Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20 + Won’t Download Apps – How To Fix It

August 23, 2021 Fiona Smith

Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20 + offers a fantastic user experience, but just like any other phone, it can experience bugs and problems in different areas. One of the issues that some users complained about is when the phone won’t download an app or install the update. If the same is happening to you, keep reading. We will list some tips you can try if your Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20 + won’t download apps.

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Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20 + won’t download apps – Ways to fix it

If your phone doesn’t download apps, try the solutions listed below. As always, we have listed all the tips from simplest to more complex ones. Hopefully, one of them will help you get rid of the issue. Let’s dive in.

Make sure you have a stable internet connection – If you are using Wi-Fi to download and update apps, the connection must be stable. If it keeps dropping, the phone won’t be able to download the apps.
Toggle Wi-Fi – Head over to settings, disable Wi-Fi, and enable it again after a couple of seconds.
Toggle Airplane mode – Again, head over to settings, enable the Airplane mode, and wait for a minute. Disable the mode.
Forced restart – If the previous tips didn’t make a change, perform a forced reset. Press and hold the Volume button and the Power button at the same time. Hold both keys for 10 to 15 seconds. The phone will turn off and boot again.
Automatic time and date – You need to ensure that the time and date on your phone are set to automatic. Go to Settings> General Management> Date & Time and make sure the Automatic slider is turned on.
Restart your modem and router – If your home Wi-Fi is giving you trouble, restart the modem and router and then try again.
Allow Play Store to download apps over any network (if this suits you) – the Play Store can download the apps only over Wi-Fi, but it can use your mobile data plan if you enable that option. To allow the Plat Store to download apps over any network, open Play Store and tap on your image or avatar in the top-right corner of the screen. Next, tap Settings. Tap Network preferences, then tap App download preferences. Select over any network. You can do the same for the Auto-update apps option.
Delete Play Store cached data – Head over to Settings and find Play Store in Apps. Tap Storage and then tap Clear cache.
Safe mode – One of the reasons the issue appears could be one of the third-party apps. To make sure that’s the case, you need to boot your phone into Safe mode, where all third-party apps are disabled. You can use your phone, try to download apps, and more, and if it all works fine, you know where the problem is. You can fix it either by removing apps one by one until the issue is fixed (which can take ages) or perform a factory data reset (steps are shown below). To boot the phone into Safe mode, press and hold power off button and when the Power off icon appears, press and hold it until Safe mode shows up. Next, tap on Safe mode. To exit the mode, restart your phone.
Factory reset – This option will delete everything on your phone, so before moving onto the steps, create a backup. When you’re done, follow these steps. Head over to Settings> General Management> Reset> Factory Data Reset> Reset. Let the process complete. Set up your device as a new one.

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