Google Play Store not working? Fixes and solutions

It may seem too simple or easy, but checking your Internet connection could solve the problems you’re having. Try switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data, or vice versa, and see if the problem persists. You should also try switching your phone to “Airplane mode” and back again. Finally, you can restart your router to make absolutely sure you have a good connection.

Google periodically checks your smartphone’s date and time for the Play Store. In case there is a difference between the actual time and what is displayed on your phone, Google’s servers could have a tough time syncing with your device and cause Google Play Store to act up. That can also happen if you travel to another time zone, and forget to adjust the device time settings.

To fix this issue, you need to go into the Settings on your Android device and follow the steps below:

1. Go to System.
2. Select Date & Time.
3. Then, make sure to activate the options Set time automatically and Set time zone automatically.

If your device is on automatic and your Google Play Store is still not working, then you should manually set the date and time. You first need to turn Set time automatically off. Then start by entering the date and time with as much accuracy as possible. If this doesn’t work, don’t worry, there are still many more solutions for getting your Google Play Store up and running again.

If the Play Store is frozen or glitching, force close it by swiping it away or going to Settings > Apps > See all apps select the Google Play Store, and hit Force stop.

It’s silly, but sometimes a Google Play Store update is available but won’t automatically download until days after being released. To manually check for an update, Google added a new option in 2021 in the app, just follow these steps:

1. Go into the Google Play Store app and tap on your profile picture in the top right corner.
2. Tap on Settings.
3. Expand the About by tapping on it.
4. Finally, tap in the Update Play Store option, and confirm the update if available.

In some cases, you can get the Play Store going again by just clearing the cache. The cache is a storage area that temporarily holds data so it can be quickly retrieved without needing to be reloaded. This could solve your problem, and emptying it is easy.

1. First, go in the Settings from your smartphone’s home screen.
2. Select the Apps option, (or Apps & notifications, depending on your device).
3. On stock Android, you will need to tap on See all apps.
4. You will now see a list of apps installed on the phone. Scroll down until you see Google Play Store and tap on it.
5. You will now see a screen that says App Info. Here, tap on the option that says Storage & cache.
6. Tap on the option that says Clear cache.

Go back and check if this resolves the issue. If it doesn’t, repeat the same procedure as indicated in the next step:

As mentioned earlier, if the issue isn’t fixed by simply clearing the cache, you can try the other option called Clear storage (or Clear data). The steps are identical as given above, but this step erases quite a bit more. It sets the app back to square one and gets rid of your saved information, hopefully including whatever glitchy data was causing the problem.

Remember, when you do this, your files, settings, accounts, databases, and other information will be erased. You should make sure you have the log-in information for the account as it will be taken off the Google Play Store application.

We’re now coming to slightly more drastic solutions. If your Play Store app still isn’t working, then you may need to refresh your Google account on your Android device. This will mean your Google account on your entire phone will be reset and not just in the Google Play Store. Make sure you know the account(s) and passwords before you start this. You could lose the entire account if you’re not careful.

To do this, remove your account, then add it again. It’s pretty simple to do. 

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Password & accounts.
3. Select the Google account you want to remove.
4. Tap on the Remove account button.
   1. Repeat these steps for every Google account on your device.

Many apps need other services or applications in order to function properly. This is especially true when you’re dealing with system apps such as the Google Play Store. If you recently disabled an app, that could be your problem. Luckily, this is easy to fix.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Then tap Apps (or Apps & notifications).
3. Expand the list by tapping the See all apps option.
4. Expand the All apps option
   1. The dropdown list will not be available if there are no apps disabled on the phone.
5. Select the Disabled apps option.
6. If you see any disabled services, just go into these and hit Enable, and see if that helps.

There is a chance that the Play Store will stop working if your download manager is disabled. If this is the case, the solution is simple. Note that this is no longer an option on devices running Android 10 and above.

Go into your Settings and tap either Apps/Application manager (depending on your device). You should either see all of your apps, or you might have to choose All. From there, find Downloads or Download manager and hit this.

You should be able to see if Download manager is disabled. If it is, then you’ll see a button marked Enable. Simply tap this button to switch Download manager back on. If all you see are buttons for Force Stop and Disable (possibly grayed-out, as seen below), then Download manager is not disabled, and you can rule this possibility out.

Generally, when you have a problem with an app, you can just uninstall it and then reinstall it. Well, that works for some apps, but the Google Play Store is a system app on your Android device. What you can do instead is uninstall previous updates to the app, and this might help your problem, depending on the Android version your mobile is running. Here’s how you can do it.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap on Apps.
3. Tap on See all apps and scroll down to Google Play Store.
4. Tap to open it and then tap on the three dots “⋮” on the top right corner to reveal Uninstall updates.
5. Tap Uninstall updates and check if the issue is resolved.

If your Google Play Store is still not working, then you need to go back and reinstall the updates. From there, head down to our last solution.