Develop Bugs

[Q] App updates

I have auto app updates turned off. How do I know if there is an update available for an app?

I am assuming you are talking about turning off updates in google play settings in FTV. The only way to know of updates is to open google play and go to your Apps in the top left menu. It should show all available updates for your installed apps (only those apps that are "compatible", so run the Market Helper before you attempt this). Also, and I could be wrong, it will only show updates for apps that you have installed from the play store, and not side loaded ones (paid or otherwise).

I mean in FTV settings/apps.
I have turned auto updates off so how do I know when an update is available for an app that I installed via FTV?

Pagemakers said:
I mean in FTV settings/apps.
I have turned auto updates off so how do I know when an update is available for an app that I installed via FTV?
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If you go to Your Apps Library via the default launcher, you can highlight Icons of your apps. Underneath it is 2 boxes, the one on the left should always say "More Info" Click that, and then on the page that shows, if there is an update , it will say it, or it will say Open.
Yes, this is annoying and I only found it by accident. And as far as I can, Amazon doesn't automatically update anything even if you have it on. At least it doesn't on my AFTV.

Found it. Thank you.

Kyubi final constantly asking for permission

So I finally did the whole consumer -> dev phone switch yesterday and after hours of annoyance from me not correctly following directions I finally got everything sorted out and I'm running the "final" release of Kyubi.
I'm curious if this is just going to be the standard annoyance of all new android OS updates, but this is a first for me...
When I downloaded all my old phone apps from the play store, it asked for permissions after EVERY install. Before if I reformatted/refreshed/factory reset my phone, it never asked permission for ALL of the apps, but now it is. Is there a way to disable that in the future? Is there a way to set permissions to allow all new play store apps automatically, especially for ones previously installed on the phone? It got annoying going through every app and clicking "accept" and when I let them all install overnight I had like 50 accept screens to go through.
Thanks in advance!

xanderharris86 said:
So I finally did the whole consumer -> dev phone switch yesterday and after hours of annoyance from me not correctly following directions I finally got everything sorted out and I'm running the "final" release of Kyubi.
I'm curious if this is just going to be the standard annoyance of all new android OS updates, but this is a first for me...
When I downloaded all my old phone apps from the play store, it asked for permissions after EVERY install. Before if I reformatted/refreshed/factory reset my phone, it never asked permission for ALL of the apps, but now it is. Is there a way to disable that in the future? Is there a way to set permissions to allow all new play store apps automatically, especially for ones previously installed on the phone? It got annoying going through every app and clicking "accept" and when I let them all install overnight I had like 50 accept screens to go through.
Thanks in advance!
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Go to Settings> Applications> Application Permissions> Permissions tab> Flick the all switch to off, on all the permissions. Tested it and it doesn't actually disallow the permissions it just automatically allows those permissions without prompting. But that is for all applications. No way to have it only for Play Store applications. Let me know if that works for you.

jcip17 said:
Go to Settings> Applications> Application Permissions> Permissions tab> Flick the all switch to off, on all the permissions. Tested it and it doesn't actually disallow the permissions it just automatically allows those permissions without prompting. But that is for all applications. No way to have it only for Play Store applications. Let me know if that works for you.
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Sorry for just now getting back to you but I just had the chance to try out what you said. When I go to the permissions tab everything is listed as "on" but when I go to click anything, it just brings up a blank page and no option to set it as off. I'll keep playing around.

Apps auto updating

I checked off the box in the play store to not allow auto updating. However some apps are still auto updating. For example fb and instagram auto updated. I still get notifications that there are updates available for other apps. Is there something i can do to shut off auto updates for these apps? Thank you

there is an option in gplay store too for removing notification for apps update. facebook and instagram update because there is facebook installer or so installed on system partition, which is not related to gplay store and therefore they still update...but why do you want to turn off auto update and even the notification?

Go to Settings / Apps and deactivate everything with Facebook or Instagram in its Name
You maybe have to choose "show system" in the Apps Menu

DeeZZ_NuuZZ said:
there is an option in gplay store too for removing notification for apps update. facebook and instagram update because there is facebook installer or so installed on system partition, which is not related to gplay store and therefore they still update...but why do you want to turn off auto update and even the notification?
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Sorry for late reply. I do not want apps updating without my permission. A lorry of times these updates make the app worse for me.
I also noticed that since the last sysytem update (2.38) my battery is significantly worse.
Im thinking about rooting they phone just to get rid of fb and instagram on phone. Wanted to dl the old fb apk that did both need messenger.

jeppuda said:
Sorry for late reply. I do not want apps updating without my permission. A lorry of times these updates make the app worse for me.
I also noticed that since the last sysytem update (2.38) my battery is significantly worse.
Im thinking about rooting they phone just to get rid of fb and instagram on phone. Wanted to dl the old fb apk that did both need messenger.
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I do the same thing, I like to read what has changed in apps before updating also. there has been many times where the update has broken an app and I couldn't go back due to it not being a system app. I like viper rom cause in the installer I can remove system apps like facebook and Instagram before the initial system install and never have them auto update.

