Downgrade an app

Using /e/OS
,
1

Hi,

Is there a way to downgrade an application using Apps?

I’ve run in to a severe bug in the Nextcloud application, on their forums they recommend downgrading to a previous version until the bug is fixed. That sounds good, but is it possible within the app Apps?

2

no, you could try let F-Droid manage that App (and ignore the others it lists updates for), it can pick past versions - https://forum.f-droid.org/t/how-to-downgrade-an-app-with-f-droid-store/4643

1 Like
3

Even with F-Droid, to downgrade to an earlier version you have to uninstall the newer version first

2 Likes
4

F-droid’s older version is really old. I did try with Aurora, where you can specify the version to download, but I got “invalid APK”… I ended up using a different app (Files) to access Nextcloud’s downloaded files. I will probably end up using Syncthing for more reliability on important files (like train tickets).

Thanks for the help.

P.S. Just saw this message warning about downgrading this specific app (Nextcloud): https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/12775#issuecomment-2030852767

Advice: do not try to downgrade by removing the App and installing from F-Droid! All your sync data in the Android device will gone locally and you will need to re-sync everything.

5

hm, you could roll foward to 3.28.2 via obtanium getting it from github release pages?

f-droid had that version bump, but apparently something is clogged (the build pipeline looked good though). There can be considerable delay still.

1 Like
6

I didn’t know about Obtainium, thanks. I tried it, but when installing/updating the Nextcloud app, I got an error “conflict Nextcloud”. (I’m guessing I might need to uninstall the current version of the app first).

I’ll wait it out just a bit. I managed to get my documents on the phone for my travel, and watch out for updates.

Thanks everyone for all the tips, I see there are quite a few ways to get around things, all this with a strange NC bug (really not often).

7

I can’t shutup on apk security: this is because of the particular key being used when signing the apk. The apks on nextclouds github and in the gplay store have the publishers (nextcloud) key signature.

The fdroid nextcloud client app (and the first pick by AppLounges search&install ordering) is signed with the FDroid key.

They do apply the publisher key though when the build is marked with AllowedAPKSigningKeys and checked if reproducible. That’s neat, but not used yet for ‘com.nextcloud.client’.

Can’t go on the same appid from one signing key to the other (there’s a gplay store / apk mechanism where this is possible though as caveat to my simplification).

Uninstall is needed to switch keys mainly (having trust in the apks being assumed when doing so).

(Edit: the nextcloud 3.28.2 f-droid update is up now, it really took a little less than 6 days after successful build)

1 Like
8

I was just going to reply about 3.28.2 being available. Issue solved. \o/