This pesky com.google.process.gapps bug...

[Renegade334]

So...I received a new Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini (sporting Android 4.4.2 KitKat) as a gift a couple months ago and I couldn't have been happier about it, as my old phone (an old Galaxy Apollo) was starting to feel its age and its battery was playing tricks on me with increasing frequency.

Since then, I have experienced (several times already) a very annoying -and apparently quite common- bug wherein the com.google.process.gapps process shuts down right after booting up, when the home screen appears. There were several other nuisances that reared their ugly heads on the sidelines (other processes crashing or slowing down, especially the system update feature), all of which prompted me to do what no phone owner, even the more overachieving/perfectionist and tech-savvy of us, likes to do: a factory reset.

However, there were instances when the bug manifested itself again while rebuilding the phone's app ecosystem, which means...well, clench your teeth, swallow your curses and go through the wringer again.

I have Googled the problem several times; I know about switching the Download Manager off then on (no dice, it wasn't even disabled), resetting app preferences (keep dreaming, it does nothing) and the "uninstall Play Store" method, but that last fix only offers temporary comfort: merely visiting the Play Store app is enough to re-trigger the bug the next time you close your phone and reboot it.

The only thing that worked for me in a lasting manner was:

- Removing my Google account from the phone
- Going into Settings>Application Manager>All, visiting every app whose name begins by "Google", then "clear data" and "clear cache" for all of them
- Uninstalling Play Store updates
- Rebooting
- Re-registering Google account and visiting Play Store to update it

Though the above method works, it remains an annoying, lengthy process. And we all know it's always better to prevent than cure, so rather than beat myself an umpteenth time, I'm now looking into preventing this problem from ever reoccurring.

It should be noted that I do not know what exactly caused com.google.process.gapps to close prematurely on startup. Apparently, when Android Jelly Bean was introduced, the Google devs thought it would be better to isolate the system logs from public view, from that time forward. The only way to access them (and thus determine what went belly-up) is to root your phone and install a log-viewing app like CatLog. Since I don't want to void the warranty (I know the store it was bought at; the staff is nice and helpful and their after-sales services is excellent), that path is closed to me.

So...any ideas on how to avoid triggering that bug in the future? It seems to me it's caused by bad synchronization between pre-installed Google apps, but half of the time the bug cropped up even though the Google account's master sync was off, which leaves me quite puzzled.

[Flower]

I had the same problem with my old Samsung tablet and also had to do a factory reset (fortunately I already had copies of data elsewhere - mostly e books, audio, img and video files).

Like you pointed out, it is a well known bug that appears semmingly out of the blue, but once it hits you are pretty much up the creek without a paddle. As far as I could tell, though, there really is no sure-fire "standard fix", just accounts of people who have "gotten lucky".

Anyhoo, thanks for making the thread - perhaps a standard fix other than a factory reset will be found. ^^

[monster]

If there is no actual fix, then I think it's better to just get it repaired/exchanged.

[Renegade334]

Exchanged? For a software bug? And one that can be repaired by simply using factory reset (barring, of course, the reinstall/refurbishing hassles that will ensue thereafter) at that? Nuh-uh.

BTW, the bug just appeared again. Though I don't know if it was caused by a Google+ app update that took place shortly before or me testing out another Google Now function (the always-on "ok Google" option).

Time for another Google account reset...*sigh* Well, at least I now know that either one or two specific Google apps can trigger the bug.


Edit: my money's on Google+, as when I swung back by the account manager to delete my Google account, there was a sync error message concerning Google+ (see my previous comment about sync error likely behind the com.google.process.gapps issues).

[monster]

If it's occurring again, then obviously it wasn't fixed. Of course, if you accept doing a factory reset every once in a while as part of the normal operation of a device, then that's fine.

[Renegade334]

Thing is, some shops only accept electronics back (for refunds or replacements) if you can prove that the software bug (we're not talking a hardware issue here, in which case the warranty would come into effect immediately) is thoroughly debilitating (i.e. you can't boot up, the screen keeps freezing, etc) or cannot be resolved by the customer (factory reset or hypothetical restore functionality) or an aftersales technician him/herself.

As for me, my GS5m (the aforementioned "good and lasting" method only seemed to work half of the time yesterday, so I was forced to use factory reset and painstakingly restore everything with a HAZMAT suit and an electronic microscope for added safety) is back online and the "unfortunately, com.google.process.gapps has stopped" pop-up never came to ruin my day; to achieve that, I had to staunchly avoid some Google apps like Google+ (I'm not into social media and it offers me no perk of any consequence anyway) and Picasa, as they seem to have trouble syncing with their respective servers lately... Youtube, GMail, Maps and others seem to be relatively risk-free in this context.

