Developer ashikase is helping out with updating categories app. ashikase is the author of the springboard addon CategoriesSB (as well as Backgrounder and other stuff).
Anyways, what we have here is a pretty heavy internal rewrite. The modifications are going to allow for some cool features in upcoming versions. The changes in this version are:
- Internal rewrite of the config app
- Transitions added in GUI
- Reworked how folders are layed out internally. This will allow for apps like taptap 2 and taptap 3 to both be put into folders (hopefully).
We are posting the deb for beta testing for anyone that wants to test it.
Note that if you have CategoriesSB installed you should not try this beta. While the final version will work fine and be released with a CategoriesSB update, the beta does not support current CategoriesSB.
To use this beta, you must know how to use SSH. If you do not understand any of these steps (which are purposely sparse) you should wait for a release version rather than using this beta.
- Get categories beta here.
- SSH it to /tmp on your iPhone
- as root, run dpkg -i /tmp/categories_2.26.6.deb
- Manually respring or the ‘i button won’t work.
This beta will convert your existing category folders into a new format. If you uninstall the beta and reinstall categories from main repository, you will have to set up your folders from scratch again (or just wait for this to be final in the repository in which case you will not have to re-set up folders).
BigBoss Authors: Mark Bruce & Kory LeeTags: categories
November 7th, 2009 at 10:47 am
I just installed it.
I noticed that the info button isn’t working in any of my 3 categories (it flashes but it doesn’t show the settings).
The Respring button is easier to press now.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Atube a very entertaining application that I’ve been using has stopped and no longer wants to open. I’ve tried removing it and reapplying it, it still doesn’t open.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:53 am
So far no problems. The contents of the folders seems to be scrollable quicker than before. Still not as instantaneous as with CategoriesSB, but a folder with 72 items took only 3 sec. Overall the Categories app also seems to load the lists quicker.
The settings for the folders is now accessible through the edit button within Categories, as well as the info button within the folder.
iPhone 32G 3Gs 3.1.2
November 7th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
This is the log I get when I click the Info button:
Sat Nov 7 15:03:03 unknown SpringBoard[1980] : Unable to launch url categories:///prefs?com.bigboss.categories.Games due to restrictions on com.bigboss.categories
November 7th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
You have categories hidden right?
November 7th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
You have one of two possible problems:
1) You didnt respring after installing in which case the URL registration didnt occur so you cant launch categories with the ‘i’ button.
2) Or you have categories hidden via restrictions. The latest libhide will not use this method. If this is the case, go to settings and enable restrictions, then disable restrictions, and rehide any unhidden apps using poof or sbsettings with latest libhide installed.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
With reqard to Categories what is the recommended way of backing up Categories? And if there isn’t one I really think you need to add on. Although since I’m looking at restoring my phone and setting all may Categories up for the third time in the last three days I may be somewhat biased : )
November 7th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Yeah, that’s it. I haven’t updated libhide to 2.X because I like the 1.X method better.
November 8th, 2009 at 4:30 am
I installed beta and now i can’t see old folders from Categories menu, but in the new beta i can see all programs.
If i set new folders how can eliminate the old if i can’t see them in the beta?
If i uninstall the beta and reinstall categories from main repository, Everything will be like before (or we wait the final release)? Is there a way to install the previous version with mobileterminal without loosing old folders?
Thank you.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Hi Gigi,
As mentioned above, when you install this package it *should* automatically convert all of your old categories to the new format; once they have been converted they will not be usable with the old version of Categories.
- What version of Categories were you using previously?
- Do your old Categories folders still contain a “list.txt” file?
- Under /var/mobile/Library/Preferences, do you have any files starting with com.bigboss.categories.?
November 8th, 2009 at 7:05 am
Hi ashikase,
- I had the 2.26, i’m sure enough;
- Where can i find old Categories folder? I have a file list.txt (with all the names of old folder, that are working but not visible9 in /var/mobile/Library/Categories, created on november 2th;
- Yes I have two files: com.bigboss.categories.Hgg.plist (0 kb) and com.bigboss.categories.plist (202 kb) modified today.
November 8th, 2009 at 7:10 am
When I open an old folder and push the i button i can read v. 2.22
November 8th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Hi,
nice app!
The iphone’s nature is that there are a lot of firmware updates. Every time i have to reconfigure all my categories’ folders, this is a real pain. Could it be possible to have a backup function for this?
Also, when i create a new folder, selecting an icon (browsing through the icons) seems to take a lot of memory. Even if i start with the max available memory (more than 40mb), it usually gets down to about 7mb then crashes. There should be a way for optimize this.
BTW, if you’d really like to make this a huge app, it would be really great to let us drag apps to a folder in order to add them to the folder. Today’s way for setting the folder contents is a real pain, that i almost don’t use it anymore, with the fw updates,… :(
Thanks for this great app.
November 8th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Is there a v2.27 deb to download (as per the subject title)??
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
It’s version 2.26.6, which is a beta version of the 2.27. I’m guessing it will be 2.27 when it’s final, in the meantime it’s 2.26.6
November 8th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I am still on 3.0. There is no reason to take every worthless update apple puts out. With jailbreaking getting harder, it may be that you will stay on 3.1.2 for a long time now.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Yes, the released version will be 2.27.
November 9th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Hi guys.
Do you have any suggestion for my problem?
Thank you.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:48 am
The list.txt file that I referred to is a file found in each category directory. For example, for a category called Games:
/Applications/Games.app/list.txt
If those files still exist, you can try running the category conversion tool (as root) manually:
/Applications/Categories.app/CategoryConverter
It will open each list.txt file, convert it to a com.bigboss.categories.* file, then delete the original list.txt.
Please let us know if it works or not, along with any error messages you receive.
November 9th, 2009 at 3:25 am
Thank you ashikase,
i will try the manual conversion sa soon as I get home.
Excuse me, but the command, (as root) is:
run dpkg -i /Applications/Categories.app/CategoryConverter?
I’m not very expert with these commands.
November 9th, 2009 at 4:40 am
No offense, but if you aren’t familiar with the console and manual package installation, you really shouldn’t be testing this beta :)
CategoryConverter is not a package, it is a command-line (console) application; it should be run just like any other command-line app. Just make sure to run it as root.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:16 am
You’re right, I installed this beta linked in another web page.
Ok this is a beta, but it didn’t appear (no indications exept intallation instructions) too much dangerous.
Now I want to solve my problem, and continuing to use Categories.
I hope that my problem will be useful for the future.
I have the list.txt file in applications categories.
Thanks for your support.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Everithing ok ashikase.
The manual conversion works well!
No error message during conversion. I made a manual respring after the conversion.
Now i will try if everything works well.
Thank you.
This is a very nice app.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Here again.
Now I see all the folders in Categories, I can edit them and I see the list of all applications.
But when I open a folder in the springboard I see nothing.
In the old folders when I push the i button there isn’t the “back button”.
Smething didn’t worked on the first installation.
Is it possible to reinstall the beta again?
Is there any problem.
Thank you, again.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Another site is linking to the deb file without stating that it is a beta?
I think your best bet is to just delete all your categories and start again.
At this point I have no way of telling whether or not the problem is due to something in the beta… and so the feedback is, unfortunately, no longer helpful.
Sorry :(
November 9th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Works pretty – only one bug so far
When trying to change an icon of one category I only get to change the first one on the list. Although I choose the second or third – when opening to show the icons list … I only can change the first category icon.
Second: Custom winterboard icons are not passed on to categories
Ruben
November 9th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
The same, happens to me.
Also when I try to rename a folder.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:33 am
As Ruben no problem except when I try to change an Icon.
On my 3g, 3.1.2, it also crash the first time I attempt to do it.
Now it always and only modify the first folder in the list.
By the way, the application works better.
It isn’t as fast as with CategoriesSB but very acceptable.
I also miss the recent feature of CSB.
I only have two remarks:
- the new way of settings folder is much efficient, but it was also great to be able to change folder setting without launching categories app.
- even if it was working, the way of changing an icon is long and not so convinient.
Overall, it is one of my favourite app and i’m waiting for the release…
Thanks you so much both !!
November 10th, 2009 at 4:52 am
Ho god, I love you.!
I was about to drop this apps for those very reasons.
1.: it takes forever to sort apps into categories
2.: when selectig apps from the list into categories is unsorted and most apps are there twice or more. (making it a real mess)
3.: it was taking forever to load (so I was using catgerieSB)
And yes updated blindly , without reading “do not if having categorieSB” now I have a bunch of empty categorie,,, Shit…
Now I thinking again i’m gonna drop thap app.
anyhope of recovering my settings soon ?? Thankyou
November 10th, 2009 at 5:05 am
Would reinstalling V2.26 solve my lost ?
