Verizon Galaxy S4: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

[Wyepez]

Verizon Galaxy S4: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

A little bit of back story :
So last week, I was testing out putting in a non-Verizon sim card in my phone (T-mobile sim) because I am taking my phone overseas and wanted to see if it might work. When I turned on the phone a message came up asking "Do you wish to enable global mode" so I selected yes and the phone came up normally and I was able to make calls. Shortly after I received a notification about an update available and proceeded to install the update.

After about an hour or so of inserting my Verizon chip back in, I tried making a call and as soon as I clicked on the phone icon, the screen went black for about 2 seconds then displayed the message "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped". Everything else worked fine except for the phone icon. I ended up doing a factory reset and it started to work again, but two days later the issue came up again. Its been a week now, and it seems every two days i have to do a factory reset because the issue comes back. Please help!

 

[Bizzle69]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Go to settings > application manager (located on 4th page in settings)> scroll over to "ALL" and select contacts - clear cache and select Phone under all apps as well, clear cache and clear data.

Now reboot your phone and see if that helped

 

[Wyepez]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Thanks, I just tried it and now to wait and see if the issue reappears..since I did a factory reset yesterday, the issue would normally happen again tomorrow.

 

[bsmorgan529]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

My phone started doing the exact same thing on Tuesday after the security update was applied. I ended up doing factory reset and it worked until this evening, when it did it again. I just spent over an hour with Samsung tech support and they could not fix it with the following, and finally told me to send it into repair center. I went ahead and did a factory reset. Below is the transcript of everything tech support had me try.


Achilles: Hi, thank you for contacting Samsung Technical Support. How may I help you today?
Visitor: my samsung galaxy s4 phone has started being nonresponsive on phone/contacts/messaging since the recent security update
Visitor: it has done it to me twice now since Tuesday
Visitor: if i go to the phone page, try to go to contacts, or messaging it says 'Unfortunately, Contacts has Stopped'
Visitor: i reset it yesterday morning to wipe everything off and thought that fixed it, til it did it again about an hour ago
Visitor: also, i have never been able to get S Health or S Memos to work
Visitor: frustrating.....
Visitor: they stop unexpectedly as well
Achilles: I understand that you are unable to access to these applications perfectly. Is that correct?
Visitor: yes
Achilles: I understand your frustration and I sincerely apologize for the same.
Achilles: Thank you for confirming.
Achilles: I?m sorry for the inconvenience. But still I?ll do my best to help you sort out the issue.
Achilles: May I know your device model number?
Visitor: SCH-I545ZKAVZW
Achilles: Thank you for the model number.
Achilles: Before we go ahead to resolve the issue, I have a few questions to help me understand the issue better. Shall I go ahead?
Visitor: yes
Achilles: Thank you.
Achilles: Let us try to perform certain trouble shooting steps and check if the issue is resolving.
Achilles: Shall I go ahead?
Visitor: yes
Achilles: Thank you.
Achilles: From HOME>Application> Settings > More>Application manager > press on menu key and tap Reset app preferences.
Achilles: Please let me know after performing the above steps.
Visitor: done
Achilles: Now please check with those application and let me know if you are able access them properly.
Visitor: no
Visitor: well, contacts worked, phone i can still not dial any digits
Visitor: messaging is working too
Visitor: s memo and s health still fail with 'unfortunately app has stopped'
Achilles: That's Good to hear that few application worked.
Visitor: so 2 out of 5 are working
Achilles: Not a problem, we shall try to resolve all the above issues completely.
Achilles: Now let us try to perform steps for Phone dialing option.
Achilles: No, Let us try to resolve the issue by performing Wipe cache partition to the device.
Achilles: Let us perform the steps and check if the issue is resolving.
Achilles: Please follow the bellow steps.
Achilles: 1. Power the device off (remove and re-insert the battery).
Achilles: 2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
Achilles: 3. When the device vibrates; release only the Power key.
Achilles: 4. When the Android system recovery menu displays; release the Volume Up and the Home key.
Visitor: ok
Visitor: i am at recovery menu
Visitor: select wipe cache partition?
Achilles: Good. Thank you for the effort.
Achilles: 5. Navigate with the Volume keys to the wipe cache partition option and press the Power key to select.
Visitor: ok done
Achilles: 6. press the Power key to reboot system now.
Visitor: phone still broken with same failure
Achilles: May I know are you able to access the application now after performing the above steps.
Visitor: same 3 apps failing
Achilles: I am really sorry to hear that.
Achilles: I would like to inform that as the device is still facing the issue after performing the above steps now we shall try to perform the device to Factory reset.
Visitor: well, i know that works
Visitor: i did that yesterday morning
Visitor: but that is not going to fix it
Visitor: it's going to break again, like it did today
Achilles: I would like to inform that performing Factory reset will erase all the data that is present on the phone memory.
Visitor: how are you going to determine root cause so it does not happen again?
Visitor: I'm telling you i had no problems until after immediately after installing the security update
Achilles: I am sorry to hear that.
Achilles: Could you please hold for 2 minutes while I gather the required information to resolve issue better?
Visitor: yes
Achilles: Thank you.
Achilles: Thank you for holding.
Achilles: May I know If you have installed Knox application on the device ? Please check in application manager if you could find this application installed on the device.
Visitor: no, it is not installed
Achilles: Thank you.
Achilles: I recommend let try putting the device in Safe mode and check if the applications are accessible. Shall I go ahead with the steps?
Visitor: yes
Achilles: Thank you. Please follow the bellow steps.
Achilles: 1.Power the device off (remove and re-insert the battery).
Achilles: 2.Press and hold the Power key.
Achilles: 3.When the Samsung logo displays, press and hold the Volume down key until the lock screen displays.
Achilles: Please let me know the option that you are able to view on the screen.
Visitor: ok, i am there
Visitor: shows safe mode at bottom of screen
Achilles: Now please check if you are able to access the application on the device?
Visitor: same apps failing the same way
Achilles: I am really sorry to hear that still by using the device in safe mode the issue could not fix.
Achilles: I would like to inform that, as the issue is still persisting after performing all the best possible steps, the device needs to be serviced to the Samsung Service center.

