You tap the icon, the screen flashes white for half a second, and a small box says “Unfortunately, App has stopped” — or, on newer Android, simply “App keeps stopping”. Tap Open again and the same thing happens.
That message means one thing precisely: the app hit an error it had no instructions for, and Android shut it down rather than let it sit there frozen. The phone is working. One app is not.
The useful question is which app, because it is not always the one whose icon you tapped.
Narrow it down in two minutes
Before touching any settings, answer these three questions. They decide which fix you need.
| Question | If yes |
|---|---|
| Is it only one app? | Go to fixes 1 to 4 |
| Did several apps start crashing on the same day? | Go to fix 5 — almost certainly WebView |
| Did it start right after an Android or app update? | Go to fixes 5 and 6 |
| Does it also crash for other people you know? | Go to fix 9 — it is the app’s own bug |
| Does the phone also freeze or restart on its own? | Go to fix 8 — this is bigger than one app |
Fix 1: Force stop, then reopen
Closing an app from the recents screen does not always end its processes. Force stop does.
- Settings → Apps → See all apps → the app.
- Tap Force stop, confirm.
- Open the app normally.
If that works once but the crash returns, the app is being killed by something that keeps coming back — a corrupt cache entry, usually, which is the next fix.
Fix 2: Clear the cache — and only the cache, to begin with
Apps cache images, layouts and responses. A half-written cache file — from a crash, a sudden battery death or a bad connection — can crash the app every time it is read.
- Settings → Apps → the app → Storage & cache.
- Tap Clear cache. Nothing you own is lost here.
- Open the app.
Do not jump to “Clear storage” yet. On that same screen, the button next to it wipes the app completely — logins, settings, offline files, saved progress. It is the correct fix sometimes, but only after the cheaper ones have failed, and only once you know your data is backed up somewhere.
Fix 3: Check its permissions
A badly written app that asks for the camera, storage or location and is refused can crash instead of handling the refusal politely. Android updates sometimes reset permissions for apps you have not opened in a while, which is why an app that worked for a year suddenly stops.
Settings → Apps → the app → Permissions. Grant what the app genuinely needs for the thing you are doing, and watch for anything marked as auto-removed.
Fix 4: Update it, then reinstall it
In that order. An update keeps your data; a reinstall does not.
Check the Play Store for a pending update first — a crash on launch is exactly the kind of thing a developer ships a hotfix for within days. Only if the newest version still crashes should you uninstall and install fresh, and only after confirming your account or progress lives on their server rather than on your phone.
Fix 5: The WebView cause — when several apps break at once
This is the fix most people never find, and it explains the strangest version of the problem: half a dozen unrelated apps start crashing on the same morning, with no update to any of them.
Android System WebView is a shared component that apps use to show web content inside themselves — a help page, a login screen, a news article. Dozens of apps depend on it. When WebView updates badly, every one of them crashes, and the crash message names the app rather than WebView.
- Open the Play Store and search for Android System WebView.
- If an update is offered, install it — a fixed version is usually out within a day.
- If not, tap Uninstall to roll it back to the factory version.
- Do the same for Google Chrome, which shares the component on many phones.
- Restart the phone.
If several apps came back to life at once, that was it.
Fix 6: Clear the system cache from recovery
After an Android update, leftover compiled code from the previous version can conflict with the new one. Wiping the cache partition forces Android to rebuild it. It does not touch your data.
- Power the phone off completely.
- Hold Power + Volume Up until the recovery menu appears (the combination varies by manufacturer).
- Use the volume keys to highlight Wipe cache partition and the power key to select it.
- Choose Reboot system now.
In the recovery menu, read every line before selecting it. “Wipe cache partition” is safe. “Wipe data / factory reset” sits close to it and erases everything on the phone. Newer phones have dropped the cache option entirely — if you do not see it, skip this fix rather than hunting for something that looks similar.
Fix 7: Make room
A phone with almost no free storage cannot allocate the working space an app needs, and the app dies on launch. Below about 10% free, crashes become common across the whole phone. Check Settings → Storage and clear a genuine gigabyte or two.
Fix 8: Use safe mode to find a guilty app
Safe mode starts Android with only the apps the phone shipped with. Everything you installed is disabled.
- Hold the power button.
- Press and hold Power off on screen until Reboot to safe mode appears.
- Confirm, and wait for the phone to restart with “Safe mode” in the corner.
- Use the phone for a few minutes.
If the crashing stops in safe mode, something you installed is responsible — most often a cleaner, a battery saver, a theme engine, a screen-overlay app or an accessibility tool, all of which interfere with other apps by design. Restart normally and uninstall your most recent additions one at a time.
Fix 9: Accept that it is the app’s bug, and report it usefully
Sometimes nothing on your side is wrong. A build that crashes on one Android version, or one manufacturer’s phones, is a developer problem and only a developer fix will solve it.
A report that gets acted on contains: your exact phone model, your Android version, the app version from its Play Store page, what you tapped immediately before the crash, and whether it happens every single time. A review saying “doesn’t work” does nothing; those five lines often get a fix.
Frequently asked questions
Does this message mean my phone has a virus?
Almost never. It means one program ended unexpectedly. The pop-ups claiming your phone is infected and offering a cleaner are far more likely to cause crashes than to cure them.
Why does it happen more on older phones?
Less memory and less free storage, and apps built for newer hardware. When memory runs short Android closes background apps first, and an app that is mid-task when it is closed reports a crash the next time you return to it.
Will a factory reset fix it?
It fixes causes on your side and nothing else. If the app is broken for everyone on your Android version, a reset costs you a day of setting the phone up again and changes nothing. Work through safe mode and WebView first.
Is “Clear storage” the same as uninstalling?
For your data, effectively yes — the app stays installed but returns to the state it was in the moment you first opened it. Treat the two as equally destructive.
The short version
One app crashing: force stop, clear cache, check permissions, update. Several apps crashing on the same day: Android System WebView, every time. Crashes that stop in safe mode: something you installed. And keep “Clear storage” and factory resets for after you know where your data lives.