Unfortunately TwLauncher has stopped

[Anonymous]

After 6 months of trouble free service it looks like my Samsung Galaxy S2 has decided to throw few wobblers.

Two days ago it failed to send a text. and kept draining the battery trying to do so without telling me.

Two hours ago I tried to open a text message and got the "Unfortunately TwLauncher has stopped" message, and went into a never ending loop without being able to access any functions (particularly I couldn't get into settings and clear the TwLauncher data).

However I do back up regularly, so I thought I'd bite the bullet and do a reset. I swithched off and removed the battery. Replaced the battery and briefly pressed the on/off switch while I held down volume down. This brought a message up telling me that re-installing the OS would lose my data, and that to cancel press volume up, to continue press volume down. I pressed volume down and now I'm in a screen with ODIN MODE and the Android figure, and the message "Downloading... Do not turn off target!!".

Nothing seems to happening. How long should I wait, and what should I do if things have gone wrong?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[anticpated · Accepted solution]

Firstly, as the good Hitchhikers guide proclaims "Don't Panic".

ODIN mode won't do anything until it connects up with ODIN. So unless it's actually running a process just remove the battery. It could be a number of things causing your hang-up although it's likely to be shared program indicies and a mixed up cache.

TWLauncher is the process for Touchwiz which is the Samsung interface as you know. For the moment though, pull out the battery. From off, press the home key, power key and volume up at the same time. This will bring up a menu. Using the volume keys to go up and down and power to select choose Clear/wipe Caches.

Try restarting the handset from the menu. If successful without errors, back up to Google and any SIM contacts, messages etc. Applications and licenses just in case. Photographs et al. You can synchronise your details with your Google account, meaning you can retrieve the information online as well as on your handset.

OK after this, shut down your handset. Restart as previously stated however this time choose to do a data/system restore. This should remove any gremlins and by synchronising your handset you should get many details back on your handset, including applications.

If you have any issues just ask and you should get an answer.

After this,

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

Another hour I'll never get back of my life.

Ended up doing what you said. After the data/system restore it took about an hour to get the phone back to just how I like it.

Surprising just how few of the installed apps I use. All those little icons look lovely, but I hardly open them. Most of the stuff I actually use had to be downloaded from Google Play.

Still it did seem to work a little faster afterwards.

Did manage cause an argument between me and the wife. She wanted a lift to the shops. and I wanted to fix the phone. I'd just managed to fix it when she phoned for a lift home. Synchronicity!

[anticpated]

Google on the ball there then.....