Completely uninstall and reinstall Android app on update?

Question

I want to publish a new version of my app. But I want it to reinstall again.

Like first uninstall and then install(like first time installation). Is there anyway that I can do it? Or force users to first uninstall the app?

Answer 1

If you sign the new apk with a different key, users will hit an error when they try to upgrade an existing installation. That's probably the easiest way to do it without changing the package name.

Answer 2

As Jens said you can't do this really unless you reinstall with a different package name (not a good idea either.) You have to detect your version and manually reset your preferences etc. if you need to. This is a pretty annoying feature of android. I've been developing a mapping application that has the exact same problem with storing some of the background data.

You can usually check where your preferences get created for the first time. A lot of people do a if(preference !=null) to set them up, since in a pre-installed app you already have that preference in the bundle it will not update or generate a new one.

Try setting the preference checker to be if(preference != newValueOfPreference)

If that's not how your bundle data is generated on install you'll have to find out how it is generated and get at that hook.