Samsung Galaxy J7 Clock apps keeps crashing showing “Unfortunately, Clock has stopped” error [Troubleshooting Guide]

• Read to understand why a mid-range device like the #Samsung Galaxy #J7 with pretty impressive specs for its level shows up the error “Unfortunately, Clock has stopped” and learn how to troubleshoot your phone when this happens to you.

The error message “Unfortunately, Clock has stopped” rarely shows up because the app that’s handling the local time in your device is deeply rooted into the firmware that anything that happens to it must have something to do with the system.

In this post, I will tackle this error message which drags along the Samsung Galaxy J7, a relatively new, mid-range device that was released last year and has pretty decent technical specs. It’s just too bad that phone has been plagued with a lot of errors this past few months, well, that’s based on the number of messages we received from our readers.

If you own this device and are currently bugged by a similar problem, then continue reading the troubleshooting guide below as it may help you fix the problem.

Before anything else though, if you have other issues with your device, then visit our Galaxy J7 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed several common problems with this phone. Odds are that there are already existing solutions to your problems so just take time finding issues that are similar with yours. If you can’t find one or if you need further assistance, feel free to contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. Please provide us with as much information as possible so that it would also be easier for us to troubleshoot the problem. Don’t worry as we offer this service for free, so all you have to do is give us sufficient information about the problem.

Troubleshooting Galaxy J7 that shows “Unfortunately, Clock has stopped” error

The purpose of this troubleshooting guide is for us to know why the error occurs, what triggers it and what needs to be done to get rid of it and fix the issue for good. What the error message actually means is that the Clock app crashed for some reason but before we jump right into our troubleshooting, here’s one of the messages we received from our readers:

Problem: Hi guys! I have a problem with my phone as it keeps showing up the error “Unfortunately, Clock has stopped” randomly. It showed up while I was texting and even when I was browsing through my pictures. I don’t know this is happening but I can actually force the error message to show up by setting an alarm. By the time it supposed to alarm, the error shows up instead of the sound going off. Well, it has something to do with the clock, right? I just don’t know how to fix it. My phone is Galaxy J7. Thanks.

Now, here are the steps you can use to troubleshoot this problem:

Step 1: Clear the cache and data of the Clock app to reset it

You may lose your alarms and preferences but I think you can manage to set the clock to go off on specific times once the problem is fixed. By doing this procedure, you’re actually resetting the app, which means it will run bearing the default settings and it might be the only thing you need to do:

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Applications.
4. Tap Application manager.
5. Tap Clock.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
8. Tap Clear cache.

If the problem still occurs after this procedure, then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Reboot your device in Safe mode to know if it’s due to a third-party app

Starting your phone up in Safe mode will temporarily disable all third-party apps. It’s important you do this because the error might have been triggered by one of the apps you downloaded. If the error still pops up in safe mode, then it might be an issue with the firmware, otherwise, you just have to find the app that’s causing it and uninstall it.

This is how you start your J7 in safe mode:

1. Power off your Galaxy J7. Press and hold the Power key, tap Power off and then touch POWER OFF to confirm.
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’.

Step 3: Wipe the cache partition to delete system caches that might have been corrupted

Since the Clock is a built-in application, it’s very much possible that the error is triggered by some corrupt system caches. We need to rule out this possibility by wiping the cache partition so that all caches will be replaced with new ones. This is how you do it:

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 cache partition.’
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

It may take a little longer for the phone to reboot completely but wait for it and then try to trigger the error. If it still shows up, the next step will fix it.

Step 4: Reset your Galaxy J7 to bring the phone back to its original settings

For sure this error just started recently and while we don’t know what caused it, I’m certain it wasn’t popping up when you first got the phone. So, we’ll try to bring the phone back to its factory defaults to fix the problem. However, doing so will also delete all your personal files, preferences, data and other things you saved in your device’s internal storage. Make a backup of the things you don’t want to lose and then follow these steps:

1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
2. Turn off your Galaxy J7.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up button and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
4. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
5. 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).
6. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
7. Press Power button to select.
8. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
9. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
10. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
11. Press the Power key to restart the device.

For the error “Unfortunately, Clock has stopped” a mere factory reset will fix the problem for you but then again there’s no guarantee. So after this and the problem remained, it’s time to have the phone checked by a technician.

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