Play Store connection error - [Solved with new modem]

[Juliet4Montague]

Hi. Acer Iconia A500 tab. I have been getting the Play Store connection timed out error. So far I have tried factory reset, clearing caches, hard reboot, downloading apps via the website, creating another gmail address. All to no avail.

Because the Play Store website doesn't know I have done a factory reset, it says that my previous apps are installed. Is there a way that I can 'uninstall' if there are no apps showing in my settings?

I tried downloading IMDB from their website but it only allows downloading from Google Play or Amazon, and only if I had another device to push it to.

I have tried downloading updates from Acer to correct the problem, but it says I am up to date.

Help please.

 

[Spider]

Hi Juliet, congratulations on your Iconia A500 and welcome to the forum. Nice to have you as a member of Android Tablets. I'm moving your thread to the Acer Iconia Tab A500 Forum for you, where more people are likely to join the discussion and try to help you. Good luck!

 

[Mrhelper]

The connectivity problem may be caused by stale or corrupt DNS data -- e.g., play store name lookups may be returning obsolete or otherwise incorrect IP addresses for google services. If the stale entries are cached in your wifi router, booting that may help. Alternately, your ISP may be blocking access to certain Google services, either by error or by intent. If the ISP is the problem, then using an alternate WiFi access point served by a different ISP may help.

What you see in the play store from the web browser is merely a record of the last known state as seen by Google services during the last successful connection. When the tablet does connect properly, these will be resolved with the tablet automatically -- i.e., the app states on the site will change and/or apps will automatically install depending on your settings. You cannot and do not need to uninstall apps via the website to cause installation via play store to work. The play store website merely signals the play store app to install via the associated Google services.

Note that access to the associated Google services can be blocked even though you can access play.google.com from a browser, because the names, IP addresses and servers for underlying Google play services are different from those used for the website.

If the problem is in your ISP, and you don't have other WiFi options, then you may be able to work around it by side loading Orbot. You would also then have to root the tablet to use that option though, so that you could route play store IP traffic through the proxy to use Tor relays.

 

[Juliet4Montague]

Thank you for the reply. This is my problem in the link below and I have tried all the suggestions. So I guess until Acer put out a new update to fix this, I guess I am looking for a workaround to get my apps back.

Fix No Connection - Retry error message on Google Play Store App

 

[leeshor]

I'm [pretty certain the problem you're having is not something Acer will be able to fix. There are 2 possibilities I can think of off the top of my head. The first is that the factory reset didn't do a complete job which another one may fix. As for the second thing, I take that back, refer to #1 because having an incorrect user account doesn't seem to apply.

 

[Mrhelper]

Thank you for the reply. This is my problem in the link below and I have tried all the suggestions. So I guess until Acer put out a new update to fix this, I guess I am looking for a workaround to get my apps back.

Fix No Connection - Retry error message on Google Play Store App

Which suggestions did you try?
In post #3 above I suggested a few things:
1.) boot the router -- i.e., power cycle your WiFi access point
2.) try other WiFi access points, public and private, because your ISP may have a DNS problem, or may be blocking the service
3.) try using the Orbot app with the Tor relay service to bypass local DNS and/or local IP address blocking, or in case Google is not providing Play Services in your geographic location

Did you try all of these options that I listed here, or merely those from the link that you posted? If you tried all that I suggested, then you should inspect /system/etc/hosts to ensure that only the single "localhost 127.0.0.1" line is in the file. If there are other lines there, your device may have been hacked by malware.

 

[Juliet4Montague]

Hi there. Sorry, I didn't try any of your suggestions just the ones contained in the link. I have definitely rebooted the Wi-fi at my home. My ISP wouldn't be blocking the site, as I can get on to the website for GooglePlay just can't use the app for it (which I have disabled and reinstalled). I have never heard of Orbot, but I can look into that tonight.

Can you please explain your last paragraph please? Where do I find these things?

