topic Re: Contacts has stopped.... in XPERIA archive

Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Sun, 11 May 2014 13:52:01 GMT

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum. I own an Xperia Arc S LT18i running Android version 2.3.4. Today an error was shown when I tried to add a new contact to my contacts list. The error shown is

"The application Contacts(process.com.sonyericsson.android.socialphonebook) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again"

The only option shown is "Force Close"

I have tried restarting the phone but no go. I don't use Facebook or Google + on my mobile. I did delete a few apps which came with the mobile such as Xperia Hot shots and Voxer a few days ago. So far, internet has not revealed a solution to the problem for me. Most online forums have stated cause of problem to be Facebook or Google+, both of which I don't use. I would be grateful if someone could identify this problem and suggest a solution.

Thanks in advance 🙂

Re: Contacts has stopped....

_alexdon_ — Sun, 11 May 2014 13:56:36 GMT

Have you tried settings-apps-all-phone,force stop and clear data?

Re: Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Sun, 11 May 2014 15:57:25 GMT

@alexdon

First of all thank you for the quick reply. I tried the steps you have suggested, but ran into a small problem. In the settings>apps>apps management>all>phone, i could not find the phone app or anything with the word phone at the start. Were you refererring to the contacts app? If possible I would be grateful if you could guide me in a bit more detail.

Thanks again!

Re: Contacts has stopped....

_alexdon_ — Sun, 11 May 2014 19:59:52 GMT

It should be an icon looking like a phone,it could be named otherwise in arc S.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

mc59 — Sun, 11 May 2014 22:35:00 GMT

I had the same problem with my sola.

If you are using skype, then try this:

go to settings->accounts and synchronization

select your skype account

delete it

Now try to open the phonebook....

Hope this can help you

Regards

Re: Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Mon, 12 May 2014 18:18:02 GMT

@alexdon

Checked the apps manager, but so far have not found any icon looking like a phone except keypad and a directory for contacts. Rest nothing mentions a phone nor resembles a phone. Perhaps I am not looking for the right icon.....

Would it help if I synched my contacts with google and did a factory reset?

Thanks for the help so far.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

_alexdon_ — Mon, 12 May 2014 18:25:29 GMT

Try that.I am not sure if there is a phone app on arc s.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Mon, 12 May 2014 18:33:48 GMT

@mc59

The thing is I don't use this mobile for much social networking. I don't have Skype installed on it and although Facebook and Twitter are there but I have never used them. I only use WhatsApp and Viber on this mobile. Is it possibly that Viber or WhatsApp caused the problem?

Another thing I want to share is that about 10 days ago I downloaded CleanMaster app and been using it since. Is it possible that I deleted some system file while cleaning the memory with CleanMaster?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Re: Contacts has stopped....

Charlierojo — Tue, 13 May 2014 10:47:35 GMT

Hi, It seems that the problem is caused by the (latest ) Whatsapp update.

If you unistall Whatsapp the problem is gone !

Go to Play Store and search for Whatsapp. Look for and read the latest opinions (ratings) from users. You will see that many people are affected.

Need to raise this issue to Whatsapp to get them correct this bug ASAP in a next app update.

Cheers.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Tue, 13 May 2014 14:41:37 GMT

@alexdon

I think no phone app on Xperia Arc S. Synched my contacts with google. So i plan to do a factory reset this weekend. Less time on weekdays. Lets hope something good happens.

Thanks & regards

Re: Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Tue, 13 May 2014 14:43:16 GMT

@Charlierojo

Hi, thanks for your tip. Before the factory reset I will read up the user opinions on WhatsApp on Google Play. And if the problem is similar will def take it up with the WhatsApp team.

Thanks and regards

Re: Contacts has stopped....

mc59 — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:13:10 GMT

I have investgated this problem and I have found this:

Your stock phonebook app want to see xml contact entries tags in the old fashinon (now deprecated) that is "ContactsSource".
Since "ContactsSource" is now deprecated some apps use the new format instead that is "ContactsAccountType".
But when the phonebook (called by the dialer) finds a new entry, it raises an exception (IllegalStateException).
If you have any log viewer (I use alogcat) you will see that after the dialer crashes you will get these log entries:

[3282,com.sonyericsson.android.socialphonebook,572997,java.lang.IllegalStateException,Top level element must be ContactsSource,ExternalSource.java,196]
05-09 11:50:01.095 I/am_finish_activity( 1756):

[1087401808,11,com.sonyericsson.android.socialphonebook/.DialerEntryActivity,crashed]

In my case this happened with skype contac entries but I suppose this can also happen whit whatsapp and others apps that use a contacts book.
Of course this does not means the these apps are bugged. I think instead the problem is inside the phone contacts stock app.
Please note: I have two sony phones (sola and mini) but this problem only happens with the sola phone.

For further informations, please read this post:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23405377/android-contacts-use-contactssource-for-lower-api-levels-and-contactsaccounttype"

Regards

Re: Contacts has stopped....

_alexdon_ — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:17:14 GMT

Check this out:

http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-U/Phonebook-has-stopped-working/m-p/679127#M23025

Re: Contacts has stopped....

Charlierojo — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:22:27 GMT

xperia-man

My phone is also an Xperia ArcS LT18i running Android version 2.3.4. I noticed just yesterday that I could not add a new entry on the phone contact list.

My device is rooted and I have a backed up system file that I can access from the phone through X-Parts app tools and then reboot to recovery. This puts my phone in a previous known "good" state. This is done very much the same way as when you restore a Windows 7 system to a a previous working state to get rid of malfunction due to bad drivers or sw installation, etc.

The thing is that rebooting to that previous known good state did not solve the issue, so my conclusion was that the malfunction was not caused by a "degraded" operating system due to messing with task killers, cleaners and such.

Then I saw the latest opinions (ratings) from WhatsApp Xperia phone users complaining about the same issue.

I hope that WhatsApp will take good note from these Xperia users complaints and get it solved in the near future with a new release.

In the meantime, since I can access and use all the phone stored contacts I will be able to make normal use of the phone. Only when I want to add a new contact I will have to uninstall WhatsApp (previously making a backup of chats) and then I wiil be able to access the new contact menu option to add the new contact. Then reinstall WhatsApp. Very inconvenient indeed but ...

If someone finds a better way please let us all know.

Cheers.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

_alexdon_ — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:29:57 GMT

It is google related,check out the link.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

Charlierojo — Wed, 14 May 2014 08:51:01 GMT

Many thanks alexdon.

I got rid of Google Play Services app and the phone is back to normal. No side effects so far as I do not use Google+ and do not care about directly accessing YouTube via said app.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

_alexdon_ — Wed, 14 May 2014 09:42:27 GMT

Great,they will fix it soon.

Re: Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Thu, 15 May 2014 15:18:34 GMT

@mc59 Thank you for your detailed reply. I will try to check the error you have described and if I do or don't solve the problem will update you here. Thanks again Regards

Re: Contacts has stopped....

xperia-man — Thu, 15 May 2014 15:21:49 GMT

@alexdon

Thanks for the link. Checking it out right now. Hope it solves my problem.

Many thanks! 🙂

Re: Contacts has stopped....

_alexdon_ — Thu, 15 May 2014 15:54:34 GMT

It will.