GooglePlay tries to update(?) RetroArch installed via FDroid and fails

[LukasThyWalls]

Hello.

Since a few weeks, I saw something weird about Google Play trying to update RetroArch and showing an error of “Download error”. The problem is I haven’t installed the Google Play version (which is outdated, version 1.9.12 from 2021-11-03), I have installed the F-Droid repository one (1.16.0 from 2023-09-30) but Google Play insists in trying to “update” but It can never do it (and shows it can’t do it in the apps list with a warning icon but also shows it as a pending update).

This happens since December more or less, and both versions have not had any updates since then, and after that I don’t had this issue (more like an annoyance actually).

I think I deal with a similar thing in the past with other apps, but the fix in those cases was clear all the data for the Google Play Store/Google Play Services and suddenly the app disappears from the updates in Google Play Store. In this case it doesn’t happen, after a few moments the update appears again, and also i tried to uninstall from F-Droid and reinstall again, but it does the same. I want the F-Droid version because it’s up to date, keeping the Google Play one make no sense.

After this time I want to ask if someone else has this issue or it’s only me, and what can i do right now. Writing this in F-Droid issue tracker doesn’t make sense because they didn’t change the metadata since September, and doing it to RetroArch issue tracker is the same because the app hasn’t changed since 2021 (or maybe they/Google change only some metadata, I don’t know…).

Anyway, Thanks!

[Sir_SwampThing]

Open PlayStore and tap your user icon (top right). Manage apps and device. Where it says “Updates Available” - tap “See Details”. Tap “Retroarch”. Top right corner, tap the three dots. In the menu that pops up, untick “Enable Auto-update”.

You will still be notified of any updates but they will no longer download or attempt to install.

[LukasThyWalls]

Thanks, I was aware of that but it even makes it worse in the annoyance level:

Instead of only showing it in the list as failed, if I untick the “Enable Auto-Update” the only thing that changes is that if If i tap “Update All” (when i have more app updates), from the notification or if i try to “update/downgrade” from Google Play again, it shows a new dialog every time saying that RetroArch has Auto-Updates disabled and if i want to skip it or not.

I don’t have issues with new update notifications (in fact I don’t normally have Google Play notifications about new updates until I have tons of them, and normally I look them manually from time to time), that’s why It’s more an annoyance than an issue, but the update wasn’t there before December, It should not showing it (as it is not from Google Play, it’s from F-Droid, and i have tons of F-Droid Apps that are in Google Play that doesn’t show there), and It is not even an update (It’s a downgrade!). In fact i supposed the reason it fails to update it’s because It’s not signed with the APK signature, although it’s the same App (that happens with other Apps from F-Droid that are in Google Play, they show as installed in their Google Play Store page, but I doesn’t show in the Google Play App list because they wasn’t installed by Google Play and the APK signature is different from the one they have).

Because that i prefer to keep ticked the auto-update because instead of tapping skip every time I updated all the apps, I left that it fails and that’s it.

Other thing to mention, the error that throws Google Play when it tries to “update/downgrade” Retroarch is a “Download” error, although it download something every time (around 127 MB) and shows the error when It tries to install it, and I tried to install the Google Play version uninstalling the F-Droid one and it works, but obviously installing the older version, so I don’t think is a download error, as an APK install mismatch error.

I was asking this more because other people had this issue and maybe someone has some clue of why is happening.

Thanks!

[LukasThyWalls]

Hello. I’m adding something to this thread because somehow the problem fixed itself yesterday, but also I think I found what is part of the issue here.

First, since yesterday, Google Play doesn’t detect Retroarch installed via F-Droid as signed with the same signature, like It was since more than a year. Now It doesn’t want to update It and It didn’t show anymore in updates (And like I said before, It was trying to update to a lower version than the one installed, because the Google Play is outdated… I don’t want to enter on why It’s outdated as that is other thing).

In fact, Now it shows this in the Retroarch’s Google Play page, something that lately didn’t happen (Basically says this app is not from Google Play…):

So, It’s fixed (for now).

Second, I think I found what is the second part of the issue: Google Play was trying to “manage” an app that It was signed differently, something that It should not be happening, and It is the main issue there. But also I saw that the builds versions numbers detected by Google Play from the app installed and the app they have in their store lead to make that update to a lower version, because the build number for the old version 1.9.12 is higher than the build number for 1.20.

Using Aurora Store (Google Play FOSS unofficial client), You can see that the build version detected from 1.20 (which is NOT in Google Play) is 1597175263:

But because you can see the names of the APK files in Aurora Store, you can see the build numbers from 1.9.12 is 1597175331:

(This is from Google Play, to show what is the version available there, that match the dates showed in the others screenshots)

If 1.20 is 1597175263, and 1.9.12 is 1597175331, and without counting the APK sign issue, that’s why Google Play was trying to “update” from 1.20 to 1.9.12, because 1597175263 (1.20) is LOWER than 1597175331 (1.9.12).

Why is like that? I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, but I only to share this because I found it and make sense, maybe someone else had the issue too, or maybe the issue come back in the future and this explains that.

Thanks in advance.