New Droid 2 owner with some issues (yes I searched)

[boostedgta]

Ok, just got my new Droid 2 last week, and I'm a former Blackberry owner. So far, I love a lot of things about the phone, but at the same time I'm struggling with a few things. I really want this new relationship to work out, maybe it's just going to take some time to figure all this stuff out.

• How do you cut/paste into notepad apps or email, etc? Please tell me I don't have to buy an app to do such a basic feature that has been around for so long! My :blackberry: did this with no problem.
• So this thing does not come with any desktop software that will handle backup/restoring??? Please tell me I don't have to buy an app for this! With my :blackberry: I knew that I could restore EVERYTHING just the way I had it.
• Gmail is the only email I have installed on the phone so far. However, when I open Gmail messages in the Gmail app, they are still left unread in the other email boxes?!!? Please tell me I don't have to buy an app for this! My :blackberry: would mark the messages read if I had opened them in just one of the in-boxes.
• Calendar--how do I insert a calendar entry?!!? It gives me the message "You must synchronize a calendar before creating a new event". What is this about? I just need to put some stuff in here. Also, my :blackberry: would put all of my facebook friends' birthday on the calendar automatically, which I liked.
• I received an email yesterday with a .MOV video clip attached. It played the clip, but NO sound... what's up with that? I know there's sound because it played on the computer with sound when I checked it there.

Please help...as mentioned, I like a lot of things about this D2, but I hope there's something I'm missing on the above. Seems like a lot of this is pretty basic stuff.

 

[spaz33g]

I believe there is a thread in here about calendar issues but it may have been another forum so no worries. The easiest way I have found to fix this problem is to create a new dummy gmail account. You can do this by going to settings > accounts > add account and selecting google. Once you have created the new account go to the callendar and sync the new dummy account. You should then be able to add a calendar event either by doing so in the calendar app or online from google calendar. Create at least 1 calendar event and then delete the dummy account and resync your original account. After that you should be able to add events to the calendar. I know its a long process but it worked for me.

 

[spaz33g]

As for copy and paste it depends where you want to copy from. From the web you press the menu soft key and the select + more > select text. Then all you have to do is drag across the text you wish to select, it will highlight in purple and when you are satisfied just release. It will immediately copy to your clipboard. To paste just long press in any text field and it will bring up a menu, scroll down to paste from clipboard and it will bring up all of the items in your clipboard. In most places other than the web you can long press on a piece of text and a menu will appear with the option to copy all text. If you go this route all you have to do to paste is long press in a text field and select paste. Hope that helped and wasn't too long and convaluded.

 

[boostedgta]

Thanks, I'll try the calendar suggestion. And cut/paste works, so we can take those items off the list.

Any takers on the other issues?

 

[spaz33g]

I guess i'll take a crack at it. What info are you looking to backup/restore

 

[boostedgta]

I guess i'll take a crack at it. What info are you looking to backup/restore

I want everything backed up, just like I could do with my :blackberry:

 

[xandor]

When I upgraded to the D2 from my D1, my settings and such restored pretty automatically. Only had to redownload some apps.

 

[boostedgta]

Ok, thanks for the tip about getting the calendar working by setting up a dummy gmail account. That worked...

Other things I've noticed now--

-I can't resize pictures before sharing them (text, email, etc). On my Blackberry, it would ask me what size I wanted to send so that was handy for sending things via text (so they don't get a text with a full 5MP picture).

-Sometimes I can't seem to see all the replies in an email, I only see the current reply (can't scroll down all the way to see what was originally said). This is annoying, where did the original email go????

 

[boostedgta]

When I upgraded to the D2 from my D1, my settings and such restored pretty automatically. Only had to redownload some apps.

Did you use backup assist? I'd just like 1 backup program to do everything so I can forget about it. I think I've found an app that will do that, I just didn't understand why Droid did not come with any desktop software like the :blackberry: did.

 

[pulptastic]

I believe backup assist is Verizon's contact backup and restore feature. Unless you chose to disable backups, Google automatically backs up your contacts, at least some of your settings (my D2 remembered my wifi info from my D1), and what apps you have installed. As of yet Google does not restore the data/settings in the apps themselves.

For full backups you have to be rooted, follow the guide in the Droid 2 Hacks section. To backup all your apps and all their settings/data, you can use the free market app Titanium Backup (there are others too, I know Astro file browser does backups but I haven't tried them in a while). Titanium can do batch backups and restore and syncs everything with the market.

To completely backup your system, get Koush's Bootstrap application to install clockwork recovery, this also requires root.

My Brain Hurts: Droid X Recovery (and Droid 2 too!)

Install it, click bootstrap recovery, and once it says "Success" click reboot recovery. Here you can do a full "nandroid" backup that saves a snapshot of your entire system to your SD card. You can backup, restore, install updates, and install custom roms from here. Use the volume keys to navigate, camera button to select and power button to go back.


Gmail uses threaded conversations, so you will see the very tops of all previous emails in the conversation above the one you are reading. Click up here once and it will expand them so you can see sender/subject. Click the one you want to read and it will expand it all the way. This is similar too how it works in the gmail website.