Google Play Services is one of the most important components of any Android device. This system service ensures that your apps are up to date and maintains the connection between Google’s system services and third-party apps. If it works as intended, you shouldn’t notice it at all. However, if it doesn’t, chances are that you won’t be able to update apps or use many other services. For that reason, we explained how to reset Google Play Services.
How to restart Google Play Services if it stopped?
The simple answer is you can’t. You can’t uninstall the essential system app that regulates the integration of apps within the Android OS. What you can do is clear its local data, keep it up to date, or even sideload an update if necessary.
Most issues with the app installation from the Play Store or integration of third-party apps with Google’s services can be ascribed to Google Play Services. Basically, troubleshooting Play Services is recommended if you have any issues on your device when installing apps besides Play Store. In addition, you would want to check Google Services Framework as it also, in some instances, causes issues.
Here’s how to reset Google Play Services on Android:
- Open Settings.
- Select Apps & notifications (Apps > App manager or Manage apps).
- Open All apps.
- Tap on the 3-dot menu and choose to Show system processes.
- Open Google Play Services.
- Tap Storage.
- Then, tap Clear data.
- Tap Clear all data.
- Finally, restart your device.
Alternatively, once in Google Play Services settings, you can tap on the 3-dot menu and Uninstall updates. You can do the same for Google Play Store and Google Services Framework. That should address the majority of your Play Services-related issues. Although, there are reports that Google Pay might still not work. For that, make sure to reinstall the app and try again.
Google Play services update on their own. Alternatively, you can force an update or roll back Google Play Services with an APK. This is a viable troubleshooting step if you can’t install apps or if you get the “Google Play Services has stopped” error.
If that doesn’t work, you can always reset your device to factory settings. That should address most issues unless a system bug is in question. That can be fixed solely by updating your device.
With that said, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and feel free to pay us a visit on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in December 2020. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
