Contacts has stopped....

[xperia-man]

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 🙂

[xperia-man]

@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

[mc59]

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...

Regards

[_alexdon_]

Check this out:

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

[Charlierojo]

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. 

[_alexdon_]

It is google related,check out the link.

[Charlierojo]

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.

[_alexdon_]

Great,they will fix it soon.

[xperia-man]

@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

[xperia-man]

@alexdon

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

Many thanks! 🙂

[_alexdon_]

It will.