From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Suddenly, today, July 30, 2026, my home screen disappeared.
a. I had three screens, one of which is the main home screen.
b. It's gone
c. Worse, a search for apps doesn't find apps I know are installed

What happened?

Looking at the Nova Launcher version, it's Nova 8.6.8 (86800).
WTF?

I was running the last known good version 7.0.57 by TeslaCoil
because Nova Launcher was sold by TeslaCoil to Branch Metrics,
who was bad, but then it was sold to Instabridge who is much worse.

How the heck did it get updated to the latest version w/o my permission?

It doesn't even *see* Muntashirakon App Manager which is what I need to
wrest control of my apps to uninstall it and re-install the original. .

It doesn't see a *lot* of apps that I know I have installed.
The entire Nova database is completely corrupted.

Anyone else using Nova Launcher with this issue?











































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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

I was running the last known good version 7.0.57 by TeslaCoil
because Nova Launcher was sold by TeslaCoil to Branch Metrics,
who was bad, but then it was sold to Instabridge who is much worse.

How the heck did it get updated to the latest version w/o my permission?

Something happened today with the Nova Launcher that it updated (somehow)
to the Instabridge Nova Launcher version 8.6.8 (86800) which made the
home screen not only gone, but whatever was left was completely unusable.

The entire home screen is shockingly and suddenly completley destroyed.
It's hard to describe, but it's completely locked up in a strange way.

So it's time to start over.

I downloaded the last known good version of Nova free 7.0.57 by TeslaCoil
<https://tinyurl.com/nova-launcher> last known good version 7.0.57
<https://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/nova-launcher/>
<https://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/nova-launcher/7.0.57/>
<https://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/dyn-postdownload.php/8b21f6f729320222bb5f58052aa5045a/6a6c4ad0/d0/4/1d915>
<https://us.softpedia-secure-download.com/dl/e225364b176a7e7fdb683772e4081e74/6a6c3cdf/800000208/apk/Nova7-7.0.57.apk>
C:\software\launcher\nova\Nova7-7.0.57.apk
Name: Nova7-7.0.57.apk
Size: 8687773 bytes (8484 KiB)
SHA256: FAC38E0B6EEC04F56116ABC1CB876DBA3203E50F168436473D7C6753E21264FD

Luckily, the desktop adb was able to find Muntashirakon App Manager.
adb shell pm list packages | findstr /i muntashirakon
package:io.github.muntashirakon.AppManager

I launched Muntashirakon App Manager outside of the home screen
adb shell monkey -p io.github.muntashirakon.AppManager 1

In Muntashirakon, I uninstalled the InstaBridge Nova Launcher
& back in adb, I re-installed the last known good version.

adb install C:\software\launcher\nova\Nova7-7.0.57.apk
Performing Streamed Install
Success

In adb, I set the default home screen to nova launcher.
adb shell cmd package set-home-activity com.teslacoilsw.launcher/.NovaLauncher
Success

Since the update destroyed the app data, I cleared that crap.
adb shell pm clear com.teslacoilsw.launcher
Success

Then, I suspended the app to pause execution.
adb shell pm suspend com.teslacoilsw.launcher
Package com.teslacoilsw.launcher new suspended state: false

Then I prevented Android from auto-revoking Nova's permissions.
adb shell cmd appops set com.teslacoilsw.launcher AUTO_REVOKE_PERMISSIONS_IF_UNUSED ignore

And to prevent the play store from updating apps again, I disbled it.
adb shell pm disable-user com.android.vending
Package com.android.vending new state: disabled-user

Checking the status, I see the auto-revoike is set to ????
adb shell cmd appops get com.teslacoilsw.launcher
... (stuff) ...
AUTO_REVOKE_PERMISSIONS_IF_UNUSED: ignore

Then I checked that the intaller is NOT set to the play store.
adb shell cmd package list packages -i | findstr com.teslacoilsw.launcher
package:com.teslacoilsw.launcher installer=null

If the installer column shows "com.android.vending",
the app was installed through Play Store and can be auto-updated.
If it shows "null", the app has no installer association
(and even if the play store is re-enabled, it won't update it).


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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

And to prevent the play store from updating apps again, I disbled it.
adb shell pm disable-user com.android.vending
Package com.android.vending new state: disabled-user

Now that I have the last known good version of Nova Launcher back,
to prevent Samsung from updating apps, I disabled this:
adb shell pm disable-user com.samsung.android.app.updatecenter
Package com.samsung.android.app.updatecenter new state: disabled-user

To verify that the automatic updates are disabled, I ran:
adb shell pm list packages -d | findstr /i "vending updatecenter samsungapps diagmonagent"
package:com.sec.android.diagmonagent
package:com.samsung.android.app.updatecenter
package:com.android.vending

Accidentally, I searched for "nova" when checking the status:
adb shell cmd package list packages -i nova
package:org.courville.nova installer=com.android.vending
package:com.sonova.phonak.dsapp installer=com.aurora.store
When I should have searched for the actual package name:
adb shell cmd package list packages -i | findstr com.teslacoilsw.launcher
package:com.teslacoilsw.launcher installer=null

But that is instructive to show possible installer identification.
The Aurora Store can push updates for com.sonova.phonak.dsapp
while the Play Store can push updates for org.courville.nova
but no app store can push updates for com.teslacoilsw.launcher

Note, while I was at it, I turned off the Samsung auto disabler:
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.sec.android.diagmonagent
Package com.sec.android.diagmonagent new state: disabled-user
Which ensures that all my manually installed apps stay active.

