App updates can bring new, useful features or remove a feature that is useful to us. If that’s the case, what do you usually do? Most likely, you search for the APK of the lower version and disable auto-update in the Play Store. While this works, it’s not always enough – mainly for two reasons. First, your app data may be lost, and second, you might accidentally update the app, so you may have to go through a re-downgrade. Now what if I told you there is a way you can permanently stop the app updates of a particular app? That would be great, wouldn’t it? So if you want to know more about it, Here’s how to permanently stop updates for any Android app without root:
note: I tried this method on my Moto G3 running Android 7.1.2 using my laptop running Windows 10 Pro with Android Studio 2.3.3.
Prerequisites to Stop Updates Permanently on Any Android App
To permanently stop updates for any Android app, you need to re-sign the APK of the app you want. But before that, there are a few things you need to ensure, which are mentioned below.
- you will need software that can view and extract compressed files and folders. I recommend WinRAR.
- you will need to have Android Studio is installed on your computer.
- Allow installation of apps from unknown sources on your Android device. For this, go to your phone’s Settings -> Security -> Unknown sources and turn this setting on.
Permanently Stop Updates for Any Android App
Now that your desired setup is ready for the procedure, you can get started by following the steps below.
- Browse to the path in the Android Studio folder where the “keytool.exe” file is located. You can do copy this for convenience in the next steps. If you kept the app’s installation path as default, it should be as follows:
C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\jre\bin
- Now open Command Prompt on your computer in administrator mode. To do this, press the Win + X keys on your keyboard followed by the ‘A’ key. If prompted, grant access to user account control. now you will have to change directory to the path you copied in the previous step. For example, if it was the same path as mentioned above, you would execute the following command:
cd C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\jre\bin
- Once in this directory, execute the following command:
keytool -genkey -v -keystore C:\first-key.keystore -alias an_alias_has_no_name -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000
note: You can replace “first-key” and “an_alias_has_no_name” with any name you prefer.
- You will now be asked to enter a few details. enter a password that you can remember. You can enter other details as convenient for you. When confirmation is requested, press ‘y’ on your keyboard and press Enter.
- The next step includes: download APK You can do this by searching for the App of the app version you want. APKMirror. Move this file to the folder you opened in the first step. I downloaded the APK for QuickPic v4.5.2 and even renamed it QuickPic.apk for convenience.
- Now open this APK file with file extractor opened in administrator mode. From now on, Delete the “META-INF” folder.
- Go back to the Command Prompt window and execute command given below. follow this by entering your password in the above steps.
jarsigner -verbose -sigalg SHA1withRSA -digestalg SHA1 -keystore C:\first-key.keystore QuickPic.apk an_alias_has_no_name
note: Replace “first-key” and “an_alias_has_no_name” with the names you used in the previous steps and replace “QuickPic.apk” with the name of your APK file.
- The previous step should have re-signed the APK file. Copy the file to your phone and install. To confirm, you can check the version of the app and open it in Play Store (you won’t get the update option).
SEE ALSO: How to Stop Automatically Installing Windows 10 Updates
Permanently Stop Updates for Specific Android App
With this method, you can permanently stop updates for any Android app on your device. Although this requires the use of several CMD commands, I have tried to explain the steps in an easy way. Other than this method, is there any other way you know of to stop the updates of any app on Android? Let me know in the comments section below.
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