Read many app reviews in the Google Play Store and a common complaint is that they do not work or worse, they crash. What can you do if you really want an app? There may be a solution!

It is very frustrating when apps don’t work after you have downloaded them to your Android phone or tablet. Even when an app has lots of four or five star reviews, there are always a small number of people that simply cannot get the app working properly. Why do apps not work or crash?

The reason why is often complicated and the large number of different Android devices that are in use means that an app developer cannot test their app with everything that is available. There are hundreds of Android phone models when you consider the current line up of phone and all the previous generations that are still out there and in use.

I googled "how many android phone models are there" and the top result said there are 24,000 devices. That is a crazy number and unless you have a very common model, the app may not have been tested with your phone. I guess developers have to just cross their fingers and hope the app works. What other option do they have?

There are also multiple versions of Android and many people run old versions, sometimes very old, but others have the latest and greatest. Android 9 is the most common and grew massively last year to 54% of current devices. However, 46% are running older versions like 8, 7 and even 6 (Mobile Android operating system market share by version in the United States). A combination of unusual phone and old version of Android can be the cause of crashes and other problems in apps.

There could also be a hundred other apps on the phone or tablet and these may cause conflicts with the app you just installed that will not work. There may be dozens of apps bundled with the phone and dozens more you added yourself. It only takes one to conflict with another to cause a problem.

Apps are regularly updated and occasionally an app will exhibit problems after an update or it might even stop working completely. Sometimes an app will just stop working or develop a fault for no apparent or obvious reason at all. Don’t immediately delete the app or dismiss it as faulty because occasionally it is possible to fix the problem and get the app working again.

1 Quit and restart apps

Quit the app and restart it. If you press the home button at the bottom of the screen, the app is just suspended and hidden. If you then tap the app icon it might just carry on where it left off, in its crashed or faulty state. You need to really quit the app.

You probably know how to access the task switcher, usually by tapping a button or swiping up the screen. It reveals a list of running apps suspended in the background. If there is a Close All or Clear All function (swipe right on some phones, a button or cross on others), clear all apps suspended in the background. Apps can be closed one by one by tapping the cross or with a flick of the finger.

When nothing else is running, try the problem app again.

2 Stop background apps

Some apps have components that are running in the background even when the apps themselves are not running. Go to Settings, Apps and find the problem app that is crashing. Tap it to display the details screen and press the Force Stop button. After completely stopping it, try running it again.

Many other apps on the phone run in the background. It would be tedious and time consuming to force stop every single one, but you might want to close a few that might possibly be clashing with the problem app and see if it makes a difference. In theory, every app should play nicely with every other app, but you never know. Force stop other apps.

3 Restart the phone

Restarting the phone or tablet can be helpful when there are problems running an app and after swiping away all the running apps and force quitting the problem app, restart the phone. Also try powering it off, waiting 10 seconds and powering it on again. Holding down the power button on the device often displays a menu to power off or restart. Does the app now work? Try it and see.

4 Clear the cache, reset the app

If there are still problems with the app, show all the running apps in the task switcher as before and swipe them all away. Go to Settings, Apps and tap the app to show the details page. Force Quit it again.

Also on the app details screen is a Storage button. Tap it to show the details and there are two useful buttons. Try the Clear Cache button on its own. Tap it, return to the home screen and try the problem app again.

Is it still not working? Return here and tap Clear Cache and also Clear Data. This completely resets the app and when you now run it, it will be as if it has just been downloaded. It will have no history, no data, it won’t know who you are, and you might need to sign in again if it is an app that requires you to have an account.

5 Re-install the app

There isn’t much else you can do if it still is not working after a complete reset. The final thing to do is to force stop, clear the cache, clear the data and then uninstall the app. Go to the Google Play Store and install it again.

Some apps are updated often and some as often as weekly, although others might not be updated for years. The next update could fix the crashing or other problems you are having, so keep an eye open for new versions being released.