Cannot reinstall previously uninstalled app

[vic20gmr]

I recently started up Aeon Wars : Galactic Conquest on my phone. I had Games Tools (Samsung product included on some models) floating button onscreen and wanted to remove it.
I used to be able to drag the button to top center of the screen to hide it, but this no longer works after OTA update from Oreo(8.0) to Pie(9.0), something I did not realise then, so I went to game tools settings screen while the game was still loading. Discovered then that it must be a result of the update, and hit back buttton.
The loading progress bar was empty, and the game did nothing aside from displaying the moving(gyroscope) intro/loading screen. I quit the game, restarted it, it remained the same, getting to the moving(gyro) screen, and no further. I then uninstalled the game. Every time I have tried to reinstall it, it gets to the 'Installing...' message, then says it can't install it.
I've cleared google play store's cache, then data, then the same for play services, services framework, download/download manager. That changed nothing, so I did all of those steps agan and uninstalled updates to playstore and google services with no change. I don't know what else to do aside from a factory reset, and I prefer not to do that if there is another way. I don't have readily, access to a computer, and my phone is not rooted.

My phone: Samsung Galaxy J7 Crown SM-S767VL
Android 9.0 (Pie) (shipped with android 8.0 (Oreo)
2GB RAM 16 GB Internal storage

 

[methodman89]

First confirm 2gb ram is in spec.
Then clear the phones cache partition and reboot after you have uninstallef the game.
Reinstall afterwards. Good luck

 

[mustang7757]

I recently started up Aeon Wars : Galactic Conquest on my phone. I had Games Tools( Samsung product included on some models) floating button onscreen and wanted to remove it.
I used to be able to drag the button to top center of the screen to hide it, but this no longer works after OTA update from Oreo(8.0) to Pie(9.0), something I did not realise then, so I went to game tools settings screen while the game was still loading. Discovered then that it must be a result of the update, and hit back buttton.
The loading progress bar was empty, and the game did nothing aside from displaying the moving(gyroscope) intro/loading screen. I quit the game, restarted it, it remained the same, getting to the moving(gyro) screen, and no further. I then uninstalled the game. Every time I have tried to reinstall it, it gets to the 'Installing...' message, then says it can't install it.
I've cleared google play store's cache, then data, then the same for play services, services framework, download/download manager. That changed nothing, so I did all of those steps agan and uninstalled updates to playstore and google services with no change. I don't know what else to do aside from a factory reset, and I prefer not to do that if there is another way. I don't have readily, access to a computer, and my phone is not rooted.

My phone: Samsung Galaxy J7 Crown SM-S767VL
Android 9.0 (Pie) (shipped with android 8.0 (Oreo)
2GB RAM 16 GB Internal storage

Have you tried long pressing game launcher app icon and tap info clear cache ,data and force stop?

 

[B. Diddy]

I moved this from the Android Apps forum to the General Help forum since the former is intended for developers to promote their apps.

 

[vic20gmr]

@mustang7757

I have not, but I will try that, and report the results. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[vic20gmr]

@B. Diddy

Thank you for moving this to the appropriate section, I misunderstood 'apps' as having to do with apps. Not app development.

 

[mustang7757]

@mustang7757

I have not, but I will try that, and report the results. Thank you for the suggestion.

Ok let me know...

 

[vic20gmr]

@mustang7757

I this is an in order list of steps I took last.
I cleared cache, then data, then force stoped the following(in order)
downloads
download manager
google playstore
google play services
game launcher
game tools
game optimizing service

then I backed out to launcher(samsung oneui)
shutdown the phone
restarted the phone

After doing that, playstore complained not enough space to install, so I cleared some space and tried again with error message that it could not install Aeon Wars.
I then shut down phone, rebooted into recovery, wiped cache partition, and tried again. Same result.
I am begining to suuspect that the game left something behind abnormaly. I recall that on a previous phone I had uninstalled some app or game, and when I attempted to reinstall it at a later date it wouldn't.
After some searching, I found a post somewhere that the app may have not uninstalled correctly, and that one or more files/folders that would normally have been removed during the uninstall proccess were still present, previnting the reinstall. That phone was rooted, so it was trivial to remove the offending files/folders. I'm hoping that I can find a way to resolve this issue without rooting or factory resetting though and welcome further suggestions.

 

[mustang7757]

@mustang7757

I this is an in order list of steps I took last.
I cleared cache, then data, then force stoped the following(in order)
downloads
download manager
google playstore
google play services
game launcher
game tools
game optimizing service

then I backed out to launcher(samsung oneui)
shutdown the phone
restarted the phone

after doing that, playstore complained not enough space to install, so I cleared somespace and tried again with error message that it could not install Aeon Wars.
I then shut down phone, rebooted into recovery, wiped cache partition, and tried again. Same result.
I am begining to suuspect that the game left something behind abnormaly. I recall that on a previous phone I had uninstalled some app or game, and when I attempted to reinstall it at a later date it wouldn't.
After some searching, I found a post somewhere that the app may have not uninstalled correctly, and that one or more files/folders that would normally have been removed during the uninstall proccess were still present, previnting the reinstall. That phone was rooted, so it was trivial to remove the offending files/folders. I'm hoping that I can fimd a way to resolve this issue without rooting or factory resetting though and welcome further suggestions.

Hi, thanks for reporting Back, can also try in your files manager see if anything there to delete or your apps list, if nothing there I'm afraid u might have to do a factory reset because you tried many troubleshooting steps and didn't work.