November 10th, 2009 at 5:53 am
released 2.27
Bug with unchangeable icons still there (:-((
November 10th, 2009 at 6:02 am
forget above comment
I did not install, 2.27beta from here, but 2.27 from within cydia and there were no notice about categorieSB. (tapped update all)
So i’m a little pisstoff..
November 10th, 2009 at 6:20 am
I have lost all items in all categories exept one, wich I had been deleted, This cat does not show up in the springboard, has no icon and can’t change icon or name, everything I do to it get applied to the first cat. ???
Just saying,,, if it can help debugging
November 10th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Well, everything was working well for me with the beta, until I updated to v2.27. Now NONE of my folders have any apps in them anymore.
Any easy way of getting them back? (I made a backup of all the folder apps pre-beta, so all the .txt files are there…)
November 10th, 2009 at 7:35 am
never mind – I extracted all the plists for my folders from my last iTunes backup, and replaced it with the ones on the phone. All is well again.
- also, this works well with CaetegoriesSB
November 10th, 2009 at 8:15 am
It’s not CaetegoriesSB installed that caused this for you, but the v2.27 update.
Just go to http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com. Works on Mac, PC, Linux. Run it, select your last backup, then scroll down to the last item, iPhone OS Files, and extract that to a folder. In that folder, look for Library-Preferences, com.bigboss.categories..plist. Copy those plists over to your phone to var-mobile-Library-Preferences, replacing the files on the phone. I then did a respring and all was well again.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:17 am
com.bigboss.categories..plist should read
com.bigboss.categories.yourfoldername.plist
November 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I just installed my categories and categoriesSB with the latest update, and now when I click on any category icon, it just displays the category title and a blank screen. I can’t even get into my cydia or categories apps because these are inside categories themselves. Please help!
November 10th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Thanks Jerry, got it fixed
November 10th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Wow, that suck, Try restoring to a previous backup,
November 10th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
if you have SBsettings, maybe you could “unhide” the cydia icon, and it would put cydia back on the springboard.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
same here I just run categories again, and all the apps where there to choose from – think that this was not suposed to happen, but ..
I cannot get a hold of bigboss about this unability to change icons on second or third categories folder – only get a form answer about icons problem, which is not the case here (:-))
November 10th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
See my post about iphonebackupextractor a couple of posts up.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
WTF, my whole shit is fucked up. Been using categories for a long time and this last update jacked it all up. Try to hit the i button and it takes me to txt? Not only did I have to unhide all my apps w poof, every time I type a word on here it takes me to the top of the page.?? Try again, but harder this time!
November 11th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Hm. So – all the old categories ‘apps’ are present, and work — but when I launch Categories itself, there’s none there.
I’ve used MobileSyncBrowser (a Mac app analagous to iPhoneBackupExtractor) – but the only relevant file I see is “com.bigboss.categories.plist”. There aren’t any for the old categories.
Now – the old categories still exist (at /var/stash/Applications), and each one contains a valid list.txt file.
It’s just that – they never got converted to the ‘new’ format.
I’ve tried (as root, logged in via an SSH session) running /Applications/Categories.app/CategoryConverter — but it doesn’t work. No error messages, but neither does it work. It immediately ends – I get back to the command prompt – but, nothing happens. Neither visibly poking around in SSH or in iFile, nor after re-springing.
The old categories remain as old categories, thus they work as launchers — but they’re non-editable – They don’t show up when the new Cateories app is launched, either from SpringBoard, or from the icon within the “i” screen.
So my question is – how can I get these old categories converted? Is there some other syntax or parameters I can use to explicitly cause CategoryConverter to ‘see’ all (12) categories I have, look inside at their “list.txt” file (which describes their contents) and convert them?
Am I one of the unlucky peeps stuck in this weird situation where the conversion *can’t* take place?
There’s gotta be a workaround.. Silly to ‘have to’ recreate those lists…
Is there some file that exists in the pristine non-fucked-up expected upgrade path state, which CategoryConverter expects to find (and isn’t, in my case), which enumerates the full list of all dozen of my (old) ‘Categories’ (apps)? If so, what format does it need to be in, and where does it need to live?
I’m happy to recreate that – after waiting to hear back from you guys. That’s still far less work than tediously recreating all dozen of ‘em…
If it helps; just earlier tonight I updated the MobileSubstrate, from Cydia (and thus rebooted) prior to updating Categories.
Hoping to get to the bottom of this – hope my description makes sense and helps clear up / solve this situation.
