Nova disaster - DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

[Methos1979]

File this under stupid mistakes that are easy to avoid.

So like many here, I'm a huge fan of Nova Launcher. I have spent a couple months dialing in my phone's layout to get it EXACTLY the way I want. Sure, things are always getting minor tweaks but I finally had a layout that I thought was perfect.

So today I'm going through my apps in settings and cleaning off (uninstalling) all the apps or add-ons that I don't ever use when I come upon Nova. There are two Nova apps - just plain Nova and Nova Prime. Without even thinking of the potential consequences I uninstall regular Nova. (MISTAKE NUMBER ONE.)

I've done this with many an app. You try the free version, love it, buy the paid version. Now you have two copies of the program so you go back (eventually in my case) and uninstall the free version. No problem, right?

WRONG! Not with Nova. YOU NEED BOTH!!! (Attention Nova: You might want to fix this or at least mention it somewhere! (Note that they actually might have mentioned this somewhere and I've just forgotten - the memory is not what it used to be!))

So I finish up my uninstalling unused apps routine and head back out into the phone only to find my beautiful, perfect, tweaked, dialed in layout gone. (Insert several minutes of yelling profanities here.)

I'm panicking now. Wait! Maybe if I just re-install normal unpaid Nova that will work. So in re-install and Nova does come up but not in my perfect layout. Wait! I vaguely remember something about a backup feature in one of the Nova menus. So I find that and sure enough there is a backup - from like two months ago when I first started using it. (MISTAKE NUMBER TWO.)

So now I get down to the crappy task of rebuilding from scratch my layout. As I said earlier, the memory is not what is used to be but thankfully I had posted some fairly recent screen captures of my homescreens on one of those "Post your homescreen" threads. So that helped a little. It took about an hour to totally rebuild and some things are different of course. And you can bet that as soon as I had it done I SAVED A FRESH BACKUP.

Anyhow, I thought I would post this just in case there are people as dumb as me out there that have not made a recent back up or are foolish enough to not realized you need BOTH Nova apps. Learn from my mistakes. I only wish I had read this thread yesterday!

 

[flyingcloud11]

Lol, I really don't see how anyone could make this mistake. Nova Launcher is 4mb while Prime is some kb aka an unlock key/license. So obviously you need both. If you don't want the Prime icon on your phone but still want Nova's full features. You can contact the dev "kevin" and show him your transaction number and he'll give you a license that you just input, it's linked to your gmail.

When I switched to my new email, I didn't want to buy Nova twice so I contacted him and he gave me a license. Too bad I couldn't do that with BW. At least they refunded my old one.

 

[dvhttn]

Do you not have a backup on your sdcard under data/com.teslacoilsw.launcher/backup ? Or does the uninstall zap this directory?

Dave

 

[Frisco]

File this under stupid mistakes that are easy to avoid.

Kudos for admitting doing something like that, then warning others.

 

[Johnny Cakes]

Not to hijack the thread, but is there a way to prevent NOVA Launcher from the constant requests to upgrade? I don't want to upgrade and I don't want to keep having to hit cancel.

 

[Methos1979]

Do you not have a backup on your sdcard under data/com.teslacoilsw.launcher/backup ? Or does the uninstall zap this directory?

Dave

Yes, I had a backup but it was an old one and not very helpful.

 

[Methos1979]

Lol, I really don't see how anyone could make this mistake. Nova Launcher is 4mb while Prime is some kb aka an unlock key/license. So obviously you need both. If you don't want the Prime icon on your phone but still want Nova's full features. You can contact the dev "kevin" and show him your transaction number and he'll give you a license that you just input, it's linked to your gmail.

When I switched to my new email, I didn't want to buy Nova twice so I contacted him and he gave me a license. Too bad I couldn't do that with BW. At least they refunded my old one.

Lol back at ya! I'm not as smart as you obviously.

I did notice that regular Nova was bigger, about 6 mb in my case and Nova Prime was only around 4. But I've seen that with other dual programs where the unpaid version is bigger because of the extra programming needed to run the ads. Either way, it should have been a flag for sure.

 

[Frisco]

Not to hijack the thread, but is there a way to prevent NOVA Launcher from the constant requests to upgrade? I don't want to upgrade and I don't want to keep having to hit cancel.

I know how you feel. But a while back I began to appreciate very much how Android is enhanced by the app and game developers, so I began to use the non-paid (free) version of their stuff only to test it out and make sure I liked it prior to buying. Before that I was trying to find all the apps and widgets for my needs and making sure I got them for free.

It can add up. But if the nags bother an Android user, my advice is to either buy or look around for an app (launcher or widget) that is free and does not nag for up grades. Most of those are supported by little ad banners somewhere in the app, though.

 

[Jacksmyname]

Kudos, OP, for posting your story. I'm sure most of us have done something similar.
I'm also a big fan of Nova. Tried most of them, and Nova is the one I stuck with. Excellent launcher.
They do mention in the store description that you need both for Nova Prime. Prime is a license key that enables the additional features in the free version, and of course removes ads.
An additional thanks from me to you for your post because it reminded me to make a backup of my layout.!