• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Does the installed app takes up more space after it each update?

S

spman

Android Enthusiast
Assuming that an app takes up 50mb after I installed it for the first time.
Everytime when I update my app (in google playstore), I see it downloads about 10mb file size and updates the app.

1. Is the downloaded update file is 10mb? Or is 10mb added to the total size of the installed app?
2. If 10mb is the size of the update downloaded file, does the downloaded file automatically gets deleted after it is installed?
3. What is the file size that is added to the installed app? (if the playstore downloads a 10mb update file)
4. Lets say if the app has an update each month, does it mean that the app will take up additional 100mb after 10 months of updates? If lets say my app takes up 50mb after I installed it for the first time, after 10 updates (10mb each update) the app size is it will become 150mb?

Thanks
 
As @Dannydet kindly said, some apps won't use more space than what they had when they were originally installed.

Other apps will grow as they're used, consuming space as they save and update their files/databases.

Each update that you're seeing for an app only causes it to grow if there are:

1) new files not previously present/installed
2) old files that are updated/replaced are larger than the ones before

These files include all of the components of your app (i.e., their code, resources, images, etc.--whatever you see inside the .apk (.zip) file.

Additionally, Google continues to make changes to how large an update to an app actually is:


which references this page:


So, you can't rely on the size of an app update to tell you how much bigger (or smaller in some cases) your install app footprint is.
 
Every update, the app will download some files and i will see a loading bar in the playstore of that app e.g. downloading... 10mb downloaded... installing... installed... open button appears...

Does that downloaded file disappear by itself after it is installed?
 
Dannydet said:
Some do, some don't. It depends on the app and the dev. Instead of updates, uninstall, then reinstall. Some apps get bigger with time as they add more information (Facebook). So it's hit or miss.
Click to expand...

Let say if I have installed an app in 2015 and it has updates monthly, and today I see the total size of the app is 100mb.

Today if someone else just installed the app (first time user), it may take up only 70mb, because it is a new clean install? I assume it he will have the exact same updated version like mine even it is 70mb?

So if I uninstall and reinstall the app I would save 30mb?

Thanks.
 
Aside from the data that the app might have downloaded on your behalf from your use of the app's functions (i.e., this will be stored in the app's "home" folder in /data/data/<app package name>), then there will be no difference in the size of the app itself between yours and a new user's install.

If there is a 30Mb difference, it's because of data or cache related to the app usage and not because of the app code/footprint itself.
 
steiny180 said:
The original APK file remains after an update in case you want to uninstall the update I believe.
Click to expand...

Hmm, not sure...but I can test / watch that on one of my test devices (not sure if I'll get to that tonight, though).

You're right that the "Uninstall" or "Uninstall updates" seems to happen pretty quickly without the need for a download...so, maybe the prior .apk is still hanging around?

I'll try to test sometime...
 
I did a little bit of testing last night--still don't have the final word since the results were a little weird/unexpected:

For a system app like Gmail, "uninstalling" (which just "rolls-back" the last update) causes the /data/app/com.google.android.gm-1.apk file to be removed/deleted during this process.

My original thoughts (expressed in the "not sure" part of the previous post) were that this .apk file was indeed the current .apk file for the installed app (that's what I've always thought and had no reason to question this). Grabbing that .apk file and using aapt.exe (SDK utility) to do a "dump badging" (tells a bunch of details about the app) and that .apk file matched the current running version number, so it was NOT for a different or prior version.

I did see "download"-related messages in the system log (logcat) for Gmail when doing the "uninstall" and of course when doing the "update" function, so my thought about it being fast and not having to re-download seems hasty.

I'll try to do other debugging/testing this weekend (hopefully for a non-system app, which I don't think allows you to uninstall updates?--am I remembering that right that only system apps have that feature/function?) and will report back here.

:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom