Check for Application Updates [webOS 1.x] 11
by Adam Marks Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:56 pm EDT
This tip is only for devices running webOS 1.x
Want to make sure you have the latest version of your favorite applications? Instead of searching one-by-one to find updates in the App Catalog, it's really easy to upgrade all your apps at once by following a few simple steps:
There are two ways to do it. One is to just hit the Updates app and refresh - if there are app updates, it will alert you and open up the App Catalog. Chances are, though, that you're in the App Catalog much more often, so there's a convenient way to do it there too.
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Open the App Catalog - On the main page, click on the Shopping Cart icon on the bottom right
- If there are any applications with a newer version, an "Install Updates" button will appear on the bottom right of the screen. Just tap that button to install all available updates
- If you want to update each app
individually, or just want to see which apps have an update, you can scroll through the list and look for the green down arrow and new version number on the right of the screen. To install the update immediately, tap that button. Or, you can click on the name of the app to bring up the App Description page and then click the "Update Available" button.
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11 Comments
Sweet, this is a useful tip. Everytime I run the Updates app, it tells me I have updates and then loads the cart and there are no updates. I didn't realize you could get to it straight from the App Catalog.
Thanks guys!
Same here. The built-in Updates utility *always* says there are app updates available.
That's a bug, caused by the Pre (or rather, your Palm Profile) thinking you have apps installed that you don't. Most likely this happened because you deleted the apps, but for some reason your profile never got updated, maybe because Backup isn't working correctly.
Mine had that problem for the longest time - the scheduled backups weren't running, and the Updates app always thought I had app updates available even when I didn't. After I Doctored my phone to bring it up to 1.4.5 before Sprint released the OTA update, the automatic redownload of all my app catalog apps from my Profile included a number of apps that I had deleted months ago. I was able to delete them again successfully, and now Updates only tells me there are application updates available when there really are. My daily backups are working again as well.
If you don't want to doctor, I remember seeing a post from a Palm employee in the Precentral forums saying that if you PMed him your Palm Profile's associated email address, he could tell you which apps were causing the phantom update messages so you could redownload them. Unfortunately I don't remember his user name, but it shouldn't be too hard with a little forum searching.
Adam, I love your tips, but it's really more of a shopping bag than a "cart"
I am also getting the phantom updates message when I use the Updates app. Run the app, tells there are updates, loads the catalog and there are no updates. Worked fine until a couple weeks ago. Would love to hear if anyone has a fix for this.
webOS needs to add in a way to alert you when app updates are available for download. I remember to check often but there is no way that casual users are in that habit.
That would be great.
I miss the original way the Pre showed you updates. In the old days (summer 2009 folks), when you went to the Updates app, it actually ONLY listed those apps which had updates. This was great and very similar to the way iPhones/iPod Touch/iPads do it with their app store on those devices. With a webOS update sometime last year, Palm changed that behavior to what is described above, which was a major let-down for me. I have so many apps on my device, I don't like wasting time scrolling down to see what apps actually have updates by looking for that little green arrow. The reason I want to know what apps have changed? So that I can tap on each of those apps to see what changes were made (so long as the author documented them in the app description). This wastes a lot of my time every day having to scroll through all my apps using the above method just to see what apps it is updating.
Here's another tip that kind of helps with my above dilemma: Open up Preware on the device and set it up so that it automatically updates all the feeds when it opens. Then, tap on "Package Updates". Within here it will list not only updated patches to install, but also any updates to your installed apps! You can then tap on each one and hit Update (Update All doesn't seem to work or do anything...), which then opens up a separate Palm App Catalog card showing you that application to see the author's notes (if any) as seen in the Palm app catalog, with the standard "Update Available" button on the bottom to have it update.
With this method, you have to do updates one by one, but at least it can give you a quick overview of what apps have been actually updated rather than having to scroll using Palm's method. If there are many updates, you can then just do the above method of updating your apps rather than this one-by-one business using Preware.
Also, I don't find this Preware trick to be 100% reliable, as I get some weird results on some apps when I tap on the Update button. For some reason it takes me to the app in Palm's catalog with no update actually showing (it just says tap to launch); whereas if I use Palm's method, the update shows. I have no idea why or how this happens...so just keep this in mind that this isn't 100% foolproof!
Palm...if your listening, PLEASE bring back the old behavior so that the updates work like Apple's app store. [I know I know...I shouldn't mention "THEM"] : )
The Update All problem is fixed in the latest testing feed version.
The weird results you sometimes see occur when an author goes against Palm's directions and uses the same application id for the app catalog and homebrew versions of their app.
-- Rod
The Palm Employee in the forums who found the problem apps is Hardbeatz (spelling?).
I think I'll ask for his help also. I use the shopping bag in the app store as the phantom updates message bugs me.
I got a new tip. You can search your contacts from universal search by typing the first letter of the first and last name. For example: if you had the contact chuck norris and typed cn in the universal search, his name will show up. I found this by accidentally typing bb.