Links within apps not working

[MobileNick]

Having an issue where randomly the links within an app no longer load. This can be Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Instead of opening the link, I get a new page but it is just a blank with an X in the upper left corner. Doesn't seem to matter whether I am on WiFi or LTE, and I have never had this issue on any prior Androids. Anyone else had this experience?

Rebooting works, but would be nice to have a better solution. I tried clearing cache but that did not help. Also tried closing the app which didn't work either (when it happens, it seems to happen for all apps so I do not think it is related to the app itself).

 

[Javier P]

Since it happens with different apps it probably means that this a problem with System Webview. After Nougat this feature is included in the Chrome app. Have you disabled it or downloaded a different version (beta, Dev ...)?

 

[MobileNick]

Not that I am aware of - my Chrome app is the stock one that came with the phone and getting normal Google Play updates. Maybe I should try uninstalling and re-installing Chrome?

 

[Javier P]

I don't think that's necessary. Maybe you could try clearing data for Chrome and then reboot the phone, if you don't mind losing any personal info included in the app that is not synced with your account.

Does this happen while on WiFi, mobile or both? Also, if you have the Developer Options enabled go there and make sure that the option to change the Webview service is disabled.

 

[MobileNick]

I do have developer options enabled - checked just now and WebView implementation is set to Chrome Stable and Multiprocess WebView is turned off. Hopefully that matches what you recommended. As I said in my original post, it seems to happen in both WiFi and LTE.

I don't have any personal info in Chrome that I would lose so I will try clearing data for it and seeing what happens. Since this is not really repeatable, I will have to just go day by day and see if the problem goes away

 

[Hobson123]

Sometimes things like this happen to me when I'm browsing reddit some gifs and videos play fine others don't and I'm not sure why.