Thursday, March 16, 2023

Starting and Restarting Pokémon Go

Sometimes, Pokémon Go has problems during or after its startup that prevents one from continuing in the game. The natural way to solve these problems, of course, is a restart of the game. Even then, there are a few options to be taken depending on the severity of the problem and whether the restart has actually solved it. Based on my experiences, including the problems I've encountered, I've devised a few of these options that may just help to solve the problems.

The first of these is what I call the "soft restart". On Android, this would mean removing the app from the "recent apps" list and then starting it again from its launch icon. Doing this quits the app, allowing it to start again from an inactive state. For many problems, including in-game screens that don't render (appropriately) and a recently occurring hung startup problem, this may be sufficient and no other course of action may be necessary.

If the "soft restart" doesn't work, then a "hard restart" may be in order. On Android, this would mean going to its app info screen, tapping "force stop" and confirming, and starting the app as usual. This process should remove lingering traces of the app in memory and allows for a cleaner restart. It's often those lingering traces that make the app seems to want to hook on something that it shouldn't and causes problems, particularly during startup.

One step up from that is what I call the "super hard restart", which is a little more involved. That's because the process involves forcing a logout at startup - which is easy to do by turning on "airplane mode" and then tapping "Try Another Account" at the prompt - and then following the "hard restart" process above. Simply logging out and logging back in often does not do it, as the app tends to snag on something; the "hard restart" becomes the assurance.

When all else fails, it may be time for a "'nuke' restart", which involves the "super hard restart" with a phone reboot and optional cache clear before attempting to log in again and start the app. The "nuke" in this case is the reboot; the process stops short of uninstalling and reinstalling the app, which I consider more than a restart and beyond the scope of this discussion. Yet, it's still worth a try before undertaking the ultimate last resort process as above.

Restarting Pokémon Go may be an ornery process, but it may be one that is necessary and worthy to be conducted if something has to go on in Pokémon Go and they need to be solved by the tools that one has at one's disposal. And fortunately, most problems are in fact solved by the process, which affirms its necessity and worthiness - after which one's business in Pokémon Go can then proceed, hopefully more smoothly afterwards.

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