The Google Play Store is one of the most important applications on Android devices, since it allows you to download the apps we want to use in a few simple steps. One of its malfunctions is therefore very felt and often causes frustration on the part of the user, which does not explain why the desired app was not downloaded, because the download stopped suddenly for no apparent reason or because the entire Store was stuck or closed without giving any explanation.
In this guide we have tried to collect all the solutions to the errors of the Google Play Store, so that we can download applications, books or any other element available in the Store directly from the Android smartphone, without having to resort to APKs (uncomfortable and dangerous in part of the cases).
READ ALSO: How to restore the Play Store if it doesn't work
How to solve Google Play Store problems
If our Google Play Store no longer downloads the apps, the download bar stops suddenly or does not start or the Store itself does not want to start, below we will find the solutions to the most common problems, able to resume the proper functioning of the Android store in most cases.Clean the cache of the Play Store and related processes
One of the main reasons for the failure of the Play Store could be the cache of the processes related to it, which often fills up and does not allow you to download new data.To clear the cache go to Settings> Apps, make sure to show all the applications present (from the scrolling menu or by pressing on the top right on the three dots) then scroll to the Google Play Store, Google Play Services and Google Services Framework apps .
We open the aforementioned apps one by one, press Force Quit or Terminate then press Delete data or Delete cache to clear the cache. After repeating the steps on all the indicated apps, we reopen the Google Play Store and check if it is possible to download the apps again on our device.
If the problem concerns a failure to update the Google Play Services, please read our Google Play Services guide to update Android and protect your mobile phone .
Remove and restore the Google Account
One of the most effective methods to restore the Google Play Store again is to remove the Google account set on the device and add it again, so as to reset all the Google process settings on the fly.To do this, go to Settings-> Accounts and Synchronization, press the Google Account icon and press the Remove Account button available below or by pressing the More button.
Once the account is removed, we restart the device and then add it back to the system by pressing Add account (in the Accounts and synchronization screen), pressing the Google icon and re-entering the access credentials of the account removed a little while ago.
If everything went in the right direction, we will see the Google Play Store return to work as before.
Update the Google Play store
The Google Play Store is automatically updated by Google at regular intervals and updates occur silently, without the user noticing. If we have problems with the store we can force the search for updates, so as to install the latest version and go back to download all the desired apps.To force the update of the Google Play Store, open the app of the store, press on the top left of the menu with the three lines, press on the Settings menu and scroll until you find the item Version of the Play Store .
Pressing once on the version will start the search for updates, which can take up to 10 minutes to complete (the download and installation will take place silently). After 10 minutes we try to restart the device and open the Play Store, so as to use the latest version (we can check by repeating the steps seen above, until the word Google Play Store appears updated ).
If instead we fear that an update of the Play Store has caused the problem, we uninstall the updates by going to the Settings app, opening the App menu, scrolling until you find the Google Play Store app, opening its screen and finally pressing on the Uninstall updates button. Once all updates have been uninstalled, we repeat the steps seen at the beginning of this chapter to reinstall them, so that we can remedy a fallacious or defective update.
Delete folder of a previously installed app
If we have an Android phone with unlocked root permissions, we can run into an error when we try to install an app already installed via APK in the past or when we install a Custom ROM on the device without cleaning the app cache.In this case we can try to solve by downloading a file manager with support for superuser permissions such as Root Browser.
We open the file manager, provide the root permissions when requested and go to the / Data / Data folder; once inside we look for the name of the app that we want to delete (the name of the app is also contained in the URL of the app on the Play Store) and we delete its folder.
Let's try installing the app from the Google Play Store again to see if the problem is resolved.
Free up space on your device
Even though it is becoming rarer and rarer, we can still run into error 20, which indicates unequivocally that the space in the memory of our smartphone is running out and it is not possible to install new apps.To solve we can manually delete all the largest files or use a dedicated app like Google Files, free and easy to use.
Alternatively we can read our guide to Apps to clean Android from unnecessary files that take up space .
Check device settings and time
If the Play Store suddenly stops working or does not allow you to download apps, we check if the date and time on the device are correct, given that their phase shift can lead to several errors when using the Play Store.
Let's make sure that the automatic date and time is set, so that the smartphone retrieves the necessary information from our network connection (Wi-Fi or Data) by itself.
Just the absence of network connection can lead (on new smartphones just opened) to the lack of time synchronization and consequently to the problems of the Google Play Store; therefore make sure to always establish a working Wi-Fi connection or to set up our connection provider for the data network, as seen in the guide If the 3G or 4G cellular data connection does not work (Android) .
Device reset
If none of the above methods worked, you may need to reset your smartphone or tablet to factory settings. To reset open the Settings app, go to the Backup and restore menu then press on the Restore phone item.
Before resetting, however, you must make sure that you have a backup of your personal files and photos, since they will be deleted during the process.
Conclusions
While using our Android device we can run into numerous error codes or unknown errors while we try to download or update an app; by following the methods proposed above, we will have the certainty of being able to solve them all, going from the simplest methods to the most drastic methods (to be used as a last resort).To learn how to best use the Android store, we recommend you read our Guide to the Google Play Store, 13 tricks and options to know .
If, on the other hand, we do not want to restore the device and we need a new app at all costs, we can bypass the Google Play Store by reading our guides Alternatives to Play Store to download Android Apps without a Google account and Where to download apps for Android .
