Today, many primary sources of getting applications and services exist on the different kinds of mobile devices that are available on the market, for a user to buy and use. It doesn’t matter what operating system your smartphone runs on. Whether it’s IOS, android, Harmony OS, or even Windows, there is a dedicated ‘Application Store’ on each device. The Apple App Store is on all IOS devices, the Harmony OS has the Huawei App Gallery on all Huawei devices, a few Windows phones have the Web Store, and lastly, all Google based android phone has the Google Play Store, which happens to be the topic of our attention today.
Google Play Store is perhaps the most common application store across all smart devices. Since it is used on a daily basis by billions of people across the world. These people use it to download all sorts of applications and also make in-app purchases through it. We benefit so much from Google Play and all its services, it provides ease of access on many different occasions, however, we will focus on the transaction side of things.
We can make in-app purchases or simply buy apps on the Google Play Store and our transactions are made via a Google Service called ‘Google Pay’. It allows, quick and safe transactions, providing us with the services we need by an application after we have made a purchase in that specific app. It also has the ability to save our information, in case we want to make future transactions through Google Pay again. You can also use Google Pay to send money to your friends and family, which is extremely convenient. Unfortunately, the sending money feature is exclusive to the United States of America.
Using the Google Pay service is fairly simple, if it is an application you are looking to purchase, you must search that application on the Play Store first and then tap on the green highlighted button which shows the price of a certain application. Now you will be required to fill out the necessary information about your method of payment.
You will also be presented with the option to save your credit or debit card information, or the information of any other payment method. After filling out the information form, you can proceed to pay and the transaction would successfully be made and your desired application would be purchased and downloaded.
Furthermore, if you are looking to make an in-app purchase, this purchase could be of various natures. It could be that you want to buy some advantageous perks in a mobile game, or it is a subscription you might be after, it could also be an attempt in removing ads from your favorite applications.
You can follow the guidelines that an app may provide and proceed to fill out the necessary information to make a transaction. This necessary information can be your credit or debit card information, it can be your mobile number, and even your address along with your area’s postal code. After the necessary information has been filled out you can proceed to pay and your transaction will be successful.
There are times when your transactions could fail on Google Pay and it can present you with the “Transaction cannot be completed” error due to several reasons. Google doesn’t really specify the details of this error or how it may be caused. But we have compiled a few fixes along with their explanations that can help resolve this error so you can get back to making your secure transactions with Google Pay.
Clearing the Play Store Cache
Cached data or memory is collected when we interact with an application. This provides us with a somewhat faster experience, as the cache is pieces of information stored about an app, which helps this app load itself and all its contents at a quicker pace. This cached data does have its benefits, however, it needs to be stored on your phone’s memory and over time this cached data gets collected and starts taking up a lot of space.
A larger cache means smaller storage capacity, which most definitely will slow your device down. The same concept can be applied to Google Play Store’s cache memory. It could be disrupting Play Store’s features and might be causing the “Transaction cannot be completed” error on Google Pay. So we recommend that you clear this cache by following these steps on your android devices, in order to remove this error.
Step 1: Tap and hold the ‘Play Store App’ in your phone’s app drawer.
Step 2: A small menu will appear. On this menu press the small ‘(i)’ button which represents the ‘App info’.
Step 3: A menu will appear. Tap on an option that has the name of ‘Storage’ or ‘Storage and cache’.
Step 4: Another menu will appear showing you details regarding everything that is occupying your device’s storage. These options include ‘App size’, ‘User data’ and ‘Cache’ Now tap on the ‘Clear Cache’ option to delete the Google Play Store’s cache.
The methods to clear the cache can differ on any device, and so can the name of the options presented. You can also try searching ‘Google Play Store’ in your device ‘Settings’ or try locating the ‘Application Manager’ in the ‘Settings’. After you have accessed the manager, look for the ‘Google Play Store’ application, access the ‘App Info’, and then find the ‘Storage’ option. Now you may proceed and clear the ‘Cache’.
After you have cleared the cache, try to make the same transaction again and this time you won’t be presented with an error. Or you may try another method in this article.
Make sure you have a sufficient amount in your account
This perhaps is the most obvious method to resolve this error in the entire article. You may simply be out of balance in the wallet of your preferred payment method you are trying to use in order to make the transaction. If you are using a credit or a debit card to perform the transaction, we suggest that you check your bank balance. You can either call your bank or if your bank has an android application, you can use it to check your bank balance.
