Tell me more ×
Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for enthusiasts and power users of the Android operating system. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 3 down vote favorite
2

Hopefully, the title says it all. I know some app developers say that I should uninstall then reinstall their app if experiencing problems or updating, but I wondered if stopping the app and clearing data via the Manage Applications setting would accomplish the same purpose. I'm running ICS 4.0.3.

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Answer is no, you're not uninstalling the app by clearing the App data.

Clearing the application data is more or less resetting the application to an initial state before being customized based on the application settings, such as preferences, databases.

I am aware it sounds contradictory but the crucial element in this is - the dalvik cache has the pre-cached dex class within the Dalvik VM for the said app.

share|improve this answer
Hi, could you please clarify? I don't understand the technical jargon of your answer, sorry – ruda.almeida Feb 26 at 18:53
1  
All Android apps has a dex bytecode cached in as a layout file embedded - the word is odex When the app is installed for the first time, the cache of the dex bytecode is loaded into the Dalvik VM's cache, thereby speeding up the initialization and execution of the app. Some ROMs are odexed, others are deodexed, if there's no odex file within, the Dalvik VM has to generate it - i.e. Slower at the start! When clearing the App data, that is in /data/data/pkg_name/ does not imply uninstalling! To uninstall an app, the Dalvik's VM cache has to remove the odex for the said app... – t0mm13b Feb 26 at 18:58

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.