Ask NerdGirl: Auto Mounting SD Cards, Facebook Fail, the Eris is Getting Old, tikl my Android, and the Best App Manager!

by n3rdg1rl Aug 17, 2010 9:35 AM – 2 Comments

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has sent me questions. I truly appreciate your patience. I am just one person and I am getting through them as fast as I can. The response to “Ask NerdGirl” has been far better than we could have ever wished for!

Hi NerdGirl,

In recent days, much fuss has been made over the “Auto Mount Your SD Card” app. Could this not be accomplished by simply changing the default USB connection type to “Disk drive” (Settings > Connect to PC > Default connection type)? Is this setting only available on some Android devices (e.g. HTC Desire)?

Regards,

Anthony

As far as I’ve seen, on the 10 or so Android devices I’ve had extended periods of hands on time with, there is always, in some way, the ability to do this. I’ve done it on Samsungs, HTCs, Motorolas, Sonys and LGs. I’m not sure what the big deal is. Sometimes news isn’t really news at all. It’s just someone finding out something that everyone else seems to already know.

Am I missing something in my settings, or did HTC really drop the ball when it came to the contacts on the myTouch Slide? I don’t know if this extends to all Sense UI 2.1 handsets. Facebook pics won’t sync, Google contacts only sync the “my contacts” group, and when adding a contact directly into the phone it doesn’t even get added to that “my contacts” group.

I love this phone, but the contact management is lacking.

Am I basically stuck waiting for Froyo?

I’ve seen the facebook issue happening on my Eris and I’ve also seen it on the Samsung Captivate. The Facebook pics don’t sync up and sometimes they disappear completely. I seemed to fix it by turning off Facebook sync, powering off and then on, and then turning the Facebook sync back on. I have a few issues here and there, but not as bad as they were.

I have noticed that with the “My Contacts” as well, but I just always put everyone from each group in “My Contacts.” They still stay in their original group as well.

Hey n3rdg1rl!

I also have a Droid Eris like you, and I know that they don’t have the most capable processor, but generally it’s great. However, I have always found it takes my phone an extremely long time from pressing call on a name in my phonebook to the call actually beginning. Do you have a similar issue with yours or is this an isolated incident with my Eris?

Sincerely,

Slightly frustrated Eris owner

Same kind of thing happens with me. Since I upgraded to 2.1 it actually seems to have made the whole phone slower. I believe it’s almost time to put it out to pasture. (It hurts to type that…)

Can people in my contacts that are not Droid users download tikl and talk to me on my droid?

If you mean Droid as in Motorola Droid, than yes. Anyone with an Android phone can download tikl, real-time touch to talk walkie-talkie Android app, from the Market. If you mean Droid as in Android, than maybe. It is only currently available for Android and iPhone devices.

What’s the best app manager in the market, Better yet, a free one! Thanks for your help!

Personally, I just use the one built into my phone. It lets me clear the cache and uninstall if I want to. I’m not sure what else I would use an app manager for. If you are really looking for something else you could try AppManager which allows for batch uninstalls and backups.

Keep sending those questions to nerdgirl@androidtapp.com!

~n3rdg1rl

Tags: Android Advice, Android Questions, Ask NerdGirl, Help with Android

Categorised in: Android Advice, Ask NerdGirl

2 Comments

By Gunderstorm on August 17, 2010 at 11:23 am:

RE: Eris… Have you tried a contributed ROM? I had a much speedier G1 after installing the right ROM. It can make a huge performance difference. There seem to be quite a few.

http://db.androidspin.com/androidspin_release_matrix.asp?android_phone_ID=4&android_build_base_os=&android_developer_id=&go=go

This may be the only hope that a lower-end phone might have of keeping up.

Reply
By Jason Norment on August 17, 2010 at 11:41 pm:

I had an issue with the Facebook Sync as well when my Evo was still using 2.1. Here’s the fix that I had for the issue:

HTC EVO Facebook Reset

Alright everyone I got it working in less than 10 minutes. I did a hard reset on my phone to fix some issues with an APK that was causing some connection errors. FYI: You DO NOT have to do a hard reset for this to work. Here is what I did:

1) After restarting I set up my phone as per normal (email accounts, Twitter, Facebook, etc)
2) I opened Facebook and used it as normal with no issues. My friends list and feed worked fine.
3) Open my contacts to notice that all the Facebook photos have disappeared. After opening a few contacts I also realized that the link was gone! What to do now?
4) Went to the People Directory > Facebook > Refresh and received “CONNECTION ERROR”
5) Removed Facebook account from “Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync > Facebook for HTC Sense”
6) Cleared cache and data by going to “Menu > Settings > Applications > Facebook & Facebook for HTC Sense”
7) Used my computer to log into Facebook and removed the application link for both “HTC Sense” and “Facebook for Android” under “Application Settings”
8) Soft reset of my phone (powered off the device and powered it back on)
9) Went back to add the account in “Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync > Facebook for HTC Sense”
10) Opened up the Facebook application and logged back in. Checked to make sure everything work. No issues!
11) The real test: Opened “People Directory > Facebook”. Showed 0 friends. Clicked “Refresh” and waited about 2 minutes. BAM!!!! There were back again, photos and all!
12) Some of the accounts needed to be linked so I went through and took care of that. Works like a charm!

After upgrading to 2.2, my phone became very slow. I accredited this partially to Handcent SMS’s newest update but something else was causing issues. My phone would freeze up when receiving and making phone calls. My contact lists were duplicating. I wasn’t sure what to do since I had already tried to hard reset my phone twice using the “Power On, Vol Button Down” method. I couldn’t get my Quadrant score to stay about 500. I called Sprint Tech Support and they had my reset my phone to factory defaults by:

1) Dialing “##786#”
2) Press the “Menu” key then “Reset”
3) Type in the code 665097

This type of reset will completely reactivate your phone back to the original settings the way it was bought. It will keep your SD card contents safe. This type of reset also caused me to have to forward my voicemail back to Youmail again (the “Vol Button Down” method doesn’t require that) so I’m assuming this also resets your network connections. After doing the reset even after reinstalling my apps (not including Handcent SMS) my Quadrant score averages at 1269 (stock 2.2 install, no root). HUGE performance increase from after originally upgrading OTA. Be advised, the type of reset performed above WILL NOT downgrade your OS to 2.1. As always, use hard resetting your phone as a last resort.

I hope this helps!

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