Make sure that your account has more than the actual amount required for the transaction, otherwise, you won’t be able to purchase anything using that specific method on Google Pay. If your balance is on par, and the error still remains it is possible that there are some form of restrictions on your credit or debit card. These restrictions can be amount-based, or even time-based. It is also possible that your card may be blocked for international or online transactions, or just blocked in general. You can contact your bank for further details.
In case you are using the Play Store wallet for the transaction, and you are receiving this error, we suggest that you check your play store balance by following these steps.
Step 1: Open the ‘Play Store’ application and open your ‘Profile’ by tapping on your ‘Profile Picture’, displayed at the top right of the app, next to the ‘Search Bar’.
Step 2: A list of options will appear, and you are required to choose the ‘Payments & subscriptions’ option.
Step 3: A new page will appear, with a few options to choose from. Tap on the ‘Payment methods’ option to proceed.
Your balance will be presented at the, and you must compare it to the amount you want to spend for a transaction. If the amount is less, you should top-up the required amount in your wallet.
Reinstall the application
When nothing seems to be working, the logical explanation is that there is some issue with the application in which you are trying to make an in-app purchase. Before you take the extreme measure of deleting and reinstalling the app, we suggest that you clear the application’s cache in a similar manner to which you cleared the Play Store’s cache. You can also try restarting the app in hopes of resolving this error.
If restarting or clearing the app cache doesn’t work, you may proceed with the option to delete the application and reinstalling it later. In order to uninstall and then reinstall an application, you can follow these steps.
Step 1: Tap and hold the application you want to delete.
Step 2: A small menu will pop up. Here tap on the ‘App Info’ icon represented by the ‘(i)’ symbol in most cases.
Step 3: A menu showing the app details will appear. Here press on the ‘Uninstall’ option.
Step 4: Another menu will appear, to confirm that you want to delete this application. Press on ‘OK’ to delete the application from your device.
Step 5: Now open Google Play Store.
Step 6: Search the name of your desired application in the ‘Search Bar’.
Step 7: Tap on the application you want to install and press the green ‘install’ button.
Step 8: Wait for the installation to complete. Now press the ‘Open’ button to open the application you just reinstalled.
Now you can try making the same transaction and if the problem was with the application, then the error would be resolved.
Deleting the payment method and adding it again
If the problem lies with the payment method you are trying to use for your desired transaction, you can try changing the payment method to a different one or choose a different option (if you have one) in the same payment method, like choosing a different credit or debit card. You can also delete your current payment method and add it again, in hopes of resolving this error.
If a payment method was already added to Google Play Store but you haven’t used it for any purchases, then this method will most likely work. However, if it was working before and started to bug out afterward, this method may not resolve your error. To remove the payment method and add it again follow these steps.
Step 1: Open ‘Play Store’ and tap on your ‘Profile Photo’ on the top left.
Step 2: A menu will appear. Tap the ‘Payments & subscription’ option.
Step 3: Now choose the ‘Payment methods’ option.
Step 4: A new page will appear where you will be presented with your payment method details. Here you will be required to tap on the ‘More payment settings’ option.
Step 5: You may choose the payment method you want to remove and then press the ‘Remove’ button.
Step 6: You may now close the Play Store and open it again, repeat the steps to access the ‘Payment methods’ page.
Step 7: Under the ‘Add payment method to your Google Account’ section, you may choose a payment method of your liking.
Step 8: Fill out the necessary information and save the details.
You may now proceed and try to make the same transaction, you were trying to make before and most probably the error will be resolved.
Remove your Google account and sign in again
This error can be caused by some issue in your Google Account and logging out of it and logging in again can most probably fix the issue. However, before going through the pain of removing the account, you can try changing the account in case you have multiple accounts logged in on your device. Try changing the account and then make the transaction. You can remove your Google Account by following these steps.
Step 1: Access the ‘Settings’ of your device.
Step 2: Scroll and navigate the ‘Accounts’ option and press on it.
Step 3: In this ‘Accounts’ menu, tap on the Google Account you want to remove.
Step 4: Details regarding this account will open. Press on the ‘REMOVE ACCOUNT’ button to delete this account from your device.
Step 5: After you have successfully removed the Google Account from your device, you may come back to the ‘Accounts’ page.
Step 6: Scroll and navigate the ‘Add account‘ option and click on it.
Step 7: Tap on the ‘Google’ option to add the previously deleted Google Account.
After you have removed and added the account back. Try to make the same transaction again and the error will be resolved.