• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Apps not restoring from SD

topguy

Lurker
Feb 7, 2010
8
1
After updating to 2.2 I put all of the apps I could from my phone to my SD card. I did this so I could back them up because my phone was having LED light issues so I got it replaced.

So I took it to Verizon and they did a reset and it didn't help so they ordered a new phone for me. After this reset the apps from my SD card automatically "restored" (the phone used this word after it finished) my apps.

Now, I have received the new phone and it is not automatically restoring this time. How can I get them to restore? When I go to applications in the settings menu it doesn't show any on the SD card. Also when I go to the market it only shows my purchased apps in the downloads section. Also my phone is NOT rooted. Any help is appreciated :)
 
i am having the same problem. i have a ton of aps and some of them have specific data loaded to the app.

i used the app called app 2 sd

it reads you phone and lists all apps that can be moved to sd. you select them one at a time and it takes you to setting to move them manually. this saves you the time of checking every single app for those that can be moved to sd.

well, i moved all apps i could to my sd card and put it in my replacement device of the same model, droid 1. the new phone does not read the apps on the card but when i put the card back in the old device, that one reads them. i have reinstalled a couple apps and put them on the sd card from the new device. so that means they are taking up twice the space. wtf?!?!?!?!

i hope we find a solution. i emailed the dev of app 2 sd but we'll see where it goes from here. keep searching. i am searching deeper. i want my apps restored.

i had the grandfathered full access version of shazam and now i have to pay for it if i want it back waaaaaa!!!!!!


UPDATE
apps 2 sd dev replied to my email. he says we need a backup app. looking around there are a few. looks like they are not free though, at least the ones that backup more than text messages and "contacts" really, backing up contacts that are permanently stored as part of your google account?
 
Upvote 0
Wow wierd.... hmm you might need to look at this to retrieve your information on the card you will need some coding experience:

App Install Location | Android Developers

Hope this helps you dude damn i am out of options here sorry

this is the user manual for developers to use whan making apps for us. this particular excerpt is describing the process by which the decide the3 disposition of their app in regards to being stored by defaulton the sd card or system memory and weather or not we can move them to the sd card.

however, the answer to our problem lies here in the app to sd function as written by the OS dev, and we need to bitch at them for this.

"The unique container in which your application is stored is encrypted with a randomly generated key that can be decrypted only by the device that originally installed it. Thus, an application installed on an SD card works for only one device."

my whole logic to storing apps to sd cards os so you can have them when you upgrade/lose/damage your phone. some of these apps are info caching and you sort of invest into them. to have to reload them and start from scratch when you upgrade is kind of contrary to the whole theme google is going with here. you phone is supposedly tied to your gmail account so your contacts etc are saved for life if you stick with the google OS, some of these apps are just as significant as that data and we should be able to migrate them to new devices with existing data intact.

some of the backup apps i am reading about seem like they would work if you think to install them ahead of time and back up your apps to a secondary file off the device in case of loss. but my phone was replaced on an insurance claim due to water damage. it still works but now i canot activate it to install any of these backup ap[s for migration to my new device. this is plain shitty google, i thought my app to sd would save me this drama.
 
Upvote 0
this is the user manual for developers to use whan making apps for us. this particular excerpt is describing the process by which the decide the3 disposition of their app in regards to being stored by defaulton the sd card or system memory and weather or not we can move them to the sd card.

however, the answer to our problem lies here in the app to sd function as written by the OS dev, and we need to bitch at them for this.

"The unique container in which your application is stored is encrypted with a randomly generated key that can be decrypted only by the device that originally installed it. Thus, an application installed on an SD card works for only one device."

my whole logic to storing apps to sd cards os so you can have them when you upgrade/lose/damage your phone. some of these apps are info caching and you sort of invest into them. to have to reload them and start from scratch when you upgrade is kind of contrary to the whole theme google is going with here. you phone is supposedly tied to your gmail account so your contacts etc are saved for life if you stick with the google OS, some of these apps are just as significant as that data and we should be able to migrate them to new devices with existing data intact.

some of the backup apps i am reading about seem like they would work if you think to install them ahead of time and back up your apps to a secondary file off the device in case of loss. but my phone was replaced on an insurance claim due to water damage. it still works but now i canot activate it to install any of these backup ap[s for migration to my new device. this is plain shitty google, i thought my app to sd would save me this drama.