 

[vic20gmr]

@mustang7757
First thank you for your efforts.
I can probably install that game on another phone, so I am not in a particular hurry, in case you or someone else has a thought later on. But eventually I will perform a factory reset as I have found over several years of android, (or any other OS) it's simply an effective way to 'clean house' and keep things top notch. I performed one not long ago, so I am reluctant to go through that tedium again so soon. Here's hoping the other phone can run the game until I find a solution, or am motivated to reset, reinstall, etc.
I actually looked for orphaned files/folders before posting, but didn't see anything obvious( I looked in /android/data/ and /android/obb on both internal storage and external sd)
so didn't mention it. I thought it must be something else.
At this point I suspect something leftover in an inaccessible path. I will check back here periodically, and report if I find a solution, or if/when I just factory reset, and how that goes.

 

[mustang7757]

@mustang7757
First thank you for your efforts.
I can probably install that game on another phone, so I am not in a particular hurry, in case you or someone else has a thought later on. But eventually I will perform a factory reset as I have found over several years of android, (or any other OS)its simply an effect way to 'clean house' and keep things top notch. I performed one not long ago, so I am relunctant to go through that tedium again so soon. Heres hoping the other phone can run the game until I find a solution, or am motivated to reset, reinstall, etc.
I actually looked for orphaned files/folders before posting, but didn't see anything obvious( I looked in /android/data/ and /android/obb on both internal storage and external sd)
so did't mention it. I thought it must be something else.
At this point I suspect something leftover in an inacessable path. I will check back here periodically, and report if I find a solution, or if/when I just factory reset, and how that goes.

Your welcome , let me know how you make out.

 

[Rukbat]

Just so you're aware in the future, the ""Back" button is the "kill this app" button - and some apps, not properly developed, will crash in strange ways if you do that while they're loading. If it happens in the future, use the Home button, to run the launcher, and do what you need done. Go back to that app later (use recents) and kill it there, or just wipe it off the recents screen to kill it.

 

[vic20gmr]

@Rukbat
I used the back button to leave game tools. I entered game tools by way of a persistant notification. I have no doubt entering the the game tools settings during the game's loading screen is what left it in an abnormal state. I am aware of back=kill, home=leave activity, but don't kill and as such didn't think leaving the game via the notification would be an issue. It appears to me some things are more different than I anticipated after the OTA update. One thing that comes to mind in this vein is that with Oreo there was 'Samsung Experience', and with Pie it is replaced with OneUI. Some of the differences between the two were immediately apparent. Game tools not so much, at first anyway. I doubt this would have happened if it behaved the way it did before.
If you have any ideas what I may be able to do to remedy this without factory resetting, I am imterested. I will be checking this thread periodically over time for any new ideas others may have.

 

[vic20gmr]

I have an update. A strange one I will add. I installed the game on another phone from my playstore account, and it installed successfully as far as I can tell, but it stays on the intro/loading screen just the same, with an empty progress bar. Since this could be part of a larger server side issue, would someone try installing and running the game?
I have contacted the developer through their Facebook account using messenger. It says to use the ingame support mechanism.(an automated response) I have previously contacted them this way before, and they did reply(a couple days, maybe less time) but by then I had already resolved that issue myself.

 

[vic20gmr]

I believe I have two seperate issues at hand. First one is covered in my initial post. The second one it seems is I am not the only one stuck at loading screen. I decided a few minutes ago, from time of this post to check playstore reviews, to see if anyone else has this issue. There are several 'reviews' with people reporting they are unable to get past the loading screen with an empty progress bar. I will see how this developes, and report wether or not it affected my ability to reinstall the game to my phone. At this time I see no reason to factory reset my phone, as the game isn't working at present anyway.

 

[mustang7757]

I believe I have two seperate issues at hand. First one is covered in my initial post. The second one it seems is I am not the only one stuck at loading screen. I decided a few minutes ago, from time of this post to check playstore reviews, to see if anyone else has this issue. There are several 'reviews' with people reporting they are unable to get past the loading screen with an empty progress bar. I will see how this developes, and report wether or not it affected my ability to reinstall the game to my phone. At this time I see no reason to factory reset my phone, as the game isn't working at present anyway.

Yeah I would hold off , sounds like the game needs a update

 

[mustang7757]

Can you roll back the game app to a previous version?

 

[vic20gmr]

If there is a way, I dont see how. The version currently on playstore is the latest I am aware of, and it has worked fine until yesterday. Many comments(I can't bring myself to say review anymore )seem to coincide timewise with my experience. If it is a server side issue, I doubt a previous version of the game client would be any better. If I recall correctly, I recieved notice upon launch and connecting of game (before the last update) that to play I had to update, no exceptions, at least with the last update.

 

[mustang7757]

If there is a way, I dont see how. The version currently on playstore is the latest I am aware of, and it has worked fine until yesterday. Many comments(I can't bring myself to say review anymore )seem to coincide timewise with my experience. If it is a server side issue, I doubt a previous version of the game client would be any better. If I recall correctly, I recieved notice upon launch and connecting of game (before the last update) that to play I had to update, no exceptions, at least with the last update.

Yeah I agree if its server side wont help but worth a shot , just long press the game >tap info see if it has 3 dots upper right corner or gear to uninstall update. If it does turn off google play store automatic updates so it cant until next version.

 

[vic20gmr]

Uninstall updates only works on system apps, as they have a rom version which can not be uninstalled.