Unfortunately, WhatsApp Has Stopped Working: How To Fixed This And What It Means To You
If you own an android phone, you should be conversant with your random pop-ups taking over your screen to tell you that so and so app has stopped working. You usually don’t bother because the app in question isn’t any important at that moment or ever. But Whatsapp is different. It is arguably the best app on your phone. Or, not to talk down on your bitcoin apps, it is nearly the most frequently used app for you.
Most times, this failure happens when you have a notification to check or in the middle of a conversation. Nothing can be more annoying than this, frustrating even than a popup telling you, Unfortunately, WhatsApp has stopped working.
How do you fix this?
How to fix Unfortunately Whatsapp has stopped working
- Clear caches: Caches are like logs lying about in your system and you need to clear it to get better performance from your phone. In this case, there are two ways you can do this. You can go to your phone setting and clear the entire cache; if this doesn’t work, you can try the second by going to your apps, open the Whatsapp app right there and clear its cache.
- Restart phone: Sometimes, gadgets behave like humans and there are moments of total exhaustion in which you would give anything for a wink or two of sleep. Your phone needs to completely shut down and come up now and again. A restart may just do the magic for your phone.
- Update your WhatsApp: If your Whatsapp is reaching expiration, it may have to be updated long before the deadline. Most times, people just wait one or two days before the day of expiration to update it. In fact, I used to keep postponing updating until the app expired. There are times your Whatsapp will begin to misbehave just nearing expiration.
- Delete and reinstall the app: This one is an alternative for updating the app. If you are in a remote setting where your network isn’t top-notch, you could just delete it and ask your boyfriend to send you another.
- Upgrade to a business Whatsapp: If your Whatsapp is this important to you enough to drive you crazy because it is your tool for business, then this should be your cue to move to Whatsapp Business. This app would enable you easily showcase your business. Ensure you back up your messages before you transfer to business Whatsapp.
What does it mean?
Beyond clearing caches, updating or deleting and reinstalling the app, what does “unfortunately, WhatsApp has stopped working” tell you about the general state of your phone?
1. It tells you that your phone is old: This fault usually occurs with old phones. Your phone system is getting weaker as the days pass and months turn to years. Your system would now struggle to load items optimally.
An old phone also means your system is operating an older version of android. Android updates its OS every couple of months, sometimes, after sixty days. Besides the main updates, android updates its security every single month.
So if your phone is three years old, you are at least 36 security updates late and at least five versions behind. The newer versions of Whatsapp may struggle to work with your archaic operating system. So when you see unfortunately, WhatsApp has stopped working think of the age of your phone.
2. Your phone might be infected: With virus, what else? Viruses infect phones more often than we talk about them and they are dangerous. You can get it by downloading an infected file from the internet or receiving a file from an infected phone or linking your phone to an infected computer.
A virus on your cell phone can disrupt your files and render them useless; it can slow the performance of your site; and, insert definitions, it can also make your phone generally misbehave. Depending on how deep it has eaten into your phone OS or the power of the virus, your phone would misbehave accordingly. So Whatsapp failing is one of the ways that your phone reports the existence of a virus in its cells.
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Mind you, apps crashing is just one way that your phone reports the existence of a virus. Other clues that your phone is infected include phone draining fast, overheating, increased data usage, unfamiliar apps popping out from nowhere, etc.
So if you already have any of these signs and your Whatsapp or any other app as the case often are, then it’s a virus.
3. Your phone is running out of space: This is a popular problem with android, spaces are never enough. And messaging apps such as Facebook and Whatsapp messengers expand the more you use them and the more they collect data (browsers too work this way). Now, as a heavy user of Whatsapp, it would expand so much and demand space that your phone cannot offer it.
In that case, your Whatsapp would definitely misbehave if it hits a wall in its search for space. One way your Whatsapp does this is to shed the most recent messages and images (plus videos). If it still requires more spaces, it would crash. And no, it won’t tell you it is crashed. It would tell you, unfortunately, Whatsapp has stopped working.
To take care of this, make enough space on your phone. Delete apps and media you no longer need. Or transfer the media to your computer. Make enough room for Whatsapp to explore. Better still, get a new phone with a larger capacity.
Image source: Explica.co