Android is a very convenient and functional operating system, but even it has glitches. When using an Android phone, you can encounter a wide variety of errors that cause indignation among users. Moreover, errors often occur when working with Play Market, Google’s proprietary application store. It happens that it suddenly stops working, although everything was fine before. Just for such cases, we have prepared an article that will tell you why the Play Market does not work on Android and what can be done to fix the errors.
Why doesn't Play Market work on Android phone?
The Play Market is not part of the operating system, but a separate application, so various errors may occur every now and then. The program is updated frequently, but you can disable auto-update in the settings. In some cases, this leads to the old version of the Play Market simply stopping working. The way to solve the problem is very simple - just update the client to the latest version by downloading it from any convenient resource. But in most cases, Play Market does not work on Android phones for other reasons. This can be caused by malware on your smartphone or other internal processes that affect the performance of the Google application store. If you use our instructions, you can restore the Play Market and use it for your pleasure.
Don't forget about the condition of the device itself
The stability of applications directly depends on the state of the OS of the phone or tablet on which they are installed. And the stability of the OS, among other things, is maintained by basic hygiene:
- We do not install anything unnecessary.
- We delete what we don’t use.
- We regularly clear cached data.
All this is done manually or using special applications or an application that performs several functions at once.
The Play Market does not work (stops working) with any noticeable frequency, we recommend installing a universal cleaning program on your phone. There are many of them, and it is quite possible to find a good option among the free options. Some even include an antivirus. You can pay attention to Clean Master, CCleaner, Super Cleaner or MAX cleaner.
Resetting Play Market settings
If the question of why the Play Market does not work is still relevant, then you need to try resetting the application settings. To do this, follow simple instructions:
- Go to the phone settings;
- Select the “Applications” section;
- We look for it in the Play Market list and tap on it;
- In the new window, alternately click on the “Clear data” and “Erase cache” buttons.
Usually this helps solve the problem, but the method does not provide a 100% guarantee.
Return of the missing Play Market on Android
There are different ways to fix this problem, from clearing the cache to returning the device to factory settings. The last method is the most radical, but also the most effective, because when flashing the firmware, the smartphone is completely updated. After this procedure, all system applications appear on the desktop, including Google Market.
Method 1: Check Google Play Services Settings
An easy and affordable solution to the problem. Problems with Google Play may be due to a large amount of saved cache and various data, as well as a failure in the settings. Further menu descriptions may be slightly different from yours, depending on the smartphone manufacturer and the Android shell it uses.
- Go to your phone's Settings.
- Select the "Applications and notifications" or "Applications" section.
- Tap Apps to see the full list of installed apps on your device.
- Find “Google Play Services” in the window that appears and go to its settings.
- Make sure the application is running. There should be an inscription “Disable”, as in the screenshot below.
- Go to the "Memory" section.
- Click Clear Cache.
- Click on “Manage Place” to go to managing application data.
- By clicking on “Delete all data,” the temporary files will be erased, so the user will subsequently have to log into their Google account again.
Method 2: Check Android for viruses
Sometimes the problem of the Play Market disappearing on Android is associated with the presence of viruses and malware on the device. To find and destroy them, you should use special utilities, as well as a computer, since the Google Market download application has disappeared. For more information on how to check Android for viruses, read the article at the link below.
Read more: Checking Android for viruses via a computer
Method 3: Download the APK file
If the user cannot find the Play Market on his device (usually rooted), it may have been accidentally deleted. To restore it, you need to download the APK file of this program and install it. How to do this is discussed in Method 1 of the next article on our website.
Read more: Installing Google Play Market on Android
Method 4: Sign in to your Google Account again
In some cases, re-logging into your account helps solve the problem. Log out of your account and log in again using your valid email and password. Don't forget to enable synchronization first. Read more about synchronization and logging into your Google account in our separate materials.
Read more:Enabling Google account synchronization on AndroidLog into your Google account on Android
- How to install apk file on computer
Method 5: Factory reset
A radical way to solve a problem. Before carrying out this procedure, it is worth making a backup copy of the necessary information. You can read how to do this in the next article.
Read more: How to make a backup of Android before flashing the firmware
After saving your data, let's move on to resetting to factory settings. For this:
- Go to your device's Settings.
- Select the "System" section at the end of the list. On some firmware, look for the “Recovery and Reset” menu.
- Click on "Reset".
- The user is asked to either reset all settings (then all personal and multimedia data is saved) or return to factory settings. In our case, you will need to select “Restore factory settings”.
- Please note that all previously synchronized accounts, such as mail, instant messengers, etc., will be deleted from the internal memory. Click "Reset phone" and confirm your choice.
- After restarting the smartphone, Google Market should appear on the desktop.
Many believe that Google Market may disappear due to the fact that the user accidentally deleted the shortcut for this application from the desktop or from the menu. However, system apps cannot be uninstalled at this time, so this option is not being considered. Often the situation under consideration is related to the settings of Google Play itself or a problem with the device is to blame.
Uninstalling Play Market updates
If, after following the previous instructions, the Play Market still does not open on the phone, then you need to erase the latest application updates. To do this, we get into the same window as in the previous step, only we press another button - “Delete updates”. Immediately after this, all updates received by the program will be deleted, as a result of which it will become the same as when you purchased the phone, when you first logged into your Google profile.
