Help Phone problems (random restarts, apps crashing)

[EcoMel]

Hi, I'm new here and I made an account to see if anyone could help me troubleshoot this.

I have a 1.5 yr old Moto g 7 play. I have Republic Wireless (I'm planning on switching to Red Pocket, but I'm assuming this is a phone / Android issue and not a carrier issue).

I've been having problems with my phone for the last few weeks. It 1) randomly restarts itself and 2) various apps crash (and I get the popup asking if I want to wait or close the app- when this happens, I sometimes can't even close the app or its not even the app I'm using, and I need to restart the phone).

I've done THREE factory resets in the past couple weeks. It seems OK on safe mode (although maybe I'm not giving it enough time on safe mode to see if it will crash?). Last time, after the factory reset, I tried to troubleshoot it by adding apps back on slowly. It did seem better at first, but I cannot seem to figure out what app or process is causing the problem. I thought maybe it was Google apps or the Android Web viewer thing. I tried uninstalling updates of those, I tried installing all the updates. It seems to have problems when I add a variety off apps back on. Like, I think its ok so I add a couple more apps, then it starts having problems. So I take those off. But when I add on other, different apps, it starts having problems again.

It is on Android version 10 and says there are no updates.

Not really sure what to do next. Do I have to take everything off and add the apps on one at at time? What if its not a 3rd party app but an update of a stock app?

Thanks in advance!

 

[puppykickr]

To be honest, it sounds like your phone is full, ie. you have too many apps on it.

This can also be caused by having too many pictures, videos, documents, etc.

Your SD card is where all your personal files should be stored.
This leaves the device memory to handle the system and any apps that you install.

A good rule of thumb is to only use 70% of the internal memory, leaving the rest available for apps that you use- because they have caches that fill and empty as the apps are used.

If you desire to keep a close tab on how much memory you are using,and many other things about your device, there is a great, simple to use app called CPU Info.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.kgurgul.cpuinfo/

 

[EcoMel]

To be honest, it sounds like your phone is full, ie. you have too many apps on it.

This can also be caused by having too many pictures, videos, documents, etc.

Your SD card is where all your personal files should be stored.
This leaves the device memory to handle the system and any apps that you install.

A good rule of thumb is to only use 70% of the internal memory, leaving the rest available for apps that you use- because they have caches that fill and empty as the apps are used.

If you desire to keep a close tab on how much memory you are using,and many other things about your device, there is a great, simple to use app called CPU Info.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.kgurgul.cpuinfo/

Thanks for your reply. Before this whole thing started that could have been the issue- it was pretty full. But I have not even filled it up 30% since the resets. I'm only adding back a couple apps at a time. The most I've added back since the reset is maybe 8 apps or so. :-/

 

[EcoMel]

To be honest, it sounds like your phone is full, ie. you have too many apps on it.

This can also be caused by having too many pictures, videos, documents, etc.

Your SD card is where all your personal files should be stored.
This leaves the device memory to handle the system and any apps that you install.

A good rule of thumb is to only use 70% of the internal memory, leaving the rest available for apps that you use- because they have caches that fill and empty as the apps are used.

If you desire to keep a close tab on how much memory you are using,and many other things about your device, there is a great, simple to use app called CPU Info.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.kgurgul.cpuinfo/

Also I have downloaded CPU info as per your suggestion... nothing obvious but I'm not really sure what to look for.

 

[puppykickr]

Slide through the options until you get to the storage information.

There will likely be three separate ones, the first two are the internal and are the same.

This would be the one that is best to maintain at or below 70%, for the reasons mentioned before.

It is also not a good idea to overfill your SD card, either.

 

[puppykickr]

Also, you mention that you have only added '8 apps or so' since the reset.

Remember that it is not the number of apps, but the size of the apps that makes the difference.

Some apps are very small when first installed, only to become enormous in a short while.

If any of the apps you are speaking of are social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), I would highly suggest ditching those altogether and just using your browser and bookmarking your login page.
If cookies are saved in your browser, a simple tap of the bookmark should bring you right to your feed on the site.

This act alone cane save huge amounts of space on a memory strapped device.

The same thing can be done for shopping apps, and any other app that is simply a wrapper for an online site.

 

[EcoMel]

Also, you mention that you have only added '8 apps or so' since the reset.

Remember that it is not the number of apps, but the size of the apps that makes the difference.

Some apps are very small when first installed, only to become enormous in a short while.

If any of the apps you are speaking of are social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), I would highly suggest ditching those altogether and just using your browser and bookmarking your login page.
If cookies are saved in your browser, a simple tap of the bookmark should bring you right to your feed on the site.

This act alone cane save huge amounts of space on a memory strapped device.

The same thing can be done for shopping apps, and any other app that is simply a wrapper for an online site.

OK, thank you for the info. Right now, both of the storage indicators show ~40%. But I will keep an eye on them.

 

[puppykickr]

OK, thank you for the info. Right now, both of the storage indicators show ~40%. But I will keep an eye on them.

When you say 'both', do you not have and SD card in the device?

Because if you do, and it is not formatted as internal memory, there should be 3 separate memories listed- and the first two are one and the same.

 

[EcoMel]

When you say 'both', do you not have and SD card in the device?

Because if you do, and it is not formatted as internal memory, there should be 3 separate memories listed- and the first two are one and the same.

