How to fix Google Play Services on your Android phone without wrecking it

November 26, 2025


I am pretty sure all Android users know the problem of a sudden drain of the battery, although, you did nothing which would trigger this behavior. If you look into the settings of your battery, you may see a higher than normal percentage of Google Play Services (in short now called GPS) taking from your phone's battery. As a result, you try all sorts of things, and eventually target the app itself. Please be aware that this guide is mainly for Android 15 and 16. If you have an older version, it may be different, especially when it comes to confirmations.


Now, identifying the culprit was the easy part. In another article, I will expand your knowledge on push tokens.


Quick info before we continue: Google Play Services is responsible for a lot on your phone. If you take them out, by accident, nothing will work anymore: no push, no contact list, no cloud, etc. You are in a bad place now. You have targeted the heart of your phone and now, many hours of re-installing await. Not as bad as a factory reset, but still, that bad.


Now it gets tricky: around Google Play Services, there are many different options, that do many different things, but most likely, you choose the wrong one and wreck your which will essentially require a reset. If you mess up, you'll have to reinstall every app on your phone. As I mentioned on my intro page, I am a bit of an OCD type and this condition drives me to perfect things until find peace with it. It is not nice, but it did help me to understand what I do and what I should not. So, I'll also tell you if any confirmation prompts appear and how many times

So, lets shed some light on the Google Play Services Screen. When you go to Settings, Apps, GPS, you have 3 options to repair Play Services settings, which are relevant for you:


  1. Upper Right Corner: uninstall latest Updates (!) for Google Play Services

  2. Lower left corner: Deactivate GPS (which completely stops the app and disables the service)

  3. Lower right corner: Force stop the Google Play Service App


1. This is one of the most useful ways to try and repair the GPS. You can uninstall the updates, wait till the update gets installed again by itself or just go to the Play Store and force the Update yourself (link). NO Push tokens, NO data gets deleted on your Apps. It is just a normal uninstall/install cycle, again: you lose NO data and NO Push Tokens (article about Push Tokens). Restart your phone and hope for better days (one confirmation popup).


2. Deactivate the App: you can do this -it does no harm- but why bother if it achieves nothing at all? The moment you deactivate the App, your phone thinks you have no connection to Google any more and many notifications will pop up. My advice: don't do it, especially if you have an older Android version. In newer versions, like 15 or 16, the harm done is much lower (the service is more protected from user changes). For your info: it requires one confirmation popup. What does it do? It stops the service but doesn't restart it automatically—deactivating GPS survives a reboot. So, as said above: don't do it. It makes absolutely no sense.


3. Force Stop: this does what it says: it stops the services. The moment an App asks for a push or a sync, GPS re-activates. Or a simple reboot does the same. One confirmation will pop up.


Now, let's look at the storage settings for Google Play Services. As with any other App, you'll find two options:


  1. Lower right: Clear Cache
  2. Lower left: Delete Data


1. Start with the bottom right: Clear cache. It prompts for one confirmation, then it's done. What does it do? It clears the app's cache. You can do this, and it may fix your issue with GPS. But even better, you can clear the entire phone's cache at once—at least on Samsung phones (how to delete the cache on Samsung phones).

2. The bottom left option is the nuclear one: it is like a factory reset, but only for Google-related Services. So, be aware: This makes no sense at all. If you enjoy spending hours or days restoring your phone, go ahead—you asked for it. It un-links your Google account from the phone—you'll have to reconnect it, along with all associated data. It doesn't "delete" your contact list or drive content, but reconnecting your phone to Google Services can be painful, it is like an account restoration. Also, ALL your registered Push Tokens get deleted—you wont receive notifications until the App is reinstalled or cleared via "clear data". Here, because the action is serious, your phone asks for confirmation twice Why? Because it's the same as removing your Google account.

To summarize:

Impact
 name
 confirmations
 push tokens deleted?
low
 Delete Cache 1x No
middle
 Stop Service 1x No
high
 Reinstall GPS 1x No
higher
 Deactivate GPS 1x No
nuclear
 Delete Data 2x Yes
wasteland Remove Google Account 1x Yes

The most effective fix is to reinstall Google Play Services from the menu. It repairs the service and does not delete any kind of data, not even your push tokens.

One more thing: deleting the cache, data or the update of your Google Play Store App does not harm any thing on your phone. But having no working Google play store stops getting updates or getting new Apps. But disabling it or repairing it with "uninstall update, re-install updates" does not harm any function of your phone except the Google Play Store itself. No Push tokens get deleted, no account info is deleted.



Up