I recently received a recurring error on my ICS device which was getting rather annoying. A pop-up every few minutes would inform me that com.android.launcher had failed and did I want to wait / report / close it.
The issue started about a month after the ICS update, although I am not sure if it was related or not. I tried to just close the notification, thinking it was a one time issue, but that didn’t work so I eventually started to report the error.
It wouldn’t show up immediately after a fresh reboot, but after about twenty minutes or so it would start again. I did a diligent search online, but only found a few references, all stated the same thing to “clear my media cache”. I did perform the action, but the notification still came up.
I did a bit of browsing through the add-ons installed, my troubleshooting instinct, and found the com.android.launcher program. I forced it closed, but the launcher initialized again after a few minutes – with an error. This time I went in and cleared the launcher data, and the issue was resolved!
To fix the issue, on your tablet, follow these steps:
- Click on the clock, in the lower right corner, and then click on the little sliders icon. This will open a larger menu, then select Settings on the bottom.
- On the left side about mid-way down the screen under Device will be an Apps link, select this.
- Select All on the top right side to view all the applications installed on your device. Scroll down this list until you get to com.android.launcher and select it.
- Select Clear Data to remove the data present, this will clear all your desktop icons. Your programs are still there, but the shortcuts to them on your desktop will be cleared.
- Your tablet will now go through the basics for setting up desktop icons when you return to the desktop.
I went in and looked at my Applications while writing this article, and it seems the com.android.launcher was no longer there. There is a possibility that it was left from the prior OS installation and never removed during the ICS release. My tablet was still referencing something that was outdated, and after clearing the data associated with the application it probably allowed the integration of the new desktop launcher.
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