Help Back up widgets

[lotus49]

Every now and then and for no apparent reason, my launcher refuses to load my home screen widgets and I have to add them all back again, reconfiguring each of them manually. The error message I get in my current launcher (Lightning) is "Couldn't add widget." in a dark grey box the size of the previous widget. I think the error message was the same in the other launchers I have used but it's a while since I started using Lightning so the message may have been slightly different in other launchers.

In the three years I have been using Android phones, this has happened to me with every phone (S2 and S4), ROM (stock Samsung, AOSP, TeamWin, CyanogenMod) and launcher (Touchwiz, stock Google, GO Launcher and Lightning) I have used. It doesn't happen very often but it must have happened 20 times in the three years and it's a pain in the bum having to remember what went where and re-configuring them.

I have long since given up hope of finding why it happens but I would like to know if there is any way of backing up my widgets so I can just restore them.

It's worth pointing out that all the other settings, shortcuts etc. remain completely unaffected. Each time this happens, it's just the widgets that are affected.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[Darnell0216]

Most launchers have options to back up settings/Home Screens. I use this all the time, though I've not had many reasons to restore it unless I've factory reset. There was a point some time last year where GoLauncher gave me the problem once in a blue moon, but so far so good.

Also, you seem well versed but just as a reminder: Any app that has widgets should be on the phone and not moved to SD Card.

 

[lotus49]

This is a shameless bump because this has happened to me yet again. It's happened so many times that now it only takes me 15 minutes to restore everything but, apart from Minimalistic Text which does allow me to back up widget settings, everything else doesn't and I'm sick of manually restoring everything.

One thing that occurred to me today was that my phone booted into safe mode before this happened. I don't know if that is connected but my guess is that it is. It was after I rebooted that the widgets all disappeared.

I'm hoping that someone who didn't see this the first time round may have a solution.

Any suggestions?