Thanks
November 11th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Hi,
with the latest update now all is fucked. I don’t see any icons anywhere. Neither in the subfolders nor at the home screen at all. In Safe Mode I see all icons at the home screen. Back in normal mode I see nothing at all. Deinstalled categories but still, no icons at all :-((((((
November 11th, 2009 at 5:29 am
If you have SBSettings installed, launch it, then go to “Hide Icons” and unhide the apps that used to be in Categories. At least they you’ll be back to normal, they should then show up in SpringBoard. Or if you don’t have SBSettings or don’t want to run it, you can just get Poof – it does the same thing (hides or unhides); both from Cydia.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Hi Spinoza,
args, silly me. I’ve seen that Hide Icons in SBSettings some time ago but forgot that Categories is using that. All is back to normal. Thank you! :-)
November 11th, 2009 at 6:07 am
I have one folder that the “i” doesn’t work. I can recreate it when I create a folder that is titled with 2 words. 1 word folders work great.
November 11th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Hi Big Boss,
Can someone please help me. I made a big F… Up, when I installed categories evrything seem to wok great. Then something like intellishared caused it to lose the app from each of the folders I created. For example games, tools and so on folders. I manged to delete them but after cleaning up categories and reinstalling I only have one folder left in there called xtra. In xtra I can put apps but for some reason when i create a folder, I place apps within that folder it resprings but when i come back to springboard I find the folder but no apps within the folder. Can you please tell em a way to clean out all of categories from inside and outside so i can reload them. Thanks AKA
November 11th, 2009 at 7:32 am
its absolutely horrible that i went into cydia and installed categories 2.27.1 and now all my categories are destroyed even if i used springback. It took logging into this site that i realized i had installed some alpha code.
Its going to take me hours to setup everything again. Is it crazy to ask that only well tested versions get released into the main stream at cydia?
November 11th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Can anybody tell me how to remove all data related to categories from my iphone 3gs. I want to start fresh as the folders wont save the apps in them anymore which I create.
Thanks
November 11th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Also does it have anything to do with intellishared
November 11th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Same problem here…
Ran the update through Rock and it dumped all the categories.
I already use SBSettings and was able to un-hide the now hidden apps… only thing is that i have to re-shuffle all of my apps into their folders.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I have the SAME exact problem as you. When I change it to one word it works fine.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Same problem as anonymous. If I shorten the name to one word the “i” works as usual but not when I have two words.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:14 am
hi, thanks alot for the apps. but i have a problem. im currently deployed in iraq and my isp block me from downloading directly from bigboss. could you post a direct link for categories so i can ssh it. thanks
November 12th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Sweet app, not having any problems at all. I also don’t have many apps on my touch though. Thanks BigBoss.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:34 am
I installed the new version of categories and I have a lot of bugs!
I’m not creating icons-ending point “.” example
“games.”
-the camera isnt inserted into the folder
-Once launched an app inside the folder is the folder
open.
please update!
GoogleTranslate. English-Italian
November 12th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Well, I got tired of waiting. So I just recreated everything manually.
But there’s a small side issue – I can’t create a category now, that has the same name as one of the ‘old’ ones. Perhaps this is because I deleted the old ones using iFile (uh, because there was no other way to delete them – they don’t show up in the ‘new’ Categories app), and I haven’t (yet) used the feature in SBSettings where it cleans up the SpringBoard database… hm. I’ll update this if I get around to trying this.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Ditto that for me too. Using latest released version from Cydia.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Is the new (2.27x) version of Categories STILL in beta? It appears as though it was released as an upgrade as version 2.27.1, but with some serious problems that were corrected in 2.72.2. So, are we ready to go now, and to run with CategoriesSB? It is worrisome that this blog has not been updated, or a new one posted, if the application was intended to have been released mainstream, and worse if it is posted as a regular update if it is still in beta testing.
PLEASE CLARIFY!
November 12th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
To answer someones question. Intellishared has nothing tondo with this.
An alternate way to pull your icons out of the ‘empty’ folders is to go in to a folder within categories, add, you will see ALL apps here. Add them to the folder, go back once so you can see the contents of the folder, delete the apps
from the folder. This will place them back on your springboard. This is an alternative if you ha e issues with poof or sb.
