What to do if an app stopped working after updating Galaxy S9 to Android P (Android 9 Pie)

Some apps may stopped working properly after an Android update. In today’s post, we’ll show you the troubleshooting steps that you should do when faced by app trouble after updating your Galaxy S9 to Android 9 Pie.

How to fix Galaxy S9 issues following Android P (Android 9 Pie) update

Updates can some break things. This is understandable as there are millions of possible points of failure in Android. While developer try their best to release Android versions with as little bugs as possible, there are still so many things that can go wrong. If you are on of the Galaxy S9 users having an issue with Android 9 Pie, here’s what you can do:

Forced reboot. Rebooting a device should be the first troubleshooting step that you must do. This must be done before you attempt the rest of the suggestions below. At times, app bugs go away if a phone is restarted. Make sure that you simulate the effects of a battery pull in order to properly clear the system. This is how it’s done:

1. Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
2. From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.

Clear cache partition. Wiping the system cache should follow the first suggestion. This is to ensure that your S9 is using a fresh set of temporary files or cache when loading up apps. Someties, an update may cause this cache to be corrupted or outdated. Clearing the cache partition where it’s stored is a way to eliminate issues stemming from a corrupted system cache.

To clear the cache of your S9:

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

Force quit the app. At other times, closing an app can fix bugs too. This happens if there’s a temporary bug that develops that Android cannot resolve on its own. Helping the system this way is easy and can be done anytime. To close an app, simply tap on the Recent Apps button, the soft key on the left of the Home or Bixby button. Once the list of apps appear, tap on the “X” button at the upper right to close it.

Alternatively, you can force close an app with these steps:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
4. Select Show system apps.
5. Find and tap your app.
6. Tap Force close button.

Install updates. Some app bugs require a coding change within the app itself to fix them. If the issues you’re experiencing is recent and has been reported by other users, it’s possible that the developer may already have a fix for it. Make sure to check Google Play Store for any available update for the app in question.

Clear app cache. If none has worked so far, the next troubleshooting step that you want to do is to clear the cache of the said app. Just like in clearing the cache partition, this procedure may help in fixing an app-level issue.

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
4. Select Show system apps.
5. Find and tap your app.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear Cache button.
8. Restart your S9 and check for the problem.

Reinstall app or clear its data. For the same reason as the cache, you also need to ensure that your app’s data is cleared. You can do this if the problem continues after wiping the Facebook cache. Follow these steps on what you can do:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
4. Select Show system apps.
5. Find and tap your app.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear Data button.
8. Restart your S9 and check for the problem.

Check for bad third party app. If you’re having trouble with a preinstalled app (not the one you added or downloaded), then you can try to see if a bad third party app is to blame. All apps you downloaded after first setting up the phone are considered third party, including the ones from Samsung and Google. To check if one of the downloaded apps is bad, restart the phone to safe mode. Here’s how:

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.

Don’t forget: safe mode blocks third party apps. If none of the problems you mention are present, then that’s an indicator of a third party app problem. All apps you added after initially setting up the phone are considered third party, even if they products of Google or Samsung. Try to factor them in in your troubleshooting.
Now, if you suspect that a third party app is to blame after doing the safe mode procedure, you should go ahead and narrow down the suspected apps. Here’s how:

1. Boot to safe mode.
2. Check for the problem.
3. 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.
4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
5. If your S9 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Reset app preferences. Resetting app preferences is oftentimes overlooked in many Android troubleshooting articles but when it comes to an issue like yours, it might help a lot. It’s possible that one or some of your default apps may not be set correctly, causing this glitch to occur. Because there’s no way to know if this guess is true, what you need to do is to simply ensure that all default apps are turned on. Here’s how to do that:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
4. Select Reset app preferences.
5. Restart your S9and check for the problem.

Factory reset. Lastly, try to wipe your phone and return all software settings back to their defaults with a factory reset. This is an inevitable solution that you should do if all our suggestions above won’t help. To factory reset your S9:

1. Create a backup of your data.
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 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).
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.

Wait for updates. If you encounter a problem with one of your apps after an update to Android 9 Pie and none of the steps above help, there may be a coding issue behind it. What you can do at this stage is to  either remove the problematic app or wait until it’s updated. If the bug is caused by bad coding and a lot of other users reported it, there may be fix for it in the next update. Until you are unable to update the app, try to hold off using it, or simply remove it from the system. You can try to reinstall it after a few days or weeks.

 

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