How To Fix S10 Smart Switch Crashing After Android 10 Update

The latest Android 10 update on the Galaxy S10 has been generally successful but some users have complained that some of their apps like the first party Smart Switch kept crashing on them. We’d like to tackle this particular issue right away since it involves a first party app, which means that a lot of Galaxy S10 users may be potentially affected. If you are one of the affected S10 owners, make sure to keep this guide bookmarked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKnICC54e7U

What is Smart Switch?

Smart Switch is an official Samsung mobile application (there are also versions for PC and Macs) that allows you to seamlessly move files from your phone to another device. For example, if you want to create a backup of your personal data from your Galaxy S10 to your PC, there’s no better way to do it than by using Smart Switch. All you have to do is to install it on your PC as well.

Smart Switch is a built-in application so its part of the pre-installed apps in your Galaxy S10. To open it, just open the Settings app and search “Smart Switch.”

What causes S10 Smart Switch crashing after Android 10 update

Causes for Smart Switch problems on a Galaxy S10 can vary, but more so if it happens after an Android 10 update. These are some of the common reasons why your S10 may encounter issues with Smart Switch:

Minor bug within the app
Bad system cache
broken third party app
Poor coding issue (difficult to resolve and requires “patch”)
Unknown software bug

Is the issue fixable?

Definitely. We haven’t encountered any Smart Switch issue due to hardware malfunction and all of the cases we know are fixed by the user. We have high hopes that you can also fix whatever Smart Switch app problems you’re having at this time.

Solutions to fix S10 Smart Switch crashing after Android 10 update

There are a number of potential solutions that you can do to fix your crashing Smart Switch app. Just follow our suggestions below and you should be good.

Look out for an error code or message

Errors are usually helpful in troubleshooting. If Smart Switch is crashing and your Galaxy S10 is showing an error when the app fails, you should start your troubleshooting by writing down the particular code or message.

If Smart Switch simply fails to work without showing any error at all, or if just shows the generic “Smart Switch has stopped” or “Smart Switch keeps stopping,” you can simply ignore them and continue with our suggestions below.

If you do get a unique Smart Switch error code though, make sure that you take note of it, then run a quick Google search about it. Some Smart Switch errors can be unique to a particular device or a particular network and there may be a certain set of solutions for each.

Perform troubleshooting steps on Smart Switch app

There are a number of troubleshooting steps that you can try to fix a Smart Switch app bug. These steps have proven effective in fixing not only this particular app but others as well. If the cause of the problem is within the Smart Switch itself, any of the following should help:

Force quit Smart Switch app
Delete Smart Switch app cache
Reset Smart Switch app
Reinstall Smart Switch app
Update Smart Switch app

Force quit Smart Switch app

Restarting Smart Switch app is a good idea in this situation. App bugs can sometimes develop if an app is left running in the background for a long time. To see if force closing Smart Switch will help, follow any of the two methods:

To force quit your Smart Switch app:

Method 1: Close an app using Recent Apps key

On your screen, tap the Recent Apps soft key (the one with three vertical lines on the left of the Home button).
Once the Recent Apps screen is shown, swipe left or right to look for the 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.

Method 2: Close an app using App Info menu

Another way to force close an app is by going within the app’s settings itself. It’s a longer way compared to the first method above but it’s equally effective. You want to use this method if you plan on doing other troubleshooting for the said app like clearing its cache or data. Here’s how it’s done:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
Tap Show system apps.
Find and tap the app.
Tap Force Stop at the bottom.

Delete Smart Switch app cache

If rebooting the app won’t help, your next move is to clear the Smart Switch app cache. This can be helpful if the cache for this app has become corrupted. Apps keep a certain set of temporary files in order to do tasks more efficiently. Sometimes, an app cache may become corrupted causing the app to misbehave.

To clear Smart Switch app cache:

Go to the Home screen.
Tap Apps icon.
Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
If you’re looking for a system or default app, tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Show system apps.
Find and tap the appropriate app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Cache button at the bottom.

Reset Smart Switch app

If your Smart Switch app still keeps crashing after installing Android 10 update on your Galaxy S10, clearing its data might help. This is going to revert the app to its default settings.

To clear an app’s data:

Go to the Home screen.
Tap Apps icon.
Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
If you’re looking for a system or default app, tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Show system apps.
Find and tap the appropriate app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Data button.

