Touchwiz Issues

[Allisonlynn614]

I am new to this forum, actually its the only forum I was ever on. I have been trying to research my issue for over an hour now and I need an answer that is put into the simplest terms. A lot of the questions and answers are to techy for me to understand, I am also coming from having an iphone for the 6 years to having a Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

If someone could answer my question and dumb it down for me I would really appreciate it.
I downloaded Touchwiz (I was just trying to download a new calendar) and my whole phone changed. I spent the weekend adding widgets to the different pages and putting my apps into specific folders, but once I downloaded Touchwiz everything disappeared. I want to get my phone back to the way it was when I first purchased it. I have had this phone for a few months so I don't want to do anything that would delete all of my pictures, videos or apps.

All I want is to get rid of this touchwiz and get the stock setting or whatever the original setup was called back the way I had it set up before I lost it.

I know some people are going to think I am stupid, and yes I will agree with them. I am very stupid when it comes to Android devices. If someone is feeling nice enough to explain this to me in the simplest terms (like you are talking to a 2nd grader) I would really appreciate it.

Thank you!!

 

[cr6]

Welcome to the forum @Allisonlynn614!
Hang in there and we'll do our best to help you out.
Let's start with the basics.
You said you "downloaded Touchwiz". We'll need a little more information as to what exactly you downloaded and where you were on your device when it downloaded. The reason I ask this is because, you have a Samsung Galaxy device and every Samsung Galaxy (whether it's a Galaxy S6 or a Note 4) comes with Touchwiz as its main "launcher". A launcher is the software that operates your device. Motorola calls their launcher "Blur" or Motoblur. HTC calls their launcher "Sense".
They each have their pros and cons, but for the most part they each operate in conjunction with the Android operating system. One of the appeals of a Nexus device is that it provides the user with a pure Google, or a pure "Android experience", without all the extra added features that comes with Touchwiz, Blur, Sense etc. Some folks enjoy all the added "bells & whistles" the various launchers provide. Others don't because they like adding only what THEY want onto their smartphones, and not what the manufacturer thinks they want.

So to get back to my original question... can you tell us exactly where you were (on your device) when you "downloaded" Touchwiz? Were you in the Play Store, or did you get a message that popped up saying an "update" was available?
If I had to guess, I would say your device updated to the latest Android 5.0 update that was recently released, (code named Lollipop) and this is what has dramatically changed the look of your device. But it's also possible you downloaded a different "launcher", if you were in the Play Store when this happened.
Unfortunately there is no returning your device to its previous "look", if it was an "OS update". (In some cases....depending on what model Note 4 you have and who your carrier is) you can "root" your device and revert back to previous OS versions. But that is a whole other can of worms so to speak, and is not something I wouldn't advise to someone in your current situation. (At least at this point) If it WAS a different launcher you downloaded, then we can walk you through removing it.

As I mentioned, hang in there and with a little more information, well help you figure this out.

S5 tap'n

 

[Allisonlynn614]

Well first off thanks for taking the time to try and help me out. This is how it happened. All weekend I was playing around with the phone, watching videos about different things I could do. I decided I wanted to use a few widgets and I found some I really liked. On one page (not sure what you call them but you have your home screen then the other ones that you can scroll through) I put a calendar and it was the one that came with the phone and I didn't really like it. I went in the playstore to see if there were any other widget calendars, I found on and it was connected to Touchwiz I think, once I downloaded the calendar it said I had to down load touchwiz in order to run it. I just pressed ok, then I go and look at my phone and I only have 2 pages instead of 8, and the apps were re big and cartoony looking. I did so much reading today on it. I don't really understand what an interface is and I'm guessing since I already changed the way my phone looked I could do it again. Oh and I did do the download/upgrade yesterday. It changed the color of my texts and now when my screen is looked I don't get any notifications. I like the notifications with the symbols that just sit up top on your phonephone. They disappeared also.

 

[sherri]

Try going to "settings". From there, see if you have "home". Tap it. If you downloaded the TouchWiz launcher from the play store (although, as pointed out, this should be already installed on phone). If there is more than one "home" listed, tap the "other" one. It sounds to me like you may have downloaded a widget that needs to be used with the TouchWiz launcher, and when you were given the chance, you tapped to use it. See if changing it back (if possible) works.