Update of "Google Play Services"

Beerman

Hello!

I just got the message from the Play Store that the "Google Play Services" should be updated.

I canceled this because I thought that the "Apps" app should do this.

But should I get the message at all? Shouldn't this update be blocked? In the documentation it says

"Our compatibility layer supports the Play Store updating itself and also Play services but we've chosen to block it from being able to update them in order to ship the updates through our repository after testing them."

Or could I have done the update through the Play Store?

Thx! :)

matchboxbananasynergy

Beerman The update prompt that you saw was not for a new version of those apps. It just wanted to download a language pack or other useful things.

Those apps are indeed blocked from actually updating the versions of these apps, and the same now applies for other sources like Aurora Store.

It is safe to update from within the play store. Feel free to do it next time you're prompted.

Thanks for the great question! I hope this helps.

GrapheneOS

Beerman We don't block updates of GSF / Play Store / Play services via the Play Store. We do configure it to update to the same version that's already installed. This works well with GmsCompatConfig v16 and above. There was a server-side change causing the previous approach not to work anymore, but it wasn't a significant issue since we do support the latest Play services / Play Store it updates to at the moment. It's still experimental though.

Beerman

matchboxbananasynergy

Thank you, for the prompt reply! :)

Beerman

matchboxbananasynergy

Hi,
I got the message in the play store again yesterday, I did the update now.
But now I saw in the "Apps" app that I have a different (newer?) version.

latest
224113044

Installed
224312044

Normal behavior?

Thx! :)

matchboxbananasynergy

Beerman Hi, thank you for getting back to us with this update.

That is not intended behavior. Up until very recently, the version number should have stayed the same. A potential fix for this is already in the works. You shouldn't encounter too many issues because of this, however.

GrapheneOS

Beerman GmsCompatConfig resolved the issue causing the Play Store to update the version beyond what's supported which was shipped as an update via our app repository in the stable channel recently and is also included in the latest release of the OS.

Beerman

Thx, for this quick response!

kyuweftea

Is there a way to get Google Play Services back to the supported version? It's crashing sometimes with a bluetooth-related error, and I'm not able to set up a new profile with Play Services. If this isn't possible, when is Apps scheduled to release version 224417044?

matchboxbananasynergy

kyuweftea I believe that you could do this by uninstalling play store and play services (NOT Google Services Framework) from all of your profiles, and then installing the current stable version via "Apps". However, I believe the next versions are being tested in the alpha channel (don't quote me on that), so if you're getting a crash, it might be important to properly report that with logs so that it can be looked into.

GrapheneOS

matchboxbananasynergy Uninstalling / reinstalling Google Play services and Google Play Store is the correct approach. Uninstalling / reinstalling GSF is unnecessary since the Play Store doesn't update it in practice and it only gets updates as part of major Android OS releases. Uninstalling GSF will break apps directly depending on it including many apps using Play services, and they won't be fixed by reinstalling it, so you'd need to uninstall/reinstall those apps too if you did that.

Beerman

GrapheneOS

Thank you for the information and the quick fix!

The update has not yet arrived on my phone, so have not been able to install it yet.
Since I am now already at least 2 versions ahead, I hope that this is not a problem with the update of GmsCompatConfig. But this version of "Google Play Services" runs so far without problems.

And thanks to all involved for this great OS and great support!

Beerman

Hello,
it seems that the "Google Play services" have been automatically updated again, probably from the Play Store.
According to the details page, the "Google Play services" was updated on December 2.
I now have version 224517044 installed. (The latest should be 224417044).

Is this a problem? What can I do to prevent this from happening?

Thanks a lot!

mythodical

Beerman it shouldn't be a problem, unless Google added or changed something that hasn't yet been accounted for in GrapheneOS's compatibility layer. The Play components made available through the GrapheneOS Apps store, are the same APKs from the official Play store. Their installation is usually restricted from the other stores simply to allow GOS developers some time to ensure compatibility is maintained when they are updated.

kyuweftea

Beerman Same thing happened to me recently, so I followed @GrapheneOS 's instructions above, uninstalling in all profiles and then reinstalling from Apps.

muhomorr

Beerman Which device and OS version are you on?

kyuweftea

muhomorr Pixel 5a with TP1A.221105.002.2022113000 . Not sure exactly when play services was updated in the background, but I first noticed when checking it after the recent OS update.

Beerman

muhomorr
P7P
Now: TD1A.221105.001.2022120300
At the time of the "Google Play services" update: TD1A.221105.001.2022112500

AtriumCompound
Basically a good idea, the only question is how long you have to wait... You can't use the store, as long as you wait for the update through the "APPS" app

Did the fix actually not work?

AtriumCompound

Running into the same issue once I allowed play services to update from the play store. Now that the play store can auto update play services it does so. One idea I had was to disable all updates from the play store app by disabling networking until the next update was available from the grapheneos apps repository. After updating from the GOS apps repository, only it would have unattended update permission - at least in theory, and play store wouldn't be able to jump ahead.

AtriumCompound

Latest update fixed this issue