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How can I stop Google play from automatically updating to the latest version? I tried deleting my hosts file but it's not being deleted. My phone is rooted.

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    @xavier_fakerat if Play Store is installed as user app or is updated at least once, try making its apk file immutable. If installd fails deleting existing file/directory, may be new one is not created. Or replace its privileged android.permission.INSTALL_PACKAGES with REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES (though doesn't make much sense). Or disable SafeSelfUpdateService and EmergencySelfUpdateService components of Play Store app (though app it self can enable them any time). Never tried any of these. Also may cause app crash.
    – Irfan Latif
    Jul 6, 2020 at 10:38
  • I tested disabling those 2 services through Apps2SD's App component manager, clicked on Update Play Store inside Play Store settings, and they remained disabled (Play Store didn't updatae).
    – Edw590
    Oct 26, 2022 at 18:44
  • Never mind, it did update the next day (and the services are still disabled according to Apps2SD).
    – Edw590
    Oct 29, 2022 at 12:36

7 Answers 7

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In order to disable Google Play Store:

  1. You must have version 4.8.2 installed (just replace it in /system/app with the new com.android.vending.apk).
  2. Download a root service from the store called Disable service (again make sure root is installed and the app is given root permission).
  3. Now, in the disable service app, navigate to the system app tab and find Google Play Store. Tap on it and you will get a list of services.
  4. Scroll to the bottom and uncheck Check Wi-Fi and Update service.
  5. You will see a Please wait notification, and at the bottom BusyBox should appear, notifying you that the app was given root access.
  6. Exit the app and voila! Google Play Store will never update itself or Google Play Services ever again (unless you install a new version, in which case you would need to repeat the process).
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    Where can I find version 4.8.2?
    – ceiling cat
    Oct 15, 2014 at 20:07
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First, you must have version 4.8.2 installed (just replace it in /system/app with the new com.android.vending.apk).

Instructions (from here):

  1. Root, install SuperSU.

  2. Install BusyBox, then terminal emulator.

  3. Stop any Internet access on your Android, or it will silently auto-update Store, making your hard typing work useless.

  4. Open Settings -> App manager and find Play Store. tap on it. It will open the properties window. There will be button Uninstall Updates. Tap on it, click Yes on Replace with factory version? question.

  5. Because there is no Internet connection, this is the moment the Play Store couldn't be updated. Let's use it.

  6. Open terminal emulator and type commands one by one:

    su

    (at this time SuperSU app will ask you for granting root access for terminal emulator app, click Grant access).

    touch /data/app/com.android.vending-1.apk
chattr +i /data/app/com.android.vending-1.apk

Enjoy! Regardless of Internet connection, Play Store now has the version you need, not Google. This might work for Play Store 4.8 and up, but I didn't test it.

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  • +1 The answer that actually works. Note that you may have to replace -1 with -2 if that already exists. (But don't go to -3!)
    – user541686
    Aug 13, 2016 at 18:44
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    This will not solve the problem, because it will keep downloading the whole thing into a temp folder again and again and again...
    – Emil
    Sep 2, 2017 at 17:49
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Jan 24, 2022 at 13:30
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A modified version of Stephen Schrauger's steps, based on the video here, since chmod +i returned an error on my phone. Tested on Android ICS (Cyanogenmod 9, Play Store 3.*).

Assuming a rooted phone:

  1. Stop whatever Internet access on your Android or it will silently auto-update Play Store, making your hard typing work useless.
  2. Open Settings → App manager and find Play Store. Tap on it. Tt will open properties window.
  3. There will be button Uninstall Updates. Tap on it, click yes on "replace with factory version?" question.

Because there is no Internet connection, this is the moment the Play Store can't be updated. Let's use it.

Open Terminal Emulator and type the commands one by one:

su

At this time supersu app will ask you for granting root access for Terminal Emulator app, click grant access.

mkdir /data/app/com.android.vending-1.apk

Instead of creating a file and preventing modification with permissions it just creates a directory, which can't be overwritten by the updater.

Now you can re-enable the internet connection and it will not update unless the directory is deleted.

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The ultimate guide to stop Play Store auto-updates on Android 10 & Lucky Patcher. My device: Xiaomi S2, Android 10, EU ported MIUI 12.0.8.

