Don’t Be Afraid of Google Play “Ghost Updates” Error
According to user reports, ghosts do not appear on the Google Play store.
Okay, not really. But it pushes a useless “ghost update” for seemingly no reason. Most of these updates relate to third-party Google apps like the G Board keyboard, YouTube, and Gmail, but recent reports include non-Google apps like Twitter.
These ghostly updates appear in the Google Play queue updates, but it looks like they are not doing anything. They have the same version number as the apps already installed on your device and are completely blank when you click on them to see more information – there are no patch notes or additional details on what the update includes …
You can check if your device is installing ghost updates by opening the Google Play Store app on your Android phone.
Open the sidebar menu and choose My Apps & Games> Updates . Here you will find a list of “pending” and “recently installed” applications / updates.
Usually the size of the update is listed under its name, but for ghost updates, the file size is not specified and the patch notes will be blank when you tap it to view the details. Oddly enough, ghost updates seem harmless, apart from the fact that they could potentially crash into your mobile data.
Even stranger is that Google hasn’t said anything about the ghost update issue.
This bug has been actively reported by users for at least a couple of months, but Google has not yet offered an explanation or solution. Android Police reports that Google even blocked recent forum discussions about this bug , so the company is clearly aware that something strange is going on . My guess is that the solution to the ghost update problem is low on Google’s priority list as it seems harmless at the moment. However, acknowledgment of the error would be appropriate given its widespread occurrence.
At the same time, if you are worried about ghost updates being entirely related to your data limitation , you can change your Google Play update settings so that apps are only updated at certain times.
- Open the Google Play Store app.
- Tap the three-line icon to open the sidebar menu, then scroll down and tap Settings.
- Tap Auto-update apps, then choose Wi-Fi only or Don’t update apps automatically. If you choose to turn off automatic updates, you will need to manually install pending updates each time a new one arrives.