Google News not updating? Here’s what to do

There are many news aggregator apps out there and Google, of course, has a competing app. The app that replaced Google Newsstand simply called Google News does quite a good job most of the time providing users with regional and topical headlines. However, some users started experiencing issues with Google News recently. Google News is not working on Android for some and the issues are different. For some, Google News is not updating, for others, the app is crashing.

If you are experiencing any similar issues, make sure to check the steps we listed below.

Table of contents:

1. Clear cache and data
2. Update Google News
3. Check the permissions
4. Reinstall Google News
5. Sign out and sign in with Google Account

Google News not loading

If Google News is not loading or not working on Android, make sure to check the network, and permissions, and keep the app up to date.

If that doesn’t help, reinstall the app and sign out of your Google Account. It’s important to notice that many users confuse Google Discover (Home Screen Google feed) and Google News. If you are experiencing issues with Google Discover and not the Google News app, learn how to fix it in the dedicated article.

1. Clear cache and data

Firstly, try a restart. Make sure that you are connected to a stable network (Wi-Fi or mobile) and refresh the app. In case you indeed have some connectivity issues, make sure to check this article where we explain how to fix network problems on Android.

If the issue persists, we recommend clearing all local data to reset Google News. Usually, that’s enough to fix the majority of issues.

Here’s how to clear cache and data from Google News:

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Apps.
3. Expand All apps.
4. Open Google News from the list of available apps.
5. Tap Storage.
6. Clear data and restart your device.

If the Google News app is still not working on Android, continue to the next step.

2. Update Google News

Most apps will run into issues if outdated. Updating apps through Google Play Store is necessary and, by default, it’s an automatic procedure. However, automatic updates often don’t work, especially on some Android skins that are drastically limiting background processes when the device is idle. Even if those processes consider system apps like Google Play Store.

For that reason, you should check for updates manually from time to time. Here’s how to update the Google News app on Android:

1. Open Play Store.
2. Tap on your profile at the top right corner and select Manage Apps & Device.
3. Under the Updates available section, tap Update All to download and install all updates.

3. Check the permissions

Google News requires various permissions but if you deny all of them, the app should still work, refresh news, and provide you with timely updates. However, some permissions are not obvious but affect how the Google News app work.

Here, we are referring to battery optimization, background activity, and background data usage (if you use mobile data to access Google News).

Here’s what you need to check out:

1. Again, open Settings > Apps > All apps > Google News.
2. For the sake of troubleshooting, open Permissions and grant all permissions to Google News.
3. Now, go back and open Battery Optimization or Battery.
4. Make sure that the Allow background activity option is enabled. You can also disable Battery optimization for Google News from there.
5. Now, get back and open Mobile data & Wi-Fi and make sure that Google News is allowed to use mobile data in the background.
6. Restart your device and look for improvements.

If the issue persists and Google News is still not working on Android (not loading, crashing, etc.), try reinstalling the app.

4. Reinstall Google News

Of course, reinstalling an app that exhibits issues is always a viable troubleshooting step. Considering there’s only so much you can do on Android and, most of the time, the problem is not on the user side. More times than not there’s a bug that causes issues or the service itself is temporarily down. Just like with recent Facebook outages.

Nonetheless, to eliminate any possible culprits on your side, you should follow through and reinstall Google News. There are various ways to uninstall an Android app and the most universal way is to do it from Play Store.

Here’s how to reinstall Google News on your Android:

1. Open the Play Store and look for Google News by searching for it.
2. Expand the app and tap Uninstall.
3. Restart your handset and open the Play Store again.
4. Reinstall Google News and check for improvements.

5. Sign out and sign in with Google Account

Finally, the only remaining step we can recommend is removing and adding your Google Account. A long-shot solution but it’s worth a try whenever any of Google’s services or apps stop working on Android. In this, case if Google News is not updating, resetting the account might solve the problem.

Here’s how to remove and add again your Google Account on Android:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Accounts. You need to open Manage accounts on some devices.
3. Select Google.
4. Remove the Google account.
5. Reboot your device and sign in again.

If the issues persist after this, make sure to report the problem to Google on their official support page. Just go to the support page and describe your problem. Hopefully, once they get feedback, they’ll fix the problem with the next app update.

That should do it. Thank you for reading and feel free to share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions with us. Was this article helpful or not? Tell us in the comments section below.

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in November 2021. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.