[Q] batch updating multiple apps - but not all - HTC EVO 3D

Lets face it,sometimes updating an app makes it worse. I try to read recent reviews before updating just in case an update screws something up. In those cases I'll try to skip those updates. Which makes it really annoying when I have 25 apps needing updates and I want to skip 3 of them.
Maybe I'm missing something, but the only ways I see to update apps in the market is to update one at a time or to update all. No way to select only those I want to update and do the batch. To make it worse,updating individual also requires accepting permissions....again
Ever since the market was updated from the white and green style (don't know version #), I don't see any way to update an app without selecting it and going through the permissions screen. In the old versions, you could long press and select update right from the 'my apps' screen, which it would then update in the background. So you could move through a list of 25 apps needing update and select as many as you wanted to update without the permissions screen, just the long press on each. But now, your only way to update them without accepting permissions again is to "update all". But I don't want to update all!! Just most of them. Grr.
Am I stupid and missing something? Any way to select most of a list and update a batch but not all?

Related

Why is the Google Play UI so terrible?

I've been using Android since 2009 and since the very beginning I have wondered why Google has done such a poor job developing their Marketplace store (since renamed to Google Play -- ridiculous name but that's a different topic). Specifically, the User Interface of the marketplace. The market HAS undergone a couple of changes to its appearance and has had the addition of music, movies, etc. But the basic user interface components for App Installation have seen practically no change at all.
Here's my incomplete list of severe shortcomings of Google Play:
1. There is NO WAY to see a short concise list of all the apps you have already purchased. You can choose between two tabs -- "Installed" and "All". The "Installed" list is just that -- apps already installed. The "All" list shows everything -- already installed, purchased but not installed, free and recently installed on a different device, etc. And this is big jumbled mess is listed in the order of apps most recently installed, which leads to:
2. There Is NO WAY to sort the list in the "All" tab by any criterion. It is what it is, you are stuck with the order everything is listed in and you cannot change it.
3. When you want to install an app, you first have to tap on the app name and then it jumps to the detailed page for that app, where you then press "Install" and then another screen to confirm. There is NO WAY to install the app directly from the app listing without jumping through multiple screens every time for every individual app. This wouldn't be so terrible, except:
4. The listing does not REMEMBER YOUR POSITION when you press back. I find myself scrolling down through the UNSORTABLE list on the "All" page, finding the app I want, which may be 150+ apps down, going to that app's detailed page and pressing install/confirm, then pressing back twice, and it returns me back to the TOP of the list again. So if I wanted to then install the next app that was right below the previous one, I have to SCROLL DOWN AGAIN.
5. Ultimately, what I WANT and NEED is a batch installer directly from the marketplace. Put some freaking CHECKBOXES next to every app on the main list and then put a big "Install All Checked" button at the top. What's so difficult about this concept?
6. You may say "Just use titanium backup, it will solve all your problems." Well I DO use Titanium backup where appropriate. But sometimes I just want to do a CLEAN install of every app, directly downloading from the marketplace again. App backups do get screwed up over time, and reinstalling from marketplace fixes those issues. Not to mention, TiBackup requires ROOT, which not everyone has/wants/needs/knows how to obtain. Or I might be installing all my required apps on a totally new device and I don't want to import incompatible data from some other device.
In my opinion this is a MAJOR shortcoming in Android. There absolutely NEEDS to be a way to easily batch-install many apps directly from the marketplace. Especially for people like me who have 100+ apps installed and regularly wipe my phone to install the latest ROM. And #1 is just insulting in my opinion. I can't see a list of only the apps I OWN? I might forget that I purchased something a long time ago and just forgot to reinstall it. And nobody has come up with a third party tool to batch-install from the market (or have they?)
Can someone please help me understand why Google has failed to improve their storefront for so long? Where is the suggestion box for me to voice all of these concerns?
christophocles said:
I've been using Android since 2009 and since the very beginning I have wondered why Google has done such a poor job developing their Marketplace store (since renamed to Google Play -- ridiculous name but that's a different topic). Specifically, the User Interface of the marketplace. The market HAS undergone a couple of changes to its appearance and has had the addition of music, movies, etc. But the basic user interface components for App Installation have seen practically no change at all.
Here's my incomplete list of severe shortcomings of Google Play:
1. There is NO WAY to see a short concise list of all the apps you have already purchased. You can choose between two tabs -- "Installed" and "All". The "Installed" list is just that -- apps already installed. The "All" list shows everything -- already installed, purchased but not installed, free and recently installed on a different device, etc. And this is big jumbled mess is listed in the order of apps most recently installed, which leads to:
2. There Is NO WAY to sort the list in the "All" tab by any criterion. It is what it is, you are stuck with the order everything is listed in and you cannot change it.
3. When you want to install an app, you first have to tap on the app name and then it jumps to the detailed page for that app, where you then press "Install" and then another screen to confirm. There is NO WAY to install the app directly from the app listing without jumping through multiple screens every time for every individual app. This wouldn't be so terrible, except:
4. The listing does not REMEMBER YOUR POSITION when you press back. I find myself scrolling down through the UNSORTABLE list on the "All" page, finding the app I want, which may be 150+ apps down, going to that app's detailed page and pressing install/confirm, then pressing back twice, and it returns me back to the TOP of the list again. So if I wanted to then install the next app that was right below the previous one, I have to SCROLL DOWN AGAIN.
5. Ultimately, what I WANT and NEED is a batch installer directly from the marketplace. Put some freaking CHECKBOXES next to every app on the main list and then put a big "Install All Checked" button at the top. What's so difficult about this concept?
6. You may say "Just use titanium backup, it will solve all your problems." Well I DO use Titanium backup where appropriate. But sometimes I just want to do a CLEAN install of every app, directly downloading from the marketplace again. App backups do get screwed up over time, and reinstalling from marketplace fixes those issues. Not to mention, TiBackup requires ROOT, which not everyone has/wants/needs/knows how to obtain. Or I might be installing all my required apps on a totally new device and I don't want to import incompatible data from some other device.
In my opinion this is a MAJOR shortcoming in Android. There absolutely NEEDS to be a way to easily batch-install many apps directly from the marketplace. Especially for people like me who have 100+ apps installed and regularly wipe my phone to install the latest ROM. And #1 is just insulting in my opinion. I can't see a list of only the apps I OWN? I might forget that I purchased something a long time ago and just forgot to reinstall it. And nobody has come up with a third party tool to batch-install from the market (or have they?)
Can someone please help me understand why Google has failed to improve their storefront for so long? Where is the suggestion box for me to voice all of these concerns?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm waiting for google to fix this too!
I agree with everything youve said - but the way I see it is that the Play store is a work in progress. There have been some pretty significant enhancements made in the last few years (I think I started using android in 2010).
Since then they have made 2 or 3 comprehensive UI updates, added books and movies support (which you mentioned), and the “ALL” apps list is also reasonably new (since Google Play was implemented).
I think within the next year or two you will start to see a lot of the features you mentioned.
Apple’s app store was pretty basic when it first started, now they have a lot of great sorting and display options.
Hopefully Google will step up.
Cheers.
Yeah, it will be nice if we can install multiple apps at the same time. Well, batch installer, that's what i mean.
Also, i wish i could delete some old apps (that I installed only to test them) from "Other apps in my library". There are lots of apps i never used, only tried them, and this, combined with the inability to sort the apps, make a real mess. I have to mine for every useful app that i need to install.
Or, at least, they should make a "Favorite" option.

