Why won't my Google Play games work?

[Tacosalex]

Google Play games won't work

I got my new Samsung Galaxy S5 yesterday, and have loved it so far, except I realized rather quickly that I couldn't sign in to any of my games using my Google account. Looking into the problem, I tried other games, but nothing seemed to work. Upon opening the Google games app, I realized that this wasn't a simple issue. The top area of the sidebar on the app that is usually used to switch between accounts was solid gray instead. All the sections including settings and excluding help & feedback either did not open or displayed the loading icon forever until I moved on to another section. I tried turning the app on and off, clearing cache, deleting data, but none of those worked either. My phone is a SM-G900M running Android 5.0 Lollipop.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Google Play games won't work

Are you on the latest version? Mine is on 3.0.11.

 

[Tacosalex]

Re: Google Play games won't work

Yes

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Google Play games won't work

How about Google Play Services? I'm on 7.5.71.

 

[Tacosalex]

Re: Google Play games won't work

Yes I am on 7.5.71 as well. I just tried to access the Google play games settings from the Google Settings and that failed as well with an infinite loading loop. I also tried multiple hard resets with no success.

 

[Tacosalex]

Re: Google Play games won't work

I managed to downgrade both Google Play Services and Google Play Games to an earlier version, and they seemed to work together fine, except no other google apps worked. Upon re-update, the same problems reoccur.

 

[Bent Linde]

Re: Google Play games won't work

Same problem here.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Google Play games won't work

Grrr. I'm stuck, sorry. Let Google know about this on this page: https://support.google.com/googleplay/?hl=en#topic=3364260. Click on Contact Us at the upper right.

 

[Tacosalex]

Re: Google Play games won't work

I already spoke with a specialist there and they told me to come here. They said that Google Play Games was out of their scope.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Google Play games won't work

Huh. Well, I guess we should feel flattered. I'll keep an eye out for a solution.

 

[Tacosalex]

Re: Google Play games won't work

I just talked to them again. They asked me to send in a bug report and there should be a solution within a few days. They have some specialists working on it. For future reference, they also told me that https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!home;lang=en is usually a better place to send people for specific product support.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Google Play games won't work

I'm glad there might be some movement on this.

I've historically found the Google Product Forums to be not that helpful, unfortunately. There are often lots of threads where seemingly no one with any Google affiliation checks in or responds. Maybe it's changed.

 

[Borys Quiroga]

I'm having same exactly same problem with my GALAXY S5 SM-G900M. I'll be looking for info.

 

[Tacosalex]

After exchanging over ten emails with several google support technicians, they gave up and sent me the following email:

"From reviewing what you've told me here it sounds like there's a problem with your device that's affecting the performance of Google Play.
I recommend contacting your device manufacturer, since they're best equipped to provide device-specific support in this case.
That being said, be sure to let the support team know that the issue persisted through multiple FDR's and you may need your operating system reinstalled."

I'm going to talk to them tomorrow and keep everyone here up to date on what happens with this issue, as it seems it is not as localized as I thought.

I would be interested to see if this is a certain problem with the vendor or any specific spec, so here is a link to the place I bought my phone from. If anyone with this problem sees any similarities, please note them so that we can identify the problem better.
Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900M 4G LTE 16GB Black (Factory Unlocked) - ThePowerSellers
I am running Android 5.0 with T-Mobile.

 

[AlvaroSoliz94]

Re: Google Play games won't work

Hey guys. I got the same problem here. And it seems it's a general issue among users who have the SM 900M model. I am really upset that Google is not taking this bug seriously. I don't really think this is a manufacturer matter. Take a look to the Play Store. Lots of complains about his issue, including mine. Hope to see updates soon and maybe good news. Thanks buddy.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Google Play games won't work

If it's a general issue among users of the SM-900M model, then it really is a device issue rather than a Google issue. Google puts out the basic Android code, and the manufacturers modify it for their devices. So if a particular device is having problems, it's due to the manufacturer's tinkering, not Google.

 

[Ricardo Paes]

Re: Google Play games won't work

I had the same problem after a recent Play games App update.
The only way to fix it was to revert the app to the previous version.

 

[JohnnyStormy]

I use a galaxy s5 SM-G900F and i have the same issue after the update. Everything was fine before.

 

[Tommaso Di Fant]

Same here with a SM-G900F, any updates?

 

[Tacosalex]

I talked to Samsung Product Support, however they could offer me no help on the G900M model since it is an international device. After going to the vendor, they still have no suggestions, except for me to just return the phone. The only other option I can see to pursue is to get the OS reflashed, which is also a huge hassle. Sorry for everyone here looking for a solution; this seems like an unfixable issue.