(Q) How can I disable Instant Apps for Android

Like the title says, I've noticed since updating to 7.1.2 at least 2-3 times a day I am thrown a notification for "updating Instant Apps" but it never tells me if it was updated or installed. I tried going to Settings -> Google -> Instant Apps and it is disabled yet these apps are auto-downloading and installing in the background. I have auto-updates off on the play store but this still occurs.
Is there anything I can do to disable or at least cripple the instant apps? I'm reading the purpose of instant apps is so you can try an application without installing it, I do not want to test drive apps like Buzzfeed so however I can disable it would be great

fatapia said:
Like the title says, I've noticed since updating to 7.1.2 at least 2-3 times a day I am thrown a notification for "updating Instant Apps" but it never tells me if it was updated or installed. I tried going to Settings -> Google -> Instant Apps and it is disabled yet these apps are auto-downloading and installing in the background. I have auto-updates off on the play store but this still occurs.
Is there anything I can do to disable or at least cripple the instant apps? I'm reading the purpose of instant apps is so you can try an application without installing it, I do not want to test drive apps like Buzzfeed so however I can disable it would be great
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So, using Titanium Backup I couldn't find the package com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor but using a root explorer I found the application in /data/app/com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor-2
I also found saved data in /data/data/com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor
I have no idea if this will prevent the service from auto-updating as it has been without permission but I know where it is now...
Update: Deleting both folders causing settings to crash when you go to Settings -> Google -> Instant apps, so it might be deleted off my phone entirely. I will update if I see the application re-install itself

Instant apps are temporary apps. So you can't uninstall them or disable it. It's a feature built into Android that is not going away. Your only option is to install a rom without Gapps. Otherwise deal with it.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

superchilpil said:
Instant apps are temporary apps. So you can't uninstall them or disable it. It's a feature built into Android that is not going away. Your only option is to install a rom without Gapps. Otherwise deal with it.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
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deleting those two files seemed to have broken that feature.
My issue was that I disabled that service through settings as suggested by one of the google support pages but it would still download and install "Instant Apps" the service throughout the day, not the actual temporary apps themselves. So it's been dealt with lol

oh man, when i saw this i thought i had a virus on my phone.
especially when i couldn't find anything named "instant apps" in the app drawer

I am hoping that this will work for me as well. The first time I saw the instant apps pop up I just connected to a free wifi in Mexico and freaked out. This seriously bothers me. I uninstalled it and it came back update after update. I also will not be using any instant apps, so this is something I want to break.

speedee12 said:
I am hoping that this will work for me as well. The first time I saw the instant apps pop up I just connected to a free wifi in Mexico and freaked out. This seriously bothers me. I uninstalled it and it came back update after update. I also will not be using any instant apps, so this is something I want to break.
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some how it was pushed back on to my phone. this is not a permanent solution...

so I'm trying to disable this through other means now and I found something interesting? I need someone with more experience to chime in as far as what these* lines* do*.. and where I found it...
so in /data/data/com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor/shared_prefs/phenotypeConfigurations.xml there are these three lines:
<boolean name="Supervisor__enable_instant_apps" value="true" />
<boolean name="Supervisor__disable_url_resolution" value="false" />
<boolean name="TestFeature__enable_test" value="true" />
I flipped the value of these three entries to see if this will disable it. I find it odd that for the first line it was set for "true" when the settings say it's off. I will update again if I see this come back. My coworker had suggested that this may be built in to the Google app itself? Let's see...

so I had to unroot my phone because I forgot to log into snapchat, then re-root after, and Instant Apps was back yet again. The changes I made to the XML file persisted but the app was back.
I think I found a way to remove it entirely. I used Root Explorer, idk what other applications would work for this. So I navigated back to /data/app/com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor-1 and I clicked the base.apk and I had an option to uninstall, I did this then rebooted my phone to see if reboots are why it fixes itself except the entry for Instant Apps has been removed from settings. This appears to permanently remove this feature.

every time I think I fix this it keeps coming back lol, I finally called Google Support and this is the first they are hearing of it. The application re-installed itself at 430-some Mountain Time on it's own, other times it re-installs upon reboot. I'm going to find a way to cripple it if google cant
I recommend calling support to let them know that Instant Apps is enabled even though the switch says it is disabled.

