Apps missing after sd card unmount The core issue is in the title: the apps that were installed in the SD card seem to be not installed at all after I unmounted the SD card.

As additional information, these are the steps preceding the moment I have noticed this problem:


installed some apps (so, it's not an app-specific problem)
moved many of them to the SD card using App2SD - apps working properly
unmounted the SD card and detached from the phone (which is turned on)
no data were written on the sd card (only read operations)
put SD back in the phone (the same SD card)


At this point, I was, and currently am, not able to launch the applications previously moved in the SD card. The links are available on my home screen, but after tapping them I get an error message saying "error launching application".

They are not available in the app menu, neither are marked as "installed" in the play store.

Fortunately, the applications' data are still there, and installing some of the apps again they appeared the same as the last time I used them.

So, the question is twofold:


Is there a way to recover the apps, or do I have to manually reinstall them?
Is this a potential bug of App2SD?
This sounds like a case of a vital hidden folder that you're missing - when apps are moved to the SD-Card, a hidden folder called .android_secure is created which is where the apps are stored in!

This is a common mistake to make, when replacing a SD-Card for a bigger one, so the moral is to ensure, when transferring to a bigger SD-Card, do not forget the hidden directories including .android_secure. Upon restart after inserting the bigger SD-Card, Android will re-scan the card and proceed to look in that specific hidden folder, for any apps that are moved to external storage and loads/caches the shortcuts for those respective apps.