If you are an Android user, Google play is the one app that you may use on day to day basis and multiple times on other days. But, if Google Play stops working things may get annoying for the most Android users. This is mostly true with the most common Google Play Store message “Unfortunately Google Play Services has stopped” currently affecting thousands of Android users. The error occurs when the user tries to download an app or game from the Play Store.
As I said earlier, the error can get annoying really soon, but fortunately for you, there are working ways to fix “unfortunately Google Play Services has stopped” error in Android. Today, we will be showing the best solutions to troubleshoot this play store error on your smartphone.
Fix Unfortunately Google Play Services has Stopped
There are a couple of ways to fix this issue on Android. We have compiled the best working solutions and have listed them below. Jump to the next solution if the first one doesn’t work.
Fix 1: Restart your Phone
Restarting your Android phone can fix the Google play services error. At times, your phone may fail to start the Google Play service properly and starts throwing the error. An easy fix for this issue is to restart the Android device. After the restart, open Google Play Store and start browsing the app.
Fix 2: Clear the Cache
Android apps by default use cache to store temporary data that allows the apps to connect with the services faster. However, a bad cache can cause a problem with Android apps. Fortunately, Android has the option to clear cache for any installed apps.
Open Settings and go to Installed Apps. Depending on the Android version, you may have an Apps Manager instead.
Search for Google Play Services and open it.
Tap the Clear Data button at the bottom of the screen. Select Clear Cache option from the pop-up window.
Go back to the Installed Apps / Apps Manager and search for Google Play Store.
Open Google Play Store, tap on Clear Data and select Clear Cache option.
Go back to the home screen and open the Google Play Store. The Google Play Store should be working now without any issues.
Fix 3: Download Play Store / Play Services .apk File
If the above solution doesn’t work, installing Google Play Store apk file can fix the problem as well. The good folks at APKmirror offer clean apk files to download.
Install both the apks one after another. But, before installing the apk files, you need to enable “Unknown sources” option in the Settings.
Go to Settings > Tap on Privacy.
Turn on “Unknown Sources” option.
Go back to the downloads app and tap on Google Play Services .apk file. Tap on the Install button to install the app.
Next, tap on Google Play Store .apk and tap on the Install button.
Once both the apps are installed, launch Google Play store and start downloading your favourite apps.
Fix 4: Uninstall Google Play Store / Services Updates
Most of the time updates for the apps bring bug fixes and improvements, however, the same updates can cause problems due to a new bug or glitch. One way to fix update related issue to uninstall the latest update.
Open Setting.
Open Installed Apps / Apps Manager.
Search for Google Play Services, Tap three-dots and select Uninstall update. Other versions of Android may show Uninstall Update button at the bottom of the Google Play Services page.
Do the same with the Google Play Store app as well. After this, open Google Play Store and check if the error is resolved.
Fix 5: Perform an Android Factory Restore
You should be able to resolve the Google Play service error by now; if not, you may need to perform a complete factory restore of your Android to fix the issue.
Open Settings.
Tap on Additional Settings and then tap on Backup & Reset.
Tap on Factory data reset > Reset Phone.
Bottom Line
The Google Play Services has stopped error can be annoying and rightly so as users use the service every day. However, you should be able to fix the Google play service error by following any of the solutions in this article. Do let us know which solution worked for you in the comments below.