App Lounge is not working again. Last week it worked for a few days, the weeks before that it did not. It’s the exact same error as has been years back, namely that you get the “Account unavailable” message for Anonymous mode, and pressing “Refresh session” does absolutely nothing. I also just did a fresh install of the latest official /e/OS on a Pixel 5, and already on first boot App Lounge doesn’t work.
But it makes me wonder, because now we are on /e/OS major version 3 now, and Android major version 15 coming up. Why hasn’t this been fixed after all these years? Being able to install and keep your apps updated is such a basic feature, that from a user perspective, I think this unreliability outweighs all other improvements made during the last years. Nothing else matters if you can’t install and update your apps. Some people say you should install Aurora Store and F-Droid separately instead. But well, why aren’t Aurora Store and F-Droid default stores in /e/OS then? I think the idea of App Lounge is good because of its simplicity, but it is without a doubt the most unreliable piece of software I have ever used. And you don’t have to scroll far back on this forum section to find people who are leaving /e/OS because of this major user experience flaw. There are tons of people who have problems with it.
So, in summary, when I time after time come back here and see /e/OS release notes and roadmaps talking about parental control, improved search experience, privacy reports, and what not, I am left astonished by the dev team’s priorities. Do you not understand that having a working base system is more important?
I tried it some minutes ago…guess what? It worked ;- ) For some questions perhaps also Google is the right address to ask because of the whole mechanism it requires to access Google Play Store.
I am on /e/OS for four years now and the only extended period (i.e. more than a few hours) of App Lounge refusing to work on my Fairphone 3 was some months ago (discussed in this forum in length). I temporarily used Aurora during the outage then, but frankly I encountered way more issues (anonymous login not working) there than ever with the App Lounge.
Working base system works fine … bearing in mind that I am using hardware effectively subsidised by G. Micro-G does a magnificent job to make the hardware usable.
Meanwhile /e/ build a product that is usable by those who would prefer to have nothing to do with the G menace.
I am curious, aside from the usual roughness, it should be on Google blocking/throttling either the anonymous or “real” accounts.
Could it be regions related if Google blocks more aggressively? For instance I could imagine that they are less strickt in the EU, or maybe they are equally strikt but aren’t collecting as much data hence they are not that aggressively in blocking.
Just some speculations, of course it probably not only depends on the country but also on the IP for instance in public Wifis the experience can often be worse or via Tor.
App lounge is buggy for several month on my fp4 and switched to aurora (works fine).
Just cleared app lounge cache, storage & logged out. Logged in as anonymous. now it worked and showed updates. Lets see for how long. Side by side comparison will continue.
It doesn’t work for me, and apparently not for a lot of other people here either.
Well, I didn’t say it was an easy problem, I said it was an important problem. Maybe Aurora are facing the same underlying issues, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is a problem that the community need to put very high up on the priority list if products like /e/OS are going to have any chance of expanding outside the nerd market.
Yes, /e/OS is of course a great initiative with lots of potential. That’s why I have two phones running it. But seeing as this problem persists from one major version to the other, and to yet another one, it makes you question the developers’ priorities. I see a lot of potential in /e/OS to be a system where you don’t have to trade user experience for the right to make your own online choices. But right now there is quite a bit left until we are there. But sure, if you just aim for something that technically works, then it’s great.
I am in the EU, on a home network without Tor.
Logging out and back in, clearing cache, rebooting, and even resetting the whole app, doesn’t make any difference. It’s the same as always.
When my OnePlus 9 (still on Android 12) and OnePlus 7pro (Android 13) are next to each on the same wifi: the 9 works fine, on the 7pro there is no way that the App Lounge works 19 out of 20 times. Very, very few attempts it does. Setups of both phones for the rest are exactly the same and clearing cache etc. doesn’t help. On the 7pro I use Aurora to update. That works.
@Marsupilami your account age is newer than AppLounges predecessor. That one used an apk mirror with remnants still around (used for f-droid search).
It had many other issues, but by degrees of dependence it was not as much a direct one on Google. Legal challenges make a mirror difficult to run, though technically they can be made more trustworthy.
I’d reintroduce a capability to fallback to another source for commercial apks.
Just install F-Droid and Aurora store and disable / uninstall App Lounge and enjoy life
Both have been working well for me for several years, with very few problems.Life is too short to waste on finding the faults in App Lounge!
now it worked and showed updates. Lets see for how long. Side by side comparison will continue.