Google pauses Chrome 79 update on Android due to bug that deletes app data

Google has temporarily halted the update to Chrome 79 on Android after users and developers discovered that data in apps was missing. It concerned apps that used WebView in Android.

Version 79 of Chrome on Android was already distributed to 50 percent of users when it was put on hold, Google developers report on Chromium’s bug tracker. The problem is in not migrating localstorage, WebSQ and journal files for cookies and QuotaManager.

As a result, apps that work on the basis of WebView could not find their data. The data is still present in the file system. The developers of Chrome are still looking for a fix for the problem, but it would certainly take another week before it can be distributed to users after testing. The choice is whether to continue the migration with the missed files being written to new locations or to roll back the modification and move the migrated files to their old locations.

Many apps use Chrome’s WebView extension in Android to render web pages, and some apps are even based entirely on the component. It is unknown how many apps or users were actually affected by the issue.