Help When I plug in my cord to the computer, apps are taken off my home screen, why?

[Droid_Badger]

What the hell is wrong with my DX? I lose like 4 apps. They are not deleted, but they are no longer on my home screens!

 

[lunatic59]

Because when you plug in your phone, your SD card is unmounted so the PC can access it as storage. Whatever is disappearing from your homescreen relies on something on the SD card, so they become unavailable.

 

[Deleted User]

Go to Settings > applications > manage applications > on SD card and move any apps with a check to your internal storage.

 

[Droid_Badger]

Thanks guys.

Just seems like an odd quirk that they'd all disappear. Why can't the SD/Android OS be programmed not to remove them?

 

[Deleted User]

When you plug your phone in, it mounts the SD card on your computer.

This is actually a smart, preferable way to do things. If the app is on your SD card, and the SD card gets mounted on your computer, the phone can't see it anymore - so it, very nicely, stops displaying the apps that it can no longer launch.

 

[quickaudi]

exactly - they aren't "removed", just not accessible to your PC and your phone at the same time

 

[Droid_Badger]

But even when I unplug the phone, the apps do not re-appear. They are simply gone from my home screen. This is not user friendly at all.

 

[lunatic59]

But even when I unplug the phone, the apps do not re-appear. They are simply gone from my home screen. This is not user friendly at all.

They should eventually come back, but your sd card must be mounted and scanned. depending on how much you have on it, it could take a little time.
If those particular icons disappearing bother you you can move the apps to internal memory and they'll stay, even when you plug in your phone.

 

[quickaudi]

Gone and never come back, Mr. Badger?

 

[Droid_Badger]

Correct. When I plug in my phone, any app disappears. I'm not even saying it's a huge problem, but this seems really weird and not user friendly. How the hell can some 45 year old non-techie ever understand how to use Android with these quirks?

 

[Metfanant]

Correct. When I plug in my phone, any app disappears. I'm not even saying it's a huge problem, but this seems really weird and not user friendly. How the hell can some 45 year old non-techie ever understand how to use Android with these quirks?

ITS NOT ANDROID! Its basic computer hardware...the phone and computer physically CANNOT read from the sdcard at the same time...when the sdcard is unmounted from your phone to be read by the PC the phone has NO IDEA where those apps went...

The solution to the problem is to move the apps to internal memory...DONE...even more "non-techie" can understand that...

You harp about iOS being more user friendly...what happens if your iPhone bricks beyond repair and requires a hard reset?...you've got no sdcard where all your pics and video and data are stored...the DX does...

What if the phone is smashed to pieces??...on my X I can take the old sdcard and put it in my new phone...how about on the iPhone?...

Which of those is "user friendly? "

 

[Droid_Badger]

They are fair arguments. But I suppose I am more likely to plug my Android into the computer than to smash it to pieces or need to remove the SD card.

But yes, as you say, the answer is just moving it off the card. For me, an easy fix, but I do not know how mainstream consumers can possibly understand what's going on. Millions and millions of confused Android 40-somethings who own the phone ("because it's like an iPhone, right?") will think they somehow deleted parts of their app list.

 

[lunatic59]

They are fair arguments. But I suppose I am more likely to plug my Android into the computer than to smash it to pieces or need to remove the SD card.

But yes, as you say, the answer is just moving it off the card. For me, an easy fix, but I do not know how mainstream consumers can possibly understand what's going on. Millions and millions of confused Android 40-somethings who own the phone ("because it's like an iPhone, right?") will think they somehow deleted parts of their app list.

Except Android phones are set by default to install apps on the phone's internal memory. The exceptions would be game data and graphics which are put on external memory, if available, to keep the limited internal memory for other apps. If the apps themselves are on the sd card, then the user either changed the default install location or they moved them there manually, both requiring enough knowledge to also understand the ramifications.

Let's look at this statistically. We can assume, can't we, that Android Forums is a fairly broad and representative support site for Android Devices. On this site there are ...

Threads: 313,338
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Since this would be common to all android devices and not just your particular model, it should be a fairly common question is it is so confusing to millions of users. And yet, this is the first and only time I ever remember seeing the question asked about shortcuts disappearing from the home screen, let alone being represented and an insurmountable problem. Granted there have been other users who asked why apps become unusable when the phone is mounted as storage, but they generally understand and accept that the app's data directory is unmounted and unavailable while the phone is plugged in and mounted as storage.

 

[chrisbourne]

I still lose shortcuts even with the sd card out when I plug it into my pc

 

[lunatic59]

Depending on the model of your phone, an external sd card may not be the actual "sdcard" location on your phone. Many of today's phones come with 8 0r 16 GB of internal memory which is partitioned to be 2 or 4 GB of system space and the rest is mounted as /sdcard. This will be the location where external apps are stored even though the memory isn't removable, so even if you remove the physical sd card, When you plug in the phone, /sdcard will be unmounted and your apps will disappear.