Apps moved to SD card disappear "Activity not found"

[Guest dmrtn]

I bought the Huawei G300 (my first Android, model U8815, Android 2.3.6, Kernel 2.6.38.6-perf, baseband 109808) about 3 weeks ago and used it with an old 1Gb sd card I had. Everything worked perfectly. I downloaded apps and to save storage space on the phone, I moved the ones that could be moved using "Manage Applications" to the card.

I decided to buy a 32Gb card (class 6 I think, not the fastest but should be stable, right?) I moved some apps back to the phone and deleted the rest. Installed and formatted the card. Started downloading the apps again. But when I tried to move them to the memory card this time, I started to have problems immediately. Basically, the phone couldn't find the portion of the app that it had moved to the card. On ALL the apps I had moved.

Everything else seems to work fine on the card. Photos, etc. except the Huawei Allbackup app which wouldn't restore my back up. I had my contacts backed up elsewhere so that wasn't too bad.

Since then I have reformatted the memory card (FAT32) and eventually reset the phone to factory settings but the same problem every time. Yesterday, I went back to the 1Gb card I originally used and everything worked perfectly again, for half a day and then the apps on the memory card disappeared again. When I try to open them it tells me "Activity not found" and the icon disappears. The trace elements on the phone remain there until uninstalled but the part moved to the card is no longer accessible, it appears.

My phone is not rooted, incidentally.

Sorry, I know this is a long post but I want to give as detailed an explanation as possible. Basically, I'm trying to find out if this is a hardware issue? Is there something else I need to try before I give up on the phone? I don't want to root it yet, certainly not before I bring it back to Vodafone to see what they say.

[Guest Hogweed]

To upgrade to a bigger card you should just copy the entire contents of the old card to the new card (with nothing on it before the copy) on a PC with an SD card reader. If you still have the old card with all the stuff on it can you try this? Btw, you are much better with a class 10 card. Class 6 should work but you do notice the performance hit. I wouldn't use a Class 6 if I could help it.

The Class should be written on a new card. If it isn't I wouldn't even touch the card.

You can also copy the folder to a PC using USB mount then copy it back to a new card using the same method. Delete whatever the phone has created on the new card first then immediately reboot after unmounting. Less confusing if you do the copies external to the phone though.

Edited October 3, 2012 by Hogweed

[Guest Davidoff59]

It may be something to do with the internal SD card thats built into the phone. That and the external SD card are mounted seperately so you can only use one at a time. If you mounted the internal SD card, you would probably find your missing bits

[Guest Wanyal]

It may be something to do with the internal SD card thats built into the phone. That and the external SD card are mounted seperately so you can only use one at a time. If you mounted the internal SD card, you would probably find your missing bits

It's also worth noting sometimes the default storage location swaps to the internal storage on its own, so its worth checking.

To change default storage location, go to Settings > Storage and tap Default Storage Location

[Guest dmrtn]

Thanks for your answers.

@Hogweed - My first thought was the card was just a piece of s**t. It probably is. If it was just a case of buying a new card, I would be happy enough to do that, get a good one and everything's fine. What worries me is that I replaced the new card with my older one~(which had preciously worked) and the same issue repeated itself. If I can get the old card to work properly then clearly it is an issue with the new card, but if I can't then the issue is probably somewhere else?

The reason I didn't copy the entire memory card to the new one was because it was leftover from an older Nokia and had leftover .exes and other Nokia specific detritus on it. That was why I uninstalled almost all the apps and tried to start again from scratch with the new card.

[Guest dmrtn]

It may be something to do with the internal SD card thats built into the phone. That and the external SD card are mounted seperately so you can only use one at a time. If you mounted the internal SD card, you would probably find your missing bits

Under Storage settings > Internal SD Card

It only gives me Total Space, Available Space and Erase Internal SD Card.

No mention of mounting or unmounting the Internal card?

[Guest Hogweed]

The internal SD is mounted as /HWUserData when you have a real SD card installed. You can see it with ES File Explorer (Free on Play Store) for example. You do not need to be rooted.

