Why is Cortana crashing and not working properly ?

[Windows Central Question]

On my Lumia 535 DS, Cortana Windows 10 .164 non insider (English India) shows my interests and reminders I had set on Cortana through my laptop on Windows 10.But I am unable to get her to talk or set a new reminder or alarm on my mobile through Cortana . Cortana also frequently crashes when I try to use her.Hard reset has not solved my problem.I had been so comfortable with Cortana on WP 8.1 that I am missing these features.I would be happy if anybody could help me.Thanks in advance.

 

[charlatan1978]

Hi, you could check you have the latest firmware by using the 'Windows Device Recovery Tool'.
If it does detect newer, it will wipe your phone to install it and put you back to WP8.1, so you will need to do a backup before running it.
You would then need to upgrade back to Win10M.
Other than that, Cortana still isn't as stable or reliable as it was in WP8.1 from my experience, so you may just have to wait for the next build.

If you have any more queries, please sign up to the forum so that you can reply to this thread.
Good luck.

 

[Rinsun]

Hi and thanks for your reply, charlatan1978,As per your advice,I have signed up for the forum.I checked with the WDRT,it says that my device is up to date and the firmware version matches that on the server.However,I found that my speech to text has also gone though the microphone is working fine on apps such as 'hear it first' and Dictionary.Have I missed anything in the settings ? Thanks in advance.

 

[charlatan1978]

I would try a soft reset and test again.
Failing that your next step would be a hard reset.

 

[Rinsun]

I have done both a soft and a hard reset but the Cortana problem remains.I thought that I might be missing out on something in Settings so I posted the question in the forum.I had used the speech to text before which went missing after a hard reset and clean install.I wonder if anybody else is having this problem.

 

[Sedp23]

Been crashing for me also pretty frequently on the last 2 release builds

Sent from mTalk

 

[Rinsun]

I am on threshold .218.Did another hard reset and after native apps installing and updating,and then getting settings done including speech etc I set up Cortana .This time got Cortana working flawlessly with no crashes.Hope it stays this way.

 

[fdruid]

I am on threshold .218.Did another hard reset and after native apps installing and updating,and then getting settings done including speech etc I set up Cortana .This time got Cortana working flawlessly with no crashes.Hope it stays this way.

What steps did you perform exactly to get Cortana to sptop crashing? It's driving me mad.

 

[Rinsun]

What steps did you perform exactly to get Cortana to sptop crashing? It's driving me mad.

I found that if languages are set up before Cortana is set up then Cortana works fine.
In 8.1 , I had to have English UK speech language in India to have Cortana working ,all else to English India(according to instructions on Microsoft Windows phone website) since Cortana was not available in English India speech.
Now Cortana is available on Windows 10 PC and mobile with speech English India.But the peculiar thing is that I have to download English UK and install it even though I have to keep English India as my default language for speech in my mobile (no such problem on my laptop which did not have Cortana in 8.1 and works fine with only English India speech ).If I don't download and install English UK speech my voice dictation and Cortana does not work at all though I have to keep English India as my default speech language..I do not know the reason why this is happening.
After the hard reset and updating of native apps I did the settings ,set up the languages then I set up Cortana. Lastly I downloaded the third party apps.I had to hard reset once after this also on 2nd May since camera was not working.I went through the process in the same order and had no problems.Hope I am clear since it is so confusing.
steps-(1) hard reset
(2) download native apps
(3)Settings with languages
(4) Setting up Cortana
(5) Heaving a sigh of relief and third party apps.
Hope it works for you this way too .

 

[fdruid]

I found that if languages are set up before Cortana is set up then Cortana works fine.
In 8.1 , I had to have English UK speech language in India to have Cortana working ,all else to English India(according to instructions on Microsoft Windows phone website) since Cortana was not available in English India speech.
Now Cortana is available on Windows 10 PC and mobile with speech English India.But the peculiar thing is that I have to download English UK and install it even though I have to keep English India as my default language for speech in my mobile (no such problem on my laptop which did not have Cortana in 8.1 and works fine with only English India speech ).If I don't download and install English UK speech my voice dictation and Cortana does not work at all though I have to keep English India as my default speech language..I do not know the reason why this is happening.
After the hard reset and updating of native apps I did the settings ,set up the languages then I set up Cortana. Lastly I downloaded the third party apps.I had to hard reset once after this also on 2nd May since camera was not working.I went through the process in the same order and had no problems.Hope I am clear since it is so confusing.
steps-(1) hard reset
(2) download native apps
(3)Settings with languages
(4) Setting up Cortana
(5) Heaving a sigh of relief and third party apps.
Hope it works for you this way too .

Thanks! I might try this at one point if there's no alternative.
But I would still have the issue on desktop, that's what makes me suspect it's something else.

What we all should be doing here is posting more info to try to sort the source of the problem.
Everyone who has the problem should post info about their installation and phone, for example:

- Phone model
- OS build (insider/production)
- Using Band/Health or not
- Region/language (even if it's setup differently than the actual geographic region for access to Cortana)
- Whether Hello Cortana is activated
- Details: Hello Cortana setup to listen to your voice/others
- Whether you have Cortana do searches on interests (I know I do, it could be a variable)
- Any potential variable that could be relevant

Also, I was thinking. Crashing at the first time she's invoked could mean it's trying to load something in her "boot file", so to speak, and it fails. Someone somewhere said it could be related to browser history in Edge or something, I think. It could be news items from interests, like I said.

