Six easy ways to fix Galaxy S8 “Unfortunately system UI has stopped” error

One of the native system apps that tend to encounter problems in many Samsung devices is the System UI. Today’s troubleshooting article will give you the steps on how to fix “Unfortunately system UI has stopped” error on the Galaxy S8. We hope you’ll find this post helpful.

Solution #1: Restart your Galaxy S8

Any minor or major Android troubleshooting should start with a system refresh or restart. It’s a simple procedure yet many bugs are fixed by it. Your issue is not an exception so make sure to restart the device to see if it helps.

Solution #2: Clear system cache

Together with restart, the next good thing to do when faced with “Unfortunately system UI has stopped” error is to delete the current system cache. This will force the device to create a new system cache. Every Android device uses the system cache to quickly load apps, ads, pages, and make app perform efficiently. However, there are situations when this cache gets corrupted so you’ll need to refresh it regularly to avoid system problems.

Wiping your S8’s system cache won’t affect your data so there’s no need to back them yet. The only stuff that will be deleted are temporary files and your device will rebuild them over time.

To clear the system cache on your S8, follow these steps:

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

Solution #3: FORCE STOP System UI app

Like any other core system apps, System UI app can’t be disabled though you can do a Force Stop on it. What this does is you’re basically stopping it to discontinue from running in the background. Force Stopping an app is like pausing it for a second to allow it stop whatever it’s doing. Unlike Disable option though, Force Stop won’t really keep the app to stop working. Still, it’s a potentially helpful troubleshooting step especially that we really don’t have any idea what’s causing the “Unfortunately system UI has stopped” error to keep popping up.

To Force Stop System UI, follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
2. Navigate down to Apps. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6 or 7.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon) at the upper right.
4. Select Show system apps.
5. Once in there, look for System UI and tap it.
6. Tap on Force Stop button.

Solution #4: Clear Cache of System UI app

Another good possible solution that you can do in this post is to clear the cache of the System UI app. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
2. Navigate down to Apps. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6 or 7.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon) at the upper right.
4. Select Show system apps.
5. Once in there, look for System UI and tap it.
6. You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
7. Tap on CLEAR CACHE button.

Solution #5: Boot to safe mode

Not all apps are created with the same expertise and resources (yes making apps do need money and time) so some may not be in good shape when released. Still, others may become incompatible if their publisher may not have the resources to regularly update them. To see if you’ve installed a bad app in your phone, you can restart it to safe mode. Safe mode is a diagnostic mode in Android that blocks third party apps. When running in this mode, only preinstalled apps will be allowed to run. So, if the “Unfortunately system UI has stopped” error won’t show, that’s a clear indicator that one of the apps is problematic.

To restart your S8 to safe mode, follow these steps:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
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.
8. Uninstall apps that are causing a problem.

Safe mode will not pinpoint the problematic app for you. If you think one of the apps is causing the “Unfortunately system UI has stopped” error, you must uninstall apps individually. Make sure that you observe the phone for the error after every uninstall.

Solution #6: Factory reset

Finally, if the solutions above won’t help you fix the issue at all, you must do the drastic solution of wiping the device. There may be an operating system glitch that causes the error so returning all system and app settings to their defaults should fix it. Factory reset will delete your data so be sure to back important files like photos, videos, etc before you do it.

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 the device.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold 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 to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

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