Google’s Play Store has hundreds of thousands of apps across just about any category you’d possibly want. However, not all of these apps might be compatible with your phone.
If that’s the case, you’ll see an error stating that your device isn’t compatible with the specific version of the app you’re trying to download. In this article, we’re going over this error, why it happens and what you can do to fix the problem at hand.
Why does this occur?
As you can most likely guess by the error, it occurs when Play Store thinks that your device isn’t compatible with the app. Apart from the device not being compatible, this error could also indicate a problem with the Play Store itself.
There’s also a chance that the developer hasn’t chosen your device for their app. Other than that, the app could also be unavailable in your region.
Also read: Why are my apps closing automatically on Android?
How to fix this?
Here are a few solutions you can try to fix the issue.
Clear the Google Play cache
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.
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.
Sideload the app
If nothing else works, you can manually download the APK file from the internet and install it on your phone — an action called sideloading. However, do keep in mind to download the app from a trusted source as a lot of third-party marketplaces that allow users to download APKs often have malware code embedded into the file.
Also read:Â What is CqaTest on Android? Everything you need to know
