How to fix Google Play Store Error 8 in your Android device
This error may occur after the download when the app is about to be installed. The actual error message will be like this “App can’t be installed. Try again, and if the problem continues, get help troubleshooting. (Error code:-8)” and this will also prompt you to re-download the app and there is no guarantee that it will be installed in the second attempt.
While this problem is not really that serious, it is very annoying and you may waste time downloading the app over and over only to be greeted with the same error. You need to address this problem as soon as you can as this will prevent you from installing apps from the Play Store. It is not an app- or device-specific problem so any app may give you this kind of error. Continue reading as I will address this problem in this post.
For smartphone owners who found our site while trying to find a solution, try to see if your phone is one of the devices we support. If it is, then visit the troubleshooting page for that device, browse through it to find issues that are similar with yours and feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. However, if you still need our help after that, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.
Now, here are the things you can do if your Android device is showing the Play Store error 8…
- Change the installation location to Internet storage.
- Refresh your phone’s connection to network.
- Clear cache and data of Google Play Store.
- Perform the Master Reset.
When an error occurs during the installation, there is always a chance that it’s an issue with the SD card especially if the device is set to install on an external storage. For some reason the installation may have been interrupted due to read/write issue. To address this problem without doing some complicated procedure, install the app to the internal storage first and after that you can move it over to the SD Card. Based on reports, this error message shows up only in devices with a microSD card slot so it must have something to do with the external storage. However, if it continues to bug you even after changing the settings on where to install apps, then try the next solution.
Refresh your phone’s network connection as it’s also possible that the connection was interrupted during the download and some files may have been corrupted. You may try rebooting your phone and try downloading the same app to know if the error still shows up or you may try resettings the network settings of your phone. In so doing, you’re bring all network settings back to factory defaults so you will to reconnect the phone to the network. That will refresh the connection and after which, try downloading the app and see if the issue still occurs. If so, then try the next solution.
Clearing the cache and data of the Google Play Store is necessary at this point. It will delete all the cache and data and replace them with new ones. It is by far the most effective solution when it comes to errors like this as it concerns the Play Store. Don’t worry, none of your apps will be deleted. You won’t even be logged out of your account by doing. This procedure is pretty safe and effective.
Lastly, backup your files and data and then reset your phone should the error continue to bug you even after the first three procedures because it could already be a firmware issue. The Google Play Store is a core app and so it is deeply integrated into the system. A reset will always be able to fix software-related issues including this one. However, make sure to copy or move your important files and data to a safe directory so they won’t be deleted during the process.
I hope that this how-to post has helped you one way or another. Please help us spread the word by sharing this post to your friends or people who may also have similar problems. Thanks for reading!
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