How to Fix Android Apps That Keep Crashing
What crashing apps means
Few things are more frustrating than tapping an app and watching it vanish instantly. When one app crashes, it’s usually that app’s bug — but when many apps start crashing at once, the problem is almost always a shared component they all depend on: Android System WebView.
WebView is the mini-browser built into Android that apps use to display web content — login screens, articles, embedded pages. When a WebView update ships with a bug (it has happened several times, most famously in March 2021), every app that loads it crashes on launch. Because the component is shared, the failures look random and widespread, which makes the real cause hard to guess.
The pattern is the giveaway: if Gmail, banking apps, news apps, and assorted others all started crashing around the same time — especially right after an automatic update — WebView is the prime suspect, and the fix takes minutes.
Common causes
- Buggy Android System WebView update: the classic cause of simultaneous crashes across many apps.
- Buggy Chrome update: on modern Android, Chrome powers WebView, so a bad Chrome update has the same effect.
- Corrupted app cache: a single app’s bad temporary data crashes only that app.
- Low storage or RAM: the system kills apps it can’t keep in memory.
- Outdated app on a new Android version: old app builds breaking after a major OS update.
How to fix crashing apps — step by step
Start with steps 1 and 2 — they fix the classic multi-app crash wave in minutes.
- Update Android System WebView. Open the Play Store, tap your profile icon, then go to Manage apps & device > Updates available and update “Android System WebView.” You can also search for it directly in the Play Store and tap Update. This replaces the buggy shared component with the fixed release.
- Update Google Chrome. In the same Updates list, update Google Chrome to the latest version — on Android 7 and newer, Chrome provides the WebView implementation, so a bad Chrome build crashes apps exactly like a bad WebView build. Restart your phone after both updates finish.
- Uninstall WebView updates if updating didn’t help. Go to Settings > Apps > See all apps > Android System WebView, tap the three-dot menu, then Uninstall updates. This rolls WebView back to the stable factory version that shipped with your phone. Then update it fresh from the Play Store to land on a clean, current build.
- Clear the crashing app’s cache. For an app that still crashes on its own, go to Settings > Apps > See all apps, tap the app, then Storage & cache > Clear cache. If it still crashes, tap Clear storage — you’ll be signed out of that app, but its corrupted local data goes with it.
- Free up space and restart. Open Settings > Storage and keep at least 1–2 GB free — critically low storage causes mysterious crashes. Then press and hold Power and tap Restart. A clean boot plus breathing room stabilizes apps that were being killed for resources.
- Reinstall the problem app. For a single stubborn app, long-press its icon, tap App info, then Uninstall — then reinstall it fresh from the Play Store. This clears deep corruption that cache-clearing can’t reach.
Did this fix it? Quick checklist
- Android System WebView and Chrome are fully updated
- The crashing apps open and stay open for a minute
- At least 1 GB of free storage shows in Settings
- No new crashes after a restart
If crashes affect only one app after all this, check its Play Store page for recent one-star reviews mentioning crashes — you may just need to wait for the developer’s fix. Report the crash through the Play Store listing so the developer knows it’s happening.
Frequently asked questions
Why are all my apps crashing at the same time?
A shared component broke — almost always a bad Android System WebView or Chrome update. Because so many apps depend on WebView to display content, one buggy update crashes them all at once. Updating both components fixes it.
What is Android System WebView?
It’s Android’s built-in mini-browser that apps use to show web content like login pages and articles. Many apps depend on it silently, so when it breaks, they all crash — which is why the fix is at the system level, not per app.
Will uninstalling WebView updates break anything?
No. It only rolls WebView back to the version that shipped with your phone, which is stable. Then update it fresh from the Play Store to get back to a clean, current build.
One app still crashes after the WebView fix — now what?
Then it’s that app’s own bug or corrupted data: clear its storage or reinstall it, and check its Play Store reviews to see whether other users report the same crash. If they do, the developer needs to ship a fix.