I think if we all gather relevant information we might discover common patterns.

And btw, I mentioned @GabeAul and @johnwinkmsft about the issue and the latter says "Cortana crew are working on the issues, sent them the link", which is the one tweeted him to this thread. So this could be noticed, even if we can't contact the Cortana guys directly.

 

[Rinsun]

Thanks! I might try this at one point if there's no alternative.
But I would still have the issue on desktop, that's what makes me suspect it's something else.

What we all should be doing here is posting more info to try to sort the source of the problem.
Everyone who has the problem should post info about their installation and phone, for example:

- Phone model
- OS build (insider/production)
- Using Band/Health or not
- Region/language (even if it's setup differently than the actual geographic region for access to Cortana)
- Whether Hello Cortana is activated
- Details: Hello Cortana setup to listen to your voice/others
- Whether you have Cortana do searches on interests (I know I do, it could be a variable)
- Any potential variable that could be relevant

Also, I was thinking. Crashing at the first time she's invoked could mean it's trying to load something in her "boot file", so to speak, and it fails. Someone somewhere said it could be related to browser history in Edge or something, I think. It could be news items from interests, like I said.

I think if we all gather relevant information we might discover common patterns.

And btw, I mentioned @GabeAul and @johnwinkmsft about the issue and the latter says "Cortana crew are working on the issues, sent them the link", which is the one tweeted him to this thread. So this could be noticed, even if we can't contact the Cortana guys directly.

I too had sent in my problems in the Feedback app on my phone.
My phone is a Lumia 535 DS on 10586.318 (non Insider) Region India set to India settings.Windows Hello does not work on my phone.I do not use Band/Health.I do use Cortana for voice searches besides reminders and alarms.Lately I have noticed that Cortana does not remind me at the time set for reminding ,but only when I open Cortana .Cortana notifies me accurately on my laptop about missed calls.
I am of the opinion that Cortana should be stable so as to be a proper assistant to non tech persons who use a Windows phone.I too am a non tech person and I solve problems on my phone mainly by trial and error.

 

[Xerxes10]

Cortana isn't working for me either. I have a Lumia 950 running production, 10.0.10586.318. Some of the problems that I'm having:
-Cortana crashes on text search
-Cortana crashes on voice search
-Cortana crashes on adding reminder
-Cortana crashes when attempting to read incoming texts over Bluetooth (which used to work great on my 920 with 8.1)

So...basically Cortana is now basically useless.

 

[extrikate]

So its not just me then

 

[wgs84]

Other than that, Cortana still isn't as stable or reliable as it was in WP8.1 from my experience, so you may just have to wait for the next build.

That, and I hope you guys go to the Feedback app, find all trending reports of Cortana crashing, and upvote every single one of them. Microsoft needs to know that it's not working right.

 

[Likwidz]

Cortana isn't working for me either. I have a Lumia 950 running production, 10.0.10586.318. Some of the problems that I'm having:
-Cortana crashes on text search
-Cortana crashes on voice search
-Cortana crashes on adding reminder
-Cortana crashes when attempting to read incoming texts over Bluetooth (which used to work great on my 920 with 8.1)

So...basically Cortana is now basically useless.

Same here, this is effecting a number of users

 

[xandros9]

Past few Threshold 2 builds have had a buggy Cortana.

- AR Lumia 640
- 10586.anything since .164.
- No Band nor MS Health
- English (US) except phone language is English (UK or Canada)
- No Hey Cortana as normal

I have hard reset to kingdom come and have chalked it up to more of Windows 10 being itself.
MS Edge search has become the default way I do it now.

Once she crashed while asking her to set an alarm. Well, it wiped out all of my alarms in Alarms & Clock. (I have a few at any given time during the school year, both on and off)
On top of that, alarms acted weirdly, sometimes taking multiple Dismiss's to go away until the next hard reset.

 

[eashwar]

Holy Molly, I was like having this problem for like 6 months. Your answer solved it like in 15 minutes. Thanks! :smile:

 

[WayCool]

I've come to the realization... Cortana will never again (since 8.1) work properly on Mobile.. I've had a 950 on production for 8 months.. it is a terrible experience.... sometimes txt are read over Bluetooth other times it just hangs.. . meanwhile it stops the music i'm listening to.. Then some times just nothing at all.. Other times it prompts if I want to read the message.. then she is deaf.. no amount of SCREAMING "FREAKN READ IT" helps...

Good gosh I really need to get an iPhone...

Now it seems she is DEAD on my xbox one too..... lost all ability to give voice commands via Kinnect... Ugh... thanks MS may I have another ?

FRACK !

 

[princeegli]

Cortana just needs to get laid.....then she'll be alright.....lol

 

[Patrick Morris4]

same. i got a HP windows 7 home prenum (witch is now windows 10) so when i click on cortona she awnsers normaly if i type in 4 letters she will not respont. it will not let me type and then she ncloses. and then i clicked the start menu and cortona showed up again and then it crashed again. i clicked the home menu (or start) menu agian and it shoed the normal windows 10 start menu. :amaze: