Slow Google Play Store Downloading

[deke40]

Have been having troubles with slow downloads from Google Play Store. Tried all the cache and data clearing
from Play Store and Play Service. Uninstalled updates to GPS and that didn't help. During that process it
updated from 8.7.10 to 8.8.12. Hoping that had done something to help but still woefully slow.

This is evidently a big problem and has been for sometime. Don't know if this inherent to a certain system or phone or what but would appreciate any help.

I am using an S5(yes I know it is old but in perfect condition) with version 6.0.1.

 

[B. Diddy]

Is it the same for both wi-fi and mobile data? Does everything else download at normal speed? Have you also cleared the cache/data for Download Manager?

 

[deke40]

Yes to all three questions.

 

[deke40]

Just tried an episode of a TV show off of Netflix and it took less than a minute for a 45 minute episode to download. That tells me it is a Google Play Store problem that is well
documented all over the net.

 

[deke40]

The above download was on my S5 so I tried it on my wife's S5 and Tab4 and my new Tab E.
They all downloaded the same TV episode in under a minute. Also the Tab E downloads Play Store
downloads just fine and it has the same version of the Play Store App.

 

[deke40]

Came across this on the net and tried it. I started a download and waited until it stopped at download and wasn't
going any further and restarted my S5 and as soon as it rebooted it resumed installing. I tried this on three different
apps and it worked every time.

Now if I can just figure what the restart is doing to make the download finish maybe I can make some change or adjustment to do the same thing without the restart.

 

[anon(10388027)]

I've had no issues with Google Play Canada.

2GB of RAM in your Samsung Galaxy S5 is your problem. Without confirming I'd bet the modem in it can't make use of the latest 4G LTE advancements.

As far as a slow Google Play store... Yes, settings, apps, clear cache for both Google Play Store and Google Play Services.

When you are able to upgrade to even a used 2018 era phone (the Samsung S9) your mobile life will be so positively impacted... for just the display improvements themself! But I respect a budget, and the S5 was a good phone in its day.

.....
lol... I do kinda laugh about people loosing their minds over less than a minute download times.

It's all about perspective.. We've come a long ways since the Haynes 1200 baud modem I used in elementary school. pre internet, I'd dial up a local bulliten board system (BBS) and it would take about 20 minutes to half an hour to download a game onto a 5.35" floppy disc on my Apple //e. lol, very, very few people owned hard drives....

Lol... Yes, phosphorus green screen.... An 80 column text card was a big deal. And high resolution graphics? your entire monitor was 280 x 192

 

[deke40]

I found out if I have multiple updates I can check all of them but have to restart to get each one to update. Also found out I can use Emergency Mode and it does the same thing. There is something in those two actions that

caused the update to take place. Now if I can isolate it to that one thing it would not be a fix but a band aid for the time being.

By the way purchasing a new phone is not a problem but I have always felt like "if it ain't broke" keep on trucking.
I did this with my Tab4 10.1 until it got to troublesome and as of last week I have a new Tab E 9.6 which works great.
It's just at my age and mild OCD I hate setting up a new device.

 

[anon(10388027)]

I totally understand your upgrade rationale. Given the significant cost of premium phones, I will not upgrade often anymore either. The idea of $1500 Canadian dollars for a phone every two years... is a non starter. I'm confident my phone does everything I want it to do.. I'll replace the battery in two years... I do use my phone for everything, no laptop or PC.



One idea... Your home WiFi is probably faster than your mobile network. In Google Play settings, try the "download over WiFi networks only" option.

cheers

 

[deke40]

Thanks I have that setting ticked and also I don't like auto updates on anything so that is also ticked.

PS-We also have Kindle Fire 7s and the wife has a Kindle Paperwhite. Sounds like overkill but as we are in our late 70s and don't travel much we read a lot with about 60 authors each to keep up with.

Enjoy your week.

 

[deke40]

Don't know what changed but downloads from the Play Store are back to normal with no hanging installs.
Downloaded three different apps this morning all downloaded and installed in a short period of time.

As they say "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth". I am going to enjoy my S5 a little while longer.

 

[Miguel Rondon Anton]

I think I found the way to FIX this issue. Hold the WiFi network selection button until the list of Wi-Fi network appears, on top of them there is the "Smart network switch" option, UNCHECK IT, re-boot the phone and, .. ta da, ... in my case, every went to normal again. Give it a try and let me know if it worked for you..

 

[BeGoogly BeGrudged]

Try switching your Wifi from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz

 

[eclectricbunda]

After a many unsuccessful factory resets / Play Store cache deletions I can confirm that killing the Google app works. I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 on Verizon and this fixed the issue. Here were my steps:

1) Stop current / pending downloads in Google Play Store

2) Disable Google App

3) Clear cache / data for Google Play Store

4) Restart device (for good measure)

5) Resume updating apps (once they show up again in the store, downloading a new app may trigger this)

6) Re-enable Google app (I was able to do this without recreating the problem)

Good luck!

 

[buythiscomputer]

I do not understand why nobody explained that Google is clearly slowing downloads on the playstore ?

 

[mustang7757]

I do not understand why nobody explained that Google is clearly slowing downloads on the playstore ?

You saying they slowing downloads on purpose?

 

[B. Diddy]

I do not understand why nobody explained that Google is clearly slowing downloads on the playstore ?

Downloads are not clearly being slowed on any of my devices. What do you base your claim on?

 

[buythiscomputer]

Downloads are not clearly being slowed on any of my devices. What do you base your claim on?

When you have 40 apps to updates and that they are updated only 1 by 1 or 2 by 2, do you really think that it's because you do not have enough bandwidth ?

Clearly I have never seen any devices updating 20 apps at the same time, so it's clearly slowed down by Google.

and also, have you seen any app being updated in 1 second ? this is what it should take for most apps to be updated knowing how many kb have to be downloaded. But it never happens.

 

[me just saying]

google is NOT slowing anything down. they are downloading and installing apps one at a time to prevent any problems, especially apps that shares features or files. it is no different that any other operating system, even on a computer running linux or windows, when there are updates, after the download, everything is updated one file at a time. try installing two programs at the same time on a computer. it will sit and wait for the other to finish, or the installs will lock up. the phone is no different.

yea it seems to be slow, but you can still do other things on the phone while the updates are happening.

 

[B. Diddy]

I've never seen a consumer-oriented OS that installs multiple apps simultaneously. Not sure how this is proof that anyone is purposely slowing anything down.

As for speed of installation, that depends on how powerful the processor is, and to a lesser extent the type of memory chips used on the motherboard. A super-powerful processor can typically install an app faster, but for a large app, it'll still take longer than a second.