fatapia said:
every time I think I fix this it keeps coming back lol, I finally called Google Support and this is the first they are hearing of it. The application re-installed itself at 430-some Mountain Time on it's own, other times it re-installs upon reboot. I'm going to find a way to cripple it if google cant
I recommend calling support to let them know that Instant Apps is enabled even though the switch says it is disabled.
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I have the same annoyances, "Installig Instant apps" notification appears randomly during the last month, and reading in the logcat they are updates/patches to the new feature, managed by finsky app (Play Store). The most scaring thing is that one time it appeared also during mobile data connection, which is not acceptable (and 800kb background data from Play Store). Google is being too aggressive with it. Why not simply integrate it and update it along with Play Services like the other 1000 google APIs ? !on WIFI!
Thank you for your tests, unfortunately the update process seems to be triggered by Google Play services itself or by Google play store.
I searched for related alarms/wakelocks in Amplify and could only found one wakelock coming from com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor itself: .ExperimentUpdateService. I decided to keep it as this probably isn't the trigger.

ninestarkoko said:
I have the same annoyances, "Installig Instant apps" notification appears randomly during the last month, and reading in the logcat they are updates/patches to the new feature, managed by finsky app (Play Store). The most scaring thing is that one time it appeared also during mobile data connection, which is not acceptable (and 800kb background data from Play Store). Google is being too aggressive with it. Why not simply integrate it and update it along with Play Services like the other 1000 google APIs ? !on WIFI!
Thank you for your tests, unfortunately the update process seems to be triggered by Google Play services itself or by Google play store.
I searched for related alarms/wakelocks in Amplify and could only found one wakelock coming from com.google.android.apps.instantapps.supervisor itself: .ExperimentUpdateService. I decided to keep it as this probably isn't the trigger.
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yeah that's now my only worrisome complaint is that it ignores the play store settings and will download over any network connection. You can try submitting feedback through settings and suggest they fix this part so that it updates as you said. Thanks for the additional info, I'll try disabling that and report back if it makes any difference. I doubt that's the source of the problem though so I uninstall the apk so something else must be initiating it.

Thank you guys for this thread! I have the regular Pixel and have been seeing this happen... "Instant Apps" was disabled but somehow still updating either itself or something else, and I wondered if there was an additional switch somewhere to disable it. Looks like the answer is no. ?
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

So I noticed every time the play store found an update, magically Instant Apps was back. I began to notice that this may be a service built into Play Store and not the Google app itself. So I had an idea, I went into Settings for Android and turned off background data for Play services. Obviously this will affect quite a bit, but honestly I am at that point from fighting this feature that I'd gladly give that up. So far after 2 days I have not seen the application re-install itself. It has been more permanent that the other solutions I've had so far.
There's an article from XDA in Analysis and Opinion talking about Instant Apps and Play Store 7.8.15, apparently this issue is affecting people all the way down to the Samsung S5... although people are hesistant to believe this issue exists for whatever reason.

You can cripple it by restricting its access to internet via firewall. Unfortunately this method also drives up battery consumption as the firewall does jujitsu with "Google Play services for Instant Apps" - I am actively fantasizing about taking my baby sledge to this thing and going back to a "dumb"-phone that doesn't have all this drama constantly! I'm using an S5 right now. This is definitely a google thing. They have a similar self-install-without-asking "feature" on windows via their chrome browser. Just look up "SwReporter" in that program's directory. It self-populates with an executable as you use chrome normally and there is no option in the program for it to not do that. You can safely make a shortcut to that directory and empty it out regularly to restrict its functionality which is presumably for keeping an eye on you. I am also trying an alternate method of changing security to prevent write access to that directory. I have no idea how to do that on an unrooted android. Any ideas? And does anybody know how to cripple "instant apps" malware/spyware backdoor "feature" on an unrooted device without eating battery like crazy?

Today I noticed that Instant Apps was installing without my permission. When I clicked on that notification, it brought me to the Google Play Store. (In Google Play Store, I have auto updates disabled.) I have an unrooted Galaxy Note 4 and I can't even find the settings for Instant Apps under the Google settings. Why aren't the settings there? I found the app in the Apps settings called "Google Play services for Instant Apps" (thank you G1A). I cleared it's the cache and data and then uninstalled it. So I'm assuming it will not come back but you never know.
EDIT: Well the "Google Play services for Instant Apps" reinstalled itself AGAIN WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Getting sick of tired of Google's POMPOUS business ethics.

