Ionic Deploy not updating some users

Ionic Framework ionic-v3
1

I published a binary with the cordova-plugin-ionic version 3.1.3 and the update_method set to “background”

<plugin name="cordova-plugin-ionic" spec="^3.1.3">
        <variable name="APP_ID" value="..." />
        <variable name="CHANNEL_NAME" value="Production" />
        <variable name="UPDATE_METHOD" value="background" />
        <variable name="MAX_STORE" value="2" />
        <variable name="WARN_DEBUG" value="true" />
        <variable name="UPDATE_API" value="https://api.ionicjs.com" />
    </plugin>

My binary displays version 2.3.0 in my login screen. (my current version of the app at publish time)
I then deployed several updates using Ionic Pro Deploy which should display higher versions. The problem is that some users get the 2.4.5 update and some never move from 2.3.0. I asked some of these users to shut down and restart the app a few times to make sure “background” mode had a chance to download the update and apply it but they are always stuck on the binary version. Three of my users told me they are on Android. No problems on iOS was reported so far. Why are some users getting my deploy updates and not others?

Any ideas?

2

I have found a work around but it’s not pretty. To allow the deploy to apply, the Android user needs to go into Settings, App, (your app), Storage, Clear Data. If they start the app again, the deploy will kick in an work properly. I have no idea why this is but I’m hoping it won’t happen again once I publish a new binary with the latest Deploy plugin. As a safety measure, I now send the current app version in the header of all transactions to my server so that I can track who is using which version of which deploy. This will allow me to see if anyone stays stuck on a binary which doesn’t apply the latest deploy. (I’m never sure what term to use to designate the content loaded from a Deploy. I know the version you publish to the App Stores are called the Binaries but what do you call the content you publish with Ionic Deploy?).