SOLVED! – “android.process.acore has stopped” on Cyanogenmod

Last night I had a terrible experience. The dreaded “android.process.acore has stopped” error. Every second. Made my phone practically unusable. Here’s the story and how I solved it with the help of Cyanogen OS 12…

I was getting back into the Techspert.info way of doing things. Writing stuff, looking at Twitter, etc. I thought it would be a good idea to add the Techspert.info Twitter on my phone (OnePlus One running Cyanogen OS 12). As soon as the account added I got the error. Every second it popped up. A quick Google (actually, not very quick having to press OK every couple of seconds) led me to a fix of clearing the Contacts Storage (Settings -> Apps -> All -> Contacts Storage -> Clear Data), but this didn’t sort it. I found a few more fixes, none of which worked:

• Clearing the cache from recovery
• Uninstalled Facebook
• Removed my Google account
• Restored my contacts from the previous day (at google.com/contacts)
• Restored both contacts and Twitter from a Titanium Backup
• Reset app preferences (Settings -> Apps -> 3-dot menu -> Reset app preferences -> Reset apps)

…none of it worked. The ONLY thing that would stop the message appearing every second was to disable Contacts Storage. Great, no annoying message, but I didn’t have any contacts. WhatsApp was a long list of numbers, same in my messaging inbox. Not convenient.

Then, I had an idea. Cyanogen OS/CyanogenMod comes with a feature called Privacy Guard. It lets you configure apps’ permissions individually. Don’t want Facebook to access your microphone? Turn off the permission. The other thing Privacy Guard does is that it tells you how many times apps have been allowed/denied certain permissions.

SOLUTION!

With Contacts Storage disabled, I went into Privacy Guard (Settings -> Privacy -> Privacy Guard -> 3-dot menu -> Advanced -> Personal) to see how many apps accessed my contacts. A LOT. Still, this was no problem. Tapping the 3-dot menu button I had the option to reset all of the allowed/denied counters. Everything was clear, ready to start logging again. The next step was to enable Contacts Storage. I enabled it, and sure enough, the error messages started appearing. After I received the message three times, I disabled Contacts Storage again. Back into Privacy Guard and two apps had accessed the contacts three times – Telegram and Google search.

I uninstalled Telegram, enabled Contacts Storage and….BOOM. Uh ho… The error messages were back. Another 3 times and I disabled it again. Back into Privacy Guard and Google had now accessed the contacts six times. There was the culprit. I went to Settings -> Apps -> Google and disabled it. This uninstalled all updates, too. I then enabled Contacts Storage and it was fine. Success!

The only problem was I didn’t have Google Now. I use that a lot – reminders, sending messages while driving, etc. I figured if I installed it again it would break Contacts Storage and I’d be at square one. Still, it was worth a shot. Finding it in Google Play I had the Enable option. I enabled it, and it was fine. I opened it, and it was fine. I updated it, and it was fine. Seems it’s all sorted!

I hope this guide might help someone. There are other permission managers out there. They should do the same thing in helping you pinpoint which app is borking your Contacts Storage!