About six months ago I got my first Android smartphone, which came with v2.2 (“Froyo”), and since then I’ve gone to 2.3 (“Gingerbread”), then back to Froyo, then to a custom Gingerbread based ROM, then back to Froyo, and finally back to a different Gingerbread custom ROM as of a couple of days ago.
(If you’ve ever owned an Android phone and spent time tweaking it, the foregoing won’t sound at all strange or excessive. If not, you can probably stop reading now.)
Not long ago, Google decided to revamp Android Marketplace (the same thing to Google as the App Store is to Apple). They redesigned it and changed its name to the Play Store–and now it seems to be aborting and crashing for a lot of people. I have pending updates, some of which are for paid apps, and I can’t install them because when I try to open Play Store, either it won’t open at all, or else it opens and works to the point where I can search for apps, but when I try to download one it crashes. Usually the error is The application Google Play Store (process com.android.vending) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. followed by a “Force Close” button. Has anyone else been experiencing this?
I’m using stock Gingerbread (well, overlaid with HTC Sense) and having no problems at all with the Store. I’m assuming that you are “rooted” from your reference to custom ROMs, and I’d further guess that’s the source of your problems. When Google updated the Store, they couldn’t guarantee compatibility with all the custom ROMs out there.
I don’t know how to choose for the poll. My phone came with Froyo but has since been updated to Gingerbread by my carrier. So stock Gingerbread? Either way, no problems with the Market.
No problems here with stock Gingerbread (2.34) on my HTC G2.
I did read something recently about a lot of people with custom ROMs having problems with the new Google Play. Seems a lot of people are being forced into pirating apps by downloading and installing .apk files from third parties because of the problems trying to access the market legitimately.
Some of the more responsive developers (not many of them) could look up in their records that you have paid for an app and email you the .apk file so you could install a legitimate copy. But I doubt that you could get that level of service for updates to all your apps.
The other incomplete solution is to try a legitimate app store other than Google’s, like Amazon’s, for instance. Be very dubious of apps you can download from shady sites. Even if they’re normally free apps or apps you have already paid for, if they’re not from a trusted source, stay FAR away.
First, did you run “fix permissions” in ROM Manager ? Sometimes that fixes “force close” problems. After that probably wipe data/cache & factory reset, and if that doesn’t work install one of the latest nightly builds for your phone/device instead of the latest stable version.
FWIW, I have no problems with Google Play. Had some market issues on one of my devices, I think I had to wipe & reinstall the latest nightly to fix it if I remember right. Mostly little trouble - I have a Nook Color, 3 android phones (1 not in service/let my kids play with it), and an HP Touchpad all running some flavor of Cyanogenmod.
Unfortunately I can’t use ROM Manager, as it’s a confirmed instant brick for my phone.
I did try these steps, and while they do allow me to get a little farther in the process of downloading an app, which is to say that now it fails at the point of clicking on “Accept and Download”–with the same error.