From a few app updates ago our app doesn’t always show the latest UI on Android devices. The version number in Google Play shows as the latest version but the UI definitely isn’t. New features are not there in the app on the device.
Yesterday morning one such user’s app wasn’t showing a new feature. Then they opened their app up again and the feature was there. An hour or so later the feature had disappeared.
My app, along with about 50% of Android app users are not seeing this issue. For the others, Google Play is showing an app update is available. When they carry out the update the version number updates but the actual app features and UI do not. The issue isn’t affecting iOS or Web.
Google Play Console support have been looking into this but cannot find any issues.
I’m getting nowhere fast. Has anyone else experienced this issue, or, does anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing this?
Thanks in advance, off the tear out what hair that I have left.
This afternoon we deleted the Android platform and rebuilt it. Uploaded the app update to Google Play. It made no difference. Some users are installing the update but are not seeing the UI and feature updates but some users are seeing the updated UI.
It’s almost as if the device is caching the old app UI.
Surely we’re not the only ones to experience this? Surely !!
That is definitely bizarre. A shot in the dark, I wonder if it has anything to do with the Optimizations Google announced in June.
Optimization can be turned off in Google Play Console → Setup → Advanced settings → App optimization.
P.S. Cool to know about Connect My Club. I am part of a cycling club over here in the US and would love to have something like this 
Thanks for the reply @twestrick I’ll take a look.
What I’ve asked a few of our more helpful users to do with this app update is to clear their app cache and storage, again! and that seems to be doing the trick.
connectMyClub is for UK based triathlon, and running clubs, and cycling clubs, I guess. We only operate in the UK, at the moment. But thank you for the nice comment though.
Oh, another thought which is more probable. If clearing the app cache is working, then I would guess it has something to do with your build process not creating unique file names each build. For example, my index.html file has the main script being included as:
<script type="module" crossorigin src="/assets/index-Clr8t-CE.js"></script>
And all other JS assets have a random string at the end of the file name.
Have you looked at your build process? What JS framework and bundler/tooling are you using?
Good thought. I’m using Ionic Capacitor Angular. I’ve checked this and new file hashing is created. But I will double check tomorrow. Thanks for the idea.
Our iOS and PWA/web version are not experiencing the same issue. They update without any issue.
A spanner in the works. Clearing cache and data/storage isn’t working for all Android users.
They tell me that they have cleared app cache and data. Uninstalled and reinstalled the app. Still the old app UI.
@twestrick our build process is creating new files with updated unique file names.
We’ve had another user this morning update their app by clearing data/storage and cache then updating… and another who that process hasn’t worked for.
