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Android Shortcuts issue ... way to fix that so they don't need updateding all the time?

T

Tristan Raghnall

Member
One of the beefs I've always had with Android (which is also present in Linux) is how dumb the shortcuts are.

In Windows, a shortcut take you to a file or folder. If the default app changes, the shortcut doesn't care. It goes to the file or folder within the shortcut with the new default. It doesn't require one to do up yet another shortcut for the gazillionth time when the app goes through an update. They remain forever static, which is absolutely great!

Is there a way, _please_, to work around this deficiency in Android? Can we create a shortcut to a file or folder that will live on through updates or even changes in the default app that opens any given shortcut?

Thank you for any help to this regard!
 
Tristan Raghnall said:
One of the beefs I've always had with Android (which is also present in Linux) is how dumb the shortcuts are.

In Windows, a shortcut take you to a file or folder. If the default app changes, the shortcut doesn't care. It goes to the file or folder within the shortcut with the new default. It doesn't require one to do up yet another shortcut for the gazillionth time when the app goes through an update. They remain forever static, which is absolutely great!

Is there a way, _please_, to work around this deficiency in Android? Can we create a shortcut to a file or folder that will live on through updates or even changes in the default app that opens any given shortcut?

Thank you for any help to this regard!
Click to expand...
By pressing an app from the app drawer and put it on the home screen, easy.
Easy there. IT will stay on the same place as forever.
 
On my Smart launcher, I can easily pull up through new screen and it snaps it on, and I can rearrange the icons in the app drawer, I wonder what kind of cell prodcut you have op?
 
Tristan Raghnall said:
One of the beefs I've always had with Android (which is also present in Linux) is how dumb the shortcuts are.

In Windows, a shortcut take you to a file or folder. If the default app changes, the shortcut doesn't care. It goes to the file or folder within the shortcut with the new default. It doesn't require one to do up yet another shortcut for the gazillionth time when the app goes through an update. They remain forever static, which is absolutely great!

Is there a way, _please_, to work around this deficiency in Android? Can we create a shortcut to a file or folder that will live on through updates or even changes in the default app that opens any given shortcut?

Thank you for any help to this regard!
Click to expand...
Op what is up, we did send you a lot of help on here. Do not run away.
 
Tristan Raghnall said:
One of the beefs I've always had with Android (which is also present in Linux) is how dumb the shortcuts are.

In Windows, a shortcut take you to a file or folder. If the default app changes, the shortcut doesn't care. It goes to the file or folder within the shortcut with the new default. It doesn't require one to do up yet another shortcut for the gazillionth time when the app goes through an update. They remain forever static, which is absolutely great!

Is there a way, _please_, to work around this deficiency in Android? Can we create a shortcut to a file or folder that will live on through updates or even changes in the default app that opens any given shortcut?

Thank you for any help to this regard!
Click to expand...
I have only used Nova prime as my launcher since I put it on my first android phone, so I can't speak for any other stock or third party launchers, but I've never had an issue of having to setup a shortcut once it was created...as long as the file itself wasn't moved to a different location.
 
Smart launcher and Lawnchair both are really excellent of not having to move them over, pretty simple to drag and place as a short cut. At the op.
 
🤔 Oh, I'm so very sorry! I thought I was being clear, but obviously not! Let me try again.

Yes, I use Nova Launcher, too (love it!). I wasn't talking about app shortcuts. When one uninstalls an app, that app's shortcut disappears. No problem there.

It's all the shortcuts one makes to files and folders!!

The instant there's an UPDATE (just an update, mind you!), a lot of times the shortcut to the file or folder stops working!
(Not always, but often. That's not changing the app, mind you , just updating.)
And, no, I'm not making this up. I've had 11 years experience with this!

I lose many shortcuts when a simple update happens (just like in Linux) when either an update happens
OR ONE CHANGES THE DEFAULT APP! It's so incredibly stupid!

So when one changes the default app, i.e., if I find a better text editor and install it and make it the default, ALL the shortcuts to text files on the home screen STOP WORKING!
Android shortcuts, like Windows, shouldn't care which is the default app, shortcuts to the files/folders should always work, just using the new default app, instead.

And that's just text files, I have shortcuts to all sorts of files and folders that are rendered useless after an update or an app change.

Any ideas on a fix for this, despite it being a Linux/Android thing? I've just gotten so sick and tired of the whole thing <lol>!

