What To Do When You Can’t Update Your Google Play Country…
…And You Need To Download Local Apps
Preamble
According to the Google Play Help article, all you need to do to change your Google Play country when you emigrate to a new land is to add your new local payment details and wait. Up to 48 hours, it says.
I’ve moved three times in the past ten years, and never once have these instructions served me. You might have read my previous article about trusting in Google to continue providing you access to your own accounts and data, where I described the harrowing ordeal caused by Google’s complete and utter lack of humanity along with broken “automated service”. I have yet to succeed in updating the location of any of my accounts. My last failed attempt was months ago.
Yesterday, the frustration from being unable to download a region-locked app that I need triggered a revelation! It’s a really dumb hack, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t quick, easy and pleasingly successful.
The Hack
Step 1
Create a completely new Google account with your local payment details.
Step 2
Sign in to Google Play using the new account
Step 3
Download the apps you should have been able to download in the first place.
Conclusion
I’m perpetually fascinated by how well Google has done in spite of its own best efforts to shoot its users in the feet. If you needed this hack, I hope you managed to stumble across this article before getting stuck!
