Top 9 Ways to Fix Play Store Showing Error Checking for Updates

Google Play Store is our gateway to discover, install and update apps on Android phone. If it is not working properly, we will encounter problems installing or updating applications. And that’s exactly what some Android users are experiencing. When they open the Play Store to update apps, they get the message ‘Error checking for updates’. If you are getting the same error while trying to update apps, we have listed the fixes to fix the problem.

Users will not see any available updates in the My apps & games window in the Play Store (Hamburger menu > My apps & games). All they get is ‘Error checking for updates’. Pressing the refresh button next to the message doesn’t help either.

Let’s look at various solutions to fix the ‘Error checking for updates’ issue.

1. Reboot Phone

Begin troubleshooting by restarting your phone. Sometimes, a simple solution like this works like magic.

2. Clear Cache and Data

One of the best solutions to fix all Google Play Store related issues is to clear cache and data of Google Play Store and Google Play Services.

Note: Clearing cache or data of Play Store or Play Service will not delete any files or apps from your phone. Only Google Play Store settings and search history will be deleted by clearing the Play Store’s data. Find out in detail what happens by clearing data on Android phones.

To clear cache and data, follow these steps:

Stage 1: Open Settings on your phone and go to Apps.

Step 2: Under All apps or Manage apps, tap Google Play Store.

Stage 3: Tap on Storage. Press the clear cache button. Restart your phone. See if the issue is resolved. If the problem persists, tap on Clear data or Clear storage depending on the option available. Restart your device.

Step 4: Repeat the steps for Google Play Services i.e. clear its cache and data.

3. Disable Play Store

If the above solution didn’t help, disabling the Play Store for a while can also come to the rescue. Once disabled, enable it again and this should fix the issue. Also, it does not delete any data or apps.

To disable Play Store, follow the first two steps of the above method i.e. go to Settings > Apps > Google Play Store. Tap on Disable. Once disabled, the Play Store icon will disappear from the phone. Repeat the steps and now tap Activate to re-enable Play Store.

4. Uninstall Play Store

Play Store is an app pre-installed on Android phones. That’s why you can’t remove it. But you can uninstall their updates and this also helps to fix the Check for updates error. To uninstall Play Store updates, follow these steps:

Stage 1: Open Settings and go to Apps > Google Play Store as we did above.

Step 2: Tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the Play Store screen. Select Uninstall updates from the menu.

Stage 3: Restart the phone and open Play Store. You should now be able to update apps. Usually the Play Store is automatically updated in the background. But if that’s not the case, learn how to manually update the Play Store.

5. Remove SD Card

If your phone supports an SD card, try removing the card before updating apps. For some users, removing the card fixed the issue. Put the apps back after updating and this should fix the issue.

6. Check the Date and Time

Setting the correct date and time should also fix Play Store related issues on your phone. So go to Settings > System > Date & time. Make sure the correct date and time are set. If possible, enable Automatic date & time and Automatic time zone for better results.

7. Accept the Terms and Conditions

Another solution that seems to have worked is to accept the Google Play Store terms and conditions in case you haven’t. If you’re signed in with more than one Google account on your phone, you’ll need to switch to those accounts in the Google Play Store and accept the terms if prompted.

To switch accounts in Play Store, open Play Store and tap on the profile picture icon at the top. Select the account to switch. Agrees to terms when asked. Repeat for other accounts.

8. Remove Google Account

Like the previous solution, sometimes an old account can mess up the Play Store if you have multiple Google accounts registered on your phone. Either their password has changed or there is a problem with your existing Google account that is causing problems. So you need to remove old Google accounts to fix it. Find out what happens when you remove a Google account from your phone.

To remove a Google account, go to Settings > Accounts. Tap the Google account you want to remove. Then hit Remove account. Confirm on the next screen.

Pro Tip: If only one Google account is added, remove it to fix the problem.

9. Reset App Preferences

Finally, try your luck by resetting app preferences as well. It is a very useful feature that restores all the settings on your phone to their default values. So, if a setting is breaking any Play Store functionality, this should fix it. Don’t worry about your data and files as none of them will be deleted after resetting app preferences. Find out in detail what happens by resetting app preferences before following the steps given below.

To reset app preferences on your Android phone, go to Settings > Apps. Tap the three-dot icon and select Reset app preferences. Confirm when prompted. Restart the phone and open Play Store. Apps should update normally.

Happy family

We hope that one of the solutions above fixed the problem for you. Learn how to get paid apps from Play Store for free when Play Store is back up and running. And if your kids are using an Android phone, you should set up parental controls.

Next: Did you know that you can create a family and share apps with them in the Play Store? Find out what a Google Family group is and how to use them in the next link.