PVZ2 keeps stopping to show "Restoring Purchases!"

[GranitStateColin]

After buying the Parsnip, Sweet Potato, and Caulipower bundle for PVZ2 a bit before Thanksgiving, the app began cycling between a pop-up that says, "Purchase Successful! This item has been purchased before. Restore Purchases will allow you to claim all of your past purchases in any profile." Then, a "Restoring Purchases! Successfully restored 0 purchases!" (yes, zero), and sometimes also just "Restoring Purchases!" with the animated flowers and petals, which just keeps animating forever. When the animated flower comes up, the only option to resume game play is to kill the app and restart it. I've attached screen captures of the messages.

I did submit this to EA Help, who suggested I do the following, all of which I've done, plus terminating both the app and Google Play (in case this was a Play store issue with the purchase) and restarting my phone after performing these steps. Here's what they suggested and my responses:

-Make sure your device is up-to-date

DONE (via Settings -> System Updates: shows System Update 9 installed on Nov 2).

-Make sure your app is up-to-date

DONE (via Google Play)

-Restart the app Close background apps

DONE

-Powercycle your phone

DONE

-Clear your cache to check if you're synced properly

Done (via Settings -> Apps -> Plants vs. Zombies 2 -> Clear Cache)

After all of these I have also done the Force Stop on both Plants vs Zombies 2 and on the Google Play app. Then, I restarted the phone. After all of this, there has been no change to the problem.

After that exchange where I told them I had done everything they suggested, EA has never responded to me again. Has anyone else had a similar problem? If so, were you able to fix? Should I just demand a refund? I'd rather get it working, but if we can't fix it, I'll settle for getting my money back and just stop playing PVZ2.

[Amethytus · Accepted solution]

An immortal bug that plagues just about everyone. An extreme menace that softlocks the game at will. I am affected by it badly. I hate it. I've been dealing with it for months. It only got worse recently when I bought the Sweet Potato bundle. I've actually readjusted my pattern of behavior in the game to avoid it as much as possible.

I can't understand why this blasted problem hasn't been fixed. I'm truly sick of it, but I will keep tolerating it for the sake of spending time with my beloved Plants...

[lawmfw]

Good luck on a refund...and no, this behavior of the Restore Purchases is an oldie but a goodie bug that keeps reappearing...it may go away eventually (I suspect it is server specific) and then return as it has for me over the years.

No refunds after a certain time period has passed.

[MAGICDAVESHROOM]

As Lawfmw says, it's a long term bug that has never been fixed.

EA haven't done anything about it and from my own experience it does eventually fade away.

It seems to lurk in the backup servers so if it does go away then don't be surprised if it comes back after a reinstall.

If you read the terms and conditions of the Google playstore i believe you have two hours in which to claim a refund for any reason.

As a "free to play" game you have no chance of getting a refund for any in-game purchases from EA.

Sorry.

🐛 🐛 🐛 🐛

[GranitStateColin]

That's ironic. So because I wanted to give EA a chance to keep my purchase price and troubleshoot the bug in their software, it sounds like I have lost the ability to get a refund. Hell, I don't think the problem even appeared until more than 2 hours of the purchase. 

Meanwhile, in frustration of the problem, I also Cleared Data and reinstalled the app. How do I reconnect to my original Player ID (it has assigned me a new, different one after clearing the app data). To my surprise, even after it had cleared everything and started me back as if I had never played before, it still had the problem of the "Restoring Purchases!" messages. I don't know if these will still continue following the reinstall yet.

[MAGICDAVESHROOM]

As part of the reinstallation process you should have been given the option to select your existing account with all your plants etc. OR a new account that starts from scratch.

If you have your old player id contact EA HELP to restore your account.

[GranitStateColin]

I did go ahead and contact EA support, but also, when and where should it have given that option?

[MAGICDAVESHROOM]

It's been a long time since i reinstalled but as i remember it goes like this;

Install.

Use slider to select age.

At loading screen tap white gamepad at bottom right.

My google accounts pop up and i select the one associated with pvz2.

Then that screen with two choices pops up and i select my account.

That's it as far as i can remember, i might be be wrong as it's been a long time since i did this but as long as you have the original player id then EA should be able to restore your account.

[GranitStateColin]

Hmm, when I hit that gamepad icon, it tells me I need to install "Google Play Games," which apparently I've never done. But my PvZ2 account was linked to my email address used for EA Origin account (when setting up an account in PvZ2, it directly asks for an email address), same as I use on PC, which is not the address I use to buy through Google Play. 

[MAGICDAVESHROOM]

I always install and open through the Google playstore as googleplay backs up my gamedata as well as the main EA backup servers, if i have a problem i can clear the app data and reload it in a couple of minutes, otherwise i have to contact EA HELP by email and it can take hours for them to restore an account. 

[GranitStateColin]

Ah, OK. So I guess in my case, I'll need to wait on EA. Fortunately, I did have my old Player ID, so I guess they'll fix it eventually.

I hope it's quick, because I'm missing chances to add wins in the tournament, where I still have a little ways to go to reach 1,000 points for the add'l Pumpkin seed packets.