If it reinstalled itself.... then his would require root privileges in order to disable.

yeah this issue is annoying, it seems to initiate the download upon every reboot and each time it checks the play store for updates for any of your apps.
I found a way to disable it but it required freezing the app through Titanium Backup. I have NO CLUE why I couldn't see Instant Apps before in this list but it is listed as "Google Play Services for Instant Apps." It does not re-install or try to even download, does not show in Settings under Google, but if you look at the app itself in settings you will see it does still run. I am not sure to what extent but yeeeaahhh at least it doesnt seem like it can run anything

No problem As an update, changing security permissions (specifically for writing) for chrome's target folder Definitely (in windows 10) serves as an effective measure to blockade its ability to regenerate itself. This same method also works for microsoft edge located in the C-Windows-SystemApps folder. I presume that the programming methods would be analogous with android on google's end. Anybody know how to restrict write access to a folder on android? So long as it checks for a folder existing and it does exist (multi-decade programming approach) then it attempts to write to that folder. However, because it's already running in stealth mode (aka background) then it will never show an error message when it fails to execute, and it won't report back either, as that functionality depends on the contents of the targeted folder it is denied access to. It should be effectively crippled without excessive CPU consumption if you can just restrict its ability to write to the default folder that it installs itself in. Any ideas how to execute this kind of blockade?
UPDATE: As a way to cripple not Instant Apps specifically, but an entire host of functionality on the android platform, something called "Power Saving Mode" seems to knock out a key background runtime required for this pest to run. Unfortunately it doesn't let you pick and choose what it shuts off, so other useful apps may lose their functionality too. Post if anybody finds a more app-specific method!

Does this crap have its own separate package? If so, you could uninstall it and make a dummy APK having the same package name. This could prevent "updates" due to signing key conflicts, but might also break things...

Question Apps not auto-updating in play store?

Hi, pixel 6 pro here and I am having issues with my apps auto-updating.
1. I went to settings>auto updates at anytime is selected.
2.google play store>app info>battery>unrestricted
3. I have forced stopped>clear data>disabled> reboot>enabled
Nothing is working and I have to click manage apps>update all.

Double-check one of the particular apps that don't auto-update. On the app's page in the Play Store in the upper right corner click the 3-dot menu button. Is "Enable auto update" checked?
I just checked one of my apps at random and it wasn't checked. The app in question, at one time I didn't want it to auto-update because they were making changes I didn't like, and the setting was saved by Google across many phones and I just didn't notice. I may have other apps that I don't have set to auto-update, but I don't think there's a way to explicitly display them all (and not display ones you already have set to auto-update). I just looked at my "Pending downloads" in the Play Store and the first app listed was also set to not auto-update, so I'll just have to remember to go through each app for a while when there are apps listed here. It's definitely showing ones not updated yet that are set to auto-update as well - they just hadn't yet.
Edit: Found 3-4 more apps that were set to not auto-update including one that I don't even particularly remember using, but I might've tried a very long time ago and I definitely only recently reinstalled it. Shame you have to individually go into each one to find out how I have it set.

Went to store now, auto update still not working. I checked three dots for the app and enable auto update was already updated but not updating itself

Does everyone else's auto update apps for the play store work?

Just to be clear, I don't think that apps ever auto-update just as soon as it's available. For an example like you gave, does it go for over 24 hours without auto-updating any apps?
What about the two Play Store settings "App download preference" and " Auto-update apps" below it?

roirraW edor ehT said:
Just to be clear, I don't think that apps ever auto-update just as soon as it's available. For an example like you gave, does it go for over 24 hours without auto-updating any apps?
What about the two Play Store settings "App download preference" and " Auto-update apps" below it?
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Yes mine is the same. Also was not aware apps don't update immediately. I'll wait 24hrs and see what happens then. Ty for the response and hope u having a good weekend.

breakfrecell said:
Yes mine is the same. Also was not aware apps don't update immediately. I'll wait 24hrs and see what happens then. Ty for the response and hope u having a good weekend.
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Cool. I assume they don't update immediately in case the developer pulls the update due to bugs. I have no idea what the particular logic is of when it how often is. Hopefully whatever apps are listed available for auto-update tomorrow at the same time aren't necessarily the same apps listed for you now.
You're welcome, looking forward to hearing. You're welcome and your too!

Does not tend to poll these app updates once you're actually plugged in charging and usually on Wi-Fi, but you can set for other networks?

Apps have been Auto updating past 48hrs, as mentioned above takes about 24hrs

Hi, so over the last 48hrs apps have NOT been updating automatically. Can anyone help me with setting to auto update apps in play store?

My apps are automatically update and I don't want to. I only have the settings because I had absolutely no notifications that there are updates available. I had to check manually and it was a nightmare.

breakfrecell said:
Does everyone else's auto update apps for the play store work?
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I dont think mine ever have to be honest and when i am sorting out phones for elderly relatives they always have about 2 million apps that need updating.