When you attempt to force stop an application, you’ll usually get a message that reads something like, “Force stopping an app may cause it to misbehave.” This is interesting because you forced a program to close because it was acting up, yet the system software did nothing.
What does force stop mean? What happens after that? Is there any impact on the app’s performance as a result of this? We would answer all these and more in the sections below.
What does force stop mean?
The force stop feature on Android is a handy way to halt a running Android app if it isn’t working properly. The running program code string is broken when you force stop it, allowing it to be erased from the phone memory. It then clears the app cache memory and allows you to relaunch the program.
Remember when you are done with an app on your phone and you close it? It doesn’t mean it’s completely closed. If the application has some unfinished process such as an ongoing download, it can stay active in the background minutes after closing it until the process completes.
Some apps never close completely and they continue running actively updating and sending notifications even when you close them. Force-stopping a misbehaving app is useful since it stops all of the app’s presently executing processes.
This prevents the app from accessing its cache files. The app stops reacting because it can no longer communicate with the resources on your device.
When you force stop an app, it will stop all of its background processes, preventing it from running in the background.
For example, if you force stop WhatsApp or other chat programs, you will no longer receive message notifications.
How to force stop an app on android and iPhones
On an iOS device, force-stopping an app is as simple as swiping up the app on the iOS App Switcher.
To Force Stop an app on an Android device, go to Settings > Apps & notifications > App details > pick App and press the Force Stop option. Alternatively, you can use your Android phone’s Task Switcher feature.
When the ” Force Stop ” button is functional, the ” Uninstall ” (or ” Delete “) button is grayed out; however, when you stop the app using ” Force Stop “, the latter becomes active. By the way, if both icons are greyed out, you know it’s a system app that you can’t uninstall.
How to undo force stop?
Force-stopping an app cannot be reversed after it has been done. Unless you manually restart the program, it will remain closed. Reopening the app is practically the only option to undo a force stop.
You can also uninstall the app and download it again from your iOS or Android app store. This automatically undoes the force stop, but you might lose some data with this option.
Is it good to force stop an app?
Well, it tends to depend on why or when you’re forcing the app to shut down. But, for the most part, forcing an app to close is a brilliant idea.
It’s helpful to force stop an application only if it’s malfunctioning, such as if it keeps freezing or some of its functions aren’t working. Force stopping an erroneous app has a high chance of resolving the issues that led to its failure.
In addition, when you reopen the app, it may run better and even faster, and it is rarely slower.
Similarly, if you force stop an application (especially one that uses a lot of CPU and RAM) and it remains closed, other apps may run better and faster. This is because forcing the app to close frees up memory for some other apps to use.
However, using the force stop functionality on an app, whether it’s working properly or not, is, on the other hand, somewhat risky. This is due to the risk of losing data that hasn’t been saved. We’ll go over this in more detail in the next section.
Does force stop delete data?
Yes, force stopping sometimes deletes data. If an app is acting strangely, force-stopping it frequently solves the problem. You should, however, think twice about employing the force stop. You’ll almost certainly lose unsaved data if you’re performing something crucial in the software.
If you’re writing in a note-taking software that doesn’t save your messages automatically, forcing the program to close will destroy any unsaved text you’ve written.
Alternatively, you could be playing a game when the program crashes. The Force Stop button is used to terminate the program. It’s possible that the game progress you made shortly before closing the program will be lost since it couldn’t be saved to the game directory or cache files.
Similarly, force-stopping an app during a data upload or while it’s downloading data to your device in the background may terminate the process and may result in data damage.
Read also: How to Remove Emergency Call from Lock Screen on Android And iPhone
Is it better to disable or force stop an app?
It is preferable to force stop an app on a mobile phone rather than disable it since disabling an app is similar to removing it from the phone, whereas force stop will just stop the app from operating in the background.
When you disable an app on your phone, you are effectively turning it off. It vanishes from the Home screen and app drawer, and you must re-enable it in the app settings to use it.
When you disable an app, all of its data is erased from the cache and RAM, and its updates are usually uninstalled as well. The outcome is that just the original app version is left installed on the device, preventing the program from functioning properly.
When you disable an app, it will no longer get any updates from your preferred app store. Since most of you don’t use many of the pre-installed apps on your new phones, we recommend removing, or at least disabling them rather than having them wasting valuable computing power and slowing down your phone.
However, it’s not recommended to disable an app unless there’s a good reason for it.
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