Reinstall Smart Switch app

This is an often more effective way to fix app bugs compared to clearing the data so you’ll want to do if Whatsapp was not part of the pre-installed apps, those apps that came with the original software package.

Below are the steps to delete or uninstall an app on Galaxy Note10

From a Home screen, swipe up or down from the center of the display to access the apps screen.
Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Ensure All is selected (upper-left). If necessary, tap the Dropdown icon (upper-left) then select All.
Locate then select the appropriate app. If system apps aren’t visible, tap the More options icon (upper-right) then select Show system apps.
Tap Uninstall to delete an app.
Tap OK to confirm.

Once you’ve deleted Whatsapp, all you have to do to add it back on your Galaxy S10 is to open the Play Store app and install it from there.

Update Smart Switch app

Another potential solution that can be done in this situation is to ensure that keep the app running its latest version. If the bug that keeps the app crashing is new, Samsung may release a stability fix for it.

You can manually check for an update for Smart Switch by following these steps:

Open Smart Switch.
Tap More settings at the upper right (thee dots).
Tap Settings.
Tap About Smart Switch.
Tap Update button if available. If there’s no Update button at all, that means that the app is updated.

Ensure all other apps are updated

Being a smartphone owner entails some tiny bits of responsibility. One of your responsibilities is to ensure that you have updated apps. By default, the Google Play Store app in most Galaxy S10 devices are set to automatically download and install app updates so basically, the only minimal thing that you must do is to check.

However, if you changed the settings of Play Store before and you are not sure if it continues to update your apps automatically, here’s what you must do:

Open Play Store app.
Tap More settings icon at the upper left (three-horizontal lines).
Tap My apps & games.
Tap Update or Update All.

If you want to keep your apps updated all the time, you want to enable auto-update in the Play Store. Here’s how that’s done:

Tap Auto-update apps.
Tap Over wifi only (select Over any network if you don’t have wifi).
Tap Done.

While you’re at it, it might also help if you ensure that there’s no pending software updates that you’ve missed at this time. If you have a global, unlocked version of Galaxy S10, you can manually check for Android updates with these steps:

Open Settings app.
Scroll down to the bottom and tap Software update.
Tap Download and install.

Refresh the System Cache

If Smart Switch app started acting up or crashing after installing Android 10 update, your Galaxy S10 system cache may had been corrupted. Such a situation can lead to all sorts of issues including other apps being affected. To check if that’s the case, try clearing the cache partition with these steps.

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
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).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

Smart Switch still keeps crashing? Check for rogue third party app

Updating to a new Android version can sometimes leave some apps behind. Because not all developers are keen on updating their apps all the time, this can potentially lead to a situation where an app may become incompatible.

A single app in your device that’s incompatible may potentially cause problems. This is why it’s important that you ensure that all apps are running their latest versions, especially since you just installed a new Android OS version as well.

To check if you have a broken app problem, you can restart the device to safe mode. In this mode, all third party apps are blocked from running (they’re all greyed out). If Smart Switch works normally and there’s no problem at all on safe mode, you can assume that a bad app is to blame.

To boot your device to safe mode:

Press and hold the Power button until the Power off window appears then release.
Touch and hold Power off until the Safe mode prompt appears then release.
To confirm, tap Safe mode.
The process may take up to 30 seconds to complete.
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 Galaxy S10 Smart Switch app works normally on safe mode only, 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:

Boot to safe mode.
Check for the problem.
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.
After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
If your S10 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Return software to defaults with factory reset

Like other first party app problems, it may sometimes need a drastic factory reset to fix them. If none of our suggestions above has helped, don’t hesitate to wipe your S10 and revert its software to defaults. This is often effective in fixing software-related problems.

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.

Create a backup of your personal data and remove your Google account.
Open Settings app.
Scroll to and tap General management.
Tap Reset.
Select Factory data reset from the given options.
Read the information then tap Reset to continue.
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.

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.
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.
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.
Press and hold the Volume Up button and the Bixby button at the same time.
While still holding the Volume Up and Bixby keys, press and hold the Power button.
The Recovery screen menu will now appear. When you see this, release the buttons.
Use the Volume Down button until you are highlighting ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
Press the Power button to select ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
Use Volume Down to highlight Yes.
Press the Power button to confirm factory reset.

Get help from us

Having Issues with your phone? Feel free to contact us using this form. We’ll try to help. We also create videos for those wanting to follow visual instructions. Visit our Youtube page for troubleshooting.