Edited October 3, 2012 by Hogweed

[Guest dmrtn]

It's also worth noting sometimes the default storage location swaps to the internal storage on its own, so its worth checking.

To change default storage location, go to Settings > Storage and tap Default Storage Location

I don't have a Default Storage Location under Storage on the Settings menu. Maybe that appears if I root the phone?

[Guest Hogweed]

I don't have a Default Storage Location under Storage on the Settings menu. Maybe that appears if I root the phone?

That's only on ICS. For GB you have Settings>Applications>Preferred Install Location.

[Guest dmrtn]

That's only on ICS. For GB you have Settings>Applications>Preferred Install Location.

Thanks.

Okay, well preferred install location has not changed, it is still set to Removable SD Card. As far as I know that hasn't changed by itself.

Have installed ES File Explorer and found the HWUserData folder. Sorry for the dumb questions but how to I go about finding out if it is mounted or not? The long press menu doesn't give me any option like that.

[Guest Hogweed]

It's always mounted (except when mounted externally on USB). Just have a look and see if there are any apps on it that you expected to be on the external card. The phone won't use them if they are there but a real SD card is installed but the partition is mounted so you can copy stuff to/from.

Edited October 3, 2012 by Hogweed

[Guest dmrtn]

It's always mounted (except when mounted externally on USB). Just have a look and see if there are any apps on it that you expected to be on the external card. The phone won't use them if they are there but a real SD card is installed but the partition is mounted so you can copy stuff to/from.

Okay, I'm trying to understand what's happening here. First of all there are a few, but not all, of the "missing" apps with folders (or in the subfolder Android/data) in the HWUserData folder. Is it possible that because there are elements here, the phone doesn't look at the sd card for the rest of the application and hence can't find it?

If that (or something similar) is true, then how do I fix it? Delete from the HWUserData folder? Uninstall and then delete anything left over in the HWUserData folder?

[Guest dmrtn]

The phone won't use them if they are there but a real SD card is installed but the partition is mounted so you can copy stuff to/from.

Not quite sure I follow what you're trying to say here?

[Guest Hogweed]

I suspect that at some point you have booted the phone with the SD card not installed (or installed but not recognised) and moved some apps to the internal card by mistake.

[Guest dmrtn]

I suspect that at some point you have booted the phone with the SD card not installed (or installed but not recognised) and moved some apps to the internal card by mistake.

That's certainly possible. It may have happened when I was changing the memory cards the first time.

So what is my next move? Uninstall all the apps (I don't have anything I need or can't replace easily), wipe the internal sd card and then start again? I assume wiping the internal sd card won't affect the operating system and will only wipe whatever is in the HWUserData folder.

[Guest Hogweed]

Yes I would just uninstall the apps and reinstall. If it starts happening again then investigate further.

[Guest wrtease]

have you still got your old card then copy the contents to it .that might work.

[Guest dmrtn]

Yes I would just uninstall the apps and reinstall. If it starts happening again then investigate further.

Done. So far it is working, but the last time it worked for a day before messing up too so I won't hold my breath just yet. The files are deleted from the Internal Memory Card so at least this time there is no chance of conflicts.

Hogweed, if this works you are a gentleman and a scholar. If it doesn't, you probably still are :) Thank you for your help and patience.

[Guest Hogweed]

Well I've been sitting in the house all day waiting for a parcel delivery - gives me something to do :-) Guess I'll have to sit in tomorrow as well now. I have a tracking number from the sender but when I try it the stupid Royal Mail tracking site says "Recorded Signed For™ items are only tracked after the item has been delivered. Depending on whether the item was sent first or second class, this may be a few days after posting. Please try again later."

So I can only track it after it has been delivered to me!

[Guest dmrtn]

Well I've been sitting in the house all day waiting for a parcel delivery - gives me something to do :-) Guess I'll have to sit in tomorrow as well now. I have a tracking number from the sender but when I try it the stupid Royal Mail tracking site says "Recorded Signed For™ items are only tracked after the item has been delivered. Depending on whether the item was sent first or second class, this may be a few days after posting. Please try again later."

So I can only track it after it has been delivered to me!

It's kind of comforting to know there is still genius in the world. Even if it is evil genius :)