Can apps cause phone to reboot?

[paulbacon]

For the past few months every few week my phone will freeze and shortly after reboot automatically. Is it possible that a poorly written app could cause this? I havent changed the system software on my phone since i bought it so the only thing i have updated is apps so wondering if one of these could be a cause. Not a malicous just a poorly written legit app. It doesnt happen when using any particilar app, its random but i know alot of apps are always running in the background

Weirdly though when it happens the device uptime doesnt reset to zero, and only if i reboot manually does this happen. So not sure if its a different type of reboot as its not reseting the counter. I do get the whole Samsing/O2 screen though so know its done it

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

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@paulbacon wrote:

For the past few months every few week my phone will freeze and shortly after reboot automatically. Is it possible that a poorly written app could cause this?

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Yes, they most definitely can.

It's not a full reboot that happens either, which is why the counter isn't reset.

Most likely it will be the system UI crashing and when it restarts it goes through the normal start up routine.

[paulbacon]

Cheers for that. Im beginning to think updating apps isnt worth the time and effort. A few times ive updated different apps and they have introduced wakelocks, battery drain or in this case reboots.

[jonsie]

A lot of apps are updated to work in conjunction with os updates ie marshmallow and ios 9.3 but can then give issues with older software. Finding the app causing the problem is the main thing.

[paulbacon]

Yea trouble is with so many apps always running in the background, and it not actually happening while on a specific app it would be a time consuming job finding it

[MI5]

I'd start with the latest and work down the list, but yea, it will take some time unfortunately.

[paulbacon]

Trouble is because there can be days or weeks between reboots, i would have to be without that app for awhile to see if i get a reboot. Be easier if they were more frequent.

Aslong as i know its an app and not the phone dying i will probably just put up with it until upgrade time

[MI5]

It's the kind of issue that will probably fix itself when the app next updates anyway.

[paulbacon]

True. Never had these problems with a Nokia 3210

[MI5]

no lol