How to fix stuck at “Google play store waiting for download” in 5 minutes

If you are using an android device, you might have encountered the Play Store waiting for download error. OR can’t download apps from play store waiting for download. This is one of the most common errors of any android device and one of the most frustrating ones. Imagine a situation where one of your installed apps became absolute, and you can’t use that app unless you update it from the play store. So, you go to the play store, find the app, and click update only to meet with the play store waiting for download error.

In another use case scenario, you urgently need a specific app to open a specific file such as pdf, doc file, epub, etc. You searched for a suitable app, and found a good match with lots of downloads and a really good rating, but you cannot download the app due to that stupid play store waiting for download error. How frustrating would that be for someone? It’s even more frustrating when you try to solve this problem. Because there is not a single root cause for this play store waiting for download error. This can occur due to several different reasons.

So here in this article, we will discuss various solutions for the play store waiting for download error. Try the below-mentioned solutions one by one and try to download the app after each try. One of these solutions should work for your device.

How To Solve Play Store Waiting For Download Problem? How to fix can’t download apps from play store waiting for download?

We systematically arranged these solutions from simple to complex to minimize your hassle.

1. Restart Your Device

Sometimes, the most complex problems require a really simple solution. If you ever encounter this problem, one of the first things you should do is restarting your device. Now try to download the app again.

2. Check the Date And Time Of Your Device

The Play store waiting for download error can also occur due to an incorrect date and time on your phone. To fix it, you need to correct the date and time on your phone. to do this-

• Go to Settings > System > Date & time.
• Make sure automatic date & time is turned ON.
• Restart your phone and try to download the app again.

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3. Check Your Internet Connection

You need to really make sure your internet is running perfectly. Sometimes slow internet speeds can cause this Play store waiting for download issue. So to make sure your internet is running fine, perform a speed test. If you are using Wifi, check if all the cables of your router are properly connected. If it seems to be working but internet speeds are really low, either restart your modem or contact your ISP. If wifi is working fine, try switching to mobile data. But before that, make sure you’ve enabled data download first. Here is how to do that:

1. Open Play Store and tap on your profile picture in the upper right corner.
2. Go to Settings> General>App download preference.
   
3. Set app download preferences Over any network.
   

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4. Check Current Download And Updates

Play store tends to update existing apps in the background. Due to this, the app you are currently trying to download gets stuck. To check if that’s what creating the issue-

1. Go to Play Store and tap on your profile picture in the upper right corner.
2. Tap on My apps & games.
   
3. Here you can see which apps are in the process of being updated or downloaded.
4. Just press X next to their name to stop that process.
   

5. Check Your Storage And SD Card

A common cause of Play store waiting for download error on android is low storage space. Usually, you get a notification if your storage is low while trying to download an app. However, if you really want to make sure you’ve enough free space, you can check your storage from the settings menu.

1. First, go to Settings > Storage 
2. Check the distribution of storage space.
3. Uninstall some unwanted applications, delete the files you don’t need, and clear the cache data.

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6. Change Your Google Account

Sometimes changing the google account associated with your Play store might help to remove the play store waiting for download error. To do this, open the Play store and change your Google account to another one by tapping on the profile picture and selecting another email from the drop-down menu.

7. Check Parental Control

If you’ve enabled parental control on the Play store, do turn them off. They might be interfering with your downloads. to turn them off-

1. Go to the Settings page of the Play store
2. Scroll down to find the Parental controls tab
   
3. Tap on it to open and turn off Parental Controls.

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8. Update Android System Webview

Android System WebView is a system component powered by Chrome that allows Android apps to display web content. This component is pre-installed on your device and should be kept up to date to ensure you have the latest security updates and other bug fixes. Usually, your system auto-updates this component, but to make sure it is running the latest version go to the Play Store and search for this app. Update the app if any update is showing.

9. Download Through Your Browser

If you cannot be able to download your desired app using the Play store app, you can bypass this by using the web version of the Play Store on your phone or PC browser-

1. Open any compatible browser from your phone or PC and visit the Google Play Website and log in using your Google account.
2. Once you are in the store, search for the app you want from the search bar
3. Now press Install. This might ask you to choose the device you want to install the app, select the device, and the download should begin on your phone.

10. Clear Play Store Cache And Data

To solve the Play Store waiting for download issue, you can clear the cache and data of your Play Store application. Don’t worry this won’t delete any existing app from your phone,

Note: Clearing data will log you out from Play Store

1. First to Settings>Apps  & Notification>Google Play Store and open.
   
2. Now tap on Storage. Here you’ll get two options Clear cache and Clear Storage.
   
3. Clear cache first and try to download the app.
   
4. If the issue continues, as a last resort, Clear storage.
   

11. Clear Google Play Services Cache and Data

Similar to the last solution, this time open the Google Play Services app. Now, first, clear the cache, and if the problem persists, clear the data as well.

12. Check For System Updates

Sometimes, some system updates are pending on your phone. That might be another reason for can’t download apps from play store waiting for download. To check system updates-

1. Go to Settings > System > System Updates.
   
2. Taping on System updates will check for any pending updates. Update your system from here(If available) and try to download the app again.
   

13. Uninstall Google Play Store and Google Play Services Updates

Google usually updates the Play Store and Google Play Services automatically in the background. At times, they don’t update as expected, causing errors like the Play store waiting for download. Reverting to an old version of the play store might fix the can’t download apps from play store waiting for download in this case. for that-

1. Go to Phone Settings > Apps & notifications > Google Play store
2. From here Tap on the three-dot icon at the top right corner and select uninstall.
   
3. Do the same for Google Play Sevices.

NOTE: Steps provided in this article to visit different settings panels may vary depending on your OEM. Different Android phone manufacturers have different skins on top of vanilla android.

Summary –

To summarize, we have created an all-in-one infographic that contains all the fixes for the “Google Play Store waiting for download” error OR can’t download apps from play store waiting for download errror.