How To Undo Force Stop On Android Apps

Madden Wition · Saturday, December 4, 2021

So I was fooling around with my new S4 and disabling apps and I got to the WatchOn Apps (there was 2 of them) I accidentally hit the force stop button on one of them and now I can't get go back and change it at all. I tried to reset all app preferences and every other app went back to "normal" except this particular WatchOn app. The one that is ok is Version 4.0.1, and the one that will not go back is Version 1.0.89. Is there a way to get this app back to "normal" so I can just "disable" it or will having this in force stop have any ill effects on my phone? I didn't know at the time that you could scroll down and see what this app does and gives permissions for, so I'm not sure by force stopping it I screwed something up. Thanks for your help from the newbie!

07-07-2013 12:14 PM
Open the watchon 4.0.1 and it should open the other one

Sent from my One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

07-07-2013 12:40 PM
I tried having the app running and then go back into app mgr to see if I can change anything and still nothing.

07-07-2013 01:15 PM
But if there is no icon for that 1.0.89 watch on app then it doesn't have to be open and I'm sure the other app 4.0 will trigger it if needed

Sent from my One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

07-08-2013 01:36 AM
To undo a force stop on an app that won't restart itself, power cycle the device and it should boot on startup.

Sent from my Galaxy S4

07-08-2013 03:09 AM
"Force Stop" simply shuts down the app in it's current state...it is NOT a permanent setting. If you're familiar with Windows, it's basically the same thing as killing an open program using the Task Manager.

Generally, simply re-opening the app in question will turn it back on again, or failing that you can simply restart the phone (as mentioned above).

07-08-2013 10:14 AM
Originally Posted by paintdrinkingpete

"Force Stop" simply shuts down the app in it's current state...it is NOT a permanent setting. If you're familiar with Windows, it's basically the same thing as killing an open program using the Task Manager.

Generally, simply re-opening the app in question will turn it back on again, or failing that you can simply restart the phone (as mentioned above).

When you say "restart" the phone do you mean simply turning it off/on or discharging/recharging the battery to 100%? I ask this because I have already turned it off/on and nothing has changed.
When I go into the WatchOn app 1.0.89, it still doesn't allow me to make any changes. (i.e., clear cache, disable, etc....) I haven't noticed any ill effects with this yet, so I'm not sure if I should even worry about it.

07-08-2013 04:25 PM
Originally Posted by angermgmt20

When you say "restart" the phone do you mean simply turning it off/on or discharging/recharging the battery to 100%? I ask this because I have already turned it off/on and nothing has changed.
When I go into the WatchOn app 1.0.89, it still doesn't allow me to make any changes. (i.e., clear cache, disable, etc....) I haven't noticed any ill effects with this yet, so I'm not sure if I should even worry about it.

I simply mean turning off/on. (FYI, if I did mean the other way, you could simply remove the battery rather than waiting for it to discharge).

Unless you've rooted your phone, what you describe is normal behavior for many of the built-in apps, such as Watch On. You can uninstall updates or do a quick "force-stop", but you cannot uninstall the app complete nor disable it. I apologize I didn't completely understand what you were talking about before. I don't think you've broken anything, and doing a previous force stop is not what caused what you're seeing.

07-08-2013 05:16 PM
Well I guess my next question would be why do I have 2 different WatchOn apps to begin with? When an app has an update it doesn't create a whole new app does it? Again, sorry for the newbie questions, this is my first smartphone and my last phone I had was the LG Env Touch which was a pretty simple phone. Going from that phone to the S4 is like going from the original Atari, straight to Playstation 3....lol! I'm still learning stuff and I've had my phone for almost 3 weeks now.

07-08-2013 06:09 PM
Originally Posted by angermgmt20

Well I guess my next question would be why do I have 2 different WatchOn apps to begin with? When an app has an update it doesn't create a whole new app does it? Again, sorry for the newbie questions, this is my first smartphone and my last phone I had was the LG Env Touch which was a pretty simple phone. Going from that phone to the S4 is like going from the original Atari, straight to Playstation 3....lol! I'm still learning stuff and I've had my phone for almost 3 weeks now.

You should not have 2 different watch on apps you should only have one. My version is like 5.1.4 also it should be called Samsung Watchon right

07-08-2013 06:37 PM
Originally Posted by major payne

You should not have 2 different watch on apps you should only have one. My version is like 5.1.4 also it should be called Samsung Watchon right

In the app. mgr section I have 2 Samsung WatchOn apps, version 1.0.89 and 4.0.1. I "force stopped" the 1.0.89 one and this is the one I can't undo or make any changes in.

07-08-2013 09:44 PM
Originally Posted by angermgmt20

In the app. mgr section I have 2 Samsung WatchOn apps, version 1.0.89 and 4.0.1. I "force stopped" the 1.0.89 one and this is the one I can't undo or make any changes in.

