Samsung S4 Error message 'unfortunately, start has stopped'

[DaddyBear]

Hi, Error message 'unfortunately, start has stopped' flashes up and when you click OK it just reappears, unable to use phone because of this. How do we stop it? Tried switching off, clearing some cache etc

thanks in advance for any help

[63johnw]

Hi, you could try a factory reset, last resort before sending for repair, but it will wipe your phone.

[63johnw]

If you can't access the settings menu try this.

Recovery Mode:

Power off your device completely.

Press and hold Volume Up, Home and Power buttons simultaneously.

Release the buttons when the phone’s screen flickers or the Stock / CWM / TWRP Recovery logo appears.

That is it, after you release buttons, you will be taken to the main Recovery Mode menu.

Use its settings to apply any tasks you wish in order to improve your Galaxy S4 operating system.

To reboot back to normal Galaxy S4 mode, you need to return to the first Recovery screen and select ‘reboot system’.

[DaddyBear]

Thank you for your reply, just tried that and the message is still appearing 😕 I guess a factory reset is the next step, which means data loss as its not backed up 😳 

[hrym]

Before you reset, it might be worth connecting the phone to a pc, just to see if you can access it from that end.  It's possible this won't work and that the OS needs to be running, but it might also be that having it powered up is enough for the pc to see it as external storage.

You should be able to copy things like photos across, but not call logs and SMS.  Your contacts and calendar should be sync'd with Google and therefore restore when you set the phone up again.

It's worth trying a reset anyway as it'll be part of any repair process, so you won't lose anything you wouldn't have lost anyway.