[Updated] OnePlus apps crashing or not working? Here's what you need to know

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on March 23, 2021) follows:

In this day and age, we rely on our phones for almost every single aspect of our lives. Couple that with the current social-distancing protocols and you begin to have a sense of just how important it is for our devices to always work.

It can, therefore, get very frustrating when a device that has been working flawlessly before starts glitching out following an update or something else that isn’t user-error.

That is the situation that countless users are finding themselves in this morning as their apps keep crashing or refuse to work altogether.

A quick scroll through the forums and you’ll come across various OnePlus users complaining of this issue on their devices.

why every app is crashing and not responding when I open them including Google what’s the issue there is not any pending update on my OnePlus 7t and all apps are also updated.
Source

this is what I am seeing since morning and none of my apps are opening on my 8t what is going on very pathetic.
Source

As it turns out, this issue is not exclusive to OnePlus users as many other Android users are facing a similar problem. This, from users of Xiaomi devices to Samsung devices and more.

Reports coming in suggest that this issue is caused by a recent update to Android WebView.

This has since been confirmed by a OnePlus Staff member who came out to respond to the countless user complaints on this issue. In his response, he clarifies saying:

“This has nothing to do with the OS or OnePlus. The bug is caused by a recent update by Google to Android System Webview. It seems like uninstalling it fixes the issue.”

To fix this issue, follow the following steps to uninstall the buggy build of the Android System WebView from your affected device.

-Launch the Google Play Store and go to My apps & games
-Open the “Installed” tab and select Android System WebView
-Tap Uninstall
-Confirm “Uninstall”
-Reboot device

Alternatively, users can take Google on its word that the issue has since been addressed. With this, affected users need to go back to the Play Store and update to the latest version of the Android System WebView.

For a permanent fix to this issue, ensure that you have updated both Android System WebView and Chrome to version 89.0.4389.105 and newer.

Google has confirmed that it has released a fix for the bugs in Android System WebView and Chrome that resulted in apps crashing on most Android phones. Users need to install the latest updates for the two apps via the Play Store to fix the issue.

Some users aren’t able to update the Android System WebView and Google Chrome apps via the Play Store since the update status is stuck at pending. If that’s the case for you too, then head here for some solutions.

2:42 pm (IST): Google has now released an official statement on this OnePlus apps crashing issue that was reportedly triggered by a faulty update to the Android WebView app.

Aside from giving out the workaround already mentioned in this story, the company has asked affected users not to uninstall updates to the WebView and Chrome apps as that may lead to data loss.

Also worth noting is that, a manual update of WebView or Chrome might fail to complete. To resolve this, simply clear the data/cache of the Google Play Store app.

01:42 pm (IST): Gmail support has now recommended restarting the device if the app crashes continue even after updating:

11:34 am (IST): Google has released the Android 12 Developer Preview 2.1 to address the ongoing issue that has also affected devices running Android 12.

03:34 pm (IST): Google app keeps crashing issue is troubling a lot of Android users as of writing this. In case you’re facing the problem, head here for the workaround.

NOTE: We have these and many more OnePlus stories in our dedicated OnePlus section.

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