Resolve reboot and force close issues on HTC Hero after ROM update
22 October 2009
7 Comments
Most HTC Hero owners should have their phones updated to the latest ROM by now (stock or otherwise), but a recurring complaint I’ve heard from a number of people is that, after the update, they see a lot of force close issues and even the odd reboot for no obvious reason. The good news is, there is a fix. Apparently this issue can be caused by data which has been cached by some or one of the applications on the phone prior to the update. There are two methods for resolving this – and neither is a particularly appealing prospect- **Please ensure you have anything essential backed up, whether it’s on your SD Card or on the phone, before doing any of the following. I am not responsible for any data loss as a result of poor backup discipline**
The first option is to delete the cached data from all of the apps (or if you’re feeling particularly patient, you can go through them one at a time to see which one is causing the issue). To delete the data-
- Push the menu button
- Tap Settings
- Tap Applications
- Tap Manage applications
- This should open a list of all of the apps installed on your machine. If you tap on one of the apps, you will be brought in to the application info page. From here, you can clear any stored data and/or cached data for the app. Bear in mind, doing this removes all data related to the app, including account settings (eg, your GMail account will need to be re-entered)
- When you have gone through all of the apps, reboot the phone and see if the force close issues have gone
If you find that you are unable to re-enter your Gmail account details (there is a bug in the Hero where, if you skip the initial Gmail account config on first starting up the phone, you can’t successfully re-enter it), to resolve this bug, try the following-
- Push the menu button
- Tap Settings
- Tap Data Synchronization
- Tap Google and you should be prompted to re-enter your data (if this doesn’t work, move on to the second option below)
The second option, If the above doesn’t resolve your force close issues (it seems to be a bit hit or miss), is unfortunately to do a factory reset. Again, don’t do a hard reset without first backing up all of your data.
To reset the phone-
- Press the menu button
- Tap Settings
- Tap Security
- Tap Factory data reset.
- On the Factory data reset screen, tap Reset phone and then tap Erase everything.
To reset the phone using phone buttons-
- With the phone turned off, press and hold the HOME and BACK buttons, and then briefly press the END CALL/POWER button. The reset process will start after a few seconds.
- Wait for the phone to finish the reset process and then press MENU.
Tip- If your phone hangs or freezes, remove the battery then wait for a few seconds, and then re-install it. After re-installing the battery, turn on the phone.
i've been experiencing this issue for a while. This method and a couple of others have not solved the issue, my provider claimed that the issue was with the Sim Card…I told them it wasn't but they had to replace it!
Still a problem, would like a new phone but the wonderful people at Orange would rather not send me another Hero!
That's annoying. And this has only been happening since updating your phone, as in, it was fine before the update? Are you using the SDCard that came with the phone or an upgraded one you bought yourself?
i have done a factory reset 3 times now. it is very annoying to have to erase everything on your fone, simply because when you reboot everything force closes. i have noticed that when i supposedly downloaded too many app on my fone, that causes the force close every time. i delete all my app and bring down the internal memory to about 70gb and it turns on again just fine. still i should not have to delete my app to be able to reboot my fone. whats the point of having an android market if u cant even keep all the app on ur fone without it causing a problem on reboot.
I also have went through two phones (HTC Heros) figuring out what the heck the deal is. Every time I add applications my whole system shuts down and tons of force close app screens appear and my cellular provider com's shut down when I power down. Then I have to do a factory reset… is it really that you can have only so many apps… this seems stupid for "Market – Google" why can we not put our apps on our SD cards…. I am beginning to hate this phone… everyone tells me I should switch to AT&T and get the I phone… Which I don't want…
I have a lot of apps on my phone due to playing around with a lot of apps looking for any that are interesting enough to review for this site, and I've never seen my phone force close due to the amount of apps I have installed. It is possible though I guess, if you're installing a lot of apps. But, I suspect the problem may be being caused by one app in particular, or perhaps even 2 or 3 apps which are hogging memory. The only thing I can suggest is, to try installing apps slowly, perhaps only one or two apps at a time, then use the phone for a bit (however long it usually took before you were seeing force close issues) before installing the next couple of apps and so on. That way you can work out which app(s) are causing you problems.
I agree with you on the SD card thing. There is a way of putting apps on to SD cards, however, only if you use a rooted phone. Alternatively, you can hang fire as Google announced as part of the Nexus One unveiling yesterday that there will be an update available soon which will allow users to store apps on their SD cards. No idea how long that'll take as yet.
The same stuff has been happening to me so i deleted all the cached data then erased a bunch of apps i dont use anymore and now it works great. Dont download to many apps and if u stop using one delete it.
Hello!I was ready to give up on my HTC HERO Sprint,since it FC all my apps and shut phone down twice.I ended up doing a hard reset and ofcourse like the 1st time loss all apps.But bottom line if you do too many apps at once, its like the memory can’t keep up. So we just got to maybe slow down installing all those apps we want. I’ve only had my HTC a month, and I’m a happy camper. I refuse to switch to At&t too pay so much for their plans plus web $30.00. But they do have nice customer service. Ok! back to HTC FC, don’t give up, just slow down. Just like I’m gonna do,and for Sprints (Android Specialist Tech) sake it better be just that. I belive I was able to save my apps in a app, I ofcourse looked up it after my 1st hard reset that I lost everything. I want to say it was Mobisle Notes Free backup, and it it stores in app Astro File Manager. Sorry waiting for my fone to complete resetting and going by memory,…. Good Luck! Don’t give up… just slow down…
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