-------------------------------------------------
A recent change in our bus services effectively disabled two of my bus apps and now I only have one. That one allows me to save favorite bus trips as shortcuts on my home screen which I then rename to make them intelligible and easy to use. I'll have to go now and re-create all those saved trip shortcuts as the last-standing app is not easy or efficient to use without them. It's going to be a nightmare if I don't find a solution to this shortcuts issue because this will keep happening ... because even just updating the app renders them all useless. (Then there's the additional issue that there aren't any properties to access to edit, except a Nova thing where we can rename and change icons ...).
-------------------------------------------------

Is there _any_ workaround to this Android deficiency.

Thank you so much! ;)
 
Last edited:
Tristan Raghnall said:
🤔 Oh, I'm so very sorry! I thought I was being clear, but obviously not! Let me try again.

Yes, I use Nova Launcher, too (love it!). I wasn't talking about app shortcuts. When one uninstalls an app, that app's shortcut disappears. No problem there.

It's all the shortcuts one makes to files and folders!!

The instant there's an UPDATE (just an update, mind you!), a lot of times the shortcut to the file or folder stops working!
(Not always, but often. That's not changing the app, mind you , just updating.)
And, no, I'm not making this up. I've had 11 years experience with this!

I lose many shortcuts when a simple update happens (just like in Linux) when either an update happens
OR ONE CHANGES THE DEFAULT APP! It's so incredibly stupid!

So when one changes the default app, i.e., if I find a better text editor and install it and make it the default, ALL the shortcuts to text files on the home screen STOP WORKING!
Android shortcuts, like Windows, shouldn't care which is the default app, shortcuts to the files/folders should always work, just using the new default app, instead.

And that's just text files, I have shortcuts to all sorts of files and folders that are rendered useless after an update or an app change.

Any ideas on a fix for this, despite it being a Linux/Android thing? I've just gotten so sick and tired of the whole thing <lol>!

-------------------------------------------------
A recent change in our bus services effectively disabled two of my bus apps and now I only have one. That one allows me to save favorite bus trips as shortcuts on my home screen which I then rename to make them intelligible and easy to use. I'll have to go now and re-create all those saved trip shortcuts as the last-standing app is not easy or efficient to use without them. It's going to be a nightmare if I don't find a solution to this shortcuts issue because this will keep happening ... because even just updating the app renders them all useless. (Then there's the additional issue that there aren't any properties to access to edit, except a Nova thing where we can rename and change icons ...).
-------------------------------------------------

Is there _any_ workaround to this Android deficiency.

Thank you so much! ;)
Click to expand...
ok so are these files downloaded to your phone? or are these shortcuts from the app? because on my phone, if i download a file....say a word file or a document, i can create a shortcut onto my home screen. after an update that shortcut to that file stays the same. nothing gets broken. if it is thru an app, than that might be dependent on the app.

if you can download it, what kind of file is it? what format is the file?
 
Tristan Raghnall said:
🤔 Oh, I'm so very sorry! I thought I was being clear, but obviously not! Let me try again.

Yes, I use Nova Launcher, too (love it!). I wasn't talking about app shortcuts. When one uninstalls an app, that app's shortcut disappears. No problem there.

It's all the shortcuts one makes to files and folders!!

The instant there's an UPDATE (just an update, mind you!), a lot of times the shortcut to the file or folder stops working!
(Not always, but often. That's not changing the app, mind you , just updating.)
And, no, I'm not making this up. I've had 11 years experience with this!

I lose many shortcuts when a simple update happens (just like in Linux) when either an update happens
OR ONE CHANGES THE DEFAULT APP! It's so incredibly stupid!

So when one changes the default app, i.e., if I find a better text editor and install it and make it the default, ALL the shortcuts to text files on the home screen STOP WORKING!
Android shortcuts, like Windows, shouldn't care which is the default app, shortcuts to the files/folders should always work, just using the new default app, instead.

And that's just text files, I have shortcuts to all sorts of files and folders that are rendered useless after an update or an app change.

Any ideas on a fix for this, despite it being a Linux/Android thing? I've just gotten so sick and tired of the whole thing <lol>!

-------------------------------------------------
A recent change in our bus services effectively disabled two of my bus apps and now I only have one. That one allows me to save favorite bus trips as shortcuts on my home screen which I then rename to make them intelligible and easy to use. I'll have to go now and re-create all those saved trip shortcuts as the last-standing app is not easy or efficient to use without them. It's going to be a nightmare if I don't find a solution to this shortcuts issue because this will keep happening ... because even just updating the app renders them all useless. (Then there's the additional issue that there aren't any properties to access to edit, except a Nova thing where we can rename and change icons ...).
-------------------------------------------------

Is there _any_ workaround to this Android deficiency.

Thank you so much! ;)
Click to expand...
So when one changes the default app, i.e., if I find a better text editor and install it and make it the default, ALL the shortcuts to text files on the home screen STOP WORKING!
Android shortcuts, like Windows, shouldn't care which is the default app, shortcuts to the files/folders should always work, just using the new default app, instead.


