How do I fix massive lag for a single contact on stock SMS app?

Cyber Akuma

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Jul 20, 2012
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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.
 

Android Optimizer

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Re: Massive lag for a single contact on stock SMS app

Has that person sent you lots of pictures, videos, or large attachments? Those attempting to auto-load in the background may be a cause of a problem like that. Aside from deleting unneeded pictures, videos, and/or attachments from that thread between you and him/her you could go to App manager -> All, and try a clear cache on the texting app you are using. You could also try a system cache wipe (often fixes after OS update issues).
 

Cyber Akuma

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Re: Massive lag for a single contact on stock SMS app

A few photos, but nothing more than what anyone else has sent. Also, would wiping the cache clear any of the messages in the SMS app?
 

Android Optimizer

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Re: Massive lag for a single contact on stock SMS app

No, wiping the cache will not delete any of the messages (clearing the data would - so don't do that).
 

jpullins

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Re: Massive lag for a single contact on stock SMS app

If that doesn't help try wiping the partition... It won't delete any of your data

Posted via the Android Central App
 

Almeuit

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Re: Massive lag for a single contact on stock SMS app

If you have a ton of messages (pictures or not) it can cause massive lag in some applications since they handle the mass amount differently. I would suggest using a 3rd party such as Textra or ChompSMS and see if it helps -- these apps can usually handle huge amounts of text message without freezing.
 

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