You’ve been waiting for anupcoming Android gameto arrive on the Play Store for months, but you can’t get it to install. Or you can’t download an important update to one of your favorite apps. When you go to the Google Play Store to download a game or app, “download pending"appears on your screen. There are workarounds you can use to stop those download errors from popping up after using the Google Play Store. This guide teaches you how to fix the download pending error on anytrusty Android tablet, phone, or gaming device.
How to stop your games and apps from crashing on Android
What the heck is an unhandled exception, and what can be done about it?
Check the internet connection
You may haveturned off mobile dataor be on a spotty Wi-Fi connection. If your internet source isn’t reliable, reconsider the time and place to perform your download. you may also perform an internetspeed testto see if another source is using your bandwidth. Otherwise, restart your router and try again. We recommend saving bigger downloads for your private Wi-Fi network and temporarily turning off auto-updates with other apps.
When you download games and apps on your data plan, you may experiencethrottling or network prioritization, which causes your data to slow down. In that case,consider a VPNor download your game or app at a less busy time.
Check the network preferences settings on the Google Play Store
To avoid reaching your data plan limit, the Google Play Store might block your download activities. Check your network preferences setting to see if that’s the source of the download error.
Restart your device
Sometimes, your device needs a fresh reset, especially if you recently changed a setting or need to schedule an update with your operating system. It also fixes the issue of having multiple apps open that you can’t force stop, so an easy way to get by this is to do a quick restart.
Check your current downloads and app updates on Google Play Store
When you’ve pushed too many downloads and updates through (simultaneously), the list can get congested, which may prompt a download error. Manage your Google Play Store downloads by checking the status. We recommend pausing the updates and resuming the queue after you acquire the game or app on your device. Otherwise, set it up to manually push these updates through yourself.
Update the operating system on your Android device
Your OS (operating system) may be outdated, and you may need to push some security patches through. Check your settings to see if your device has a system update waiting.
Check your device’s storage and free up space
Sometimes, the download pending error comes from a lack of space on your internal storage or SD card. Games likeGenshin Impact take up a hefty amount of space, leaving little room for other apps and games. To make room for new apps and games,clear space on your internal storage or SD card. To spot how much space you have left, visit the Play Store Overview tab.
You can also view your SD card and internal storage usage by visiting your device’s settings.
We use a Samsung Galaxy S23 that runs One UI 5.1 in this example, so your Android device may look different from what displays in these steps.
Consider slotting in asizeable SD card to expand your storageif space becomes a revolving issue. Otherwise, you must uninstall apps and games to make room for new ones until you get a hardware upgrade.
Clearing the cache and data
Generally, when an update to an app doesn’t work, your first step is to visit the app andclear the cache and data. Before touching the clear data option, clear the app cache. Clearing the cache declutters your device and prevents temporary files from taking up too much space. When you’re tight on storage space, clear the cache daily.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to push an update through and still receive the download pending error, clear the data. Clearing the data deletes the user data, including personalized settings, temporary files, and data associated with the app. Saved login credentials are also deleted, and it will behave like you just downloaded the app. Sometimes, clearing the data is necessary when corrupted files are lying around on the app, preventing an update from being pushed through.
You can also clear the Google Play Store cache and data from the app. Sometimes, the problem arises with old data leaving traces behind, taking up storage space.
Update Google Play Store services
Usually, theGoogle Play Store prompts an updateafter opening. But you may have installed the Google Play Store with an APK file or App Bundle source on your device. So, to ensure your Google Play Store is on the most recent, stable build, check with a trusted APK source (such as APKMirror) that you have the latest version.
Uninstall and reinstall Google Play Store
If you suspect you’re on a faulty version of the Google Play Store app, uninstall the entire app like you would any app. Visit your settings, go toAppsorApplications,then tapUninstall.If the current build of the Google Play Store seems unstable (rare but can happen if you installed the app from unofficial sources), considerrolling back to an older app versionto uninstall updates.
If the download pending error persists, download the game or app from a different source. Log in to the Google Play Store on a web browser using a computer. Open Google Chrome (or any web browser you use) and visit theGoogle Play Store website. Then, prompt the download to start on any device connected to the cloud. Make sure to log in to the same Google account as the one that’s connected to the Google Play services on your device.
Before proceeding to the following steps, turn on the app sync feature within the Play Store app. Perform these steps by tapping your profile icon and selectingManage apps and device>Sync apps to devices.
This method also works if you own multiple devices on the same Google account. You can open the Play Store app on your Android tablet and select to install the app onto your Android phone (or any chosen device).
Last resort: factory reset your device
You canfactory reset your mobile deviceas a last resort to fix the download pending error. If nothing else works with the previous reset options, wipe your device clean and start over. You could lose everything stored on your device, soback up your photos, apps, and dataon the cloud before commencing.
Downloading APKs and App Bundles
Sometimes, troubleshooting unwanted download errors takes work. It can be a challenge to figure out why a device or service behaves unexpectedly. It’s easy to miss solutions that resolve these issues immediately. If you’re still struggling to work out downloading new apps despite these fixes, consider installing arespectable Google Play Store alternative. That way, you can grab the APKs and App Bundles directly onto any device you own.