Resetting the settings of the Google Play Services utility
The answer to the question why the Play Market does not work on Android may be to reset the “Google Play Services” settings. This is very easy to do using our instructions:
- Go to the settings menu, where we select the “Applications” category;
- We look for “Google Play Services” and click on them;
- Click “Erase cache”.
Restoring Google Play Services
How to restore Google services on Android if you accidentally deleted one of them? Google's main services include many system add-ons that provide navigation on your mobile device. Here are brief and detailed instructions for restoring deleted applications (applicable to absolutely any system program).
Preliminary measures:
- Reboot your device.
- Go to Settings, then Date & Time.
- Select automatic time and date or check the box next to “Network date and time.”
- Go back to setup, “Storage”, “Applications”, “All”, “Menu” button.
- After entering the menu, press the “Reset application settings” button, then “Reset applications”.
Method No. 1. Now let's start restoring system applications, looking in detail at how to install Google Play services back on Android if you deleted them:
- Go to “Account”, “Google”, select the line “Sync across all applications”.
- We return to “Storage”, “Cached data”, “Clear cached data”.
- Or “Storage”, “Applications”, “All”, “Google Play Store”, “Force stop”, click “Clear data”.
Open Google Play Store and click on the accept button. Temporarily deactivate the Android device manager: “Settings”, “Security”, “Device Administrators”, “Android Device Manager” where we click the “Turn off” button.
Now let’s remove unnecessary updates: in “All applications” we find “Google Play Services”, “Space Management”, “Clear data”, “Uninstall updates and update them”. System application failures will no longer occur.
Method No. 2. How to quickly restore the Play Market on Android after deleting it using official archives? We restore applications from the official Google website for such situations (permanent storage of APK archives for all occasions, which can be easily accessed using any Internet browser, including a basic or standard one).
- Open the link: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-services.
- Here, scroll down to the latest version of Google Play Services and click on the corresponding line.
- Please wait a while for the data to load.
- Then scroll down to the Google Play Store icon and here click on Update.
- Wait for the updates to finish.
- Reboot your device.
By following this simple sequence of simple steps, you can easily restore the operation of any device based on the Android operating system.
Vitaly Solodky
Any smartphone, regardless of what platform it runs on, always has a pre-installed application store - through it we download various programs and entertainment content to the device. How to restore the Play Market on Android if for some reason it disappeared from both the desktop and the menu? We offer you several options.
Activating the Boot Manager
Often the Play Market does not work on the phone due to the fact that you previously disabled the “Download Manager” utility. Again, go to settings, then applications. Swipe to switch to the “All” section, where we look for “Download Manager” and go to it. If the program is stopped, then turn it on. Reboot the phone and check the functionality of the Play Market.
Working with built-in applications on Android
If there are no problems with the date or Internet connection using WiFi or mobile traffic, and the Play Market does not start, then work with the temporary data of the built-in programs. You should start with the Play Market:
- Open the "Applications" section in settings, go to the "All" tab to display the built-in programs.
- Go to Play Market settings.
- Erase data and clear cache.
Check if the app store is working. If not, go back to its settings and uninstall the updates. Check the program status again.
If uninstalling updates and clearing the Play Store cache did not help, follow similar steps with other programs - Google Play Services and Google Services Framework.
Also, make sure that the Download Manager application is enabled on your system. You can also find it on the “All” tab in the “Applications” section.
Deleting a Google account
In some cases, when Google Play Market does not work, deleting your Google account helps, but be careful. This can lead to the loss of important information for you, so it is better to set up data synchronization in advance so that you have a backup copy from which you can restore it if necessary. Go to settings, and there select “Accounts”. In the window that appears, look for your Google profile, after which a synchronization window will appear on the screen. In it you need to select all the data you want to backup: “Contacts”, “Calendar” and many others. Now you can delete your Google account, for which we return to the previous menu, click “Delete” and confirm the action. We reboot the phone and log in to your account again, after which all synchronized data will be restored from the backup. If the Play Store application still does not work, then proceed to the next step.
Restoring a program by installing APK files
Here is another working method if you deleted the Play Market on Android - how to restore the program using files from the Internet download. You just need to find a reliable site from where you can download the required software (you can “browse” through thematic forums and see what people are using).
APK. Google Play file
How to restore Google Play Store on your phone by downloading APK files:
- Using a browser on your computer, find a resource where you can download APK files to install the Play Store or click on the button above;
- Download the files and save them;
- Connect your smartphone to your computer - via USB or Bluetooth;
- Transfer the APK files to the SD card of your smartphone and disconnect from the computer;
- Start installing the program from your phone.
If startup does not occur, you can try the following option on how to restore Google Play Market:
- Install the APK installer program on your computer. For example, you can use InstallAPK.
- Download APK files from the previously selected service and save them on your computer.
- Connect your phone to your PC using a USB cable (this is important).
- Double-click the left mouse button to launch the APK*
- The installer will independently prepare, activate and install the application on the connected device.
*You do not need to first transfer these files to your smartphone space to restore Google Play!
Resetting Android OS settings
If the Play Market still does not work via Wi-Fi and displays an error, then you need to reset all Android settings. This is a radical measure, but in most cases it helps to completely solve the problem.
How to reset settings to factory settings on Android?
- We go to the settings, where we are interested in the “Restore and reset” section;
- Click “Reset settings” and confirm the action. Before doing this, it is better to make sure that data synchronization is enabled, otherwise you will lose all applications, photos and contacts from the smartphone’s memory;
- After rebooting the phone, we restore all the data and check if the Play Market is working.
