How to fix Google Collections if they won’t load on Android via the Google Search app

As with all most Google services, I fall in love with them, my passion burns bright and fast, and then I’m quickly jaded by the poor customer service and experience of actually using it. I spend years boasting about its great features while most others stand by the sidelines realizing all of its flaws. Then, Google will unceremoniously axe my favorite tool and I’ll look like a schmuck.

I absolutely adore Google Collections and believe that they could be the backbone or spine the platform needs for users to curate and well, “collect” anything they want from across all facets of the company’s services and apps. We’ve already seen this come into play quite heavily across Maps, Images, Google Play Movies & TV, Play Books, and almost all other tools Google provides.

I’m actually quite surprised to realize how deeply Collections have been integrated across the board, and while I’m hopeful for their future, I have to be honest and say that the issue I’ve been dealing with for quite some time still persists and makes me nervous.

I’ve spoken in the past about how Collections – Google’s storehouse for the items you tap the bookmark icon on across each of its apps and web apps – simply wouldn’t load on my Android phone. Consequently, this happens to be the place I would access and browse them for inspiration the most. They’re stored in the Google Search app, and while they load flawlessly on the web and even on my fiancee’s iPhone, my Google-branded Pixel 6 Pro (and all of the other Android devices in the home that I’ve tested it on) show a stuck loading screen for my precious saved items via Collections.

I’ve reached out to Google for support, and they were entirely unhelpful. Sadly, I’m convinced that most of the folks who Google employs for customer service know absolutely nothing about the tools they’re troubleshooting and can’t at all think past the documentation and script that they’re given. Given this, I completely abandoned my use of Collections on mobile, and have even forgotten about them on Desktop. Anyone you ask probably hasn’t even heard of them to begin with thanks to Google’s poor advertisement of them, and everyone else simply doesn’t care about them because they know Google’s track record.

For those of us who really do see their potential and who want to continue using them for as long as Google is interested in building them out before being distracted by the next shiniest thing and grabbing the axe from the shed, you’ll be happy to know that I found a fix for this loading issue – sort of.

Over on Piunikaweb, Anarag Chawake wrote up a nice piece detailing the process for “unsticking” Collections. After following it, I was surprised to find that my stuff actually loaded! Well, it loaded intermittently before going back to being stuck again, but regardless, it was refreshing to see all of my saved images, map locations, movies to watch, and so on from one screen without having to visit individual apps.

To resolve this ridiculous bug that Google should have fixed 6 months ago, just visit your Android phone’s settings app, scroll down to Apps, tap “Android System WebView”, and clear its app data and cache. Then, open the Google Search app and press the “Collections” button on the far right side of the bottom navigation to see everything load as it ought to.

As I said before, this worked for me, but only intermittently, so Google still has something to fix here, it just doesn’t seem like they have an interest in doing so. I’m sure it’s something simple, but other things have clearly taken priority. If this method doesn’t work for you, you can also add yourself to the Google Search app beta in the Play Store and also the Android System WebView beta in the same way.

Once you’ve done that, I would recommend force quitting both apps and clearing their app cache and data once more to be sure you’ve got the best shot at fixing the loading bug. Let me know in the comments below if you use Google Collections or if you’re part of the majority who don’t really care to explore them and just use bookmarks to save everything manually.

I just want the steps!

1. Join the Google app beta in the Play Store
2. Join the Android System WebView beta in the Play Store
3. Open the Settings app on your Android phone
4. Navigate to Apps and locate the Google Search app
5. Force quit it, and clear its app cache and data
6. Do the same for the Android System WebView app
7. Open the Google Search app and navigate to “Collections”
8. Let me know if it worked in the comments below!