I don’t know why this is flummoxing me. I’m trying to download onto an android phone Evernote. I have an account with Google so logging in isn’t a problem. The problem is that when I try to download anything from Google Play, I get some odd error message and then…a…long…wait and finally nothing.
WTH? How do you use this “service”? And, better yet, is there a mirror site that doesn’t involve Google to get the program?
What’s the error message?
There’s the Amazon app store too.
Something along the lines of “You have not used this E-mail address before”. I’m away from a Wifi spot and will check again in the morning.
Thanks!
does being in China have anything to do with it?
I don’t think so. I’ve managed to download stuff onto a desktop computer via the cable, onto my laptop computer via WiFi, and evne onto the very same Android phone via WiFi. It’s just Google Play that’s being a pain. And, of course, when I go to a different site to download the stuff I’m looking for, invariably that other site redirects me to, you guessed it, Google Play.
Log into your gmail account from a computer. Maybe it needs to send you an SMS for verification
Are you logged into the phone via your Google account?
Log into google play at least once on the phone/tablet. The first time you do it (and any time you reset the google play’s data) you have to answer one of those terms and conditions prompts.Install at least one app to make sure that process works on your phone. (It’s also a good idea with any computer to do something the expected way at least once in it’s lifetime).
Some other possibilities:
[ol][li]If you’ve installed a custom rom, it may not include the google apps (including google play). [/li][li] You may not be logged into google on the phone/tablet. This has to be done at least once on the device (it’ll remember it thereafter)[/li][li] It could be a configuration problem. Next time you see the error, jot it down and do a web search for that error to get a better understanding.[/li][li] You may have shutdown an app/service google play relies on (only likely if you use a task manager, memory saver, etc.). A simple reboot of the phone should fix the problem in that case. [/li][li] Google play doesn’t like you. Get a friend who’s had good luck with their own android device to do it for you.[/li][/ol]
A good resource for issues with android phones is xda-developers.com. Find the appropriate forum for your device and see if you can find an answer there.
Okay. Now it’s starting to look like Google really does want someone (at least one person, me) to hate them as much as, if not more than, Microsoft is hated. Here’s the error message I get:
So, of course, I clicked on Learn more. This is the “information” I get there:
[quote]
You will receive the error “You haven’t accessed the Google Play Store app (the white shopping bag icon) on your device with this E-mail account. Learn more.” on the Google Play website if:
[ul][li]Your phone or tablet isn’t a supported device. There is no way to manually add your phone or tablet to the device list on play.google.com, and you will not be able to use the Google Play website.[/li][li]You are trying to use the Google Play website before using the Google Play store app on your device. It may take several minutes after using the Google Play Store app on your device for that phone or tablet to show up on play.google.com. If you don’t have the Google Play Store app pre-installed on your device, contact your carrior or manufacturer for further assistance.[/li]You’re signed in with a different account on play.google.com than you’re using on your device. Check Menu > Settings > Accounts & sync on your device and ensure you’re signed in to the Google Play website with the same account.
[li]You’re signed in with a Google Apps account that has not been migrated to the new Google Apps infrastructure Thse types of accounts cannot use the Google Play website and must use the Google Play Store app on device instead.[/ul][/li]
Please read the following articles to set up and use your Google Play account without receiving similar error messages:
[ul][li]Step one: Set up your device to use Google Play[/li][li]Connectivity requirements to use Google Play[/li][li]Missing Google Play Store app on your device[/li][li]Troubleshooting download issues[*][/ul][/li][/quote]
I tell you what I think I’d prefer to shoot and it’s certainly not “trouble.” WTF? You have to get a Google Play app before you can download an app from Google Play? What madness is this?! And, more importantly, why are people only distributing their stuff through this purported service?
Well, in a few days, I’ll have my new tablet computer–from America–with the latest version of Android on it and, presumably, that bloody GP app on it. And in a couple of weeks, I’ll be in Hong Kong for a very short visit. While I’m in Hong Kong, I guess I’ll spend a lot of the “down” time there downloading.
I thought computers were supposed to make things easier.
Oh, wait, you don’t have the Google Play app on your phone? How were you trying to download Evernote? Think of the Google Play app like the iTunes app on iOS. It’s your gateway to all things app-y, and it lets Google know you have a phone that can get Google stuff. The other option is you can download just the .apk from somewhere and install it directly on your phone. You will probably have to change the permissions on your phone to allow you to install apps from SD card or whatever first though. What kind of phone do you have?
I was trying to download Evernote from, of all places, the Evernote homepage, said page that sent me to Google Play.
I have a Lamtam LT S980D (version 1.0) running Android version 2.3.5.
The tablet computer I’m waiting on (hung up in Customs Clearance because someone at FedEx didn’t know how to open an attachment in E-mail, go figure) is an iView 9" Capacitive Android 4.0 1.2GHz Tablet. The screen shot of that sucker shows that it already has the Google Play icon on it.
