11 Ways to Fix Play Store Download Issues
Let’s start with the most obvious problem. Your Internet connection!
1. Check your Network Connection
If you can not download an app from the Play Store, there’s a good chance you have a problem with your internet connection. You may have exceeded your daily or monthly limit, or the network itself is slow. To check, just open another app like YouTube or Netflix that also requires high-speed internet. If other apps work, the problem is with the Play Store app itself. If not, you can try reconnecting to your network, restarting your router, checking if you have reached your data limit, connecting to another network, or contacting your ISP to resolve the issue.
2. Is Google Down?
Perhaps the problem is not with your Internet connection, but on Google’s part. You can use a service like Down Detector to check if Google is currently down. However, it is much easier to call up Google and type “Is Google Down?”. Google should give you a clear and unambiguous answer if it is not down.
3. Close and Re-open the Play Store App
An easy way to solve the problem is to reopen the Play Store and download the app again. Just close the Play Store and even remove it from recent apps. Now, open the Play Store again and check if the behavior has changed. In most cases, the problem cannot be solved, but trying is not bad either.
4. Restart your Device
If restarting the app doesn’t fix the problem, try restarting the device. Oddly enough, restarting solves more than 50% of the problems. Whether the problem has to do with the app freezing, bugs, or payment issues, just restart the devices. That’s what all geeks do.
5. Check the Storage Space on your Device
Another common problem is that there is no space available on your device to download the app. In critical situations, the Play Store app itself notifies you about the storage space problem. However, even if you have low storage space, you may have problems downloading an app from the Play Store. Make sure that you do not use more than 90% of your storage space. This will make your phone slower or can lead to problems like these download issues. To find out how much storage you have on your phone, open System Settings and select Storage. On Samsung phones, open System Settings > Device Care > Storage. Here you should find out how much storage is already being used and what is taking up your storage space. If your memory is running low, try deleting unneeded files and apps to recover your data. You can use the Files by Google app to clean out junk files, duplicate files, memes, old screenshots, WhatsApp videos, large files, etc. If you don’t have the app already installed on your phone, you can try installing Files by Google app from ApkMirror.
6. Update the Play Store App
The Play Store automatically updates with the latest features, bug fixes, and security patches. If it doesn’t, you can force Play Store to check for and update with the latest updates. Open Play Store and tap the profile icon in the upper right corner. Here, select the Settings option to open the Play Store settings. Now tap on the About option and in the drop-down list, tap on the Update Play Store option under the Play Store version.
It checks for the latest updates and provides the option to update the Play Store when updates are available.
7. Check for Android System Updates
In addition to the Play Store update, check for updates to Android itself OS. Keeping things on the latest version will iron out the bugs on OS. To update the Android OS, open System Settings > About Phone and select Check for Updates. If any updates are available, this should download and provide the option for you to install. Anyhow, this process can be different on different Android skins, so try Googling if you cannot find the option.
8. Clear Cache and Data from Play Store, Play Services, and Download Manager
If updating the apps and OS does not fix the problem, you can delete the Play Store, Play Service and Download Manager app data on your Android phone. This will reset the apps and the settings in those apps. Hopefully, this should solve the issue. To clear the cache and data of these apps, open Settings > Apps > and search for Play Store to open Play Store’s App Info page. On the App info page, select the Storage and Cache option and tap on Clear Cache to remove the cache, tap on Clear Data to remove the data of the app. This should remove the app’s locally stored data.
Now continue the process for the Play Services and Download Manager apps too.
9. Check Data and Time on your Device
Many security programs use date and time as one of their checkpoints. If they are not correct, you will not be able to access the Internet. Even if you do, you will not be able to complete the payment if it is a paid app. To correct the date and time, open Settings > Date and Time and turn on Automatic Date and Time and Automatic Time Zone if they are turned off. Now, wait for a few minutes and check if you still can’t make in-app purchases. The settings can be placed in a different location or with a different name. But you can easily find it by searching for ‘date and time’ on your Settings app.
10. Insufficient Funds?
If you are trying to download a paid app, another cause of the error is insufficient credit. Google sometimes notifies you about insufficient funds, but sometimes it just displays the “Payment failed” error. So make sure you have enough funds in your bank account or wallet before you try to download the app.
11. Uninstall Updates for the Play Store App
If the current version isn’t working properly on your device, you don’t have to wait until the patch comes out. You can uninstall the updates and use the Play Store until the latest update is available to fix the bugs. To uninstall updates, simply long-press the Play Store icon on the Home screen and select the App Info option. On the App Info page, tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner and select Uninstall Updates.
This will replace the current version of the play Store with the factory version.
Play Store App Downloading Issues
Any of the above methods should work and solve the problem. If not, you can try contacting the Google Play support and explain your problem. They should find a solution to your problem and can help you solve it. If customer support doesn’t help either, the only option left is to reset the device to factory settings. This will remove all data, settings and everything else and the problem should be solved. It is necessary to have Google Play Store in order to install apps, but you can do so without it as well.
