[Update: Fixed] LG Devices On T-Mobile Made Unusable Due To “LG IMS” Crashing Bug

It looks like an update has rolled out to fix the issue.

According to a trusted source, the issue should now be fixed. Customers affected by the bug can reboot their devices to have the fix applied. Those that do not reboot will receive the fix over the next 24 hours.

It seems the issue was due to a change T-Mobile made to their systems that LG devices did not like, and the bug was not initially caught until the update had gone live.

Our original article continues below.

LG pulled out of the mobile market last year amid steady year over year losses and strong competition. The company pledged to support existing devices for a reasonable amount of time, a claim proven true with recent updates to support C-band and Android 12. Unfortunately, it seems a new issue affecting basically all LG devices on T-Mobile is threatening to tarnish all that good will.

This morning, T-Mobile customers using LG phones woke up to discover their devices rendered nearly useless by a persistent and repeating error message. The message simply states that “Unfortunately, LG IMS has stopped”. The message repeatedly appears after being closed, with little time to do anything else in between.

IMS, or “IP Multimedia and voice Service”, is an industry standard protocol system that handles voice and data on modern digital systems. It’s how voice calls can be made over LTE via data, and also how data itself works on the device.

On LG devices, something has been seriously broken. Either an update to the IMS service on all LG devices was done incorrectly (on the T-Mobile network) or something on the back-end that LG devices use to talk to the network has been broken.

Obviously, this is a serious issue. Customers affected by the bug aren’t able to make phone calls (possibly even emergency calls) or use their devices in any meaningful way with an error constantly in their faces. There are likely thousands if not tens of thousands of customers with LG devices on T-Mobile, especially after giving them out for free last year. It’s safe to say most of them are facing this issue.

One user on Reddit suggests a possible fix the user can do, however it’s not been confirmed as an official fix. To give it a try, first make sure you’re on WiFi and have WiFi calling enabled. Then, open settings and go to the “Apps & Notifications” option. Go to “App Info” and open the overflow menu at the top right by tapping the 3 dots. Select “Show System” to enable the listing of system apps, then find com.lge.ims.rcsprovider and tap it, then tap “Storage”. From here, repeatedly tap the “Clear data” button and then go back a screen and force stop the app. It may take several tries but eventually, the user says, the error message will stop appearing.

It is recommended that users do not factory reset their devices. Doing so will not fix the issue, and will only be inconvenient because you’ll need to set the device up again.

T-Mobile has stated via Twitter support messages that both they and LG are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it. At this time, it appears the issue has not been fixed officially. Hopefully the bug is fixed soon.