no Map or Navigation icon

[Ron85331]

On my original Droid, and on my Droid 4 before ICS, I had no trouble: a Navigation icon (blue arrow) was present on one of the panels of my home screen, and I could tap it and get navigation help. As I recall, I could set it for driving or walking -- maybe bicycling.

I think it worked at one time, after I got ICS, but today i have spent about an hour wrestling with a problem: there is no Maps or Navigation icon on my home screen, and I can't figure out how to place one.

In order to get to Navigation, I have to follow an 8-step process.

(1) tap Play Store to open Google Play
(2) tap Menu
(3) tap MyApps
(4) scroll to Maps
(5) tap Maps
(6) tap Open
(7) in upper left part of screen, tap Maps
(8) tap Navigation

I can then tap "Speak destination", say "Starbucks", etc. :blink:

I would like to be able to reduce that to closer to a one-step operation, as it used to be.

On my home screen, when I tap "Apps" (across bottom of screen), it brings up a short list of apps, but there's no Maps or Navigation. Also no Camera or Gallery, for that matter. I can look in the widgets section, and there's something strange called "Directions & Navigation", but I am unable to place it on my home screen, and it doesn't actually let me navigate anywhere.

Maybe I need to reset my phone, but I'm not sure how to do that, and I'm not sure what I would lose in the process.

I got along fine with my original Droid, and for several months with the Droid 4, but now I'm sort of lost. Any ideas on how I can get a Map or Navigation icon back?

 

[wkearney99]

There's a Navigation icon in the Apps; not in Widgets. Drop it on a Home page. When tapped it brings up the Speak, Type, Go Home and Maps view, along with a list of recent destinations.

Is this not what you're after?

 

[Ron85331]

Thanks, wkearney99, for the reply, and I think you've given me a clue. It sounds like some Droid 4s with ICS do have a Navigation icon in their list of apps, and since mine doesn't, and since Navigation is meant to be a built-in Google app (not sure of the exact term), I had suspected that if I "reset" my phone (again, not sure of the correct term), it might bring back the things like Navigation, Maps, Camera, and Gallery (there are probably others) that I think used to be there.

Everything on the Droid is quite context-sensitive, so you may be talking about a list of apps that's different from what I looked at. But I assume that what you mean is, if you tap the Apps icon at the bottom center of your home screen (is that the "dock"?), and look through the icons shown under "Downloaded", you can see some or all of the items I'm looking for.

Under "Apps", I only see: ABC15.com; Advanced Task Killer; Amazon MP3; azcentral; Brightest Flashlight; Bubble; Carbonite Mobile; CNN; Color; Compass; Cox Connect; Dictionary; Droid Forums; Facebook; Finance; FotMob; GasBuddy; Google Sky Map (yes, that's a "map", but not the one I want); KY3 News; Moviefone; NPR News; PayByPhone; Retro Calculator; ScoreCenter; Shopper; Southwest; Stopwatch; Sygic (another "map"); The Weather; TuneIn Radio; USA TODAY; Walgreens; Waze (tried it, since someone said it was better than Google Maps - I need to get rid of it); Wells Fargo; Wifi Analyzer; World; and Zillow. There's no Maps, no Navigator or Navigation, no Camera or Gallery, which I think once appeared there.

I did find if I used Google search I could ask it for navigation directions, but it didn't give me the choices of driving, public transit, bicycling and walking that I remember Navigation offering. It seemed to just assume I would be driving, and as you can see, Navigation isn't the only thing I'm missing.

I'll probably head down to the Verizon Store and see if they can help. I could try a "reset" (like what we did on the original Droid by taking the battery out and putting it back in), but I'm not sure what effect that will have, and I'd like to find something I can do by using the UI.

Incidentally, if I go to "Manage apps", "All", there is a much, much longer list of apps there, which includes Amazon Kindle (that's on one of the panels of my home screen; guess I'd better not remove it because I don't see how I could place it again), Browser (ditto), Camera, Email, Gmail, Maps, and My Gallery, and a bunch of things I don't recall installing and I'm not really interested in like Key Chain, Google Play Music, Netflix, NFL Mobile, and Slacker Radio, but in "Manage apps" there's no way to place any of those icons on my home screen; at least I haven't figured it out if there is a way to do so.

Does any of the above, mainly the rather meager list of apps I can access and choose from for placement on my home screen, sound unusual compared to what you see on your Droid, and if so, do you have an idea how I can force it to show me the full list of my downloaded apps?

 

[wkearney99]

When you bring up the Apps (from the home screen center (#) icon) you should get a list of apps. The top row of the apps window has tabs that can be selected. You can alter what apps it shows: All, Downloaded, Frequent, Verizon Wireless along with being able ot great a new group or add a whole group to a home page. Perhaps you've got the view narrowed to something other than All Apps? If I had to guess I'm thinking yours is showing just the Downloaded apps.

I rooted my D4 (after an OTA update to ICS) and used Titanium Backup to freeze unwanted apps like the NFL crap. You can't freeze everything, and you should generally use freeze not uninstall for the bloatware default apps verizon includes. I believe you need to add the paid-for key to use Titanium Backup this way, and it's TOTALLY worth the purchase price.

The Verizon store folks are often as useless as a bag of hammers when it comes to fine-tuning the phone setup. More often than not they'll do something stupid like erase your phone to defaults and leave you with a mess to clean up.

Check the Apps tab first.

 

[Ron85331]

dancedroid Yes! That was it! I must have switched the choice from All apps to Downloaded without realizing it. I didn't know how to switch it back, but I did a "press & hold" on the tab and got the chance to select "All apps". (I knew all the apps I had been looking for were on my phone, so I had figured they should appear in the list of "downloaded" apps.)

Thanks! dancedroid

 

[reybie]

A happy ending

 

[Ron85331]

Yes, and everyone was very polite... no one even called me an idiot! This forum is much nicer than Usenet! :biggrin:

 

[reybie]

Wha?! Usenet? I have not heard that in a looooooong time lol.