Why isn't Trail Sense installation from Google Play Store getting updated?

[Gitoffthelawn]

Trail Sense was installed on an Android 16 device via Google Play Store not too long ago (maybe 1-2 months ago). IIRC, it was version 7.0.0.

Auto-updates are disabled in Google Play Store, but updates are manually checked and performed 1-2 times per day.

Trail Sense is currently at v7.1.0 on that device. The Trail Sense page in the Google Play store indicates the current release is v7.2.0 (updated on 2025/09/23). However, going in to the Google Play Store app and manually checking for updates does not show an update for Trail Sense. Clearing the data and cache for both Google Play Store and Google Play Services does not improve the situation.

On the other hand, going to Settings > Apps > Trail Sense does indicate an update is available (but one would never know unless they look there, which is unlikely, especially if hundreds of apps are installed on the device).

Do you happen to know what's going on? By any chance, is v7.2.0 a progressive release or involved in some A/B testing?

TIA

[kylecorry31]

Hi, I'm not seeing any issues on my end and that's the first time I've heard that issue with the Google Play version. The rollout is set to 100% and Google Play console doesn't indicate any problems. Unfortunately this sounds like a google play store app issue on your device that I don't have control over. I would recommend opening an issue on the Google Issue Tracker or Google's support.

When you sent to Settings > Apps > Trail Sense, were you able to perform an update? I didn't know that was a thing on Android, but would strongly suspect that it also uses Google Play to get that information.

[Gitoffthelawn]

Thank you for the info, and I apologize for the delay in responding.

Indeed, I think this is almost certainly a Google bug, and most likely a Google Play bug. I verified that Google Play does not only lose track of this app, but other apps as well. As a matter of fact, it loses track of more than 50% of the installed apps, and never recommends updating them. This can represent a significant security issue for some apps.

The only temporary workaround I have found is to completely clear Google Play's data and cache. That will temporarily fix Google's bug, but the bug will resurface in a short time.

When you sent to Settings > Apps > Trail Sense, were you able to perform an update? I didn't know that was a thing on Android, but would strongly suspect that it also uses Google Play to get that information.

This does work, which is odd given that Android seems to know there is an update available, but Google Play does not. It appears to be yet another example of the poor quality coding present in Google's closed-source apps.

[kylecorry31]

Thank you for the details - that's unfortunate. I've personally switched to Obtainium and getting APKs from GitHub releases (pretty much only applies to open source projects though) - there are only a few apps I still get from Google Play Store.