Why can't I open most apps on Windows 10 Mobile?

[Windows Central Question]

Cannot open most apps on Windows 10 Mobile

Good day WindowsCentral folks,

I have upgraded my dad's Lumia 535 to W10M months ago and things were running smooth until one time Facebook and Messenger UW apps were released but was restricted to certain region so I decided to change my dad's Lumia 535 region to Germany and after a reboot, there were apps that won't just open like the Store itself.

And just two days ago, even Messaging stopped working. I had him switch to a Galaxy Core 2 piled in our drawer and he wants me to pull up his text messages (got his Contacts from his Outlook account) as there were important texts saved there.

The thing is, I cannot open Store itself, and lots of other apps. I've never done a factory reset on his Lumia and I'm afraid to do that as I haven't pulled up his texts yet plus there were instance where other's Lumia won't get past to boot after doing a reset.

Here are the apps that work:
Alarms & Clock
Battery
Calculator
Contact Support
Excel
Facebook
File Explorer
Files
Flashlight Free
Food & Drink
Gadgets
Groove Music
Health & Fitness
Lumia Selfie
Lumia Storyteller
Messenger
Microsoft Edge
Movies & TV
OneNote
Outlook Calendar
Outlook Mail
Phone (for SIM 1 and 2)
Podcasts
PowerPoint
Search
Settings
ShareIt
Storage
Voice Recorder
Windows Insider
Word

And apps that returns me to the Start screen:
Camera
Feedback Hub
Get Started
Lumia Highlights
Maps
Messaging (for SIM 1 and 2)
Money
News
OneDrive
People
Sports
Store
Wallet
Weather
Windows Insider (another app that is stuck on Pending, has blank icon)
Xbox

I've tried to sideload apps by putting them on his SD card (one is xap, one is appx) but the xapp one doesn't work and the xap one doesn't seem to install or appear in the app drawer even if I installed it after agreeing in the prompt that popped up. I need help in sideloading an app that can pull up the texts, preferrably in xml, and I want to know if performing a factory reset does solve the problem with regards to the apps not opening.

Sorry for the long post. I'd appreciate any assistance!

Regards,
Vineen
Philippines

 

[realwarder]

Re: Cannot open most apps on Windows 10 Mobile

Providing that text sync is enabled in the settings then the texts will be backed up to the cloud. At least they will be if the phone has been online for a while and is signed into an MSA.

Check the settings to ensure sync is turned on. Settings/system/messaging.

After a hard reset and login they should download after a while. Potentially a few hours.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Re: Cannot open most apps on Windows 10 Mobile

Good day WindowsCentral folks,

I've tried to sideload apps by putting them on his SD card (one is xap, one is appx) but the xapp one doesn't work and the xap one doesn't seem to install or appear in the app drawer even if I installed it after agreeing in the prompt that popped up. I need help in sideloading an app that can pull up the texts, preferrably in xml, and I want to know if performing a factory reset does solve the problem with regards to the apps not opening.

Sorry for the long post. I'd appreciate any assistance!

Regards,
Vineen
Philippines

and if you change the region back to the original?

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