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Over the past week, whenever I try to open the Play Store/Market app on my phone, the app thinks for a while and then displays this error message:

Authentication is required. You need to sign into your Google Account.

But I am indeed signed into my Google account, as seen in other Google applications running on the phone, and as seen if I open the menu in the Market app and click the "Accounts" button.

I suspect this might be related to the fact that over the past few months I've had two different Google accounts synced to this device, and I have recently removed one of them from the phone. No other Google application has had any problems with removing one account.

Does anyone know how I can solve this issue? I can still install applications by using the market website (now "Google Play"), but this is still a big inconvenience. I also think I stopped getting updates.

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7
  • Are you signed in to talked?
    – roxan
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 10:19
  • @roxan I don't know what "talked" is. I'm signed-in in Google Talk, if that's what you mean, as well as other Google apps such as Gmail and Docs.
    – Oak
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 10:44
  • Yes, sorry I meant that :)
    – roxan
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 13:31
  • I'd try clearing the data for the Market, Talk, Google Framework, and anything else that seems potentially related. If that doesn't work I'd say this is one of those ridiculous Market issues no one knows how to fix without a factory reset.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 18:15
  • 2
    Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All and you'll see a "Clear data" button when you click on an app. It removes all the data used by the application (settings, etc.) except what it stores on the SD card, if anything.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 19:20

6 Answers 6

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32

This worked for me: System settings > Apps > "All" (tab at top) > Google Play Store

Then press buttons in order: "Force stop" and "Clear data"

Exit Settings. Start the Play Store. Press at the top left top open the menu options.. Verify you have the correct account selected.

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1
  • 1
    These exact steps worked for me immediately. Thanks.
    – MountainX
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 20:43
6

I went to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All, chose the Market application in the list, and clicked on "Uninstall updates" button which appeared there. It gave me an old, but working, version of the market app. I hope it will update itself in the future and will continue to work properly.

Thanks to Matthew for inspiring me to look over there.

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2
  • 2
    It doesn't work!
    – Hamed Rajabi
    Commented Apr 19, 2012 at 8:46
  • I had to roll back updates, restart phone then re-update and it let me access the app that had the issue.
    – Martin Lyne
    Commented Dec 2, 2013 at 9:47
5

You have to remove all your accounts from your device and re-add them. Or, just re-sync your google accounts from the Accounts & sync menu.

Go the Settings > Accounts & sync > Click on your account then remove account.

I removed all of my accounts that I had at that time, hopefully you haven't forgotten your passwords for your account. After I had done this, I restarted the device.

When my device came back on, I clicked on my Google Play Store, from there I was asked to sign in my account.

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1
  • You just need to remove your offending account. Click on it and then you have a menu option to remove it.
    – Adi
    Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 21:42
2

This happened to me when I changed my Google account password. A simple phone restart did the trick for me. (Android 4.2)

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0

If you have a firewall application installed, it may be set too strictly. Try disabling it (or loosening up the rules). Once I did that, trying to open the Play Store popped up a notification about Access Requested, which (when clicked) prompted me to re-enter my password.

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-1

I guess this happens when you change your Google account password, please see below steps that was helpful for me.

  1. Tap (touch) on Play store icon
  2. Touch menu key (key on the left side of home key on bottom) of the phone
  3. Select Settings
  4. Select "Content filtering" under user controls
  5. Tick your selection or select all, and
  6. Click- OK.
  7. Then it might ask your new password,
  8. Enter your Google password, then you can open Apps (Play Store).
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