Google Play and F-droid tango in MAD (Mutually assured destruction)?

alienheartbeat

Recently installed GOS for the 1st time,
and installed many apps I have long used from from G Play store.
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/27349-for-the-cautious-but-irritated-moving-to-gos

Now just installed F-droid and F-droid basic.

Both immediately tried to update the Fossify apps that I had installed from the G play store.
which will obviously at some point cause update lockup.

Searching on this, I found many complaining that G Play also tries to update apps installed
from F-droid, which will obviously at some point also cause update lockup,
but found no real solutions.

Does anyone have any good solutions to this?

The first bad solution I can think of is to install no apps that appear in both.
This would rule out, for example, all Fossify apps.

A second bad solution is to disable automatic app updating, and update each app manually from the correct place. But at some point one is bound to make a mistake, again leading to update lockup.

So for the moment I've regretfully disabled F-droid and F-Droid Basic.

Anybody have any non-bad solutions?

GrouchyGrape

alienheartbeat Does anyone have any good solutions to this?

You asked for a solution, I gave you one. You don't have to like it.

alienheartbeat

Trying ideas, I opened F-Droid and it listed the apps it knew from the G Play store - 15.
I noticed I can one by one request it to ignore updates for these apps.

This should work,
provided i remember each time I install an app from G Play to check if F-Droid also recognizes it
and request it to ignore all updates (which will require me to eat more blueberries, give up alcohol
and get 8 hours sleep every night).
Not a great solution, but less bad than the others.

Does G Play still try to update F-droid apps - as there seems to be no way to get G Play to be equally polite and ignore updates for an app?

GrouchyGrape

alienheartbeat you could start by avoiding f-droid entirely because they ignore basic development/security hygiene. Try to get the app directly from the developer or the play store if you can't.

alienheartbeat

In fact there are many posts enumerating the Pluses, Minuses, Evils and Risks
of each possible source of apps,
and I think the studious and diligent OP has read many of them and made his own informed decisions.

But I think this studious and diligent OP's actual question was whether anyone had found a way
to get G Play and F-droid to live together politely and efficiently?

GrouchyGrape

alienheartbeat the issue you're running into is one symptom of f-droid not following basic best practices, hence the advice to simply avoid it. Nearly every app I find on f-droid has a link to the source code where the app is available from the developer.

alienheartbeat

GrouchyGrape

You have made your interesting views very clear, and I have dutifully inscribed them into the wall outside my apartment.

However the OP's (me) question remains outstanding and invites replies that actually address the actual question.

Norkeyout

Google Play will not update an app installed by another store, unless this store is uninstalled and thus the app becomes "orphaned" (the line "installed from" will disappear from this app info page).

I don't know if F-Droid do the same. So you can try to install common apps with F-Droid and keep Google Play for exclusive apps

alienheartbeat

Norkeyout
Thanks Norkeyout.

Yes, seems that G Play behaviour has changed since the complaints in 2024.
Just tested with an app (Mullvad) available in F-Droid and G Play, but installed by F-droid.
G Play noted the app didnt come from G Play but did offer the options to update from G Play or Uninstall.

However, even though the version in G Play (2025.10) was later than the version from F-droid (2025.6)
G Play didnt include it in its ready to update list.

When I turned on Automatic Updates in G Play,
and then looked in individual apps, apps installed from G play had them checked,
but apps installed from F-droid were not checked - though the option to check them was available.

So it seems, in this instance, and unexpectedly, G Play is behaving slightly better than F-Droid
(see the 1st post: F-droid does by default try to update common apps unless I specifically uncheck them).

(fwiw, also tested Element X - but in this case G Play only offered to uninstall it, not update it).