Start simple before you start deleting things.
Force-close the app, restart your device, check your connection, update the app, check available storage, and then test whether the problem is happening in only that app or across your whole device.
An app that freezes once isn't necessarily a problem. Apps occasionally hiccup.
But if the same app keeps freezing, crashing, refusing to open, or suddenly closing itself, there is usually something specific we can troubleshoot.
The important part is figuring out whether you're dealing with an app problem, device problem, connection problem, or account/service problem.
Is it one app or everything?
8 things to try
Completely close the app.
Don't just return to your home screen. Fully close the app so it is no longer running in the background, then open it again.
If the problem was a temporary glitch, this may be all it takes.
Restart the whole device.
Yes, this is the classic IT answer.
But a real restart clears temporary processes and memory issues that can make an otherwise perfectly good app behave badly.
Shut the device down completely, turn it back on, and test the app again.
Check your internet connection.
Some apps look frozen when they're actually waiting on a server or struggling with a bad connection.
Try loading a website or using another internet-based app.
If everything online is acting strange, the app may not be the problem at all.
Update the app.
Open your device's app store or software manager and check whether an update is available.
Developers regularly release updates to fix crashes, compatibility problems, and bugs that appeared after an operating-system change.
Check for a device update.
Sometimes the app is current but the device isn't.
Check for operating-system updates on your computer, phone, or tablet.
An outdated operating system can cause compatibility problems with newer versions of apps.
Check your available storage.
Devices that are extremely low on storage can start behaving badly in ways that seem completely unrelated to storage.
Apps may freeze, fail to save information, take forever to open, or suddenly crash.
If your storage is nearly full, remove things you genuinely don't need and test the app again.
Sign out and back in.
If the app uses an account, sometimes the issue isn't the app itself — it's the session connecting your account to the service.
If possible, sign out of the app and sign back in.
Before doing this, make sure you know your login information and have access to any required two-factor authentication.
Make sure you know what is actually saved.
Some apps store everything safely in your online account. Others may store information only on the device. Before deleting an app or clearing its data, make sure anything important is backed up or synced.
Reinstall the app.
If nothing else has worked and your important information is safely synced or backed up, uninstalling and reinstalling the app can replace damaged or corrupted application files.
After reinstalling, sign back in and test the app before changing a bunch of settings.
Now we narrow it down.
If you've worked through all eight steps and the app is still freezing, ask these questions:
- Does the same app work normally on another device?
- Does the problem happen when using a different account?
- Did the issue begin immediately after an update?
- Are other users reporting the same problem?
- Are several unrelated apps now crashing too?
Those answers help separate an app-specific issue from a larger device or service problem.