 

[Wyepez]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Like clockwork, the issue reappeared this morning. I'm able to make calls through the "Contacts" icon but anything that requires me to use the phone icon (dialing a new number, looking at call history,favorites) results in "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped" At this point I think I'll have to take it back to Verizon.

 

[jbird11671]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Unbelievable! I had same conversation with Samsung tech. After 2 phones and 4 resets I refused to give them satisfaction of letting them think they resolved it after reset because it will work for a while. I also tried explaining that it occurred after an update but they disagree. Questioned Verizon cloud because I just started using it. I read someone downloaded go dialer ex app. I installed it and trashed dialer that came on phone. So far so good but only 1 day. Samsung claims they are not aware of this issue

 

[dvcrequest]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

I have the same problem. My Verizon Galaxy S4 is 13 days old. Starting having this problem 7 days after buying and now have to reset every 2 days. Verizon has advised me to return it to the store as a DOA (Dead On Arrival) return/swap.

 

[egria2]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Try this and see if that helps: go to phone settings-->More, then select Date and Time. Change the date format to something else then change it back to the format you wanted. Save and go back. That's how I fixed my crashes on Phone and Story Album

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[ticktockmonk]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Try this and see if that helps: go to phone settings-->More, then select Date and Time. Change the date format to something else then change it back to the format you wanted. Save and go back. That's how I fixed my crashes on Phone and Story Album

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Been having the exact same problem since the software update 5 days ago. Just tried this and it worked!!!

 

[FJRGriff]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

This just worked for me too..went to settings, more, chged date and time format to 24hr...now call app works....so far.

 

[mbp2027]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

This fix appears to have worked for me as well. When I went to the "set date format" function, strangely, none of the buttons were checked. I think everyone that has recently upgraded from 4.1 to 4.3 might want to check their default date format and reset it. Thanks for the idea!

 

[MBM7881]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

This fix appears to have worked for me as well. When I went to the "set date format" function, strangely, none of the buttons were checked. I think everyone that has recently upgraded from 4.1 to 4.3 might want to check their default date format and reset it. Thanks for the idea!

Where exactly would i find this? I'm having issues with my contacts disappearing

Sent from my SCH-I545 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Robin Rozar]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Thanks so much resetting the clock worked, how weird is that.

 

[Lubedog]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Try this and see if that helps: go to phone settings-->More, then select Date and Time. Change the date format to something else then change it back to the format you wanted. Save and go back. That's how I fixed my crashes on Phone and Story Album

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Thanks. Weird, but it seems to have worked.

 

[salz51]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

I have been having the phone dialer stopping issue ever since upgrading to kitkat. Never had an issue before that. Just went into phone app settings and changes the date setting to regional. So far the phone app is working...will give it a few days to see if it stays. Factory reset only worked for a few hours then problem came back.

 

[lomotey]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Try this and see if that helps: go to phone settings-->More, then select Date and Time. Change the date format to something else then change it back to the format you wanted. Save and go back. That's how I fixed my crashes on Phone and Story Album

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[lomotey]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Yeah I was faced with the same problem after installing phone security but after several factory resets I was bailout by this forum thanks to colleagues, I was simply asked to go to date and time ,joggle it save and get back and voila a a a all is set phone working perfectly good , thanks to all platform is good ,. Sharing indeed is caring

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah I was faced with the same problem after installing phone security but after several factory resets I was bailout by this forum thanks to colleagues, I was simply asked to go to date and time ,joggle it save and get back and voila a a a all is set phone working perfectly good , thanks to all platform is good ,. Sharing indeed is caring

 

[wtf-android]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

Hello, what worked for me on S4 android 4.3 was:
1/syncing all my contacts to my gmail account and deduplicating them then syncing them back to my phone (see how to do that at Google Groups, as explained by doublerebel for s2, allow for some minor adjustements for s4).
This step is just to make sure that all of your Samsung account contacts are backed up in your Gmail account.

2/ disabling "sync contacts" in my Samsung account:
open Contacts > menu: Accounts > Samsung account > uncheck "sync contacts". Do NOT choose "remove account" as data may be lost in the process.

Let me know if it worked for you.

 

[Joanna Hargis]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

This is how I got around it on my Motorola Android : Just go to the place where you view ALL apps in your phone...and you will need to look near the bottom of the list despite the alphabetical order for disabled apps to find the app called Contacts Storage. You will see that it is disabled. So ENABLE it. And go on with your life.

Of course, a hard reset will fix it temporarily but what a pain in the **** that is, and you lose a lot of things when you do that. It is the lazy support suggestion for a fix...my fix is not going to be permanent, I suspect. However it takes a few seconds to do and it brings it back into operation immediately with no data loss what-so-ever. Now the bug that causes this must be defined and fix for a permanent solution but meanwhile this works very well.

 

[jerryshurt]

Re: Whenever I click on Phone icon I get "Unfortunately, contacts has stopped"

I thought this was a crazy solution, but it worked!
Thanks