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I have a very annoying problem with my phone's Google Apps, which I cannot resolve or even diagnose. It affects Google Play, Google Maps, Chrome, YouYube, Google Settings, Account managing, and probably other apps. All of these freeze when I try to access them and after a while the message "(App) isn't responding" appears. Interestingly, the Google app (the search engine), the Gmail app, and Google Translate function properly.

At first, I though I got a virus or some new update caused the problem, so I cleared the data of Google Play and restarted the phone. Unfortunately, for no avail. Next, I thought it's an Internet connection problem, however, other apps which need web access work fine (e.g. Evernote, Duolingo, a racing game /Top Drives/ that I play from time to time, and even my secondary browser /UC Browser/). For this reason, I took drastic measures and reset my phone to its factory settings (without restoring any previous data). Again - nothing. On top of everything, my battery suddenly started draining away faster than usual and I suspect Google Play services to be the cause of that. When I checked my Battery history, I saw that even under idle mode, Google Play is using CPU for something.

I should point that after I reset the phone, I entered play.google.com from my other browser and noticed that the site still thought that my old apps (the ones which I used to have before formatting my phone) were still installed on my device. Clearly, this means that Google Play and my phone don't synchronize properly.

At this stage, I'm left in the dark. I have no idea if the problem is software, hardware, or authorization related. I should point out that I borrowed an old smartphone from a friend of mine and was able to load a functional android configuration on it with my Gmail.

Does anyone know what may be the cause of this issue or who has experiences something similar? I already read all standard solutions listed on the Google Support forum and none of them worked.

PS My phone is Lenovo P1 Vibe, less then 2 years old. My Android version is 5.1. Last time I could use the phone normally was 2 days ago, when I watched a show on the Internet before going to bed. I noticed the problem after I charged it the next morning.

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  • I just found on xda-developers that Google has begun blocking uncertified devices from accessing Google services. Do you know if this could affect normal phones as well? Due to some bug or a mistaken verification?
    – Newbie
    Jul 16, 2018 at 16:31
  • No, that's very unlikely to start with and nobody else with a certified device has had a similar problem.
    – Dan Hulme
    Jul 24, 2018 at 9:22

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In case others have the same problem, I was able to solve mine by reinstalling the Android OS and giving Google access to all permission options which it asks for (e.g. using your location, collecting customary information about you, etc). In principle, the installation process gives you the right to forbid the mentioned options, however, when I did that the first time, the problem remained.

Frankly speaking, I would have liked if Google did not follow every movement of mine (like Big Brother in 1984), but at least now I can use my phone normally. It seems we should reconcile with the fact the our tech tools have permanently occupied our private lives.

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