Alas after installation, the Google Play Store just kept shutting down on me with the error message, ” Unfortunately Google Play store has stopped”
After battling for days with it, I decided to contact the folks at Google to see if they could help out but they mailed me back saying that the old phone hasn’t yet been approved to run Google Play store.
Thus I continued my search and landed on a tutorial by BlogHam which he in turn got from the XDA Developer Forums.
How I Re-Installed Google Play Store on an old unsupported android phone.
NOTE: For this to work, your phone must be rooted. Also I shall in no way be held responsible if your device starts to malfunction after trying this tutorial.
1. Download the latest Google Play Store version from this link.
Transfer the file to your phone and rename it to Vending.apk or name you wish to call it.
3. Download and install Root Explorer. Navigate to system/app and backup any instance of Vending.apk or Phonesky.apk you find there. If there’s none, simply proceed to the next step.
4. Navigate to where you stored the Vending.apk file, cut/copy it then move back to system/app, mount the system as r/w and paste Vending.apk
5. Click on Vending.apk till a pop up appears and then set permission to rw-r-r as shown in the capture below.
6. Once successful, reboot your smartphone and wait for the *Android Is Upgrading* message to disappear then launch Google Play and attempt your first download. Hopefully it should be working now.
Mine is working without issues so far!