I updated my Duolingo app for Android this month (October 2024) and then it crashed. Thing is, it didn’t show any errors or anything, I would tap on Duolingo, the Duo logo would show up and then a quick yellow window before closing by itself. In a split of a second, the Duolingo app would close as soon as opening it.

I thought it has something to do with outdated OS/apps, so I tried updating everything but to no avail, same sudden app close. Bummer, I couldn’t do my German/Math/Music lesson and keep my streak immaculate.

How to fix the sudden Duolingo app close?

My OS is Android 14, but no matter what OS version you’re on the fix should probably be the same:

  1. Tap and hold the Duolingo app icon to show the quick menu
  2. From that quick menu select App Info
  3. In the Duolingo App Info window, you’ll see 3 actions: Open, Uninstall, Force Stop
  4. Tap on Force Stop to close the app in case it’s running in the background
  5. Scroll down on the page and tap on Storage & Cache
  6. Tap on Clear Cache and agree to clean it when a prompt is shown

After that just close the info window and start Duolingo. The app should work just fine now. My guess is that one of their latest update was causing a conflict with whatever was stored in the cache. By cleaning the cache, the conflict was gone.

By the way, don’t worry about clearing the cache. You’ll see the same progress and won’t lose anything since your data is stored on Duolingo’s server anyway, so when you start it you’ll have everything in order.

I’m using Duolingo on Android, but I’ve read reports that this issue occurs on iOS as well. So if you have an iPhone, just find the shortcut to clear Duolingo’s cache and it’ll start working again. Anyway, on a different topic, I’ve started taking Duolingo Math lessons and Duolingo Music lessons. Kinda’ disappointed in both. The Math lessons are so easy, I finished everything in 1 day (doing quizzes and jumping levels). The Music lessons are too difficult to do on a phone, maybe for tablets is a different story. I’ll try to write up a review for both soon.