How To Fix Android Cannot Download App from Google Play Store
Most of the Android apps are now region restricted and this requires you to use the Google Play Store to the correct region to download the app you wanted.
If you can’t download apps on Android devices via Google Play Store, read more below on how to bypass this error.
Page Contents
Why Can’t I Download Apps From Play Store?
If you’re getting This item isn’t available in your country error when you try to download an app on your Android device, they are Geo-restricted. If you’re getting other errors, please try the solution given by Google.
What Are Geo-Restricted Apps?
Region-restricted apps are known as geo-blocked apps, and region-locked apps but it basically boils down to the same meaning.
For example, if you are in the United States, Australia, Cyprus or anywhere outside of the UK and try to download the BBC iPlayer App from the Google PlayStore, this is the error message that you will be getting: “This item isn’t available in your country”
Why Are Apps Geo-Restricted On Google Play Store?
The most common reason is licensing. For example, BBC iPlayer programmes are only licensed for viewing in the UK and therefore, anyone outside of the UK would not be able to access them via the BBC website or app.
How To Download Geo-Restricted Apps From Play Store?
The Easy Way (From Trusted Source)
Go to google.com and in the search engine, type in the [app name] play store. In this example, I want to download the BBC iPlayer app and I would type BBC iPlayer play store and hit enter.
When you see the search result, look up the link play.google.com > store > apps and click on it.
Now copy the app link from the address bar.
Next, Go to APK downloader site and paste the link that you copied earlier into the white box and click on Generate Download Link.
Finally, you will see the app that you want to download. Click on the green button “Click here to download xxxxx now”.
The app (.APK) will be downloaded to your device. Once it’s done, please install the downloaded file and you’ll have the app on your device.
The Hard Way (Secured & Safe)
The Android Play store caches your locations and despite you being connected to a VPN service, you will not be able to search and/or download region-restricted apps such as BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Hulu Plus etc on your Android device.
To resolve this, please follow the steps below:
Note: If you have previously purchased an app using your Play Store account, you will not be able to change your Play Store (Gmail) account’s region as Google will lock your account to the region you bought the app from.
In this case, you will need to create a new Gmail account, link it to your Android device and follow the rest of the instructions below:
Clearing App Data and Cache for Play Store
- From the main screen, go to your device’s home screen and tap on Settings.
- Next, tap on Apps (or Applications)
- Locate and tap on Google Play Store under Apps (All Applications).
- Tap on Clear Data. (for some device, you will need to tap on Storage first)
- Then, tap on OK when you’re prompted to delete app data.
Connect to a VPN service
Launch the VPN app you’ve downloaded and connect to the country which you want to download the app from. i.e. If you want to download BBC iPlayer, you’ll need to connect to the United Kingdom (UK) server
Once you’ve connected, you can now launch Play Store and search for the region-restricted apps.
If you really need it, you can also get in touch with our support team.
Conclusion
Downloading a geo-restricted app on Android can be a little technical but if you’ve followed the instructions to the latter, you should have no problems.
