Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus shows “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped”

While Settings is just another application that comes pre-installed on your Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, it’s actually one of the most important apps that should work without a hitch. The error message “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” will always mean that your phone has a serious firmware issue that causes Settings to crash.

Most of the time, the error would show up when you change settings in any of your applications. It would also show up if you tapped on the Settings icon on the app drawer or in the notification panel. The error may also be accompanied by slow performance, sluggishness or other errors. This is one of the problems that you need to address as soon as you can.

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy S10 Plus with ‘Settings has stopped’ error. We will consider every possibility and rule them out one by one until the problem is fixed and your phone works perfectly fine. So, continue reading as this article may be able to help you.

Before we move on to our troubleshooting, if you are looking for a solution to a different issue, make sure you drop by our troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed some of the most common problems reported by our readers. Find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If you still need our help after that, then feel free to contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

Troubleshooting Galaxy S10 Plus with ‘Settings has stopped’ error

Depending on how this problem started, it may range from a minor firmware issue to a very serious one. So, we need to be thorough in troubleshooting your phone to determine the issue. Now here’s what you need to do about this problem…

First solution: Force restart your Galaxy S10 Plus

The first thing you should do when the Settings has stopped error shows up is to force restart your phone especially if it’s the first time that it happened. Doing it will refresh your phone’s memory as well as reload all its applications and services. If Settings crashed due to a system glitch or minor firmware problem, then this procedure is more than enough to fix it. To do this, press and hold the volume down and power keys at the same time until the Samsung Galaxy S10+ logo appears on the screen.

After this, open Settings and see if the error still shows up. If it still does, then move on to the next solution as the Settings has stopped error may be caused by a some third-party applications.

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Second solution: Run your phone in Safe Mode

Doing this will temporarily disable all third-party applications and services. It’s very much possible that one of the those apps is causing the Settings has stopped error to show up. I personally encountered this error in the past after I installed one app from the Play Store. It could also be the case with your phone. This is how you restart your Galaxy S10 Plus in safe mode:

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen appearing on the screen.
When SAMSUNG appears on the screen, release the Power key.
Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
When Safe mode appears in the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume down key.

If the Settings has stopped error doesn’t show up while your phone is in safe mode, it means that the problem is caused by one or some of the apps you installed. You have to find that app and uninstall it so that the error won’t show up when you reboot your phone back in normal mode. Start from apps that you installed around the time when the problem started. You may have to uninstall more than one application to get this problem sorted out. However, if it continues to show even in safe mode, then move on to the next solution.

Third solution: Delete the system cache to fix Settings has stopped error

One of the possible reasons why the Settings has stopped error shows up is when the system cache got corrupted. Your phone creates a cache during the first boot. The cache will be used every time you use an app, enable a feature, etc., however, there are times when it gets corrupted. When it happens, a lot of things could happen including this error. So, it’s best to just delete the cache so that it will be refreshed with a new one and here’s how you do that:

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Android logo displays, release all three keys.
An ‘Installing system update’ message will show for 30 – 60 seconds before the Android system recovery menu options appear.
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight wipe cache partition.
Press Power key to select.
Press the Volume down key to highlight yes, them and press the Power key to select.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, Reboot system now is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

Your phone will take a little more time booting up as it rebuilds the cache but once it becomes active, try to open Settings and see if the error still shows up. If it still does, then a reset is necessary at this point so move on to the next solution.

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Fourth solution: Backup your files and data and then Master Reset your device

After doing the procedures above and the Settings has stopped error continues to show up, then you have no other choice but to reset your phone. As long as the firmware hasn’t been modified in any way, you should be able to fix it by doing a reset.

However, before you reset your phone, make sure to create a backup of your important files especially ones that are saved in your phone’s internal storage. After which, remove your Google and Samsung accounts so that you won’t be locked out after the reset. Once everything is ready, follow these steps to reset your phone:

Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Samsung account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Samsung credentials to finish the master reset.
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 data / factory reset’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide helped you in fixing the “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” error on your Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. We would appreciate it if you helped us spread the word so please share this post if you found it helpful. Thank you so much for reading!

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