Phone Apps Keep Crashing? Fix It Step by Step
An app that closes the moment you open it is usually a software problem, not a broken phone. Work through these steps in order, from least disruptive to most, and you will usually fix it without losing anything.
Follow these steps
- Update the app first. Open your app store, find the app, and install any available update. Crashes are often caused by a bug the developer has already fixed, and an update is the quickest fix of all.
- Restart your phone. A restart clears temporary glitches that can make apps crash, especially after an update or a long stretch without one. Restart, then open the app again before trying anything more drastic.
- Clear the app's cache on Android. Go to Settings, then Apps, open the crashing app, then Storage, and tap Clear Cache. This removes temporary files without signing you out or deleting your content. On iPhone there is no clear-cache button, so skip to the next step.
- Offload the app on iPhone, or clear storage as a last resort on Android. On iPhone, go to Settings, then General, then iPhone Storage, tap the app, and choose Offload App: this reinstalls a fresh copy while keeping your documents and data. On Android, only use Clear Storage if clearing cache did not help, because it signs you out and removes the app's saved data.
- Delete and reinstall the app. If the app still crashes, delete it completely and reinstall it from the official app store. Sign back in afterwards. This gives you a clean copy and fixes problems that updates and cache clearing cannot.
- Check whether every app crashes, or just one. If only one app crashes, the problem is that app, and the developer's support page is the next step. If every app crashes, the phone's software or storage may be the problem: check for a system update and free up storage space.
What NOT to do
- Do not delete an app and reinstall it as your first step. You may lose saved data that a simple update or cache clear would have kept.
- Do not clear storage on Android when you mean to clear cache. Clearing storage signs you out and wipes the app's data.
- Do not download a fixed or modified version of the app from outside the official store. That is how malware spreads.
- Do not factory reset your phone for one crashing app. That is a last resort for a phone-wide problem, not a single app.
If one app keeps crashing after a clean reinstall, the fault is most likely with the app itself, and waiting for the developer's next update is the honest answer. If many apps crash, back up your phone and check for a system update before considering anything more drastic.