Help Preventing stock apps from updating

[Petrah]

I don't have any advice for anyone that has no space left on their phones other than to uninstall some of their downloaded apps.

There is also the option of buying another phone that offers more space to fit all of your apps. I think George Carlin did a skit on something quite similar.


If you're going to quote me, please don't leave out the meat of the topic to what I said.

 

[LBPHeretic]

I noticed today, when I opened up the Android Market on my old Sprint HTC Hero for the first time in a long while, that it wanted to update Google Maps and SuperUser automatically. I looked for the check box to stop it from being automatic, which I never set by the way, and neither app has it. Heck, I never even installed SuperUser from the Android Market on my handset, as it came with the ROM I use. Is it normal for SuperUser to update itself in that situation?

I checked my wife's Sprint HTC EVO 4G and it all of a sudden wanted to update a bunch of Google apps, again, with no way to prevent the automatic updating. Carrier installed apps, like Sprint TV also wanted to automatically update, but some of them actually had the check box to prevent it. Is this something that Google is doing now? Are they forcing mandatory updates on Google apps and carrier installed apps?

 

[tcat007]

Yeah, I'm rooted, have several apps in Quarantine, and got 3 or 4 updates to apps in quarantine yesterday (Gmail, VM Downloads...), and Superuser. No boxes to uncheck... how to stop this?

 

[Petrah]

There was an update to Superuser on the 5th that had added some new stuff and fixed some other stuff, and then there was another new update on the 6th to fix a FC issue.

Changelog

After I let it do the updates I went to check and it does have a box to untick for auto updates. However, due to the type of app that Superuser is, I urge you not to untick that box. Reason being, the dev might have fixed a security issue with the app and that's not something you'll want to skip out on.

Sometimes apps will update with only cosmetic features changed, new features added, or just performance tweaks. You can skip these if there is a changelog that tells you what the changes are for the new update and you don't care about those changes (why fix it if it ain't broke, right?). But you never want to skip an update if there may be a security patch for it. This keeps you safe! I'm too lazy to check every day manually for new updates and read all those changelogs (if there even are any), so I try to keep those auto update boxes ticked. That keeps me safe.

 

[LBPHeretic]

There was an update to Superuser on the 5th that had added some new stuff and fixed some other stuff, and then there was another new update on the 6th to fix a FC issue.

Changelog

After I let it do the updates I went to check and it does have a box to untick for auto updates. However, due to the type of app that Superuser is, I urge you not to untick that box. Reason being, the dev might have fixed a security issue with the app and that's not something you'll want to skip out on.

Sometimes apps will update with only cosmetic features changed, new features added, or just performance tweaks. You can skip these if there is a changelog that tells you what the changes are for the new update and you don't care about those changes (why fix it if it ain't broke, right?). But you never want to skip an update if there may be a security patch for it. This keeps you safe! I'm too lazy to check every day manually for new updates and read all those changelogs (if there even are any), so I try to keep those auto update boxes ticked. That keeps me safe.

It was just odd that it updated by itself with no intervention by me except opening the Android Market app. Especially considering it was not in my list of installed apps because it came with the custom ROM I use.

I guess they can force an update if it is critical enough. The force closing issue might have been critical enough to force an update. I still do not have a check box to set it as an automatic update. It just kind of freaked me out when it started updating all by itself when I have never seen that happen before.

 

[Petrah]

Hrm... not sure really. One thing I did notice is that my apps never did auto update by themselves until I flashed my first rom. I always had to do it manually (the Market would alert me to updates, but would never auto install them, and every one of them were ticked to auto update accept Gmail and Google Maps... those auto updated anyways grrrr).

Could the Market itself be buggy with those tick boxes? I've seen this before in other posts where some see the tick box for auto updates and some do not.

Would be nice if they added the tick boxes so you could see them in the PC browser.

 

[tcat007]

I flashed no rom, and mine started doing it yesterday for he 1st time also... creepy... especially frozen ones!

edit: I just looked at my apps list, and GMAIL and Downloads appears again ready to update (after I just uninstalled updates). I clicked on each and both had the auto-update box checked. I was able to uncheck GMAIL, but VM Downloads doesn't let you. Guess I'll just uninstall that one since I'm rooted.

 

[raynoldsk]

Sorry, I took your advice, but it didn't prevent the apps from updating again, including one called Soundback, which wasn't on the device before.
So, I'm still looking for a solution.

The apps were there before--at least they were there on my phone. But they were system apps before and now they are not. Why, I have no clue.

 

[tcat007]

When a system app updates, it appears not to be a system app (because the update can be uninstalled). It lets you "uninstall" thinking you're getting rid of the app, but you're really only getting rid of the update... and it goes back to looking like a system app. Only way around it is root and uninstall (but be real careful with system apps). I just uninstalled the VM Downloads app to get rid of the updating problem (on that one), I keep apps in quarantine (frozen) for at least a week or 2 before uninstalling.

The apps were there before--at least they were there on my phone. But they were system apps before and now they are not. Why, I have no clue.

 

[sushifor5]

EDIT: Sorry, I can no longer give advice on rooting or Custom ROM's

You've been a great help to me and many others I'm sure, so I'm curious why? Hope all is well! Cheers!