Gmail constantly force closes on my Fire HD8

JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
Hi everyone! I recently installed the Google services on my Fire HD8 (the new model), and everything seemed to install fine and work properly, except for Gmail so far. Granted, the only other app I've installed is YouTube, but it (and the Play Store itself) seems to run fine.

But every time I open Gmail, it forces closes within a few seconds. Every now and then I will be able to navigate into the settings and get that far before it force closes again, but mostly it's happening right after I open it.

Anyone know what might be a fix for this? I installed all of the versions of the Google framework that are listed here, and the Play Store also updated itself to the newest version.

I tried uninstalling Gmail and reinstalling it, but it still closes.

Google Account Manager 5.1-1743759
Google Services Framework 5.1-1743759
Google Play services 9.8.77 (230-135396225)
Google Play Store 7.0.25.H-all [0] (nodpi) (Android 4.0+)

My Fire HD8 has Fire OS 5.3.3.0

Thanks!
 
R

RamDealer

Member
You need to update Gmail and maybe the other google applications. Plus turn on your internet, restart the phone and see if it causes a problem.
 
JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
RamDealer said:
You need to update Gmail and maybe the other google applications. Plus turn on your internet, restart the phone and see if it causes a problem.
Click to expand...

There is no further update being offered.

Turning WiFi off seemed to fix the problem temporarily, long enough for the sync settings to somehow change (on their own, it seems) to 0 days.

So now it works if I manually sync, but Gmail doesn't seem to be checking for mail itself. It's not a perfect solution.

The problem seems to have to do with syncing.
 
R

RamDealer

Member
The problem should be for the gmail app checks for new mail, but if you have no internet or the access for less secure apps in your gmail settings is turned off then gmail stops. There is an update to fix this, but I don't know why you can't see it?

Is your phone new or just reinstalled?
Are you using a custom ROM?

My gmail version is: 7.4.23.154506495.release

I am not familiar with fire OS, but it should be android based since you are using the google services?

Can you try to manually update gmail and all google apps from the play store by clicking on the "my apps" tab and seeing If there are any updates available?

The other option is to get a custom gmail app from google.com and installing it instead of your own gmail app.
 
Last edited:
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Try resetting the device back to factory. This issue has nothing to do with less secure apps.
 
R

RamDealer

Member
Everything should not be solved by resetting because you cant solve it another way!
The issue does appear if the less secure apps access is removed! Sometimes because people have added other accounts to be checked and to be used as a sender from their main gmail account. I had the error that gmail stops responding and I fixed it by stoppping the google apps, clearing the data and cache, updating the app and restarting the phone (meaning reboot, not reset).

This issues seems to mostly appear because of internet connectivity problems.
He should try restarting (rebooting not resetting) the phone after he has cleared the gmail apps cache and data and force stopped them.
He should try to see if the problem appears with mobile internet or if connected to another wi-fi network.
 
Last edited:
JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
Well, I have already tried clearing the data and cache of the Gmail app, and I've even uninstalled and reinstalled the app multiple times, but it always does the same thing.

I went to the setting in the link above about less secure apps (although I still don't understand how this is relevant because Gmail is not considered a "less secure app," nor do I have any other email accounts associated with it), but it said, "This setting is not available for accounts with 2-Step Verification enabled."

So screw that. I am not jumping through hoops for this particular setting, because it just doesn't seem to apply to my situation anyway.
 
R

RamDealer

Member
I think the 2 step verification may be the reason, disable the 2 step verification, reboot the phone and try again. Disable the 2 step verification and turn on the access for less secure apps, reboot the phone and try.

Install a custom gmail app from anywhere you can.

You have to clean the cache AND data for all the google apps (services, store, etc), then reboot your phone. Dont uninstall!
 
JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
This issue doesn't happen on any of my other devices, so why would it be a setting like two-step verification, that is shared across all devices? I don't want to leave this setting off anyway, so disabling it temporarily won't do any good.
 
R

RamDealer

Member
2 step verification does causes this sometimes. This is just to see what the problem is. So far I think that a custom gmail app would be your only option left.
 
JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
I think I just screwed myself by messing around with it. I changed the "number of days to sync" from 0 to 30 (and other numbers) to check a different WiFi network, and now it's force closing again every time it checks for new mail. The only way to prevent this is to turn off WiFi altogether and open the app, which of course is useless.

Somehow the number of days to sync was set to 0 before, and I think that's what allowed it to work without closing (although it didn't seem to check the email automatically and send push notifications, it was more of a manual check on my part, but at least it worked), but now I don't know how to get back the 0 days. It's not an option to set it to that. :(

Edit: Somehow it set itself back to 0 days, but it's still force closing! I don't know what was making it work before, but now I seemed to have messed it up for good. I should have left well enough alone.
 
Last edited:
JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
RamDealer said:
Do you have enough space on your internal storage for the email for 30 days to be downloaded?
Click to expand...

I should. It's a new tablet with 16GB of internal space, so it should still have well over 10GB. But it seems to be the act of syncing itself that causes the problem, not necessarily the number of days.

And frankly, I've never understood what these syncing options in Gmail mean anyway. Even when I change some inboxes to "never sync," they still seem to sync/show everything from years past. (Not on this tablet, since it doesn't work properly, but on my phone or other tablets, this is how it works. Changing things to sync for 1 day, for example, doesn't seem to make a difference, it still shows all my email.) I've never gotten a good explanation for what the syncing options are actually doing.

For what it's worth, I turned off notifications in Gmail on my Fire tablet (the one not working properly) and now Gmail is working again! I still have to manually open it and check for email, but it's not force closing anymore. I have no idea why, because previously when it was working, notifications were on (though not actually working), but when I turned them off this time, it's working now. (Sync is still somehow set to 0 days.)

So I'm very confused why it suddenly starts working sometimes. I don't see much of a reason for it, but I suppose I better not tamper with it and screw it up again.
 
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