No, I don't have an SD card in there

 

[puppykickr]

No, I don't have an SD card in there

So the two shown are both the internal memory.

 

[EcoMel]

So the two shown are both the internal memory.

Got it, that makes sense. They both say ~40% right now (although the phone says its 55% full). I still don't know what is going on with my phone, but I guess it couldn't hurt to get an SD card. Thanks.

 

[puppykickr]

That app is telling you how much of the space available to you is being used.

The phone is telling you how much of the total memory is being used, which also includes space that you cannot use for yourself.

 

[EcoMel]

Gotcha, thanks puppykickr. But since I'm still having the problem and its showing ~40% full, do you have any thoughts?

 

[puppykickr]

Have you kept track of the behavior as you have been installing apps?
This could narrow it down, and identify the app(s) causing the problem- if that is indeed what is going on.

Besides the space that an app takes up, there is also the issue of how much memory an app uses when it is active.
So it is quite possible that you have the 'physical' space for an app, but still not have enough RAM to properly run it.
Keep in mind that the OS must run at the same time as well, usually along with other apps, too.

How is the battery?
It may seem fine, then when a load is applied it may give out, and the device will crash.
Does the device have the same behavior if it is plugged into a charger as it does when not plugged in?
This is not a foolproof test, because a device runs off of the battery even when plugged into a charger.

Have you accessed the developers options?
In there, you can find a section that allows you to view all running apps.
Check this before and immediately after the behavior, and compare the differences.

 

[EcoMel]

I have not written down exactly what app crashed, when. But it seems to be a weird variety of apps. Chrome sometimes crashes (and then continues to crash with a forced popup until I restart the phone sometimes). Sometimes its the text messaging app. Sometimes its a podcast app (when I had it installed at least). The phone has restarted itself while I was in the middle of listening to an audiobook. Its restarted in various other situations, too. Since at least some of these apps are stock apps, I tried updating them and also tried uninstalling all updates, but neither seemed to fix it.

I did access the developer options a little while ago. There was nothing surprising running in the background (I had hoped their was so I could find the problem!).

Oh, and once a moto app / process crashed? I forget which one it was, but I went in and made sure it was updated (it was).

It has the problem while plugged in and while not plugged in. According to the app you suggested I install, the battery is in good health.

I guess maybe I can use CPU info app to monitor the RAM?

 

[puppykickr]

I have not written down exactly what app crashed, when. But it seems to be a weird variety of apps. Chrome sometimes crashes (and then continues to crash with a forced popup until I restart the phone sometimes). Sometimes its the text messaging app. Sometimes its a podcast app (when I had it installed at least). The phone has restarted itself while I was in the middle of listening to an audiobook. Its restarted in various other situations, too. Since at least some of these apps are stock apps, I tried updating them and also tried uninstalling all updates, but neither seemed to fix it.

I did access the developer options a little while ago. There was nothing surprising running in the background (I had hoped their was so I could find the problem!).

Oh, and once a moto app / process crashed? I forget which one it was, but I went in and made sure it was updated (it was).

It has the problem while plugged in and while not plugged in. According to the app you suggested I install, the battery is in good health.

I guess maybe I can use CPU info app to monitor the RAM?

As much as I like that app, it is like all battery apps, inaccurate.

An app cannot tell you if a battery is actually in good health.

I have had that app on all of my devices, and even when the battery expanded so much that I had to hold the back of the device on- battery health was 'good'.

The main point of it is for the storage percentages.

Now, it does have a section that you can use, where it shows how much CPU is being used, and what the threshold is.

Basically, the threshold is where you will run into issues such as what you are describing.

In fact, now that you mention the fact that it happens wether olugged in or not- can you see the battery if you remove the back of the device?

They can expand so much as to jepordize the connections that power the phone.

 

[puppykickr]

Another thing to try is to go into developers options and scroll to near the bottom.

Look for background processes.

These are apps that run in the background, even when you are not using them.

When you select, you have multiple choices available.

First, try no background services.

This will, however, usually break anything you are doing if you switch to another app.

Just see if the problem persists.

If not, then allow one background process, etc. untill the problem resurfaces.

 

[EcoMel]

Thanks for your suggestions. I disabled Chrome a few days ago, reinstalled Android System Webview, and Installed Firefox instead. So far I haven't had a problem, so I am hoping it's fixed... fingers crossed!

 

[puppykickr]

Thanks for your suggestions. I disabled Chrome a few days ago, reinstalled Android System Webview, and Installed Firefox instead. So far I haven't had a problem, so I am hoping it's fixed... fingers crossed!

FireFox has its own webview, so you do not need to have Android System Webview for that.
ASW will, however, be used by other apps.

Personally, I use browsers that utilize the built in ASW.
They are faster, and smaller.

 

[puppykickr]

Chrome is a massive piece of junk.

Depending on the OS, it can have or may not have its own webview.
On some OS, ASW was disabled unless you disabled Chrome.
Some OS were like this, and did not allow you to disable Chrome, so you could not use ASW at all.

That means that Chrome was doing webview duty instead- for all the other apps that need webview!

What a sneeky, underhanded way for Google to spy!

 

[EcoMel]

Well, it's getting worse and worse. It crashed even in safe mode the other day. New phone is on the way