Can't download/update apps

TheRealLiam · Apr 5, 2019

Starting two days ago, I suddenly cannot download or update any of my apps via Google Play Store.
I've tried EVERYTHING:

rebooted
reseated SIM
reseated SD
cleared caches: Services, Store, Play, etc.
cleared data: Service, Store, Play, etc.
disconnected/reconnected account
verified LAN as well as cell network connectivity

I get never-ending "download pending" message for each app, OR
I get download progress - skip - restart download - skip - unending "download pending", OR
Outright error dialog: "Can't instal ___; see common ways to fix ..."

I've spent two hours web searching with NO solution.

Android 8.1.0

What's going on? How can I fix this?
Thanks in advance!

ocnbrze · Apr 5, 2019

is this happening at home, work, or out and about?

TheRealLiam · Apr 5, 2019

ocnbrze said:
is this happening at home, work, or out and about?

Both. I even took a drive to get within sight of a cell tower - just to eliminate that as a possibility.

ocnbrze · Apr 5, 2019

and you re-booted the phone? what were u doing prior, before all this happened?

Dannydet · Apr 5, 2019

Did you go over your data allowance?

TheRealLiam · Apr 5, 2019

Dannydet said:
Did you go over your data allowance?

Nope.

TheRealLiam · Apr 5, 2019

ocnbrze said:
and you re-booted the phone? what were u doing prior, before all this happened?

I woke up Wednesday morning - like any other morning - unplugged my phone, poked around my email. I then noticed I had a "warning triangle" in my status bar at the top. I clicked and it said it couldn't download an app. I then went into Google Play and saw that I had eight (8) apps queued up for download/update but none of them auto-updated as they should. I then clicked "Update All" and was greeted with all the beauty of my original post. During the course of this, I tried to install a new app that I've never had installed before. Wouldn't download. I then removed an inconsequential app and tried to re-install it. Failure.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I wasn't really doing anything. I didn't notice any performance degradation, connectivity issues, crashes or freezes. All was fine, or so I thought, until I noticed the "download failure" message and looked into it.

ocnbrze · Apr 5, 2019

Hmmmmm do you have internet? Like I said maybe rebooting your phone might help. And last resort would be a factory reset.

ocnbrze · Apr 5, 2019

Also what about your download preference in you Play store app? And also do you have auto update turned on?

TheRealLiam · Apr 5, 2019

ocnbrze said:
Hmmmmm do you have internet? Like I said maybe rebooting your phone might help. And last resort would be a factory reset.

Yes; I have both LAN and cell network connectivity. I do have auto-update turned on.

Dannydet · Apr 5, 2019

I'd do a factory reset here, backup all of your stuff first.

TheRealLiam · Apr 6, 2019

Thank you to all who have replied. The issue has been solved. I bought an iPhone.
Just kidding!

It turns out my SD card went bad. I had no way of knowing this until I did a factory reset. As part of the post-reset setup process, I'm asked how I want to use my SD card - as removable media or internal storage. I chose what I always do: internal storage. I got a message the the process was irreversible (of course) and proceeded. About 10 seconds into the process, I got a very "command line" looking error message stating that "blah blah blah failed" on /some/path/to/some/device with an exit code. Hmmm. I re-tried the process; same error. I shut off my phone, popped the SD card, plunked in an ancient 16GB one, fired up the phone, setup the card as internal storage and - BAM! - it formatted (with a "your card is slow" caveat) and my phone came back to life. I've since completed a restore from backup and (nearly) everything is back. Downloads, updates - and everything else - is working as it should.

Seems like a bit of an oversight by the Android team that the OS can't/won't report a failure such as an SD card that's gone bad. I lost two days and a pound of hair on this one. I find it just as curious that not a single resource I found online even hinted that an SD card failure could impact downloads, especially considering that it's totally acceptable to put apps on your "internal storage" SD card.

Live and learn, I guess.
And again, thanks to everyone who tried to help.

mikedt · Apr 6, 2019

TheRealLiam said:
Thank you to all who have replied. The issue has been solved. I bought an iPhone.
Just kidding!

It turns out my SD card went bad. I had no way of knowing this until I did a factory reset. As part of the post-reset setup process, I'm asked how I want to use my SD card - as removable media or internal storage. I chose what I always do: internal storage. I got a message the the process was irreversible (of course) and proceeded. About 10 seconds into the process, I got a very "command line" looking error message stating that "blah blah blah failed" on /some/path/to/some/device with an exit code. Hmmm. I re-tried the process; same error. I shut off my phone, popped the SD card, plunked in an ancient 16GB one, fired up the phone, setup the card as internal storage and - BAM! - it formatted (with a "your card is slow" caveat) and my phone came back to life. I've since completed a restore from backup and (nearly) everything is back. Downloads, updates - and everything else - is working as it should.

Seems like a bit of an oversight by the Android team that the OS can't/won't report a failure such as an SD card that's gone bad. I lost two days and a pound of hair on this one. I find it just as curious that not a single resource I found online even hinted that an SD card failure could impact downloads, especially considering that it's totally acceptable to put apps on your "internal storage" SD card.

Live and learn, I guess.
And again, thanks to everyone who tried to help.

An FYI, apps, games, and their associated data tends to do a lot of read/write cycles when they're running. And SDs only have a finite number of read/write cycles before they fail, and they literally wear out. Running apps from them can accelerate failure, and shorten their life. They're really only intended for your photos, videos, music etc, which is not usually constant reading/writing data.

In fact some manufacturers are likely aware of this and do NOT consider it acceptable, like Samsung who manufactures SD cards, and they remove or disable the options to use SDs internal storage on their devices, i.e. they're for external storage only on those phones or tablets. Motorola(Lenovo) on the other hand does consider it acceptable, at the risk of your data and hair loss.

Can't download/update apps

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