But, seriously, why the heck did Google have to make it such a PITA to get something from their site?
You’ll either have to make do with whatever app store your phone came with, or install the google play store manually.
Thankfully, you can download the gapps app (google apps, includes google play, gmail and a few others) from a regular computer and copy them to your device.
However, to actually install them you’ll need to first install ClockworkMod (CWM) on your device and use that to install GAPPS. You should be able to find explicit step-by-step instructions with a basic web search for CWM and the name of your device manufacturer.
Look for an online android developer community for your region. None of the ones I know of have even heard of Lamtam.Installing CWM is among the top 5 most common questions for android devices, right up there with rooting, unbricking a phone (usually because you made an error trying to do one of the previous two), and “which … is the best?”
Is the Lamtam a supported (semi-official) Google device? The list is here:
Android is open source and anybody can take it and make their own tablet for it, but there are a lot of unsupported Chinese knock-off tablets that for whatever reason Google deems unworthy of “real Android” status; this means they deliberately withhold Google programs, including Play and Gmail, from these tablets.
If you happen to have one of these, it is sometimes possible to download the raw apps from third-party sources and install the .APK manually. That’s a huge pain in the arse, though, and updates have to be manually applied too.
Have you tried the Amazon app store? It’s an unofficial parallel marketplace that might work if Google Play doesn’t. Amazon.com: Apps & Games
I realize this is sucky for consumers who think “Android is Android”. In Google’s eyes, however, there’s a definite class war. Google’s own “Nexus” brand gets the fastest updates and apps. The other big manufacturers – Samsung, Motorola (even though they’re Google-owned), HTC, etc. get updates and such whenever they get around to it. And then the no-brand-name tablets… well, you’re lucky if they can even use Google apps to start with.
This is part of the “fragmentation” issue that has plagued Android from the start, sadly.
The problem is a combination of manufacturers and networks that insist on branding Android to introduce differentiation - if a manufacturer and network did not insist on that level of control over the customer device, then they could deliver vanilla Android almost as fast as Google does. But because they want to “brand” the “experience”, they delay the release and stop supporting earlier products.
Of course, if they were smart and not so paranoid, they could release the source for the hardware drivers, and the enthusiasts for their products would do all the work of porting newer Android releases (as happens now with CyanogenMod - a massively reliable experience over a wide range of devices, many of which will never be upgraded by the manufacturer/network).
And Google is within their rights to restrict access to the marketplace for devices that won’t demonstrate compatibility - it ensures the customer experience is generally good on a compatible device. The fact that there are Android devices that are sold as such without detailing their non-Google status is the real problem.
I dunno. Why couldn’t they have designed the architecture differently so that the core Android is Google-controlled/upgradable and skins and UI tweaks can sit on top of it?
There’s no reason why the notification bar, lock screen, etc. has to be baked in instead of being just another layer like the launcher and home screen.
Then manufacturers could add all the crap they wanted as apps and have them be updated independently of the core OS.
And Google Play access is no guarantee of compatibility. I’ve encountered plenty of apps that don’t work or crash outright, even if it’s supposedly compatible, and many more that don’t scale to screen sizes well.
I’ve used Android for years and I love it, but Google shouldn’t get a free pass on these very real architectural flaws. They rushed Android to market to compete with iOS and compatibility/scalability were tacked on later on. It shows.
Look at Windows: It’s almost infinitely customizable, whatwith Microsoft providing the core OS and other manufacturers doing their drivers, UI tweaks, even entire shells. Linux can do similar things, but Google for whatever reason didn’t do it that way. And if they truly cared about customers, they can refuse to license Google Play & Apps to any manufacturer who doesn’t provide timely updates for at least X years after a phone’s release… but they don’t do that. They just don’t get a crap. Android was their terrified answer to iOS, and market domination has always been more important than customer satisfaction for them.
Well, I’m asking another question about google play. I happen to be back in the US for the time being and so I don’t have to worry about China’s great firewall nor the fact that they won’t let payments go to google play. That’s not the current issue.
What I’m after now is how to go about putting the play store on an android device that’s not so loaded and registering said device.
Anyone know?
You can sideload the play store APK by googling for it, but even after you install the store, I think that most apps won’t be installable because the Play store checks to see if your device is compatible before letting you install an app. It’s not a google-certified device, I don’t think the compatibility check would go very well…? Not sure.
Looks like Google are doing quite a bit of this. Here’s an article about how they’re taking as many features as possible out of the Android core and putting them in a “super-app” that they, not the carriers, control.
Got it. Google is kind of the 10,000 pound gorilla and it gets what it wants the way it wants. But I seem to recall that there are some sites which are, as one site put it “agnostic in regard to devices.” I just don’t recall what those sites are. Anyone know of good sites to download android apps without having to go through Google or registering your device on a site?
Android is a Google product… Trying to run Android without using Google is like running Windows without using Microsoft, not so much impossible as pointless and counterproductive.