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Google Play Store

Rgarner

Android Expert
I recently "rolled back" Google Play Store and services, only to get a message that they won't work unless they are updated. I did that to gain phone space. Are they just lying to get more bloatware? Is there some way around this?
 
No way around it, although if you are rooted you can move the updates to the system partition so it doesn't take space.
 
The Play Store is already a system app, so you won't gain any user-accessible space by uninstalling updates to it. If freeing up user memory is what you're after you need to get rid of any nonessential apps you downloaded and aren't using
 
The Play Store is already a system app, so you won't gain any user-accessible space by uninstalling updates to it. If freeing up user memory is what you're after you need to get rid of any nonessential apps you downloaded and aren't using


The updates to system apps get stored in the data partition
 
Ok I'll stand corrected on that then-
But IMO it's still going to be more productive to do some housekeeping and trash any extraneous apps. And Play will just update itself again eventually, unless as suggested the device is rooted and you make some changes.
There's also the bigger picture here, we don't know what device this is but I suspect it's an older one with a limited amount of storage. if that's indeed the case the best longterm solution is a newer phone with more memory along with other more up-to-date features.
 
Thanks for the help, although the answers are somewhat disappointing. You're right that it's a cheap phone with almost no storage. One way I thought of was to roll back Firefox, but I didn't' see any way to do that. Is it possible and what would the disadvantages be?
 
Thanks for the help, although the answers are somewhat disappointing. You're right that it's a cheap phone with almost no storage. One way I thought of was to roll back Firefox, but I didn't' see any way to do that. Is it possible and what would the disadvantages be?
If Firefox didn't come with the phone you can't roll it back to an older version, you can only uninstall it.
 
I tried updating play store, but it wouldn't allow it. It kept alternating between an update screen and one that had a choice of deny or accept. It went back and forth too fast for that to work. Then I downloaded the apk, but I still got the update message. Finally it seemed to work. Then I found out that photos needed it updated, though who knows why. I tried again with the same screwy result. What do I do now, besides saving up for a better phone?
 
I tried rebooting play store, but it wouldn't allow it. It kept alternating between an update screen and one that had a choice of deny or accept. It went back and forth too fast for that to work. Then I downloaded the app, but I still get the update message. Finally it seemed to work. Then I found out that photos needed it updated, though who knows why. I tried again with the same screwy result. What do I do now, besides saving up for a better phone?
If you just disable the play store you'll save some space. It's not like you have space for installing apps either way.
 
If I disable the nuisance, what effect will it have on photos? I'm not really planning to install any more apps.
 
I'm not sure if you're assuming all updates are just superficial, feature-only ones, but that's ignoring the fact that a lot updates address some serious, insidious security issues. Security and privacy exploits are not just hypothetical so by intentionally not keeping your software up to date needs to take this into account.
 
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