When your Android won’t download apps, you may not be able to do a lot of the tasks you want like sending emails, or texts, editing photos and much more. It puts your life at a near standstill especially if you’re so used to your phone handling much of your everyday activities.
In order to download any app from Google Play Store, you need a stable internet connection, so that’s the first thing to check when your device won’t download anything, let alone apps. You can also restart the device and see if that helps restore the download.
However, if none of these preliminary troubleshooting steps work, you can try the other solutions listed below.
Fix Android won’t download apps
Check date and time settings
The date and time has to be correct so as to sync Google servers with your device to download apps from the Play store. If it’s incorrect, it can affect downloads. To correct it, do this:
- Open Settings>tap System
- Find Date and Time and tap on it
- Check if your device is set to Automatic Date and Time
- Toggle it on if it is off
The time and date could be correct but Play Store isn’t working. In this case, change it to manual, set the time accurately and check if it restores the download.
Enable Download Manager
Download Manager helps with all app downloads. If it is off, the apps can’t be downloaded so you need to turn it on. To do this:
- Open Settings>Apps>App manager
- Swipe the All tab and find Download manager
- Tap Download manager to check if it is enabled or off
- Turn it on and then download the apps again
Clear cache and data for Google Play and Google Play services
To do this:
- Open Settings>Apps>App manager
- Find Google Play store
- Tap on it and then tap clear cache to delete cached files and try downloading apps
- If clearing cache didn’t help, clear data using the same process and then try to download the apps
Clear cache and data for Google Play services using the same steps.
Refresh data sync settings
To do this:
- Open Settings>tap Accounts (or Accounts and Sync)
- Tap Background data and wait 30 seconds and then check the box next to it
- Open the menu with the Auto Sync Data option depending on your device and Android version
- Tap it to uncheck Auto sync of data
- Tap again to ensure auto syncing is enabled and try downloading again
Update Device software
Software updates help fix bugs or problems with the previous version of the software. To do this:
- Open Settings>About device
- Tap Check for updates and install any new version for your device
- After the device restarts, check if the app downloads work
If all else fails, try resetting your Google account, uninstalling Google Play Store updates and restarting your device to reinstall updates, or perform a factory reset.
Elsie is a tech writer with 8+ years professional experience. For Tech News Watch, she brings rich experience contributing to topics such as Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS among others. In her spare time, she loves checking out the latest tech trends, gadgets, and news, listening to music and cars.
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