Prevent automatic application updates. (EJ: Google Play Services)

Disabling the automatic update of your applications may seem illogical, because it is supposed to an update makes an app better, in addition to improving your security, something important. And so it should be, but it is not always the case. Sometimes the updates, beyond the errors that it corrects or news that it has, can bring new errors and / or eliminate features or functionalities that you used. In that case your alternative will be go back to the version of the application you had before looking for its APK. To avoid this, you may want to prevent your apps from updating on their own again.

How to disable automatic updates?

1. Simply open the Play Store application on your Android phone or tablet.
2. Tap the menu button in the upper left (the three horizontal stripes button).
3. “Setting”
4. “Update applications automatically”
5. Select the option “Do not update apps automatically” and tap on the “Done” button.

Some devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy, bring their own application store called Galaxy Store, in addition to the Play Store. This store also usually automatically updates the applications on your Android device, so you will have to go to its settings and deactivate the automatic update of apps in a similar way. On my Huawei, your app store AppGallery by default it is disabled, so I didn’t have to do anything.

Some applications from certain developers even bring their own update management app, as is the case with Facebook, Messenger e Instagram. The cause of these apps being updated, even if you have disabled app store updates, is Facebook APP Manager, which you will also want to disable.

Keep in mind that the automatic update will apply even to APKs that you have not downloaded from the Play Store. If they are APKs that the Play Store recognizes (for example, if the APK was extracted from there), then the store will ‘adopt’ them and update them anyway.

Prevent Google Play Services from updating

Even though you have disabled automatic updates in the previous way, Google Play Services may continue to update itself. Apparently, this app is updated when the Play Store opens. Therefore, on Reddit it is suggestedIn addition to deactivating auto updates (as indicated above), also deactivating the Play Store (System Settings, Applications, Google Play Store, Disable).

Another possible solution to prevent Google Play Services from updating is to block Internet access, using Firewall applications such as Netguard or Firewall without root.

Update APPS manually

If you find out that one of your favorite applications brings news that interests you in a new update, then you can manually update it only that app and only that time, keeping the rest blocked. For that, just open the Play Store, search for the app by its name and tap on the “Update” button.

Previously, it was also possible to activate the automatic update for a specific app, keeping the update of the rest deactivated, from the three-dot button at the top and activate the “Automatic update” box. However, I have tested this on my Huawei and doing so has re-enabled the general automatic update in the Play Store, so apparently there is no longer a way to activate the automatic update for a single app.

If you fear that after updating the application you will lose some feature that you use a lot, then you may want to make a backup of that version that you currently have. If you don’t like the new version or something is missing, then you can uninstall it and install the backup of the old app. For that you can use an APK Extractor application, of which there are several on Google Play. This app creates a copy of the application you have installed (without your data or settings).

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