Hello All,

Here's a weird 'problem' which is apparently quite widespread with no solution in sight (for lots of HTC Android phone models).

Intermittently, when I press the HOME button on my HTC Wildfire, I get prompted with 'Complete action with':

1) Home (the standard Android Home screen))
2) HTC Sense UI

So, what's the problem?

Well, HTC Sense should be the default, the way it was out of the box and up to just a day ago. Though I check the button that makes Sense the default for this action it never sticks.

Also, HTC Sense now appears as a running application when I long-press the HOME button (task switcher) when it never used to appear there before.

I've tried going to Settings>Applications>Manage applications and under HTC Sense, cleared defaults and re-set HTC Sense as the default but the 'Complete action with' dialogue still pops up every time after I long -press the Home button. I'm not running Launcher Pro or any other app which might interfere with the Home screen - everything was fine before so nothing should have changed and I suspect it's a bug.

Anyone know how to get rid of the HOME application / setting so I that when I press the HOME button on my phone it works the way it originally was supposed to (i.e. defaults to Sense UI)?

Alternatively, is it safe to uninstall the standard Android Home app which is part of the system if I don't want it? Would doing this interfere with Sense UI or the Android OS?

Thanks a bunch!

Did you install any launchers or lock screen softwares by any chance? Those could have affected your home button.

Tks for replying! I've got No Lock installed but it was working fine with that for weeks and the problem only came recently while I never got it before even with No Lock enabled.

My other question is if its safe to uninstall the standard Android Home application? Would that be like uninstalling the Android OS itself or would it not matter since HTC Sense is already there?

HTC has only responded to say that I should do a hard reset, but I'd only try that as a last resort. It's just baffling since everything was fine before and I've not made any radical change or installed any app that might take over the Home screen. The dialogue choice is to Complete Action with Home (Android standard Home screen) or HTC Sense anyway. I suspect its not really a hardware problem but just that the OS can't remember which setting is default...

Actually, instead of using the Sense as default, set "Home" as the default. The Sense is actually a bloatware rather than a launcher itself. Usually, this only happens when there are two launchers available. Do be careful with launchers. Uninstalling them is not impossible, but your phone may terribly crash with improper uninstallation (and if there is no valid launcher installed thereafter).

Do you have root on your phone? Are you running a custom ROM? If your answer is yes to these two, that will make your life a lot easier actually.

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Added on September 6, 2010, 10:34 pmI'm subscribed to this thread and will see how it goes Usually there is a way out of Android when something like this happens.

This post has been edited by shahz: Sep 6 2010, 10:34 PM

the Wildfire still does not have a full root access, it only has now a softroot which will be disabled upon reboot. Too bad for the wildfire, there arent many devs working around it up till now.

Uh oh..Wildfire is the ONLY Android phone that I have not played with so far :S

So, have you tried setting Home as your default launcher?

aiya, just install launcherPro/adw launcher and set it as default lancher la...
use what HTC sense la

I do agree with whitegoh, but that's not the ultimate solution though. Its still user's preference to choose which launcher he want to use.

Me? I'm ADW fan

HTC Sense is ok what. It's not completely useless until being call a bloatware. I wouldn't call it bloatware since I have use all of their features.

I use ADW too but it feels abit unrefined on the wildfire atleast. Still, frequent updates ironing out some kinks at a time, which is good.

LOL..Did I say HTC Sense sucks or what not? Bloatware is a term that is used for software that is force-packaged with a particular system, which uses RAM and storage space excessively with little or no benefit. Doesn't mean that thing is useless.

Dude, since when I say you said HTC Sense sucks?

Bloatware term is subjective from 1 user to another. Everybody are entitled to their own satisfaction as I have my own.

From your statement, it was as if I was calling HTC Sense useless and that it doesn't deserve to be called a "bloatware"..lol..

What should I call a bloatware if not a bloatware?

Aiya don't misunderstand my statement la. Bloatware is a subjective term, which is the grey area for most users. Just like calling Touch Wiz, Moto Blur a bloatware.

