Fix Samsung Galaxy J3 with “Unfortunately, TouchWiz home has stopped” error (easy steps)

TouchWiz is Samsung’s user interface for its devices and almost all of its devices use it. Before, there are two TouchWiz services running in the background but today, there’s only the TouchWiz home and the error “Unfortunately, TouchWiz home has stopped” is basically just a notification so that users would know that the built-in user interface has crashed for some reason.

Most of the time when TouchWiz crashes, it would take only a couple of seconds before the service restarts and then you can continue using your phone as if nothing happened. However, there are cases wherein the phone would freeze and become unresponsive. As a result, the user could no longer use the phone since it would no longer respond to any commands not even its physical buttons. If the phone acts like this, then it’s time you need to do something about it and in this post, I will guide you how to do that.

For owners who are looking for a solution to a different problem, drop by our Galaxy J3 troubleshooting guide for we have already addressed many of the problems reported by our readers. Find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work or if you still need further assistance, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

Solution to “TouchWiz home has stopped” error on Galaxy J3

If this error shows up but disappears on its own and doesn’t cause the phone to freeze, then you’re fine. It may appear again from time to time but you would still be able to continue using your phone. Based on my personal experience, this error often pops up on phones with lower specifications like the J3 which is considered an entry-level device. The occurrence of this error can be due to RAM usage; TouchWiz home gets stopped when the phone is running low on RAM due to a lot of apps running in the background. But after the TouchWiz has crashed, it will restart and other services or apps will be closed that’s why this problem gets fixed on its own.

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However, if the error is accompanied by freezing and system crashing, then it’s a different story. Apparently, you can’t do something because the phone isn’t responding. Our main priority here is to make the phone respond so you can do something about the error. If you are using the 2016 variant of Galaxy J3 or earlier, you can simply pull the battery out for a few seconds and then place it back it to make the phone respond. In so doing, you’re also closing all apps running in the background and that alone fixes the problem.

If you’re using the 2017 variant of the phone with a non-removable battery, then you can’t simply pull the battery out to make your phone respond. Instead, you have to do this:

  • Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key simultaneously for 10 seconds.

This procedure is what we call Forced Restart which simulates battery disconnect. It’s effective against this problem because it forces your device to reboot as well as closes all apps running in the background. If your phone won’t respond to it, then try doing this…

  1. Press and hold the Volume Down button first and don’t let go.
  2. Now press and hold the Power key while holding down the Volume Down button.
  3. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or until the screen turns on.

After this, your phone will become active again so continue using it to know if the error or the problem reoccurs. If it does occur more frequently, then there’s more to the problem than a simple RAM shortage issue. Continue reading to know how to troubleshoot it.

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Troubleshooting Galaxy J3 with “TouchWiz home has stopped” error

You will only have to troubleshoot your Galaxy J3 if TouchWiz frequently crashes. I know that there are times when it would crash but not to the point wherein you will have to deal with it multiple times in a day. The following procedures will help you determine what causes it to crush and hopefully fix the problem.

Run your phone in safe mode and observe

The reason why you have to run the phone in safe mode is so that you would know if the error is triggered by one or some of the app you installed on your phone. In this mode, all third-party apps are temporarily disabled so it follows that if one or some of them is causing the problem, the error wouldn’t show up. This is how to run your phone in safe mode:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
  3. When ‘SAMSUNG’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see ‘Safe Mode’.

While the phone is in this mode, continue using it and wait to see if the error would still show up. If it doesn’t then there’s a third-party app that triggers it. Find that app and uninstall it:

  1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Applications.
  4. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap Menu icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

On the other hand, if TouchWiz still crashes even in safe mode, then do the next procedure.

Backup your files and data and reset your phone

The error message “Unfortunately, TouchWiz has stopped” is pretty minor issue and you can definitely fix it with a reset if all other procedures fail. But the reason why we don’t immediately suggest a reset is because it would be a hassle for some owners to do it depending on how much data they needed to transfer or copy. At this point though, there’s no other choice so you need to reset your device but before that, make sure you make a backup of your important files and data. After the backup, disable the Factory Reset Protection by removing your Google account from your phone and then follow these steps:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  6. Press Power button to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

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