Help Massive lag for a single contact on stock SMS app

This started happening pretty much immediately since I installed the 4.4.3 update late July, and has just gotten worse.

For a single one of my contacts, the SMS app lags HORRIBLY whenever I am doing anything with said person. It takes about half a minute just to load when I click his name, and the phone keeps completely freezing for up to 10-15 seconds EACH letter I type! It's not just the SMS app itself, but even the keyboard freezes up and is unresponsive. I can keep typing and it will apparently actually record the next 30 or so taps and just blaze through them ... then lag for another half minute or so again. None of the settings (how little there are) have had any effect. Once I click send the message also takes a bit before it appears and starts to send. Any action with this contact open in the SMS app seems to lag my phone like a unusable nightmare.

Since this is the person I tend to text the most, I have been tempted to crush the phone in my hand at this point. It is ONLY happening with them, and ONLY after the 4.4.3 update. It's not consistent either; I was still having this issue earlier today, but right now as I wanted to text him again it was working perfectly lag-free.

I know the first response anyone is going to say is to wipe my phone, but with this being the only issue I have, I really do not want to completely obliterate everything and start over from scratch just to fix one person in my SMS app. On top of that, I want to keep my SMS texting history as well. (Plus I would have no idea if restoring a backup wouldn't also restore the issue).

Has anyone else encountered or heard of anything like this? Or has any ideas of anything OTHER than wiping the phone or my SMS history I can try? Considering the app only pre-loads the last 10 or so messages when you open a contact anyway, I highly doubt it's my history. I am going nuts with this stupid thing.
 

Tlicious1020

Android Enthusiast
Yup, that happens if you have a rather large text exchange that needs to be cleaned out or a lot of text in general. Also, power saver mode does that as well. I would wipe all my text messages and go into the text app and clear the defaults out and wipe it clean from the messages app location under settings. Make sure you clear the cache and the defaults under the Messages app. Then delete that contact and type there information in again.
 

ekyle

Android Expert
I get lag when a message thread is huge. There are two or three people I text frequently and they always have a bit of lag so I clear it out once in awhile
 

Tlicious1020

Android Enthusiast
I get lag when a message thread is huge. There are two or three people I text frequently and they always have a bit of lag so I clear it out once in awhile

I learned phones do have limitations!..lol. Don't just let your text messages pile up. I back them up to gcloud anyway. Now my SMS is setup to automatically delete text messages after 200 lines.


@kratos: Sounds like he was using stock to me.
 

kratos

Back on my throne!!!
Stock app, and I tried clearing the cache.

This only started happening after the 4.4.3 update though.

Did you clear cache for the message app through the main app settings menu or through Android Recovery?

Sometimes clearing just the app cache is not enough after a system update. Sometimes you need to clear the entire system cache, which can be done through Android Recovery.

Another thing you might want to try is using a different 3rd party app or even Hangouts. I, personally, use Go SMS Pro. It's a little bloated, but I really like the customization options.

Kratos
 

Tlicious1020

Android Enthusiast
All else fails, backup and have your carrier reinstall the OS. Even with Apple OTA's don't go too hot. Sometimes a file or two can be missed. Name of the beast and I'm glad we have moved to where apps for manufacturers are updated independently in the play store now.
 
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