Well currently, my Owner profile actually has nothing in it.
I want to change it to where owner profile is the "App Manager" for all the profiles.
There isn't much to mess up. Simply install the apps in Owner, then push them to whichever Secondary profiles you'd like them to be inside of.
I've configured my GoS phone many different ways. As I go along, ometimes i may find a need to change it up from what I've been doing. There aren't any wrong answers.
If you ever consider using any other than Owner profile, you are using too many privacy invasive apps.
spiral mine has nothing in it too. I understand what you want to do, I previously did that before I changed it up, and no I want to revert to that again. I didn't what to mess up the apps I already have set up in my driver profile, I wasn't sure if installing them in owner may mess up, potentially installing different versions to what I already have installed in my profile.
Install them into the owner profile using the same source which you installed them from in the secondary profile.
Example - if you installed the apps in Secondary using Play Store, simply use Play Store to install them into Owner. If GitHub, use GitHub.
Android will not let you install the same APK from different sources, if you try an error will be thrown. Whatever existing APK you install into owner must come from the same source as what was installed in Secondary AND must be at an equal-to or higher-than version number compared to what exists in Secondary.
If you have multiple apps installed into Secondary which come from multiple sources and you aren't sure which app came from where, you can view the App Store source for that app by long-pressing on the App, selecting "Info" and then scrolling nearly to the bottom. There, under "App details'" the app source should be listed.
Edit to add **
I suppose when it comes to appstores, I can delete them from the secondary profile once all is set up and just manage them from the owner profile?
I think you simply need to do a test run to see how it works.
You don't have to uninstall them from the secondary profile if you don't want to.
It doesn't matter in which profile an app is located. Wherever that app gets updated, it will get updated in all other profiles as well.
It also doesn't matter if you update the apps inside Owner, nor profile 2, nor profile 3, etc.. in whichever the app gets updated, it'll then be updated universally.
In my case, I want to have all my apps being updated in Owner SIMPLY because I want to be able to push apps to new profiles quickly and easily. With my current setup (Owner is blank, Profile 2 is daily driver with most of the apps/Play Store) I cannot easily install apps into other profiles. To install them in other profiles I would have to, for instance, 1) download the APK to a USB drive and manually move them 2) install Google Play Services THEN log into my Play account THEN download those same apps. All that instead of being inside Owner profile, going to Settings -> System -> Multiple users, and installing the apps from there.
spiral If I may try summarizing your setup:
If the above is correct, I have some follow-up questions:
When I wrote that my Owner profile is blank, I meant blank - there is currently nothing there. It looks exactly like a freshly-installed GoS Owner account.
Your description of my Owner and User profiles is what I want to change to, where the Owner profile would indeed not be blank.
Answering your questions:
Yes, this is what I want Owner to look like - essentially a package manager for the rest of the User profiles.
Already answered but to reiterate, when I wrote "blank" I meant totally blank. That is how my setup is now, which I've determined to be not ideal and would like to change.
The benefit from such a setup is: easier setup for User profiles.
I commonly use many of the same apps across profiles. Molly/Some type of keyboard/FairEmail/Protonmail etc.. Currently (in other words, with a blank Owner) it is tedious to configure User profiles which share common apps.
As you likely are aware, apps cannot be pushed from one User to another User, nor can they be pushed from any User to Owner. Apps can only be pushed from Owner -> User. Ergo, designating a User profile to be the package manager is limiting, at least so in my opinion. I will be changing my phone's setup to mirror pretty much exactly your description for "Owner Profile and Secondary Profile."
spiral Seems I've initially misunderstood you, thanks for the clarification.
I commonly use many of the same apps across profiles
On a related note, what are the use cases that benefit from having multiple instances of the same app across multiple profiles? For example, why would you have Molly installed in one profile and also in another? Is it so that you can use multiple accounts on the same app, on the same device?
Vagabond8630 I do this for some apps. Its a combination of using different accounts for some apps and trying to minimize how often I have to switch profiles for every little thing. For messengers like Molly, it makes a lot of sense since having to switch to another profile and then back every time I get a message would be a major aggravation.
As another example, I have a separate user profile for apps that require play services where I'm logged in. But I maintain a browser in my non-GPS profile strictly for logging into Google websites and using Google PWAs. The interface and functionality aren't as good as the full apps, but it's easier to switch to that than having to switch profiles constantly. Have I mentioned how much I hate switching profiles?!