Ahhh...I see what you're saying. Still though, "Force Stop" wouldn't have had anything to do this I wouldn't think -- again, that just forcibly shuts down a running app -- it doesn't "freeze" or "disable" it in any way. "Force Stop" is mainly used if you have an app that's unresponsive and you need to close it. Having said that, however, you've may got something wrong going on if you have 2 versions of the same app listed in Application manager.

I just checked, and for what it's worth I do have both "Samsung WatchON" and "Samsung WatchON Video", which I assume is normal. Is that what you're seeing, or are both the exact same thing?

07-09-2013 09:40 AM
Originally Posted by paintdrinkingpete

Ahhh...I see what you're saying. Still though, "Force Stop" wouldn't have had anything to do this I wouldn't think -- again, that just forcibly shuts down a running app -- it doesn't "freeze" or "disable" it in any way. "Force Stop" is mainly used if you have an app that's unresponsive and you need to close it. Having said that, however, you've may got something wrong going on if you have 2 versions of the same app listed in Application manager.

I just checked, and for what it's worth I do have both "Samsung WatchON" and "Samsung WatchON Video", which I assume is normal. Is that what you're seeing, or are both the exact same thing?

I don't have a WatchOn Video app on my phone. They appear to be the same. One is 4.86MB (the one that I force stopped) and the other is 3.12MB. Also the one that I force stopped has a lot more "permissions" associated with it. Where should I go from here? Is there someone at Samsung I can talk/chat to about this?

07-09-2013 06:34 PM
Originally Posted by angermgmt20

I don't have a WatchOn Video app on my phone. They appear to be the same. One is 4.86MB (the one that I force stopped) and the other is 3.12MB. Also the one that I force stopped has a lot more "permissions" associated with it. Where should I go from here? Is there someone at Samsung I can talk/chat to about this?

I'm not even sure what's going on then...the apps I have are 27 and 31MB. I'm not sure exactly what's going on with yours. Are you getting this information from the "Application Manager --> ALL" screen?

If you're not planning on using the app, I'm not even sure if this is a problem or not

07-11-2013 09:27 AM
Originally Posted by paintdrinkingpete

I'm not even sure what's going on then...the apps I have are 27 and 31MB. I'm not sure exactly what's going on with yours. Are you getting this information from the "Application Manager --> ALL" screen?

If you're not planning on using the app, I'm not even sure if this is a problem or not

Well, after doing the software update all is well! I only have 1 WatchOn app and now have WatchOn Video. (Although WatchOn Video won't let me enable/disable etc... still) Thanks to all who tried to help me out with this matter. Time to do some more exploring and learning my new smartphone. This forum has been awesome in helping me learn and pick up new things.

07-11-2013 07:34 PM
Originally Posted by paintdrinkingpete

I'm not even sure what's going on then...the apps I have are 27 and 31MB. I'm not sure exactly what's going on with yours. Are you getting this information from the "Application Manager --> ALL" screen?

If you're not planning on using the app, I'm not even sure if this is a problem or not

Keep on drinkin that Paint Pete, cz I wasn't worried when I force stopped my stuff half asleep one night, because of what YOU said. Now NONE of them Do ANYTHING!I re-booted, re-installed begged prayed etc. etc. Probably gonna have to do a factory reset. People UNLESS you are very experienced DON'T disable or force stop ANYTHING on your smartphones! Oh and all phones are NOT alike.

10-16-2013 04:39 AM
Originally Posted by nightshade1

Keep on drinkin that Paint Pete, cz I wasn't worried when I force stopped my stuff half asleep one night, because of what YOU said. Now NONE of them Do ANYTHING!I re-booted, re-installed begged prayed etc. etc. Probably gonna have to do a factory reset. People UNLESS you are very experienced DON'T disable or force stop ANYTHING on your smartphones! Oh and all phones are NOT alike.

What exactly did you "force stop"? While I stand by my statements above, you should only be "force stopping" stuff if there is a legit reason to do so. I'm not sure exactly what you did, but pretty much any user installed app (those in the "downloaded" section) can be safely force stopped with minimal repercussion...system apps can be a different story, but often if an app won't restart it's more likely due to a dependency being disabled.

I also never said that "disabling" was the same thing -- that should only be done on apps that you know can safely be disabled as it is a much more permanent

EDIT: Just clarify a bit more, I also never said that it was safe to "force stop" apps at will. What I said was that issuing a "force stop" simply kills any active processes that particular app may have running (much like killing a process from the Windows task manager) and that it is not, by definition, a permanent process in that you should be able to manually restart the app afterwards. This is an older thread, but when I go back and read my posts, no where do I see anything that should be interpreted as a recommendation to start force closing apps in an altered state of consciousness.

10-16-2013 08:51 AM
Please help me re install an app after I fore stopped it.