This guide assumes you have a custom recovery & Magisk installed. If not, then do it first. We're gonna go in 4 step process:

  1. SELinux permissive:

    First, go to Magisk manager & flash SELinux module. Follow the flashing instructions & set SELinux to permissive.

  2. Uninstall the original Play Store: Go to /data/app/com.android.vending folder (your device might have some random string name, so find the folder where Play Store is. It might be under the name base.apk/vending.apk/market.apk/playstore.apk), delete the folder using SD Maid app.

    [Note: I tried a bunch of other file managers like FX File Manager, Xplorer, Root Browser, but for some reason they did not work.]

  3. Delete the basic version of the Play Store from the system that automatically reinstalls: Using SD Maid, go to system/product/priv-app/Phonesky. This is the basic version, delete it.

    [Note: If for some reason you are having trouble with steps 2 & 3, then go to your custom recovery mount system partition & follow these steps from the custom recovery.]

  4. Now if you have a modded APK from Lucky Patcher, then place it in the Phonesky folder. If not, then install the modded Play Store from Lucky Patcher app. Take a backup of the modded Play Store using any backup app. Then place it in the Phonesky folder.

    Go to app manager from settings to see if it has been installed as a system app. If you can uninstall from settings, then do it. It will automatically reinstall the modded version.

    [Note: If Play Store still auto-updates, then repeat the process & then set the permission of Phonesky folder to r--r--r (444)

  1. Flash SELinux Magisk module & set SELinux to Enforcing.

Play Store will never auto-update itself again & Lucky Patcher will start working on Android 10. This trick can also be extended to Android 9 & 11.

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Some android apps depend on PlayStore and GooglePlayServices and therefore I would not advise to disable them. However, if the phone has ROOT (SuperSU or Magisk), it would be possible to mount system partition as Read/Write and modify the file /system/etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 localhost
0.0.0.0 android.clients.google.com
0.0.0.0 android.googleapis.com
0.0.0.0 app-measurement.com
0.0.0.0 connectivitycheck.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 dl.google.com
0.0.0.0 firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com
0.0.0.0 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
0.0.0.0 play.googleapis.com
0.0.0.0 play-fe.googleapis.com
0.0.0.0 play-lh.googleusercontent.com
0.0.0.0 r15---sn-n8v7kn7r.gvt1.com
0.0.0.0 r2---sn-n8v7knee.gvt1.com
0.0.0.0 r2---sn-n8v7znz7.gvt1.com
0.0.0.0 www.googleapis.com

This modification would prevent PlayStore from updating.

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  • So which of these lines are actually responsible for blocking a Play Store update? It would be nice to post only related lines. Will this also block an update of Play Services?
    – EvgenKo423
    Apr 12, 2022 at 14:45
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    I can't say for sure. I can only guess which lines are responsible for Play Store update. E.g the GVT in the gvt1.com domain stands for Google Video Transcoding, and is used as a cache server for content and downloads used by Google services and applications. *.googleapis.com is related to Google APIs and responsible for authentication. *.googleusercontent.com is some kind of cache. pagead2.googlesyndication.com is AdSense and may not be related to Play Store update.
    – Zagavarr
    Apr 13, 2022 at 22:03
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    app-measurement.com is responsible for collecting statistics from android apps. connectivitycheck.gstatic.com is a beacon used to check if android phone is on wifi or not. The remaining lines android.clients.google.com and dl.google.com may be responsible for blocking Play Store and Play Services updates.
    – Zagavarr
    Apr 13, 2022 at 22:03
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In the system folder there should be MarketUpdater.apk. If you delete that file, Play Store won't update itself anymore. Nothing else should be affected though.

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  • I couldn't find that file, I think they've discontinued it some time ago.
    – Emil
    Sep 14, 2017 at 20:22
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I found another approach to Google Play Store based on its dependency on built-in Download provider:

chmod 551 /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/cache
chmod 551 /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/files

make it impossible to update both Store and other programs (including Google Play Services) in my Lolipop 5.0.1. When I need to update third-party programs, I run Store, then file manager (I use X-plore), change permissions of folders back to 771, install found updates, return to file manager and set permissions to 551 again, at the end I close the Store. Quite simple and very reliable - no background updates of the Store and Services for two months.

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