How to fix Phone has stopped on Galaxy S10 | troubleshoot “Unfortunately, Phone has stopped”

Just like any other app, the Phone app on your Galaxy S10 can also become buggy from time to time. If your Galaxy S10 keeps showing Phone has stopped error on your device lately, this guide should help. Follow our suggestions below and see what you can do.

How to fix Phone has stopped on Galaxy S10 | troubleshoot “Unfortunately, Phone has stopped”

If Phone app keeps crashing or showing Phone has stopped error on your Galaxy S10, there can be a number of possible reasons for it. Learn how to troubleshoot the problem with these steps below.

Phone has stopped fix #1: Restart Phone app

If you are unable to make or receive calls because your S10 keeps saying Phone has stopped, the first thing that you want to do is restart the said app. If you’re lucky and the bug is temporary, this one will most probably help. There’s a number of factors that can cause Phone app to stop working properly. To see if restarting it will help, here’s what you can do:

1. On your screen, tap the Recent Apps soft key (the one with three vertical lines on the left of the Home button).
2. Once the Recent Apps screen is shown, swipe left or right to look for the Settings app. It should be here if you managed to run it previously. Then, swipe up on the app to close it. This should force close it. If it’s not there, simply tap the Close All app to also restart all apps.

Another way to force close an app is this:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
4. Tap Show system apps.
5. Find and tap Settings app.
6. Tap Force Stop.

Phone has stopped fix #2: Soft reset your device

Should the problem return after rebooting the app itself, the next thing that you want to do is perform a soft reset. This should clear the system and possibly get rid of the bug as well. To do that, simply press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons for about 10 seconds. Once the phone has restarted, release the buttons. This is usually effective in clearing bugs that developed when a system is left running for some time. We suggest that you restart your S10 using this method at least once a week to lessen the chances of bugs.

For some Galaxy S10, there may be a slightly different way to arrive at the same method. Here’s how:

1. Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
2. From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.

Phone has stopped fix #3: Update Android and apps

Although not generally known by many Android users, installing updates sometimes also bring needed fixes for known bugs. Make sure that you don’t delay the installation of any system or app updates. By default, your S10 should notify you of any available updates but in case you turn this mechanism off, it’s high time that you manually check for them.

To check for Android or system update:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Software update.
3. Tap Download and install.
4. Wait for the device to check for updates.
5. Install the update. If there’s no new update, your phone should tell you so.

For carrier-branded Galaxy S10 devices, or those that were provided by your carrier, there may not be an option to manually check for updates. All you have to do is to simply confirm if there’s a notification for an update and allow update installation.

To check for app updates:

1. Open Play Store app.
2. Tap More settings icon (at the upper left).
3. Tap My apps & games.
4. Tap Update all button.

Phone has stopped fix #4: Clear Phone app cache

Clearing the cache of a problem app is another basic troubleshooting step that you can do in this situation. Learn how to do it below.

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
4. Tap Show system apps.
5. Find and tap Phone app.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear cache button.
8. Restart the phone and check for the problem.

Phone has stopped fix #5: Reset Phone app to defaults

If Phone has stopped bug remains, you must follow the previous step through with clearing the app’s data. This will reset the app to its defaults. Here’s how:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
4. Tap Show system apps.
5. Find and tap Phone app.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear data button.
8. Restart the phone and check for the problem.

Although this troubleshooting step will not delete any personal data, we highly recommend that you create a backup of your Contacts and Phone logs if you want to keep them intact.

Phone has stopped fix #6: Reset All Settings

Resetting all settings on your S10 is like a factory reset, minus the deletion of your personal data and some other things. If Phone has stopped error continues at this time, make sure to reset all settings on your device with these steps:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap General management.
3. Tap Reset.
4. Tap Reset settings.
5. Tap Reset settings button to confirm.

Phone has stopped fix #7: Wipe cache partition

Android depends on a set of temporary files called system cache to load apps quickly. If this cache gets corrupted or outdated, a device may suddenly lag, freeze, or show signs of slow performance. At other times, uncommon glitches may occur as well as overall performance of the system may also be affected. To ensure that your S10 has good system cache, we suggest that you clear it once every few months. Here’s how to do it:

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
5. Press Power button to select.
6. Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Phone has stopped fix #8: Check for rogue apps

If the error happened right after installing a new app, you should delete the app and see if it fixes it. If not, then you continue to troubleshoot for the possibility of a bad third party app issue. To do that, you want to restart the device to safe mode.  Here’s how to do that:

1. Press and hold the Power button until the Power off window appears then release.
2. Touch and hold Power off until the Safe mode prompt appears then release.
3. To confirm, tap Safe mode.
4. The process may take up to 30 seconds to complete.
5. Upon reboot, “Safe mode” appears in the lower-left of the home screen.

Remember that third-party applications are disabled in this mode so what you can use are pre-installed apps. If the touchscreen issue won’t appear on safe mode, that means that the problem is due to a bad app. Uninstall the app you recently installed and see if that will fix it. If the problem remains, use the process of elimination to identify the rogue app. Here’s how:

1. Boot to safe mode.
2. Check for the problem.
3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
5. If your S10 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Phone has stopped fix #9: Reset app preferences

In case there’s a default app that’s been disabled by mistake causing the bug, make sure to reset app preferences.

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
4. Select Reset app preferences.
5. Restart your S10 and check for the problem.

Phone has stopped fix #10: Factory reset your device

You may have to wipe the phone and return all its software settings to defaults should nothing change all this time. Factory reset is usually effective in fixing software-related troubles. Since the most likely reason for this trouble is software or app, factory reset offers a good chance of fixing this.

Below are the two ways to factory reset your S10:

Method 1: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy S10 via Settings Menu

This is the easiest way to wipe your Galaxy S10. all you have to do is to go under Settings menu and follow the steps below. We recommend this method if you have no trouble going under Settings.

1. Create a backup of your personal data and remove your Google account.
2. Open Settings app.
3. Scroll to and tap General management.
4. Tap Reset.
5. Select Factory data reset from the given options.
6. Read the information then tap Reset to continue.
7. Tap Delete All to confirm action.

Method 2: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy S10 using hardware buttons

If your case is that the phone is not booting up, or it boots but Settings menu is inaccessible, this method can be helpful. First, you need to boot the device to Recovery Mode. Once you successfully access Recovery, that’s the time that you begin proper master reset procedure. It may take some tries for you before you can access Recovery so be patient and simply try again.

1. If possible, create a backup of your personal data ahead of time. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
2. Also, you want to make sure that you remove your Google account. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
3. Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
4. Press and hold the Volume Up button and the Bixby button at the same time.
5. While still holding the Volume Up and Bixby keys, press and hold the Power button.
6. The Recovery screen menu will now appear. When you see this, release the buttons.
7. Use the Volume Down button until you are highlighting ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
8. Press the Power button to select ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
9. Use Volume Down to highlight Yes.
10. Press the Power button to confirm factory reset.

 

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