Google Play Services preventing operation of Google apps

[wesyates]

I have an issue with Google Play Services (GoPlS) stopping the operation of other Google apps: Play Store, Gmail, Maps, etc. I have narrowed the issue down to GoPlS over the few weeks. Below are the specs for my phone and tablet:

Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535 (I535.10)
Activated 08/14
Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat
Kernel 3.4.0 (May 2014)
Google Play services v6.7.76
WiFi and/or mobile data

Samsung Tab 4 7.0 SM-T230NU
Setup 02/15
Android 4.4.2
Kernel 3.10.0 (Nov 2014)
Google Play Services v6.7.76
WiFi only


ISSUE: Google apps on device unexpectedly stop accessing Google services online. Play Store, Gmail app, Maps app try to connect to Google online services but fail. Play Store and Gmail apps will show the spinning indicator indefinitely, Maps will not update the map image or perform a search. I will have to reboot the phone or put it into safe mode to allow the services to work. Issue seems to occur more often when Play Store has an app to update. I can check the network connection via Android Terminal Emulator via 'ping www[dot]nike[dot]com'. pings are successful. So far, I have been able to clear the GoPlS cache without reboot and the apps seem to work without reboot.

I have done a Reset all settings and Factory data reset on the phone and this did not correct the issue. Its possible an application is causing this, however there have been no app installations prior to the issue. I do have a firewall that reboots at night but the issue also occurs in the field. I have checked and rebooted the home wifi. I do have network latency issues with my Internet connection including dropped packets (~2-5%).

Has anyone else seen this? Is this a known issue? How would I want to report this?

 

[srkmagnus]

I have an issue with Google Play Services (GoPlS) stopping the operation of other Google apps: Play Store, Gmail, Maps, etc. I have narrowed the issue down to GoPlS over the few weeks. Below are the specs for my phone and tablet:

Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535 (I535.10)
Activated 08/14
Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat
Kernel 3.4.0 (May 2014)
Google Play services v6.7.76
WiFi and/or mobile data

Samsung Tab 4 7.0 SM-T230NU
Setup 02/15
Android 4.4.2
Kernel 3.10.0 (Nov 2014)
Google Play Services v6.7.76
WiFi only


ISSUE: Google apps on device unexpectedly stop accessing Google services online. Play Store, Gmail app, Maps app try to connect to Google online services but fail. Play Store and Gmail apps will show the spinning indicator indefinitely, Maps will not update the map image or perform a search. I will have to reboot the phone or put it into safe mode to allow the services to work. Issue seems to occur more often when Play Store has an app to update. I can check the network connection via Android Terminal Emulator via 'ping www[dot]nike[dot]com'. pings are successful. So far, I have been able to clear the GoPlS cache without reboot and the apps seem to work without reboot.

I have done a Reset all settings and Factory data reset on the phone and this did not correct the issue. Its possible an application is causing this, however there have been no app installations prior to the issue. I do have a firewall that reboots at night but the issue also occurs in the field. I have checked and rebooted the home wifi. I do have network latency issues with my Internet connection including dropped packets (~2-5%).

Has anyone else seen this? Is this a known issue? How would I want to report this?

Is this an issue that happens often? Or just recently? Make sure the device is fully updated and check for updates. Worst case scenario is to try a factory reset and see if that helps.

 

[wesyates]

As you can read above, I did a reset all settings and a FDR, but this did not correct the issue.

So far, I also did a wipe cache partition after researching potential solutions. So far so good. I will update soon. I have seen issues on tech calls and this might be a great help.

-wes

 

[wesyates]

~~~ UPDATE ~~~

Given what I have done in the past with other problems on this device, I have determined that the issue lies in Google Calendars.

Without determining the real root cause of the issue, I resorted to finding out if there is a conflicting application. I would think that a Google application would cause any issues, but on these devices, it seems that once I removed the Google Calendar app, my issue ceased.

The only thing I can think is that since both the Galaxy S3 and the Tab 4 have Google Cal App and have 3 of my Google accounts (both are using different accounts as their respective main account. I'm not that stupid.), Google Cal is trying to sync or the device is trying to sync calendar information and somehow causing the issue.

Post if anyone else has this problem.

 

[wesyates]

More update:

So I have still had the issue of synchronization failing on the device randomly. I narrowed it down to either bouncing into an area where the cell towers break the data connection somehow (akd break sync) or there is an issue with Google Services Framework.

I did find that GSF would allow sync when I cleared the data, but also found that this could do more harm than good. Eh, ok, so I will have some issue later. Nothing compared to not being able to sync. I think that's more troublesome. More to come.