This post has been edited by alpha0201: Sep 7 2010, 09:30 AM

i guess it's just misunderstanding.. i dont think Shahz meant any negative thing by saying HTC Sense as bloatware..

irenic - its not even a bad thing to call Sense a bloatware coz thats exactly what it is called. lol. Chill man~ I'm just here to help The Scourge out because he sent me a special invitational PM to help him here.

Sometimes I wish Android would do away with the custom UI support. Its getting so annoying and its hurting the performance. Especially Motorola and Samsung, these are two very major offenders.

When the Motorola Droid first came out, it was a large success partly due to its outstanding hardware as well as its stock software. But when the Droid2 came, instead of stock software it came with this crap called MotoBlur. From the various videos about it I can deduce that the performance on the Droid2 to be vastly inferior to that on the original Droid, despite the much better hardware and Froyo.

Samsung on the other hand had been an offender since the beginning. Look at the horrible interface on the Samsung Behold II. Even the Galaxy S' interface looks like rubbish. Thankfully its powerful hardware had helped bypass the unpleasant experience.

Oh well, we just have to see Android 3.0 then.

This post has been edited by pziv2: Sep 7 2010, 02:00 PM

U really played all of those android phones except Wildfire ?

im having a samsung galaxy i7500, my homescreen seems to have 3 clocks, how to remove the clocks?? very confusing, as i tried the settings,and it says only add, no remove options there..how??

long pressing the clock, drag and throw them into dusbin.

Yep I've even played the Droid X already I dont own them though. Got too many international friends

Long press it and u will know

Since you can't be sure what app that causes the conflict, u can try installing homeswitcher and set HTC SENSE as default.

Hi Everyone!

Been super bz so I didn't have time to check in earlier but wow! It's nice to see the community 'spirit' still kickin'. Thanks to all who looked this topic up and for running through possible solutions, esp Shahz, for heeding my plea.

Right, just wanna share with you all, the problem's solved!

At first I thought it was something that ran deep, right down to the OS layer but for everyone who's curious (or who experiences something similar next time) the culprit was the app - EStrongs Security Manager!

I'd dismissed it as a cause earlier because the phone was functioning fine after installing the app and the problem only came up a few days later. Trawling the net for similar symptoms also revealed that lots of people were also experiencing similar problems. I also thought there was a flaw which prevented the phone from remembering the default choice of home screen, made even more puzzling since I didn't have Launcher Pro, ADW, etc installed. HTC's official response was also that all HTC Android phones 'only come with HTC Sense' (duh, isn't Sense just a UI layer on top of bog-standard Android?).

Anyway, after uninstalling EStrongs, the problem disappeared immediately and HTC Sense no longer appeared as a running app in the task switcher (home button long-press).

So remember folks, if you're experiencing the 'Complete Action with Home/HTC Sense' dialogue, it's because of an app you installed (although the app in question will differ across incidences).

For the record, I'm still new to Android so I wanted to get to grips with it first and enjoy the 'out of the box' experience before skinning or tweaking the OS. Gotta admit though, there's some sweet looking mods around (eh, whitegoh? ;p ).

I also consider bloatware to refer to crap applications which I have no intention of using or which slows the system down significantly when they don't need to (I'm looking at you, Creative, and all those extra 'utilities' pre-loaded by some notebook brands). Some might consider Aero for Win7 or even the standard WinXP UI bloatware, preferring instead the Win2k Pro experience (yes, I know some of these people ;p). As long as it doesn't affect the functionality of my device or even enhances the user experience, I'm happy to refrain from categorizing Sense as bloatware. Just wanted to chime in on the discussion .

So happy ending, thanks again everybody!!!

This post has been edited by The Scourge: Sep 8 2010, 12:12 AM

android cupcake 1.5..my screen doesnt show any dustbin leh...

When you long press the clock, it will be moveable..at the bottom of the screen, a dustbin will APPEAR

yes that's what i meant it is just misunderstanding.. haha


i'm fasting!!

or, after u press and hold the icon, when the icon got highlighted in other color (normally is red) go to menu and press there. u should see remove icon option is there

This post has been edited by irenic: Sep 8 2010, 05:59 PM

i like htc sense... just the app drawer need 3d =P and those fancy animations are taken out