Samsung Galaxy S9 keeps showing “Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped” error (easy steps)

The error message “Unfortunately, Gallery has stopped” on your Samsung Galaxy S9 is a notification to let you know that the default pictures and videos manager called “gallery” has crashed for some reason. It could be just a minor problem with the app or a sign of a serious and complicated issue with the firmware. Nothing is certain at this point but we’re pretty that the app won’t work anymore that’s you have to do something about it so that it would work again and that you could continue using it.

The error message is just one of the signs of an app that’s crashing. Other signs that would tell you that there’s a problem with the app is when it closes immediately after you open it or closes on its own after a few minutes of using it. This post will help you fix the Gallery that keeps crashing on your Samsung Galaxy S9 so whether you’re getting the “Gallery has stopped” error or having the app close on its own, this post may be able to help you. Continue reading as I will share with you the solution we’ve always been using to fix issues like this.

Before going further, if you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to your problem, then try to visit our Galaxy S9 troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed most of the commonly reported issues with the phone. We’ve already provided solutions to some of the problems reported by our readers so try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy S9 with “Gallery has stopped” error

Unless your phone’s firmware has been modified or you rooted it and installed a custom ROM, this problem can be fixed by doing some basic troubleshooting procedures for apps. The course of our troubleshooting will be to find out first if this is just a minor issue or a problem with Gallery before we do some troubleshooting for the firmware. With all that being said, here’s what I suggest you do about this problem:

First solution: Reboot your phone

Your Galaxy S9, its firmware, apps and everything in it are designed to work smoothly and seamlessly. If, for some reason, a problem occurs out of the blue without apparent cause, there’s a chance it’s a minor issue. Therefore, the first thing you have to do is refresh your phone’s memory by simply doing the normal reboot. After your phone has restarted, try to open gallery or view some pictures using it and if the error still shows up, try this before you move on to the next procedure: press and hold the volume down button and power key at the same time for 10 seconds or until the device reboots. After which, open gallery again to test if it would still crash and if so, then try the next solution.

Second solution: Clear cache and data of gallery

Deleting the cache and data of the gallery means you will reset the app back to its default settings or configuration. More often, this is the only thing you need to do to fix app related problems. So, if the problem persists after the reboot and forced restart, this should be the next thing you should do. Here’s how…

From a Home screen, touch and swipe up or down to display all apps.
From a Home screen, navigate: Settings > Apps.
Tap App Manager.
Locate then tap Gallery.
Tap Storage.
Tap CLEAR CACHE.
Tap Cached data.
Tap CLEAR.
Reboot your phone to refresh its memory.

Verify if the problem is fixed once the phone has restarted.

Third solution: Run phone in safe mode, find app that cause the problem

There are times when third-party app may cause the gallery to crash. Gallery is a common app and so there are other apps and service that also use it especially apps that offer picture and video sharing services. After the second solution and the problem continues to bug your phone, you should continue your troubleshooting but this time in safe mode where all third-party apps are disabled. It’s important because it will tell you right off the bat if the cause of the problem is caused by a third-party because if it is, then the gallery should not crash while in this environment. This is how you reboot your phone 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 app actually doesn’t crash in this mode, then you should find the app that’s causing or triggering the problem and uninstall it.

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Apps.
Tap the desired application in the default list.
To display preinstalled apps, tap Menu > Show system apps.
Tap UNINSTALL > OK.

Fourth solution: Wipe cache partition

Another possibility we have to rule out is that this problem might have been due to some corrupt system caches. While they’re just some small files, when corrupted, they can actually cause so much trouble to your phone. For the sake of being thorough in our troubleshooting and for the chance to fix this problem, try to follow these steps to delete all system caches. Don’t worry as none of your files and data will be deleted if you did this:

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.

Fifth solution: Master reset

After wiping the cache partition off and the problem still occurs, the next thing you should do is the Master reset. This will bring the phone back to its factory settings and fix any app-related and firmware issues. But here’s the catch, you will lose all your files and data saved in your phone’s memory. So make sure to make a backup of file you don’t want to lose. After the backup, remove your google account from your phone so that you won’t be locked out after the reset. This is how you do 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 can help you with some issues with your phone. If you have other concerns you want to share with us, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.

Connect with us

We are always open to your problems, questions and suggestions, so feel free to contact us by filling up this form. This is a free service we offer and we won’t charge you a penny for it. But please note that we receive hundreds of emails every day and it’s impossible for us to respond to every single one of them. But rest assured we read every message we receive. For those whom we’ve helped, please spread the word by sharing our posts to your friends or by simply liking our Facebook and Google+ page or follow us on Twitter.

Posts you may also like to check out: