Samsung Galaxy S3 Google Play Store Stopped Working [How To Fix]

“Unfortunately Google Play Store has stopped working.”

This is one of the most common errors Android users can encounter. The problem is often caused by a software-related glitch that directly affects one of Google’s core services, the Play Store or the Android marketplace, where majority of Android apps can be found. Before going further, here is one of the emails we received from our readers related to this problem:

“My GS3 will freeze for about 5 seconds then I’ll get a message pop up that Google play has unfortunately stopped. This happens during anything I’m doing, not while a specific app is running. Do you know if anyone else has this issue? I would deal with it except if I have music playing it won’t resume until after I click ‘ok’. Annoying when in the car or on my scooter.”

While the error message clearly states that the app “stopped working,” it is also a possibility that it is running very slow that could have been caused by another app or service. Fortunately, it is not a serious problem. There are several ways to resolve it.

Reboot Your Phone – app errors like this happen all the time and people tend to think it is a serious software problem; it’s not. More often, the error message appears when the app crashes and no one could immediately point out why it happens. If you’re the owner of the phone and you don’t know what happened to your device, it’s better not to mess up with the settings; a simple reboot is often advised as the primary troubleshooting step to be carried out.

Update The Play Store – Based on reports of many S3 users who have encountered the problem, it will be fixed by simply downloading the latest version of the Google Play Store app. However, in case the problem occurred after installing an update, go to Google Play Store’s settings and uninstall updates to see if it would a difference.

Clear Data, Force Stop, Reboot – now go to Settings => Applications Manager => All => Google Play Store. Tap Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons. Please note that your personal settings will be deleted after clearing data. Once Play Store’s cache and data has been wiped out, tap on Force Close button, then reboot your phone. This procedure will more likely resolve this issue if the problem is as simple as a software glitch.

Factory Reset – when all troubleshooting procedures fail, the problem may be complicated affecting several core services. (Note that the Google Play Store is a core application / service for Android OS.) There is almost no way to determine this except for errors you would encounter time and again. Techie owners can easily find what the problems are but average users wouldn’t. Thus, factory reset is advised to bring the phone back to the original settings that worked.

Be advised that doing a factory reset would delete all settings, customizations, files, etc. on your phone. Unless you’ve already made a backup of your important files and data, you’re not ready to do this.

Tell Us Your Android Problems

If you own an Android device and are experiencing problems you don’t know how to fix, maybe we have a solution. Feel free to tell us about by shooting an email at [email protected]. We cannot guarantee we can provide resolution to your problems but rest assured we will do our best and exhaust all possible information just to be able to explain, remedy or find workarounds for you.