Lots of live folders causes "resuming" each time you hit the Windows key

[v_emman]

I write this post trying to help anyone who is stuck in the same situation that I have been. After two hard resets and installing everything from scratch, I found out that there is an upper limit to the number of live folders one can have in their startscreen. On my Lumia 630 that limit is 28 sharp. The number of items in the folders or their size don't seem to matter. If I have 27 folders everything is OK, but when I add one more I get that "loading..." for a couple of seconds every time I hit the Windows button. Add some more and you get it for longer time and when you scroll through the startscreen too. And if you continue adding folders, you eventually come to a point when the "loading.." lasts forever and you can do nothing else than hard resetting (you get it even after a restart).

I hope my little investigation helps anyone who encountered that problem, and even Microsoft's developers to eliminate this serious bug.

EDIT: It's exactly the same on my 1020, which has 4 times the RAM of 630. 27 folders, not one more. So it's probably not a RAM issue.

 

[Nerdy Woman]

re: Creating a lot of live folders causes that "loading" eachy time you hit the Windows key

This is not a bug, it's a limitation of a 512MB device. With 5 folders (news, tools, drive, pictures, video categories) on my 920 (1MB RAM), there is no "loading..." wait.

I can't even imagine having enough apps to need 27 folders... the only apps I keep on my start screen are apps I use too often to want to swipe, tap, tap, swipe, tap (app list process) to use and live folders for those that are numerous and easy to forget I have if I don't group them (namely, picture editing apps). Or perhaps you've gone a bit too granular?

 

[hprvez]

re: Creating a lot of live folders causes that "loading" eachy time you hit the Windows key

If this is replicable on different devices with different roms it's a bug, and a huge one, to even force a reset. Maybe try dowloading again your rom o use another one and hard reset once more. It could be the local copy of your os to be corrupted in some way, so it's still present even after a reset.

 

[xandros9]

re: Creating a lot of live folders causes that "loading" eachy time you hit the Windows key

I think its more loading down the device with too many tiles and folders.

 

[Asskickulater]

re: Creating a lot of live folders causes that "loading" eachy time you hit the Windows key

Almost certain this is less of a bug and more of a hardware limit, though as said before.. I cant fathom why you would need 28 folders... but weather its a ram issue or not I'm not sure, but from what I gather, the live tiles seem to be on the more demanding side of things, I think the bug more than anything here is being able to crash the OS, Microsoft should find the limit on the lowest end platforms and add a toggle that would be enabled by default to only allow x amount of live folders (with a warning for turning it off)

 

[xandros9]

re: Creating a lot of live folders causes that "loading" eachy time you hit the Windows key

Almost certain this is less of a bug and more of a hardware limit, though as said before.. I cant fathom why you would need 28 folders... but weather its a ram issue or not I'm not sure, but from what I gather, the live tiles seem to be on the more demanding side of things, I think the bug more than anything here is being able to crash the OS, Microsoft should find the limit on the lowest end platforms and add a toggle that would be enabled by default to only allow x amount of live folders (with a warning for turning it off)

I was about to say that people would complain about the seemingly arbitrary block (I want my 40 folders without M$$$ telling me what to do with MY FONE!!!!!!) in the same vein as the cellular download limit but then I see the toggle off part. I like that, although I feel it could vary from phone to phone based on how much is in the tile, is it animated?, how many apps tombstoned?, etc

 

[v_emman]

re: Creating a lot of live folders causes that "loading" eachy time you hit the Windows key

It IS a bug. It first happened on my 1020, which has 2GB of RAM. My 1020 was sent to service shortly after that (it had a problem with the USB port) so I didn't have the chance to investigate it further (I am still waiting for it to arrive). Then I bought my 620, I installed 8.1 GDR1 DP and restored the backup from my 1020. It restored the startscreen layout among others, so the "loading..." thing hit my 620 too. I kept adding live folders, till the "loading..." became permanent, even after restarting several times. So, I hard resetted it, and started installing everything from scratch, to hit the limit once again. After another hard reset and installing of all of my apps I found the cause of the problem. There is no doubt that the number of live folders causes it. Have 27 and there is no problem, add one more and you see that "loading..", remove it and everything returns to normal. When my 1020 arrives I will test it on it too, to see if the limit is different due to the bigger RAM. Maybe you don't find a reason for someone having 28 folders on their startscreen, but some would certainly try it, like I tried it. Those people will encounter that"loading..." and will be even forced to do a hard reset, without having a clue about the cause. So Microsoft should try to fix it, and even remove that limit or prohibit users from creating too many folders. As far as I am concerned, I prefer my startscreen to be organized and everything easily and quickly accessible. Live folders are perfect for that, so I use them heavily.

 

[Nerdy Woman]

re: Creating a lot of live folders causes that "loading" eachy time you hit the Windows key

It IS a bug. ...So Microsoft should try to fix it, and even remove that limit or prohibit users from creating too many folders. As far as I am concerned, I prefer my startscreen to be organized and everything easily and quickly accessible. Live folders are perfect for that, so I use them heavily.

It sounds more like a constraint. Microsoft may have determined that the overhead required for live folders needed to be limited to enable other parts of the OS and apps to run in conjunction with live folders. Expecting an unlimited number of live folders is like saying they should also fix the 256-bit per byte limitation...

 

[v_emman]

re: Lots of live folders causes that "loading" each time you hit the Windows key

It's exactly the same on my 1020, which has 4 times the RAM of 630. 27 folders, not a single more. So it's probably not a RAM issue.

 

[aikidaves]

re: Lots of live folders causes that "loading" each time you hit the Windows key

Probably a limit in the implementation. Whether raising the limit is a simple change or requires a major redesign is something only the developers can answer. We'll have to see what they do. Major redesigns are expensive, though.

I can't quite picture a great need for 28 or more live folders, but I suppose to each his own.

 

[Asskickulater]

re: Lots of live folders causes that "loading" each time you hit the Windows key

I was about to say that people would complain about the seemingly arbitrary block (I want my 40 folders without M$$$ telling me what to do with MY FONE!!!!!!) in the same vein as the cellular download limit but then I see the toggle off part. I like that, although I feel it could vary from phone to phone based on how much is in the tile, is it animated?, how many apps tombstoned?, etc

That's an interesting thought, I wonder if the type of live tile plays a role, on one hand, I could see more complex, more oftenly updated tiles taking more resources, but at the same time, I question what exactly would make a live tile in a folder become more demanding than it being alone on the start screen..

Also, this brings up another interesting question, can we achieve this result by just throwing a crap ton of apps on the start screen without folders? Could this possibly be a limitation that was always in WP that was never noticed until the live folders came into the picture? Is there anyone here who's had more than 80 apps on the start screen without live folders?

 

[v_emman]

The type of the live tile doesn't play any role. Neither the total number of tiles, inside or outside of folders. The only thing that matters is the total number of folders. 27 sharp. I tested it both on my 630 with its 512MB of RAM and on the 1020 with its 2GB of RAM. It's exactly the same on both of them.