- Oh. Like what windows for the short cuts, do not use any short cuts in windows, I simply delete them and have a few folders, when the path is large, I simply deleted it.

- Yeah I have toss away Nova, for my cell and I have it on my tablet, text editor for what app we wonder.
 
Sorry, folks, for the confusion. I was not talking about this as a launcher issue, but a shortcuts one. (When I used Linux, I found a similar type of behavior.) It seemed to me that the broken shortcuts were not tied into the launcher, but you know what, I'm uncertain enough due to the amount of time that has passed that I've been using a custom launcher, that I'm going to test it out.

I went from Blackberry to Android in 2014. I used the stock launcher for quite some time but when I found out a couple of years later or so that we could customize even that, I tried a bunch of launchers out until I found Nova and have stuck with that since then. I don't 100% remember if the broken shortcuts happened on the stock launcher, too, not 100% (though I've always had the thought that they did). But I'm not going to guess at this, due to my faulty memory, I'm going to test it out. It's going to be rough, but I'll switch over to the stock launcher for a bit to see if it's the same problem there with "broken" shortcuts.

If it turns out to be a launcher issue and not an Android one, will have to deal with that at that point.
_______________________________________________________
Wow, too funny. You guys here just had me connect a few dots consciously on a consistent behavior of mine, not consciously as they've happened over different periods of time over the last few decades. On my current Windows 10 machine, I use OpenShell so I have a WinXP look, feel and function. On my old Linux machine, I have a WinXP theme and icons, and way back when, when I got my first PC in the last 90s, it was a DOS machine and I used Calmira to give me a Win95 feel and some function, even a workaround to the 8.3 filename limitation (I started on DOS in the late 1980s at work)! lol I'd forgotten how I've always done that type of customization on the "launcher" part of an operating system ... lol And not quite the same situation on Android, as it's not to standardize this device to a WinXP look and function, but I did change the launcher to more suit me. lol
_______________________________________________________

Thank you!

I'll report back -- fairly quickly if I have any old shortcuts left to test with.
 
Last edited:
Tristan Raghnall said:
Sorry, folks, for the confusion. I was not talking about this as a launcher issue, but a shortcuts one. (When I used Linux, I found a similar type of behavior.) It seemed to me that the broken shortcuts were not tied into the launcher, but you know what, I'm uncertain enough due to the amount of time that has passed that I've been using a custom launcher, that I'm going to test it out.

I went from Blackberry to Android in 2014. I used the stock launcher for quite some time but when I found out a couple of years later or so that we could customize even that, I tried a bunch of launchers out until I found Nova and have stuck with that since then. I don't 100% remember if the broken shortcuts happened on the stock launcher, too, not 100% (though I've always had the thought that they did). But I'm not going to guess at this, due to my faulty memory, I'm going to test it out. It's going to be rough, but I'll switch over to the stock launcher for a bit to see if it's the same problem there with "broken" shortcuts.

If it turns out to be a launcher issue and not an Android one, will have to deal with that at that point.
_______________________________________________________
Wow, too funny. You guys here just had me connect a few dots consciously on a consistent behavior of mine, not consciously as they've happened over different periods of time over the last few decades. On my current Windows 10 machine, I use OpenShell so I have a WinXP look, feel and function. On my old Linux machine, I have a WinXP theme and icons, and way back when, when I got my first PC in the last 90s, it was a DOS machine and I used Calmira to give me a Win95 feel and some function, even a workaround to the 8.3 filename limitation (I started on DOS in the late 1980s at work)! lol I'd forgotten how I've always done that type of customization on the "launcher" part of an operating system ... lol And not quite the same situation on Android, as it's not to standardize this device to a WinXP look and function, but I did change the launcher to more suit me. lol
_______________________________________________________

Thank you!

I'll report back -- fairly quickly if I have any old shortcuts left to test with.
Click to expand...



What excatly are you saying, there is just a moving an icon to your desktop / home screen from the app, I have personaly used Nova for endless time, are you talking about like...


1747867028484.png

Or:
1747867078231.jpeg



Iike my camera icon I have, even though it is icon copy over to my home screen and have it so can find it without any trouble?
 
ocnbrze said:
ok so are these files downloaded to your phone? or are these shortcuts from the app? because on my phone, if i download a file....say a word file or a document, i can create a shortcut onto my home screen. after an update that shortcut to that file stays the same. nothing gets broken. if it is thru an app, than that might be dependent on the app.

if you can download it, what kind of file is it? what format is the file?
Click to expand...
?????
 
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