[Q] Prevent single app from updating?

I tried to Google this but just kept getting results about what phones have what Rom updates and how to update apps.
The recent updates to the Trillian app are pretty terrible, I and many others are choosing to stick with the older version. Problem is I have many apps installed on this phone. Thanks to that update I am no longer able to hit "UpdatecAll" as I do not want the Trillian app to update, so I am forced to manually open the page for each app that has an update and update them one-by-one. A very annoying and tedious processes, especially since if I wait so much as a week there can be up to 20 updates to install.
Is there any way I can somehow block this one app from being updated or put it on a no update lust or something?
I don't like to have my apps auto-update.
Is there really no way to do this?
I would really like to know this too...

Is it possible to make a specific app never update?

Hi, I would like to know if there is a way to stop a specific applicaiton from updating. (that is not the disable automatic updates and manually update)
Some applications are frequently updated, and eventually you can reach a point where you have many programs wanting to update, and then 1 or 2 programs which you never want to update because the developer decided to remove a feature for no reason, or made a change that breaks compatibility with some devices.
Overall, I would like to be able to use the "Update All" button without having to worry about it updating the 1 or 2 applications that I never want updated.
When you press the update all button, it opens a popup saying that you disabled updated for certain app. It then asks if you still want to update it or skip it. Not automatic, but does the job
Sent from my SGP311 using Tapatalk

[Q] Is there any way to exclude a single app from "Update All"?

I have a HTC M8 running Lollypop.
Recently, one of my most-used apps got an update that is horrible, it completely changed the UI for the worst, is buggy, and removes many features. I couldn't stand it and downgraded back to the previous version.
Problem is, now the update appears in Google Play, and if I hit "Update All" it will try to update it again. Is there any to exclude just this one app from the Update All button, and allow all my other apps to keep getting updated?
Note that I am NOT talking about Auto-Update, which every single attempt to Google about this brought up. I am talking about manually being able to hit Update All but excluding specific apps from being updated that way.
Titanium Backup has a function "Detach user & system apps from Market". I've never used it but it may be what you're looking for.

Question Unknown background app running during system updates

I updated my Pixel 6 to Android 13. I was aware that you can use the phone while it's updating in the background. So, in the process, I customized some settings. However, when I tried to go back by showing all running background apps (swiping up), the System Update Settings app was gone and a "Google Confidential" app was running in the background. Tried tapping it but nothing showed up. So, I went through the settings > system update again, and found out that it was still "updating and installing". When I tried to tap the "Google confidential app" while the System update tab was now present in my recent apps navigation (swipe up), it just redirected me to the System update tab "installing updates".
Any chances that the update can get corrupted? Are there ways to verify integrity of files/updates?
UPDATE: Installed Android 13 and June update successfully. Phone asked me to restart per update. It would say if something's wrong with update, wouldn't it? Also, is the Google Confidential background app normal (it looked like a gear icon with a G and a red "confidential" word on top of it)? It showed up only during the system updates. I can't seem to find any reference/mention of it online.
Thank you in advance.
raygncio said:
I updated my Pixel 6 to Android 13. I was aware that you can use the phone while it's updating in the background. So, in the process, I customized some settings. However, when I tried to go back by showing all running background apps (swiping up), the System Update Settings app was gone and a "Google Confidential" app was running in the background. Tried tapping it but nothing showed up. So, I went through the settings > system update again, and found out that it was still "updating and installing".
Any chances that the update can get corrupted? Are there ways to verify integrity of files/updates?
UPDATE: Installed Android 13 and June update successfully. Phone asked me to restart per update. It would say if something's wrong with update, wouldn't it? Also, is the Google Confidential background app normal (it looked like a gear icon with a G and a red "confidential" word on top of it)? It showed up only during the system updates. I can't seem to find any reference/mention of it online.
Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say for sure, but that doesn't sound right. Perhaps it really is a Google app, but usually they cover up their spyware by packaging it into innocent looking apps with cute colors. I can't find anything online either.
ethical_haquer said:
I can't say for sure, but that doesn't sound right. Perhaps it really is a Google app, but usually they cover up their spyware by packaging it into innocent looking apps with cute colors. I can't find anything online either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try to screenshot it when a system update comes up. Actually, when I tapped it while the System update tab was present in my recent apps navigation (swipe up), it just redirected me to the System update tab "installing updates".
Edit: I actually found it again after I restored my contacts. See photos below
raygncio said:
I'll try to screenshot it when a system update comes up. Actually, when I tapped it while the System update tab was present in my recent apps navigation (swipe up), it just redirected me to the System update tab "installing updates".
Edit: I actually found it again after I restored my contacts. See photos below
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that's authentic. Just by looking at the font used on "Confidential". But than again, it could be what Google really looks like. Not quite as innocent looking as these :
It's unlikely that the update itself got corrupted, as your Pixel 6 successfully installed Android 13 and the June update. If there were any issues with the update, your phone would typically notify you or display an error message.
As for the "Google Confidential" app appearing during the system update process, it's not a standard feature or app that I'm familiar with. It's possible that it was a temporary placeholder or a bug in the user interface during the update process. Since you can't find any references or mentions of it online, it may have been a unique occurrence on your device.
To verify the integrity of files and updates on your Pixel 6, you can perform a few checks:
Reboot your device: After the update is complete, restart your phone to ensure all the new system files are properly loaded.
Check for system update status: Go to Settings > System > System update and confirm that there are no pending updates or error messages. If everything looks normal, it indicates that the update was successful.
Test system functionality: After the update, use your device as you normally would and pay attention to any unusual behavior. If you encounter any significant issues or errors, it's recommended to contact Google support or visit an authorized service center for assistance.
Overall, since your update was successful and you haven't experienced any noticeable problems apart from the "Google Confidential" app during the update process, it's unlikely that there is a major issue. However, if you continue to encounter unusual behavior or have concerns, it's best to reach out to Google support or the appropriate channels for further assistance specific to your Pixel device.
Hmm the google confidential thing looks a bit off.
I would try to find the full package name and install path to atleast get an idea of what it is or if it's legit?
De-Bloater | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
Use the power of Magisk to de-bloat system applications systemless-ly
f-droid.org
debloater should find it and show some info atleast.
This application looks suspicious. Check its behaviour and what permissions it requires. Install some anti-virus app and run a scan of your entire phone.

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