How to Force Quit Apps on Android

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: March 23, 2019 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to use the Apps Manager to force an Android app to quit if it has become unresponsive or if you need to free up your device's memory. You can't force quit apps that are critical for the system to operate.

Steps

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Open your device's

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Settings.
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It's in the "Device" section of the menu.

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Choose the app you want to force to quit.
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This forces the app to quit and halts background processes.

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Question

How do I reinstall apps on Android after force quitting them?

Aasim

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Force quitting apps does not delete them. It just closes all associated background processes associated with the app, as well as the app itself.

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If I force stop, can I reset or reinstall the app?

Community Answer

Yes, you can reinstall an app if you force stop, but you will lose all your info.

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Question

Will force stopping an app cause errors?

Aasim

Top Answerer

Probably. It may result in corrupted files being written. Also, if an app is forced to quit, then the app may try to recover your information.

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Tips

You’ll lose any progress you have on a running application if you quit it by force without saving first.

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Applications may resume running on the background after you’ve forced close it.

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Force-quitting apps is a great way to manually free up device memory.

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How to Force Quit Apps on Android

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