App Not Working on Android? The Real Fixes

The Spinning Wheel of Death

There is a very specific type of modern panic that hits when you’re standing at a checkout counter. You’ve got a line of three impatient people behind you, the cashier is staring blankly, and you are frantically tapping your banking app, which has decided—at this exact moment—to freeze.

We’ve all been there. Whether it’s Instagram refusing to refresh the feed or Google Maps crashing right before a crucial highway exit, having an app not working on Android is more than a minor inconvenience. It’s a disruption to how we navigate life.

If you search for a fix online, you usually get the same tired advice: “Restart your phone.” And sure, that works about 30% of the time. But what about the other 70%? What happens when the app opens, hangs for three seconds, and closes itself?

I’ve spent years troubleshooting Android devices, from budget handsets to top-tier flagships, and I’ve learned that software crashes usually boil down to three things: corrupted temporary files, permission conflicts, or a specific system component that most people don’t even know exists.

Let’s walk through how to fix this properly, starting with the easiest solutions and moving to the “nuclear options.”

The Difference Between “Closing” and “Force Stopping”

Here is a common mistake I see friends make constantly: They swipe the app away from their “Recent Apps” list and assume they’ve reset it.

Swiping an app away is like minimizing a window on your computer. The app is technically “gone” from your view, but background processes might still be hanging on. If the app is glitched, swiping it away just pauses the glitch. You need to kill the process entirely.

The Fix:

1. Go to Settings > Apps (or Apps & notifications).

2. Find the misbehaving app in the list.

3. Tap Force Stop.

You’ll get a scary-sounding warning saying the app might misbehave. Ignore it. You want it to stop misbehaving; that’s the whole point. Once you force stop it, try opening the app again. This forces the code to reload from scratch, which clears out minor temporary errors.

The Cache Conundrum: Don’t Wipe the Wrong Thing

If a Force Stop didn’t work, we have to look at the data the app is holding onto. This is where things get tricky, and where I’ve seen people lose important information.

Android gives you two options: Clear Cache and Clear Storage (or Data).

Think of it like a messy office.

• Clearing Cache is like emptying the trash bin and sweeping the floor. It gets rid of temporary junk—thumbnails, pre-loaded scripts, ad data—that the app downloaded to run faster. Deleting this is 100% safe.

• Clearing Data is like burning down the office and rebuilding it. It resets the app to the state it was in when you first downloaded it from the Play Store. It deletes your login details, your preferences, and your saved settings.

Real-World Scenario: A few months ago, a colleague asked me why his Spotify kept crashing. I told him to clear the cache. He accidentally hit Clear Storage. The crashing stopped, but he also deleted 4GB of downloaded music he had saved for an upcoming flight. He had to re-download everything on slow airport Wi-Fi.

Do this first:

1. Go to Settings > Apps.

2. Select the broken app.

3. Tap Storage & Cache.

4. Hit Clear Cache ONLY.

If the app is still not working on Android after this, then—and only then—should you consider Clear Storage. Just make sure you know your password, because you will be logged out.

The “System WebView” Bug (The Hidden Culprit)

Here is the surprising insight that most generic troubleshooting guides miss.

Every so often, Android users experience a mass event where multiple apps start crashing simultaneously. Gmail crashes, then Amazon, then your banking app. It feels like the phone is dying.

It’s almost never the phone. It’s usually a boring little background app called Android System WebView.

This is a system component that lets apps (like Gmail) display web content without opening a full browser (like Chrome). Because so many apps rely on it, if Google pushes a buggy update to WebView, everything breaks. This happened globally in March 2021 and caused absolute chaos.

The Fix: If you notice multiple apps acting up:

1. Open the Google Play Store.

2. Search for “Android System WebView.”

3. If you see an Update button, hit it immediately.

4. If you don’t see an update, sometimes Uninstalling Updates for WebView (via Settings > Apps) temporarily fixes the issue until a patch is released.

Permission Conflicts: The Silent Killer

Sometimes an app isn’t “broken”—it’s just been handcuffed.

Modern Android versions (Android 12, 13, and 14) are very aggressive about privacy. They will automatically revoke permissions for apps you haven’t used in a while.

Case Study: The “Broken” Camera App I once spent twenty minutes trying to figure out why a third-party scanner app would crash instantly upon launch. I reinstalled it twice. Nothing worked.

Eventually, I dug into the settings. The app was trying to save a temporary scan to the storage before displaying it. However, the OS had revoked “Files and Media” access because I hadn’t used the app in three months. The app didn’t have error handling for “access denied,” so it just panicked and quit.

How to check:

1. Go to Settings > Apps > [The App Name].

2. Tap Permissions.

3. Look at the “Not Allowed” or “Denied” list.

4. Does the app logically need one of those? (e.g., Maps needs Location, Instagram needs Camera). If so, grant it.

Quick Aside: Be careful here. If a flashlight app is asking for your Location and Contacts, that’s not a bug—that’s spyware. Keep that permission denied and uninstall the app.

The “Update” Trap

“Is your app up to date?” is the first question tech support asks. But there is a second layer to this: Is your Android OS up to date?

App developers prioritize the newest versions of Android. As time goes on, they stop optimizing for older versions. If you are running a banking app on Android 8.0 while the rest of the world is on Android 14, you are going to see crashes.

Legacy code is difficult to maintain. Eventually, developers utilize new APIs (software hooks) that old phones simply don’t have. When the app reaches for that hook and grabs thin air, it crashes.

The Action Plan:

1. Update the App via Play Store.

2. Check Settings > System > System Update.

3. Crucial: If your phone is pending a “Google Play System Update” (separate from the main OS update), install it. This contains core security fixes that apps often rely on.

When to Use the Nuclear Option

If you have forced stopped, cleared cache, checked permissions, and updated everything, and the app still isn’t working, you are left with two choices.

1. The Clean Reinstall Uninstalling an app sometimes leaves “orphan files” behind in your storage directories. When you reinstall, the app reconnects to those corrupted orphan files, and the problem persists.

To do this right:

• Uninstall the app.

• Use a file manager (like Files by Google) to search for any folders named after the app and delete them.

• Restart the phone.

• Then reinstall.

2. The Factory Reset This is the last resort. I only recommend this if core system apps (Settings, Phone Dialer, Keyboard) are crashing. If it’s just Candy Crush, it’s not worth wiping your entire life for.

A Note on “Free Up Space”

Finally, a quick reality check on hardware. Apps need “breathing room” to run. They create temporary swap files while they work. If your phone has 64GB of storage and you have used 63.9GB, apps will crash immediately because they can’t write the temporary data they need to function.

The 10% Rule: Try to keep at least 10% of your total storage free. If you are constantly hovering at 99% full, no amount of clearing cache will fix the instability.

Summary Checklist

If you skimmed the article, here is your battle plan for the next time an app dies on you:

1. Force Stop (Don’t just swipe away).

2. Clear Cache (Not Data/Storage unless necessary).

3. Check Permissions (Did the OS revoke access?).

4. Update Android System WebView (The hidden culprit).

5. Ensure you have free storage space.

Technology is great when it works, and a headache when it doesn’t. But usually, these crashes aren’t random—they are logical errors with logical fixes.

Editor — The editorial team at Prowell Tech. We research, test, and fact-check each guide and update it when new info appears. This content is educational and not personalized technical advice.