On any Android phone, the Google Play Store is the default app store for the majority of users to download the apps they want on Android. However, just like everything else in tech, the Play Store isn’t bulletproof and the bugs can sometimes get annoying.

There’s a very common bug regarding Play Store downloads where you start downloading an app but it gets stuck at the ‘waiting to download’ stage. In this article, we’re going to talk about what you can do to fix this issue. 

Check your internet connectivity

The first thing you should take a look at is if you have an active internet connection. Whether it’s WiFi or mobile data, make sure you’re connected to the internet and that you’re getting good enough speeds.

Sometimes, the Play Store is actually waiting for a download and your internet connection could very likely be the culprit.

Restart your phone

This is the most basic fix to everything wrong with any piece of technology. Restarting your phone can clear out a bunch of things and help your apps — Play Store included — to start afresh.

This can fix the aforementioned issue just as easily as it can a bunch of others. 

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Check your phone storage

Next up take a look at how much storage you have left on your phone. Play Store will often pause downloads or simply queue them until there’s enough room on your phone to install the app you’re trying to download. 

To get a detailed overview of exactly how much storage you have left on your phone, follow these steps

• Head over to the Settings app on your phone and tap on Storage.
• Here you’ll be able to see just how much space everything on your phone is taking and take steps to make enough room for new apps.

Check your phone’s date and time

More often than not, having a wrong date and time combination on a client device can mess things up with a server. This will often happen when you try to visit a website from a computer with an incorrect date or time.

If your phone’s date and time are also incorrect, this could very well be causing problems with Google’s servers and hence, interrupting your downloads. Here’s how you can fix this

• Head over to your phone’s Settings and search for Date. Tap on the Date & Time option that pops up under System.
• Make sure you’re using the date/time details provided by your network or you’ve set these settings to automatically update. 

Now restart your phone and try the download again. 

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Check app download preferences

The Play Store has a native setting that only downloads apps over WiFi. If by any chance you’ve enabled this setting and you’re not on WiFi, your downloads will be paused until you get on one. 

Here’s how you can cross-check these settings. 

• Head over to the Play Store and tap on the hamburger icon in the top-left.
• Tap on Settings. 
• Under General, tap on App download preference and make sure it’s set to Over any network. 

Disable auto-updates

Another reason your new downloads could be stuck is because of a previous app updating at snail’s pace. This would prompt the Play Store to wait until all updates are complete and then start any new downloads. 

You can disable auto-updates by following these steps. 

• Head over to the Play Store and tap on the hamburger icon in the top-left.
• Tap on Settings. 
• Under General, tap on Auto-updates apps and make sure it is set to Don’t auto-update apps. 

Check the Parental Control settings

If you share your phone with kids and have parental control settings in place, chances are they could be messing up your downloads. Here’s how to verify these settings. 

• Head over to the Play Store and tap on the hamburger icon in the top-left.
• Tap on Settings. 
• Under User Controls, tap on Parental Controls and make sure it’s off.

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Missing permissions

Another reason for your downloads getting stuck could have something to do with the permissions Play Store has on your phone. If it doesn’t have the necessary permissions your downloads can stop dead in their tracks,

• Tap and hold the Play Store icon and then tap on the small i icon that shows up in the top-right.
• Tap on Permissions. 
• Make sure the Play Store has all the permissions it needs to download apps to your phone. 

Try clearing the cache and storage

Often a buggy cache or storage can cause problems with the way an app works and the Play Store is no exception to this fact. If nothing seems to work, you can try clearing out the cache and if that doesn’t work either, clear the storage. 

• Tap and hold on the Play Store icon and then tap on the small i icon that shows up in the top-right.
• Tap on Storage & cache.
• You’ll have the option to clear your storage and cache both. We recommend that you first clear the cache and check to see if it resolves the issue. If it doesn’t, try clearing the storage too. 

Uninstall Play Store updates

Since you can’t manually remove the Play Store from your phone, there’s no way to reinstall it but you can sort of do the same by uninstalling all the Play Store updates and forcing them to download again. Here’s how.

• Tap and hold on the Play Store icon and then tap on the small i icon that shows up in the top-right.
• Tap on the three vertical dots in the top right. 
• Tap on Uninstall updates. 

Now restart Play Store and wait for the updates to download. Your downloads should start right away. 

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Reset App preferences

This could be another potential hurdle in Play Store’s way. Try resetting the app preferences to see if it makes a difference. Here’s how.

• Head over your phone’s settings and tap on Apps & notifications.
• Tap on See all apps. 
• Tap on the three vertical dots in the top -right. 
• Tap on Reset app preferences.

Check for Android System WebView updates

The Android System Webview is responsible for handling quite a few important processes under the hood and if it’s out of date, it can cause problems with your phone, including some with the Play Store.

To manually check for its updates, head over to the Play Store and search for Android System Webview. Install any updates, if available, and try again. 

Try disabling VPN

If you’re using an active VPN connection, it could be causing region conflicts with Google’s servers. Try disabling your VPN and restarting the Play Store to check if your downloads are working again. 

Try disabling Bluetooth

Some users have reported on Google forums that turning off Bluetooth on their phone’s helped resolve this issue. If nothing else works for you, you should give this a shot as well.

You can read more about this over on Google Play Help forums

If you’re still facing issues with your Play Store downloads, the only next step is to either factory reset your phone or remove your Google account and log back in again. Doing this will delete all the synced data on your phone and start over. 

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