Strange thing is, whenever I leave the background data alone, the bug is not triggered, but when I do choose to restrict it (as part of the very useful Power Saving function), in order to cut down on the amount of stuff the CPU has to churn through (thus wasting battery power), I get the error message at boot. Very curious.

Edit: been finagling with settings and apps for a few hours and have noticed that, on several occasions, the bug could be triggered by using either Google+, Youtube or the standard email app (especially the latter). After noticing that the said email app was more volatile than nitroglycerin in a cocktail shaker, I switched over to the Gmail app (which now supports other email accounts on top of Gmail), delete-restored my Google account, re-customized a couple, select Google apps (the rest, such as Play Books, Google+, Play Music, etc, are virtually useless to me) and, voilà, everything's now stable and not even Youtube is causing the bug to rear its thrice-accursed, ugly head. My guess is that the recent spate of Google Apps updates coinciding with the advent of Android 5.0 Lollipop (the updated Apps have now adopted the Lollipop "flat icon/UI" look) made the 4.4.x KitKat ecosystem more bug-prone. #fingerscrossed

[monster]

Originally Posted by Renegade334

Thing is, some shops only accept electronics back (for refunds or replacements) if you can prove that the software bug (we're not talking a hardware issue here, in which case the warranty would come into effect immediately) is thoroughly debilitating (i.e. you can't boot up, the screen keeps freezing, etc) or cannot be resolved by the customer (factory reset or hypothetical restore functionality) or an aftersales technician him/herself.

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting that replacement be your first choice. But if it is a reoccurring problem, then you can at least go to your wireless carrier and show it to them. If they have an actual fix, then great. If they're willing to replace it, that's great too.

Unless it will actually cost you additional money to have them take a look at your phone, then you wouldn't be worse off than going at it on your own.

Of course, if the status quo really isn't too much of a bother for you, then again, that's fine. Either way, hopefully you'll find a solution that works for you.

[Tiberium Wolf]

I am having this annoying problem too where sometimes a box shows up saying the process stopped. Also most of the time is when I am playing music a black screen pops up saying "initializing" and so stopping the music. Not sure what. Or google voice recognition pops up also stopping music.

Is there no way to this remove google virus? I don't even use their shit.

[Renegade334]

While using the music player? That's a new one... I know some third-party apps like SwiftKey can trigger the com.google.process.gapps bug, but I haven't come across reports of the music player doing that. It could, BTW, be blamed on a 3rd-party app, especially if the crash message started popping up after you installed a new one or made an update. In that case, uninstall this faulty program and see how it pans out.

As I said above, using certain Google apps can cause issues as background data can get corrupted and/or out of sync and mismatch errors arise when the parent apps are used, thereby causing the crash. If you have a smartphone where you can restrict background data (as part of a power-saving function), trying un-restricting the BD, reboot the phone and try things out.

The other only method I can more or less vouch for (but it doesn't mean it'll work for you, as we don't know if we share a same source for our respective crashes) is cited in my first post.

1. Go to Settings -> Accounts and remove your Google account (you can re-add it later).
2. Go to Settings -> Application Manager then swipe until you open the "All" tab (on phones like the Galaxy S5, the default tab is the "downloaded apps" one).
---- 2.1. Scroll down until you reach a list of apps whose names begin with "Google (insert app name)", open each and every one of them, then clear the data.
---- 2.2. When you reach the Google Play app, uninstall the updates and force it to revert to its factory (original) version
3. Reboot phone
4. Go back to Settings -> Accounts and re-register your Google account
5. Open Play Store to force it to update itself.

That's how I mostly fixed my phone, thus avoiding the time-consuming factory reset and restoring process.


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...But before you do that, what's your phone model, the OS version and which music app are you using? The default player or Google Play Music? And do you use some sort of Bluetooth device like an earpiece or microphone? (apparently there are problems when some of these devices are paired with the phone, causing initialization errors)

[Tiberium Wolf]

I think my problem started to appear after I installed or uninstall avast AV (I don´t have it anymore). Since then I have reset to factory and still the same. Thou the process bug only started to appear 3 days go. I am thinking of resetting to factory and then don't even update shit at all. Not that I need 95% of it's functions.

default player
lg e440
I am using the normal earpiece that came with it.


I did factory reset WITH 0 UPDATE but I am still having the default music player stopping. Not sure what is stopping it. But till now I don´t have the google voice recognition pops up. Still random and haven't caught what happens in the screen since I only use it during the train where I am semi sleeping.