Ovi Store and Smart Installer Conflict – Workaround

Before reading on, you really need to know if you are here actually for a purpose and are facing a problem with Ovi Store installations some times on your Symbian smartphones e.g. Nokia N8. The problem what I faced last night was that Ovi Store on the device didn’t perform well with the installation of an app which required Smart Installer. I later got it fixed with a workaround but Just for writing about it I tried to re-produce the problem and to check if it really is a problem or was just a random mishap. I tried a few times and found a couple of scenarios where you can have faced a problem with installation. The issue and a workaround I am going to tell about is following but please make sure that you have the same or related problem and looking for a workaround.

It might be possible that this solution could not be able to fix your problem but may be. So make sure that your problem is lying in following listed problems.

Problems:

1. When you try to install something from Ovi Store, not every time but some times it doesn’t stop installation properly if you “Cancel” the installation? (see following screens) and leaves you with no option to download again?
2. Or some times you start multiple installations from within Ovi Store which work mostly but some times they get failed when another Installation prompt appears? That’s Smart Installer being involved actually.
3. In any of the cases above, if happens, at the end you get nothing on the device and then even Ovi Store thinks that the app has been installed successfully and tells you to “launch” the app with a green button instead of a “download” button to download again?

After reading above problems, if you believe you are on the right place to get a workaround for it then keep reading.

Skip to Workaround but you must read below to understand the problem.

Understanding the Difference

Before getting to the workaround I want you to understand the difference. To differentiate between simple installation in Ovi Store and the one that involves Smart Installer, concentrate on the following screens. Simply to understand; normal installation (without Smart Installer involvement) in Ovi Store won’t start additional dialog or prompt some thing like in below.

The first screen is showing an App named “Wellness Diary Beta” being installed in background within Ovi Store with a green striped progress bar but along with that another additional popped up installer has been initiated independently of Ovi Store. This additional installer is actually a Smart Installer which verifies the installation and download extra components if needed or just finalizes installation without doing any thing.

Before hitting the download button on an App, you should notice a note in bold text like below. These type of apps need Smart Installer to look for any required component. So downloading and installing this app will start Smart Installer like in above screens.

Issue is that…

Mostly, in fact every time when a Smart Installer initiated from Ovi Store, the installation in Ovi Store finishes way before the Smart Installer finishes its job completely and finalizes the installation. So

1. Problem can be occurred when installation on Ovi Store has been completed but while the Smart Installer is yet in progress and if you press “Cancel” on Smart Installer installation phase, it will not notify the Ovi Store to tell that the installation was not completed. So in result you will not have that App installed in your device but Ovi Store will not identify that and will not provide a button to download the App again. You will be stuck at a “Launch” button in Ovi Store and launching the app will only initiate Smart Installer again to prompt that there is no pending installations. Awkward!
2. Another most common reason is that we use to download and install multiple apps in Ovi Store which actually has no issues normally but it causes a problem when a Smart Installer involves in. If you start downloading an app which requires Smart Installer and Ovi Store is already installing app(s) simultaneously, there might occur an issue with the installation.

The problem what I feel is, that Ovi Store finishes/completes installation while Smart Installer remains in progress and as well Smart Installer doesn’t notify Ovi Store if it gets interrupted before installation completes. Consider the following case screens when an App, which requires Smart Installer, is seen as installed in Ovi Store (screen 1) but App actually is not on the device (screen 3). And if you try to launch the app from Ovi Store by tapping on “Launch” button, you get a prompt from Smart Installer as “No pending installations” (screen 2)

OK enough understanding with the issue. You must be feeling tensed as it was big. huh? Why I write a lot?

Anyway it was for better understanding with the issue. The workaround is just simple, in fact simpler.

Workaround

Well many people in some cases when they can’t have any thing to fix some thing, they think to do a reset device or hard reset device? Yes because it does the job easily but leaves nothing for you else than a headache of restoring all the things again.

I also had a plan to hard reset my Nokia N8 when I found no way to install a required app again due to the same issue which has been explained above. But then I found one which gives less trouble for doing. And that is to remove Ovi Store from the Application Manager and reinstall it again by visiting the same Ovi Store icon bookmark in your Applications.

Removing Ovi Store and reinstalling actually refreshes the store cache on the device which makes it able to check every app on device and load again in Ovi Store.

Want to watch a video demonstration?

Update: One of our readers @mobileyog has suggested another workaround and that is to remove Smart Installer from the device. You can see the screenshot below from twitter. Give it a try as well and give your feedback.

Thanks @mobileyog

To know more about Smart Installer visit Forum Nokia