldguy]

Question,
Weird prob with my phone. Every time I hit the home button, it gives me a choice of Home, HTC Sense. I pick HTC Sense and select default and then go to run apps and hit home and there it is again. Anyone else have this problem? I go to Manage Apps and there are no defaults selected to clear for either. Any ideas?
... By the way I hard reset this phone to see if that was the prob...and it did it again.

 

[Caddyman]

Using a task killer?

 

[Baldguy]

Yes...But I have tried from a fresh restart and without anything being forced closed and still with this multiple homes choices. Drivin me crazy for some dumb reason....its all about the little things...

 

[Caddyman]

So you tried with no apps and it still did that. If. so I would get a new phone

 

[Baldguy]

Does your Sense Ui give you a option to make it default in the manage apps section? ...or is it grayed out and un-selectable?

Ok...figured out what makes the home selection "forgotten". Home works fine until I hold the home button down to select open apps. After that, the default is wiped and the choices are supplied again. Still no idea why its doing that though.


FIXED: I painfully went thru each app installed until the problem went away. Stupid Simpsons Puzzle app that my kids installed was the bastard child of my home issue. Problem solved...stay away from this app!!!

 

[PFCJensen]

i did this as well but my phone rebooted itself and wont load past the htc logo...am i completely ****ed..bc i never sent my contacts and such to the sync...

 

[rigamrts]

i did this as well but my phone rebooted itself and wont load past the htc logo...am i completely ****ed..bc i never sent my contacts and such to the sync...

while the phone is powered off hold the power off button and volume down button when the next screen loads press volume down till clear storage is highlighted then press the power button. this will do a full factory wipe. reboot the phone and you should be all good.

 

[jdietz]

Hey,
I just had the same problem. After reading through the other posts I tried deleting a puzzle game my niece had added. It was an Alice in Wonderland Puzzle on Android Market by PlayGameSite.com I don't know why that program would effect this, but removing the program seems to have fixed the issue.