That stops Samsung's automated app management from undoing my lockdown.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

Now that I have the last known good version of Nova Launcher back,

Now it's time to restore my home screen to what it was before the
latest Nova Launcher from destroyed everything with its crap update.

Let's find a backup...
adb shell find /storage/emulated/0 -type f -name "*.novabackup"
/storage/emulated/0/0000/bck/2026-01-01_20-04.novabackup

Let's launch the nova settings:
adb shell monkey -p com.teslacoilsw.launcher 1

And restore that backup.
Nova:Backup & restore > 2026-01-01_20-04.novabackup
Drat! It crashes every time.

Maybe I need to set Nova Launcher as the default first?
adb shell cmd package set-home-activity com.teslacoilsw.launcher/.NovaLauncher
Success

Then, I go to Nova Settings & I select "Nova Launcher 7.0.57"
which says "Current 7.0.57" & "Latest 8.0.18") which is fine.

Then I go to Nova Settings > Backup & restore and press
"Restore backup" and it crashes every time.

Sometimes it pops up a message "Files keeps stopping".

I verify that it's the launcher.
adb shell dumpsys activity recents | find "NovaLauncher"
... stuff ...
intent={act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.HOME] flg=0x10000100 cmp=com.teslacoilsw.launcher/.NovaLauncher}
... stuff ...
Which proves that Android has bound the HOME intent to Nova
and the task is visible and running.

So the last known good version is not reading its own backups now.
WTF?

Looking it up, the latest version is known to be utter garbage:
<https://www.androidauthority.com/nova-launcher-update-bugs-3635708/>
Somehow, today, my phone was updated to *that* crappy version!

Now that I'm back to the old version, I have to figure out why
it's crashing on its own backup files, which shouldn't happen.

Looking it up, a replacement launcher is suggested here:
<https://www.howtogeek.com/androids-most-trusted-launcher-is-now-harvesting-your-data/>

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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

Now it's time to restore my home screen to what it was before the
latest Nova Launcher from destroyed everything with its crap update.

I just now figured out what had happened to cause Nova launcher to update.

For some reason, Aurora Store was set to "silently" update all apps.
Which, requires Shizuku on an unrooted phone, so I must have set that myself.
Aurora:Settings > Installation > Installation method > Shizuku installer

I didn't realize that would also update the apps silently, without asking.
I changed it to Muntashirakon App Manager instead, so it won't do that.

Bear in mind Aurora update is nothing like a Google Play Store update.
The Google Play store update sucks because it misses 90% of the apps.

I'm not sure why Google Play store misses almost all the apps, but part
of the reason might be that the installer is often not set to Google Play.

adb shell dumpsys package eu.faircode.netguard | findstr installerPackageName
=> installerPackageName=com.android.vending
adb shell dumpsys package com.termux | findstr installerPackageName
=> installerPackageName=com.google.android.packageinstaller
adb shell dumpsys package com.aurora.store | findstr installerPackageName
=> installerPackageName=null

Anyway, even though the Nova Launcher is the best launcher on the planet,
it began in 2011 by Kevin Barry at TeslaCoil Software. Soon, it became the gold standard of Android customization for over a decade.

However, in 2022 it was sold to Branch Metrics and development slowed.
Barry left in 2025 and in 2026 the launcher was acquired by Instabridge.

Instabridge added ads, trackers and monetization, such that most people abandoned it, but they didn't realize the last known good version works.

Last known good version of Nova free/adfree launcher 7.0.57 by TeslaCoil
<https://tinyurl.com/nova-launcher> last known good version
<https://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/nova-launcher/7.0.57/>
<https://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/dyn-postdownload.php/8b21f6f729320222bb5f58052aa5045a/6a6c4ad0/d0/4/1d915>
<https://us.softpedia-secure-download.com/dl/e225364b176a7e7fdb683772e4081e74/6a6c3cdf/800000208/apk/Nova7-7.0.57.apk>

This launcher is *still* the best launcher on the planet, but I haven't
checked launchers in a while, so I might ask others what they think.

Given the Nova Launcher allows any homescreen icon placement, and it allows
a backup/restore of the homescreen to a single 5GB file, and, when we
restore, we just tap the grayed out icons to install the APK, I wonder...

Q: What does your app launcher do that the Nova Launcher doesn't do?
A: ????

Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: What does your Android app launcher do that Nova Launcher doesn't do?
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2026 12:42:24 -0800
Message-ID: <114llnh$2i0t$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>
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