01-20-2014 09:49 PM
Please read the posts by paintdrinkingpete in this thread. If all you did was force stop an app, it doesn't need to be reinstalled. You only made it stop running at the moment. You can restart it by tapping its icon; if it doesn't have an icon and is supposed to be running all the time, you can just power the phone off and back on, and it should restart.

On the other hand, if instead of force stopping it you hit the Turn off button in Application manager (it used to be called Disable, which was a less confusing name for it), then it will be listed in the Turned off column in Application manager. Tap it there, and there will be a Turn on button to restore it to its normal state.

01-21-2014 10:18 AM
Originally Posted by angermgmt20

So I was fooling around with my new S4 and disabling apps and I got to the WatchOn Apps (there was 2 of them) I accidentally hit the force stop button on one of them and now I can't get go back and change it at all. I tried to reset all app preferences and every other app went back to "normal" except this particular WatchOn app. The one that is ok is Version 4.0.1, and the one that will not go back is Version 1.0.89. Is there a way to get this app back to "normal" so I can just "disable" it or will having this in force stop have any ill effects on my phone? I didn't know at the time that you could scroll down and see what this app does and gives permissions for, so I'm not sure by force stopping it I screwed something up. Thanks for your help from the newbie!

Thank you so much paintdrinkingpete I have a month old tablet and imagined for two days that I had permanently damaged it you are a knight in shining armour and I am a happy ageing silver surfer Thanks again x x

02-02-2014 04:23 AM
i was playing pranks on my brother and he just took my mobile and did god knows what and now i am not able to open my gallery and messages whenever i try to open them it says force close. i did everything even tried in application manager to stop this force close but nothing is working and my brother is not ready to help me.plz guide me how to get rid of this.

04-15-2014 06:01 AM
Originally Posted by nigmin

i was playing pranks on my brother and he just took my mobile and did god knows what and now i am not able to open my gallery and messages whenever i try to open them it says force close. i did everything even tried in application manager to stop this force close but nothing is working and my brother is not ready to help me.plz guide me how to get rid of this.

The "force close" messages are simply telling you that the app has crashed and cannot start. There is nothing you can set in application manager to "stop" this (in other words you have to find out *WHY* the app is crashing). I'm honestly not sure what your brother could have done that would cause these apps to FC or crash. If this were my brother, I'd destroy something he loves and then break his nose with my fist (even if he fixed it)...just so he knew I was serious.

04-15-2014 01:16 PM
Or, alternatively, you could apologize to your brother for the pranks, stop escalating the mess, and ask him again what he did. It's possible he was trying to cause you a little problem and ended up causing a major disaster. Or it's possible that the thing can be easily fixed. Have you tried just powering the phone off and restarting it? Often that will clear up temporary problems. Worse come to worst, you can do a factory reset, which will mean reinstalling your apps and setting up your configurations again.

Of course, I don't know the relationship between you and your brother. Maybe pete's brand of ever-escalating vengeance would work for you. But do you have any idea how many people in their 50s and 60s have siblings they haven't spoken to for decades over stupid stuff like this? Maybe it's time for a truce.

04-16-2014 09:53 AM
Originally Posted by Dave-in-Decatur

Or, alternatively, you could apologize to your brother for the pranks, stop escalating the mess, and ask him again what he did. It's possible he was trying to cause you a little problem and ended up causing a major disaster. Or it's possible that the thing can be easily fixed. Have you tried just powering the phone off and restarting it? Often that will clear up temporary problems. Worse come to worst, you can do a factory reset, which will mean reinstalling your apps and setting up your configurations again.

Of course, I don't know the relationship between you and your brother. Maybe pete's brand of ever-escalating vengeance would work for you. But do you have any idea how many people in their 50s and 60s have siblings they haven't spoken to for decades over stupid stuff like this? Maybe it's time for a truce.

For what it's worth, my comment was made tongue-in-cheek. I'm definitely not the type of person to resort to violence (at least not on other people), and I too have a great relationship with my siblings. When I went back and read it, I realized it may have sounded like I was more serious than I intended to be!

04-16-2014 01:37 PM
Originally Posted by paintdrinkingpete

For what it's worth, my comment was made tongue-in-cheek. I'm definitely not the type of person to resort to violence (at least not on other people), and I too have a great relationship with my siblings. When I went back and read it, I realized it may have sounded like I was more serious than I intended to be!

I bought Samsung galaxy s4 and the first thing I did was download all favorite apps and widgets. Next thing I did was to uninstall all bloatware then clear data and then force close apps I don't want I.e. tw laucher, samsung apps that don't uninstall ect. My phone is Verizon 32gb w/ 16 gb sd card. I use 3d launcher w/ 3d cube icons 800+ songs and my phone doesn't have battery problems. Point is if you have another app that you use force close or uninstall the stock crap. This also will free up memory thus making your phone faster

04-17-2014 07:59 AM