Are you devastated that you accidentally deleted the Google Play Store from your phone? Or have you noticed that the Play Store icon is missing on your Android device? Now you have to worry about how to download apps. Good good. Do not worry. In this post, we will tell you how to restore deleted Google Play Store.
Google Play Store comes as a pre-installed app and is a marketplace that allows you to download apps to Android phones. Besides being an official tool for updating apps, it also scans apps for malicious activity using Play Protect.
Let’s see how to restore accidentally deleted Google Play Store on Android phones. But before that, let’s find the answer to an important question – can you remove the Play Store?
Can Google Play Store Be Removed?
Let’s be clear: Google Play Store cannot be uninstalled on phones and tablets pre-installed. You can only uninstall it in some countries where the Play Store is blocked, such as China.
What’s going on? Where did your Play Store go? This has many answers as you may have disabled or hidden it. Whatever the reason you lost Play Store, let’s see how to get it back in different ways.
1. Switch to Home Screen from App Drawer
There’s a good chance you’ve only removed the Play Store from your home screen. For the uninitiated, apps on Android phones are located in two places – the app drawer and the home screen. While the app drawer houses all the installed apps, you can keep the apps you like on the home screen.
Open the app drawer to move the app back to the home screen. It can usually be accessed by swiping up on the home screen or pressing the app drawer icon.
Look for the Google Play Store icon. Touch and hold and drag it to the home screen. If it is not available, tap and hold on it and select Add to Home screen.
Fly: Don’t like the app drawer? We have compiled a list of launchers that allow you to disable the app drawer
2. Check for Hidden Apps
Another reason why your Play Store might be missing on your phone could be because you accidentally hid it. That’s why you need to check the hidden apps on your phone.
Hide apps option is usually found in your launcher settings. Open the launcher installed on your phone and go to its settings. You will find Hide apps. Tap on it. Then deselect the apps you don’t want to hide. In this case, Google Play Store.
Fly: On phones running MIUI
3. Enable in Settings
As mentioned earlier, Google Play Store cannot be uninstalled, but disabled. And when that happens, its icon will disappear from your phone and you won’t be able to access it. Therefore, you need to enable it.
To do this, follow these steps:
Stage 1: Open Settings on your phone or tablet and go to Apps & notifications/Application Manager/Installed apps depending on what your phone calls it.
Step 2: On some phones, you will find all installed apps directly. If this is not the case, go to All apps.
Stage 3: When you see the list of apps, search for Google Play Store. Tap on it.
If you can’t find it, tap the three-dot icon at the top – select Show system or Show system apps. Then find Play Store.
Step 4: If the app is disabled, you will see the Enable option. Tap on it to bring it back.
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4. Install from APK
If you previously installed the Play Store using the APK file (in China and elsewhere) and then uninstalled it, you must reinstall it using the APK file.
For this, download the APK of the Google Play Store from a reliable source like APKMirror.com. After downloading the file, tap on it to start the installation. You will be asked to grant security permission to install apps from unknown sources. Grant. After successfully installed Play Store will be back on your phone. This method can also be used to manually update the Play Store. Learn how to do this.
Play Store is not a nuisance
Google Play Store requires Google Play Services for optimal operation. If Google Play Services has stopped working on your phone, you have to update it manually. Sometimes even Play Store stops working and download pending, unable to download etc. gives errors. Learn how to fix these types of errors.
Restore Other Apps
While we’ve focused on restoring the Google Play Store in this post, the methods above work for other apps as well. So, in case other apps installed on your phone are lost, you can get them back using the methods mentioned above.
Next: Who doesn’t love tips and tricks? Check out some great tips to use Google Play Store effectively at the link given below.