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Help Can't find Play app (factory-resetted old tablet)

OsakaWebbie

OsakaWebbie

Newbie
I just received an old tablet with Android 4.1.1 that the person who gave it to me said had hardly been used - just sitting around for years. I suspect that he did a factory reset on it (which is fine with me), because there are no downloaded apps on it. All I need it for is one app (Behringer X-Air, to run a digital audio mixer). But I don't see Google Play anywhere! How am I supposed to install the app?

The home screen is completely empty. Touching the six-dots icon in the corner, I see 17 apps, none of them even remotely resembling Google Play. In Settings -> Apps, sliding over to the All tab, the two that could be relevant are:
  • "Google Play Services" (green android icon, not the triangle icon Play Store usually has): It says "version 0" and all the storage numbers are "0.00B". Does that mean it's just a placeholder?
  • "Sound Search for Google Play" (triangle icon): It says "version 1.0.1", so that sounds like something real, but it also has 0.00B for all storage numbers.
Even if those apps really exist on the device, I see no way to run them from Settings. The only buttons available are "Force stop" and "Disable".

Among the apps listed when I touch the six-dots icon is ApkInstaller. In theory that could be used (I've never done it, though), and googling "apk behringer x-air" does reveal several APK repositories, but I have no idea if I can trust any of them. I suppose it's low risk, since there is no sensitive information on the tablet, and once I get this set up, the tablet won't even connect to the internet (just to the mixer's wifi). But still, I would like advice before trying that.
 
No Google Play, and things that are unfamiliar, and place-holder stuff. That sounds like a tablet that was intended for sale and use in China. Tablets and phones here don't have Google on them.

You could try searching and download your X-Air app from somewhere like apkmirror.com. However if it doesn't work on Android 4.1.1, which is ancient and is no longer supported by Google and most devs, there's likely not a lot you can do. Except buying a more recent tablet that is supported.
 
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Thanks for the reply. It's an Onkyo tablet, and every indication is that it was sold in Japan (which is logical - the person who gave it to me is Japanese and lives in Japan, as I also do). The sticker on the back is in Japanese, and all the language settings were Japanese when I got it. And search goes to Google (not Baidu or something else). The "things that are unfamiliar" are only because I dug deeper than I normally would - I'm not a power user, and I'd never previously studied the app list in Settings on any other device. The 17 apps showing when I touch the six-dot icon are pretty normal items, like Browser, Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Clock, etc. But I'd never before seen a completely empty home screen, and I'm used to more apps pre-installed on a new or factory-resetted device. I'd assume that a Chinese tablet would also come with a bunch of apps that the maker wants to promote.

But after I wrote my first post, I decided I didn't have anything to lose by trying an APK site, so I downloaded the APK file for X-Air from apkpure.com and installed it. (I had already confirmed that the app supports Android 4.0 and above.) I can't truly test it until Sunday, when I will take the tablet to where the mixing console is, but it does appear to run. Perhaps this method is better anyway, because this tablet will not belong to any one person (it will be used to run the sound system for a small church), so it's nice not to have anyone's personal Google account assigned to it.
 
I see you've already found a workaround, OsakaWebbie, but just FYI:
are pretty normal items, like Browser
Click to expand...
You can access the Play Store via any browser. From there you can log in to your Google account [or create one], and install apps on your devices. Of course this assumes your device is recognized by Google.
 
Old thread, but I would like to add that you can get onto any appstore with your browser.

Google is not the (only) way!
 
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