This update really screwed things up…
November 12th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
To davidh. 2.27.2 is even worse than .1
avoid using this app whatsoever until further notice.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:47 am
With all due respect to Mitch35883, I went ahead and updated to version 2.27.2 and have had no problems. I created a new folder (“Premium Games”) and added application icons without any problem. Previously added folders all work OK, whether the folder has a single word name or two words separated by a space. However, I have not yet bought CategoriesSB, and will wait until it is clear that they are both working compatibly. The only irregularity I see is that the “i” circle at the bottom right of a category folder does not do anything. The only way to change the properties of a category folder is within the Categories application by using the “Edit” function and then touching the blue circle with the “>” symbol at the right hand side of whichever folder for which you want to change the settings. I have a 3GS with OS 3.0, but intend to upgrade to OS 3.1.2 over the weekend, and will report any problems this causes for Categories, if any.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I used 2.27.2, and also installed CatagoriesSB. No problems here.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Hi there… I have an Iphone 3G with firmware 2.2, which is Jail broken. I want to upgrade my iphone when the time comes to 3.1.2. and re- jailbreak again and also update my itunes . I haven’t updated because I don’t know what to do with my Iphone because I have all my app in Categories Folders, some of my Categories Folders have 5 to 6 apps in each.
1. (I download Categories from Cydia)
You see some blogs say that you will lose all your apps if you leave them in Categories folder and some blogs say you don’t . Some have said that they losts the Cydia app as well. I have download Appbackup and so far I know that I have to backup all my apps with that app and to do the upgrade with Itunes.
So what is the next steps…. Do I remove all my apps out of the Categories of each folder?, do I leave them in? If I leave them in will all my apps still be in the same Categories when I rejailbreak my iphone.
My Cydia, Winterboard, Installous, Icy and Categories apps, are not in Categories, they sit on one page on my iphone alone.
Please help me with this…. Step by step if you can…. Thank you Josie
November 16th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I having been using the Iphone 3gs Unlocked Firmware 3.01for the last 2 months. Recently I have installed the Categories 2.27 BETA version but after I see that my Wifi is not working even after being enabled on the Iphone. Kindly reply & solve my problem. Awaiting for ur fast reply I always install application through Wifi but now after updating the categories i am not able do anything.
November 16th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Hi i am using categoriesSB. How can i move Internet shortcut app icons to different categories? thx
November 16th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
At the moment you can not move Webclips aka internet shortcuts in to folders.
November 16th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
This deals with the current, not Beta version. I notice that some files, specifically iPhone nativie files like Camera, Photo, Weather etc have 2 issues if you try to place them in a folder.
First is that the icon that shows is the default ? icon in Categories and not the actual icon. However when you place it into a new folder the regualr icon shows up.
The second is that the original icon, that was on the Springboard page, still remains there even after you reboot the phone. Basically I have a Camera icon on my Springboard and in a folder.
I didn’t have either problem when I was on V3.01 but now I have it on V3.1.2. BTW my Modem Firmware is 05.11.07.
Is this a bug others have experienced? Will you have a fix for this in the new version?
November 17th, 2009 at 6:55 am
@Irv: You can hide the icons in SBSettings…
November 17th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Still having issues with the latest release of Categories. I have wiped everything pertaining to Categories from my phone. From there I install it fresh and launch the app… seems fine. When I ‘Add’ a folder it does not show up within Categories. I basically can not add any apps to the folders that I create because they do not show within Categories. The folder DOES, however, get created on my Springboard and I have to manually delete it through SSH.
Anyone else seen this?
November 19th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Does having apps in categories effect the way spotlight searches. It seems after i installed categories spotlight will only search by first letter of the app.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:50 am
i have just installed v2.27.2 and created a folder GAMES in Categories. i also selected “show GAMES” in BossPrefs. but no new folder is shown on the desktop….. how can i fix this problem?
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Today I reset all settings on my phone instead of just network settings like i meant to, and all the sudden my folders are empty. I can’t find my applications that were in the folders anywhere. They are still on itunes, and if i do a search for them i can find them. I do have iphone explorer, is there a way to fix this? oh and I did try uninstalling and reinstalling
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Ah nevermind! Turns out if I tapp the screen the games come up. Thank you for the app!
November 29th, 2009 at 6:58 am
I installed categories update and then uninstalled the app. Now the CATEGORY FOLDERS are still on my springboard and i want to remove them! Please tell me how to get rid of these folders???
November 29th, 2009 at 10:46 am
You’ve got to reinstall Categories and then delete every app from the folder and then the folder manually…
Afterwards you can uninstall it without any problem
February 20th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
hi im trying to install inav and when it says you have to go into the apps folder that you created with categories and press the “i” button yet there is no “i” button at the bottom of my screen please help