F-Droid @lemmy.ml QuazarOmega @lemy.lol 12 mo. ago

How can I get automatic installation of updates?

I've mostly been using the official F-droid app, but I've become tired of having to click install every single time there's a new update for an app.
On a new phone I tried starting right away with Neo Store, which I know has that functionality, and in fact I haven't had to confirm installation of updates since on there, but on my old devices where I started with F-droid how can I get that to work?
I believe I read somewhere that for this to work, the apps I want to update automatically need to be installed the first time from within the same app and, even then, only some apps that target Android SDKs from a certain point forward support that, so not all can benefit from this feature.
So how can I make this change, do I have to uninstall every application from F-droid I have and reinstall them from Neo Store or is there an easier way?

Edit: One other thing, even in Neo Store it seems I can't update without confirmation if I manually update only one app at a time and instead it works if I let it update everything by having "Auto-update" enabled

20 comments

Install fdroid basic, droidify, etc and use that to update apps. Your old apps will require one manual update to tell the system that the new client is handling the updates but after that the app will start auto updating. So its a pain but could be worse
- Oh, that sounds good, I have to try
  
  I believe, this requires Android 13. Your old phone might not have that...
- Yes that's the right way. It works mostly without issues here since some months. Personally I have changed from Droid-ify to F-Droid basic since auto update stopped at some point with Droid-ify where it worked before. I have no idea why. Neo-store has issues in the stable branch with notifications.
droidify could save you time https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify but may consume more battery life than the default f-droid app

https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify/
- It should be on par with Neo Store right? Either should be fine for this functionality.
  
  personal bitchy rant
  
  actually I would use Droid-ify, but I can't stand not having the bottom navigation, while Neo Store has it... and too much of it to a certain extent, as well as slapping nonstandard components everywhere making a really incoherent UI, but I'll take that over no bottom navigation any day
  
  Btw, your link seems to be broken for me https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify/
  
  Btw, your link seems to be broken for me https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.looker.droidify/
  
  Link works for me today. If you go to https://www.f-droid.org and type droidify in the search field, does it give you results ?
Fdroid > settings > automatically install updates
- I see an "Automatically fetch updates", its description says that it will download them and prompt me to install them, what I would like is to go to download any single app I want and then not have to also confirm to install
  
  Are you rooted or non-root? Custom OS?
I always thought you needed root for auto updates to work. I just turned it on in droidify, gonna see if it works next time there is an update.
- Yeah it should be working if your Android version is compatible
f-droid -> expert mode -> privileged extension (turned on)

But you need to install f-droid with privileged extension, which is easy on LOS and derivatives/forks, but not sure on things like grapheneOS/calyxOS/pure android...
FYI, if you install another F-droid client on the older devices, the apps installed with the official client will still be receiving updates through the new one.
- Yes they do, but I see them asking me to install anyway

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