Your Google Play Store Not Working? Here Are The Fixes!

By Bogdana

First Published on July 21, 2018 | RECENTLY REVISED

This article is 5 years old.

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Google Play Store is essential for Android users because it is the official app store. The question is: what to do if the app store not working? You want to browse the apps, update the ones you have, or to download new ones, but for some reason, you are experiencing some kind of a problem, such as the Play store is freezing or crashing, or the apps not downloading. We are going to share the solutions.

Play Store not working? Let’s fix it

Solution No.1: Clear the Play Store Cache and Data

Whenever you are experiencing a problem with any app on your Android device, and not just the Play Store, the first thing you need to do is to clear the cache, and in most cases that will be all you need to do. Follow the steps:

Navigate to Settings
Tap on Apps
Tap All
Select Google Play Store
Tap Clear Cache

When apps not downloading, or if the Play Store keeps on crashing and the previous step didn’t help, you should clear the data. With this option, all the saved information will be deleted. Almost all the steps are the same as in the Solution No.1, except the last one:

Navigate to Settings
Tap on Apps
Tap All
Select Google Play Store
Tap Clear Data

Solution No.2: Clear Google Play Services Cache and Data

When Google Play not working, this is another solution that can help you fix the problem, for the reason that Play Services is essential for all the apps you have on your device. Follow the steps below:

Go to Settings
Tap on Apps
Tap on All
Select Google Play Services
Tap Clear Cache

If this doesn’t help, try this:

Go to Settings
Tap on Apps
Tap on All
Select Google Play Services
Tap Clear Data.

Solution No.3: Install the older Play Store version

When the app store not working, you can uninstall the updates, and then download and install the older Play Store version.

First, uninstall the updates:

Go to Settings
Tap on Apps
Tap on Google Play Store
Click on Uninstall Updates

The next step is to get the older version of the Google Play Store, not the latest, but not the version that is too old either. You can check out the app’s versions available on the sites such as www.apkmirror.com, where all versions are listed. Hopefully, when you install the app, you will be able to open the Play Store, and freezing, crashing, the app not downloading and other issues will be gone.

Solution No.4: Google account reset

In most cases, some of the previous solutions will fix the problem when app store not working, and if you are still experiencing the issues and cannot open the Play Store, you should perform a Google account reset, and here is how:

Go to Settings
Tap on Accounts
Under manage accounts, select Google
Click on the account you wish to remove, and click on the three dots (menu), and select remove.
If you have several Google accounts on your Android device, remove them all.

When the accounts are removed, follow these steps:

Go to Settings
Tap on Accounts
Select Add Account
Select Google, and add your account.

Solution No.5: Factory data reset

If the Play Store still not working, if apps not downloading, or if you cannot open the Play Store, it is time for factory data reset.

When it comes to factory data reset, the first and the most significant thing you need to do is to make sure the data from your device are backed up. Follow the steps below:

Go to Settings
Tap on Backup & Reset
Back up my data should be set to on
Click on Backup account
Select the account on which you want the data to be backed up

Now, do this:

Go to Settings
Tap on Backup & Reset
Select Factory Data Reset
Confirm the action

One of these solutions will work, and you will be able to open the Play Store, the freezing, app not downloading and other issues will be gone, and the app store will work perfectly!