 

[Mrhelper]

Apparently the New Zealand government encourages ISPs to block certain services (read about NZ "DIA Filter"). It seems possible and even likely that your problem may be caused by your ISP filtering out certain Google media service sites. The law apparently does not require all ISPs to employ the filter, so other ISPs in your area may work. As I explained in the post above, the Play Store app uses services and servers that are separate from the play.Google.com website, so the website will likely continue to function even though access to certain google media servers is blocked. After reading about this filtering (DIA filter causing problems accessing Google services in New Zealand?) you may want to contact Google and/or your ISP for a solution. I suspect it may be hard to get this resolved though, because ISPs tend not to have support people trained to deal with such odd problems, so you may get passed around a lot.

 

[Juliet4Montague]

Thanks for the links. Interesting reading, but I can't imagine that there would be only a few posts on the world wide web if everyone in New Zealand couldn't access the Google Play app because of a filtering system. It seems more likely to be related to an update, in my opinion, because everything was working fine until last week. I had a thought that it could have been related to my Wi-fi speed. Any thoughts on that? I also installed the Amazon Appstore app and I can't seem to log in to that either. Also, when I access the Google Play website on my tablet, it tells me that the apps will be downloaded to my Acer later, but they never arrive. Very odd.

 

[Mrhelper]

Don't assume that the issue would cause everyone in NZ to have a problem ...just you and a few others. Only certain ISPs and users appear to be having problems. For some, the problem comes and goes over time, just as your problem may. The filter mechanism appears stringy with several possible points of failure. Again, some ISPs apparently are worse at this than others.

The amazon app may be encountering similar problems reaching media file servers. I still recommend that you try a few alternate network sources. You could alternately learn how to use a packet sniffer to capture the names of the systems the Play Store app is trying to connect to, and then run forward and reverse DNS lookups to determine whether the lookups are returning redirects, or nothing at all. If you did get valid google media server IP addresses from the lookups, then you would have to test connections to the servers to determine if IPs addresses were being blocked. If you don't want to go through all of that trouble, try some other networks with your tablet.

Note that when you request an app from the play store for download, it merely registers that in the media servers. When the play store app then checks in automatically, it will start the requested download. Your tablet is never checking in, because something is apparently blocking access to those media servers.

 

[Juliet4Montague]

Big apology to you Mrhelper. I have brought my tablet into work and logged on to their Wi-fi. What do you know? Success!

Thank you for your help. I will now approach my ISP for assistance.

 

[Juliet4Montague]

Had a nightmare conversation with my ISP last night. They asked me to change the channel on my Wi-fi connection (which didn't work) and then tried to tell me that it was a hardware issue that they didn't have the expertise to deal with. I asked how they came to that conclusion when I was connected to Play Store successfully through another ISP that very day, and they fobbed me off.

There are a few other ISPs in the New Zealand market but the one I use is quite reasonably priced (at $40/month for 10 GB). This is more than enough for me, so I am reluctant to change ISPs at this stage.

I have also installed a Wi-fi booster to my tablet, to see if that made a difference - but no. Other than the suggestion of installing Orbot (which seems a bit complicated) can anyone think of a fix that I can send through to my ISP???

Many thanks

 

[leeshor]

There is a way, (btw, any conversation with an ISP is likely to be a nightmare). You can purchase a fairly inexpensive portable router that will connect with the ISP's router then you connect to the portable router. Chances are that it would work just fine.

But the problem may bne any number of things like the firmware version or security type.

 

[Mrhelper]

I'm convinced that this is not a router or firmware problem, and almost certainly not in your equipment. Your device is being blocked by your ISP, and most likely via DNS. They may alternately be blocking the associated IP address range, but that seems less likely. It's not surprising that the ISP is not helpful. They likely don't understand the problem, and unless customers have advanced IP network knowledge, it's hard to explain the problem effectively. Even if you had all of the detailed technical information needed to explain it, you'd have a hard time finding any of the ISP call center folks to understand it anyway. If you want to keep your ISP and use Play Store at home, then you could install the Orbot app and use the Tor network to tunnel past your ISP's DNS or other IP routing quirks. You would have to root the tablet to enable routing of Play Store IP traffic through the Orbot proxy though.

 

[Douvie]

Juliet,

You may not want to answer this but I'll ask anyway. Who is your ISP? There are some excellent ones and then there are those with great plans but are terrible with service. I'm with iinet and have been with them for more than 6 years. They have always been helpful and will even call you on the mobile/cell phone to try resolve the issue. Their plans are very good. For $40 I get 200GB (100 peak &100 off peak).

John.