Moving the apps to SD did not mean backing them up, but changing their install directory. You have no backup at this point.

In order to back up apps you need and app like Astro File Manager.
 
Upvote 0
"The unique container in which your application is stored is encrypted with a randomly generated key that can be decrypted only by the device that originally installed it. Thus, an application installed on an SD card works for only one device."

my whole logic to storing apps to sd cards os so you can have them when you upgrade/lose/damage your phone. some of these apps are info caching and you sort of invest into them. to have to reload them and start from scratch when you upgrade is kind of contrary to the whole theme google is going with here. you phone is supposedly tied to your gmail account so your contacts etc are saved for life if you stick with the google OS, some of these apps are just as significant as that data and we should be able to migrate them to new devices with existing data intact.

some of the backup apps i am reading about seem like they would work if you think to install them ahead of time and back up your apps to a secondary file off the device in case of loss. but my phone was replaced on an insurance claim due to water damage. it still works but now i canot activate it to install any of these backup ap[s for migration to my new device. this is plain shitty google, i thought my app to sd would save me this drama.

Totally agree as I have exactly the same problem!
 
Upvote 0
If you notice, when you save an app to your SD card, a small portion of it remains on your phone. Probably so it knows where to find the app on your SD card. When you swapped phones, you lost the portion of the app on the phone, so you no longer had a pointer to what was on your SD card.

In addition to truly backing up your apps, you can also check the Auto-sync option to automatically sync your applications (located in settings/Accounts & sync settings).
 
Upvote 0
It is not a problem. You simply misunderstood the function of apps2sd.

Agreed. The developer of apps2sd never intended it to be a backup solution. It's not designed that way, doesn't offer that functionality and never has. You expecting apps2sd to be a backup solution is a misunderstanding on your part and not the developer's problem.

Yes, a backup solution would've needed to be implemented ahead of time. That's the point of a backup solution. Think of a Windows computer. I might have a C drive and a D drive. I could install all of my applications to my D drive. However, I can't take my D drive, toss it in another computer and use all my applications on the second computer. The applications still store some data on the C drive. If I want to backup my computer and all my applications, I have to back it up before a disaster with a 3rd party app of some kind. This is what app2sd does. It lets you install your apps on the equivalent of a D drive on your phone. It is not a backup solution and was never intended to be one.

There are a number of backup solutions on the market like Astro, My Backup Pro (which I use and recommend) or Titanium if you're a root user. Some of these apps are better than others of course, but all of them must be set up before hand. That's the way any backup works. You don't wait for a disaster and then back up.
 
Upvote 0
Agreed. The developer of apps2sd never intended it to be a backup solution. It's not designed that way, doesn't offer that functionality and never has. You expecting apps2sd to be a backup solution is a misunderstanding on your part and not the developer's problem.

Yes, a backup solution would've needed to be implemented ahead of time. That's the point of a backup solution. Think of a Windows computer. I might have a C drive and a D drive. I could install all of my applications to my D drive. However, I can't take my D drive, toss it in another computer and use all my applications on the second computer. The applications still store some data on the C drive. If I want to backup my computer and all my applications, I have to back it up before a disaster with a 3rd party app of some kind. This is what app2sd does. It lets you install your apps on the equivalent of a D drive on your phone. It is not a backup solution and was never intended to be one.

There are a number of backup solutions on the market like Astro, My Backup Pro (which I use and recommend) or Titanium if you're a root user. Some of these apps are better than others of course, but all of them must be set up before hand. That's the way any backup works. You don't wait for a disaster and then back up.

My issue is not with apps 2 SD (which I haven't used). My understanding was that when I switched from one Android device to another, my applications would be linked to my Google account and I could recover/download them fairly easily. For some reason, this didn't happen -- the only apps listed in the market under downloads when I got the replacement device were updates to the stock applications. I had a number of the applications as part of an App Brain list so recovered a lot that way but it's really frustrating that this isn't an automatic feature. Or am I just going about it incorrectly?
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones