[FIXED] Some Fully Managed devices unable to update Play Store version

[Lizzie]

Updated: February 22nd, 2024

Issue:

Some Fully Managed devices running Android 11 and below have received a version of the Play Store that cannot self-update to the newest versions.

Work Profile devices, including both personally and company-owned devices, are not impacted.

Affected devices can still install and update other applications as normal.

This issue can be verified on the device, by long pressing the Play Store icon and tapping the info icon.  Impacted devices will have the Play Store version 35.2.19 or below.

Bugreports from these devices may also show entries as follows when attempting to update.

“PackageManager: Package com.android.vending signatures do not match previously installed version; ignoring!”

Current status: 

A fix has been applied to prevent additional Fully Managed devices getting into this state.

A recovery version of the Play Store has been developed that will correctly install on the affected devices. This is a minimal version that has one purpose: to immediately self-update to the correct, regular version of the Play Store.
This recovery version of the Play Store began rollout on Dec 8, 2023 and is now complete. Not all devices could be recovered in this way.
Note that if a device has DISALLOW_UNINSTALL_APPS restriction set then the recovery service will not be able to complete. The device will show an app named "Play Store Recovery Service" in place of the Play Store and the version code of com.android.vending will be 83540000. Remove this restriction from any such devices for 24 hours and the recovery service will complete successfully.

Workarounds:

On some devices, users can manually resolve the problem for their device by following these steps:

1. Long press the Play Store icon on the home screen.
2. Choose “App Info”
3. Tap the three dots in the top right corner 
4. Uninstall Updates -> Ok
5. Open the Play Store -> Menu Icon -> Settings -> Play Store version
6. Click Update Play Store

Message “A new version will be installed shortly”

     7. Close Play. A successful update should occur within the next few hours.

If DISALLOW_APPS_CONTROL or DISALLOW_UNINSTALL_APPS are set then the user will not be able to apply this manual workaround.

Previous update:

Read more

October 26th, 2023

Issue:

Some Fully Managed devices running Android 11 and below have received a version of the Play Store that cannot self-update to the newest versions.

Work Profile devices, including both personally and company-owned devices, are not impacted.

Affected devices can still install and update other applications as normal.

This issue can be verified on the device, by long pressing the Play Store icon and tapping the info icon.  Impacted devices will have the Play Store version 35.2.19 or below.

Bugreports from these devices may also show entries as follows when attempting to update.

“PackageManager: Package com.android.vending signatures do not match previously installed version; ignoring!”

Current status: 

A fix has been applied to prevent additional Fully Managed devices getting into this state.

We have also temporarily turned off the self-update ability for Play Store on the affected devices.

Engineering is currently researching a scaled solution to revert the Play Store to an updateable version.

Workarounds:

We don’t suggest applying any workarounds until we have exhausted the options for a scaled solution. However, if you have users who are experiencing issues now, please contact your EMM provider for support.

If needed, users can manually resolve the problem for their device by following these steps:

1. Long press the Play Store icon on the home screen.
2. Choose “App Info”
3. Tap the three dots in the top right corner 
4. Uninstall Updates -> Ok
5. Open the Play Store -> Menu Icon -> Settings -> Play Store version
6. Click Update Play Store

Message “A new version will be installed shortly”

     7. Close Play. A successful update should occur within the next few hours.

If DISALLOW_APPS_CONTROL or DISALLOW_UNINSTALL_APPS are set then the user will not be able to apply this manual workaround.

*Post updated, Oct 30th: workaround link to help guide removed and steps added directly to article

[jasonbayton]

Devil's advocate, but what's the reasoning behind it only impacting fully managed devices? What's happening on the backend that sees the version of Play offered up being presumably one signature for FM, another for WP? Or, if signature issues are more of a red herring than root cause, where do the differences lie that WP devices can work around this problem?

[Lizzie]

Hey @jasonbayton, 

It's a good question, I don't have the answer to this I afraid. 🤔 Our engineers are busy researching the scaled solution at the moment, but if I gather any more information I'll be sure to share as much as I can. 

Thank you,

Lizzie

[jeremy]

I've tested this behaviour with an app a few month ago for a client, and the app will refuse to install if the same app with a different signature is already installed in the other profile.

[jasonbayton]

Yeah, this is why I'm asking. The package is shared across profiles so I'm curious what's different about WP envs to FM

[jeremy]

Probably that the play store could not be updated to the broken version in case of WP, but that's just my idea

[ancalabrese]

@jasonbayton , work profiles are not impacted because the problem is casued at provisioning time. 

Work profile provisioning takes a different path that doesn't have the same conditions that cause this issue.

Hope this clarifies a bit.  

[jasonbayton]

Hi @ancalabrese!

Nope not really, this doesn't explain why a device Play Store app could have a differing signature between ownership types to cause an update signature mismatch.

[gareth]

On Fully Managed devices the Play Store needs to be updated during setup wizard. The Play Store self-update mechanism is not active at this time, so the Play Store is updated by the DPC support library using a different mechanism.

On Work Profile devices the Play Store is already up to date, as it self-updates as soon as setup wizard is complete.

[netodomenico]

Hi @Lizzie, thank you for your informazion. Any idea on how to solve the issue, remotely, on devices which are set in fully managed mode with a custom app installed and running in kiosk mode?

I desperately tried issuing a command using Android Management API with CLEAR_APP_DATA type on com.android.vending package name (Google Play Store), but I think it's disallowed from system policy. That's because I found that on a device the "Google Play Store" became "Play Store Recovery Service", but just a tap on it recovered the app and made it start working again.

Thank you.

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

A fix has now be rolled out for this issue: Some Fully Managed devices unable to update Play Store version. I've updated the details above. 

Thank you for your patience here. 

Lizzie

@netodomenico, hopefully the information above helps to resolve this, let me know if you are still experiencing difficulties. Thanks so much. 

[netodomenico]

Hi @Lizzie, thank you for your reply.

You said «Work Profile devices, including both personally and company-owned devices, are not impacted» but in my case company-owned devices are partially impacted (85 devices, precisely). You also said «Impacted devices will have the Play Store version 35.2.19 or below» and my devices are in the 35.4.00 20231120 version but the Play Store Recovery Service version code matches (83540000). «Affected devices can still install and update other applications as normal» but still not in my case.

In fact, however, I had set the uninstallAppsDisabled property (in Android Management API, for Policy entity) to true, and I'm trying to fix the issue by switching it to false. I don't know if the property you pointed out corresponds to mine, I hope this could be enough.

Thank you a lot for your support,

I hope to give you good news soon.