Just a note of hope to anyone out there who is suffering from broken live tiles. Do not lose hope. All my 3rd party tiles stopped working nearly two months ago: Amazing Weather, Appointile, Battery Sense, Lockscreen Temp, Paper Shuffle, Radar Tile, Weave, WPCentral, etc. It was a minor, but persistent annoyance every time I used my Lumia 920; and a reminder that even some of the most basic, core features of WP8 are not always perfect. But life is busy and we don't always have time to "manage" our devices so I let it go on day after day. Eventually I realized that the loss of live tiles was really taking away from my enjoyment of my phone. Though there were still moments of delight, I would frown every time I picked up my phone and saw that the lockscreen image had not updated properly. I would briefly curse the phone every time I had to open the battery app to see how much juice was left. I was constantly forced to jump into apps to get information and it was like I was back on iOS.
Finally, I'd had enough. I combed through the forums looking for fixes, and came up with what seemed to be the most consistent recommendations: un-pin/re-pin live tiles, clear the IE memory, reboot the phone. I tried those with no success. Next up I looked into all of the background tasks, blocking every background task that I could. Then I looked at all those apps in the "Advanced" section of the Background list, those that you can't block. I was surprised by how many apps were in there, and by how many I simply never used. So I uninstalled any app that wouldn't be a pain to re-install (e.g. I have a bunch of downloaded Metrotube videos I didn't want to lose, and didn't want to deal with re-populating my Favourites in Podcast Lounge). I realized at this point that I was probably heading into the realm of superstition, but I didn't really care. I wanted to just clean up as much as I could. If this didn't work I was ready to uninstall everything except a handful of apps that were critical, blow away the start screen and essentially go back to Day 2 of my phone.
Before going thermonuclear, though, I did another soft reset after clearing all 3rd party tiles from the lock screen, blocking all background tasks and clearing out all those extra apps I hadn't been using. With a silent prayer I re-installed Battery Sense. I pinned its wide tile to the start screen, checked the current level then backed out of the app. And waited. I came back in thirty minutes and saw that it had refreshed itself. It correctly showed the time since last charge, and showed the battery reading down a few ticks. With cautious optimism I re-installed the TWC Weather app from Nokia and pinned its wide tile before going to bed. Checking in the next morning I saw that it displayed the current temperature; the tile flip revealed the 72 hour forecast starting with tomorrow. Double bonus- it was updating, and they fixed the stupid three day forecast that used to start with the day after tomorrow. Next up was WPCentral. Re-installed, logged in, reconfigured my settings then pinned a medium tile with counter. Checking in at lunch time I saw that there were several articles awaiting me.
It's been nearly a week now, and things are still going smoothly. I added back Paper Shuffle so I can get my rotating lock-screen images but haven't brought back the full list of apps. I still have a little fear that some morning soon I will grab the phone and see that the lock-screen has not been updated; and I'll be reminded once again that WP8 is still a work in progress. I do wish I knew exactly why the tiles stopped working. I can't be expected to keep track of every app download, background task, and live tile refresh. But I will definitely not wait as long to fix things if there is a next time.
If any of you are suffering through broken live tiles, I suggest you try to fix it before it drains the fun out of your experience with WP8. There may be some short term pain, but it will be worth it.
Finally, I'd had enough. I combed through the forums looking for fixes, and came up with what seemed to be the most consistent recommendations: un-pin/re-pin live tiles, clear the IE memory, reboot the phone. I tried those with no success. Next up I looked into all of the background tasks, blocking every background task that I could. Then I looked at all those apps in the "Advanced" section of the Background list, those that you can't block. I was surprised by how many apps were in there, and by how many I simply never used. So I uninstalled any app that wouldn't be a pain to re-install (e.g. I have a bunch of downloaded Metrotube videos I didn't want to lose, and didn't want to deal with re-populating my Favourites in Podcast Lounge). I realized at this point that I was probably heading into the realm of superstition, but I didn't really care. I wanted to just clean up as much as I could. If this didn't work I was ready to uninstall everything except a handful of apps that were critical, blow away the start screen and essentially go back to Day 2 of my phone.
Before going thermonuclear, though, I did another soft reset after clearing all 3rd party tiles from the lock screen, blocking all background tasks and clearing out all those extra apps I hadn't been using. With a silent prayer I re-installed Battery Sense. I pinned its wide tile to the start screen, checked the current level then backed out of the app. And waited. I came back in thirty minutes and saw that it had refreshed itself. It correctly showed the time since last charge, and showed the battery reading down a few ticks. With cautious optimism I re-installed the TWC Weather app from Nokia and pinned its wide tile before going to bed. Checking in the next morning I saw that it displayed the current temperature; the tile flip revealed the 72 hour forecast starting with tomorrow. Double bonus- it was updating, and they fixed the stupid three day forecast that used to start with the day after tomorrow. Next up was WPCentral. Re-installed, logged in, reconfigured my settings then pinned a medium tile with counter. Checking in at lunch time I saw that there were several articles awaiting me.
It's been nearly a week now, and things are still going smoothly. I added back Paper Shuffle so I can get my rotating lock-screen images but haven't brought back the full list of apps. I still have a little fear that some morning soon I will grab the phone and see that the lock-screen has not been updated; and I'll be reminded once again that WP8 is still a work in progress. I do wish I knew exactly why the tiles stopped working. I can't be expected to keep track of every app download, background task, and live tile refresh. But I will definitely not wait as long to fix things if there is a next time.
If any of you are suffering through broken live tiles, I suggest you try to fix it before it drains the fun out of your experience with WP8. There may be some short term pain, but it will be worth it.
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