S9 Plus - Contacts and Dialer app keep crashing and can't make phone calls

[Android Central Question]

Bought a new S9 using the ATT/FirstNet system for first responders. After restoring phone from old S7, the dialer app and contact app crashes as soon as I touch a contact. After numerous factory resets doing the same thing, I took the phone back to ATT store and got a new one. Again, the very same issue with second phone. I then started to systemically restored info piece by piece with a factory reset each time. I finally narrowed the problem down to signing into the Samsung login. If I didn't do that, the phone worked for about 2 day with no problem. As soon as I decided to log in to Samsung, the problems have occurred. I've done the other suggested tricks like clearing the data and cache of the contacts and dialer apps a dozen times but that doesn't solve the issue. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Self]

I'm guessing you never found a solution to this? I'm having this exact problem.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are the contacts saved to your Samsung account? What happens if you move all of your contacts to your Google account?

 

[AP12345]

I had the same exact issue. Contacts app kept crashing, which prevented a lot of phone functions from being accessible.
Samsung support logged into my phone multiple times and could not fix the issue. They cleared cash and app data, and had me do a factory reset. It only worked for a few days, and the Contacts app started crashing again.
I finally figured out that AT&T Call Protect app was the culprit. As soon as I disabled the app, all the issues stopped. Give it a try!

Voila...

 

[B. Diddy]

I finally figured out that AT&T Call Protect app was the culprit. As soon as I disabled the app, all the issues stopped.

Welcome to Android Central, and thanks for the tip! But ick, carrier bloatware strikes again!:-\

 

[Apparatus121]

That's a shame, because I'm having this exact issue and the Call Protect App, even though it's produced by AT&T, is actually really helpful at combating the recent influx of Spam calls that have been happening.

I'll have to check if disabling this app fixes the issue for me.

 

[Apparatus121]

Can confirm, disabled AT&T Call Protect app and problem was resolved. It's a shame because the app can actually be useful at times.

 

[REBEL RYDER]

Not necessarily Att call protect app, mine was already disabled when I started having this problem.