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Is there really no way of forcing an app update from the app store to do a complete reinstall? (say your database needs to be updated but you have no real need (or desire) to migrate existing data).

(I am wondering if the only way of getting a new version of an app on the device without the update function, is to complete remove the current app, give the updated (new) app a new namespace/identifyer and upload that from "scratch", and then hope the user will actually notice that the app is now a new app...).

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

mat
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The 2nd option seems like a bad idea, users wont have any idea that your app has a new "version" so wont go looking for it, so you would have to send them notifications telling them about it. I cant imagine you'd get a huge percentage of people changing over

If all you need to do is delete the old database and start again you can do that. This question has an answer for an sqlite database. Basically you just need to keep track of which version of the model the user has, and when they upgrade, you delete the old one and set up a new database from scratch

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wattson12
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  • Hi, thank you for your answer. So I guess there's no way to have the "update" automatically do a reinstall (where the old app is deleted)? – mat Aug 30 '12 at 11:19
  • as far as I'm aware there is no "fresh install" option when updating, but since your classes will be updated its only the data you are worried about. So you just need to clear out the old data, and set up as though the user was running the app for the very first time – wattson12 Aug 30 '12 at 11:43
  • Ok, it would just have been so easy :) - thanks. On a side note, how do you actually test the update process? Say you make multiple versions of your database during development and delete/update them as you go along, how do you test the update from the version in the app store to a version that's been through several iterations? It's one thing that the simulator does not crash, but it's another to guarantee that an update won't (let me know if I should move this to a seperate question). – mat Aug 30 '12 at 12:35
  • its easy enough (especially if you have version control). just roll back to an older version (with an older model/database), and install over the top of it from xcode – wattson12 Aug 30 '12 at 13:03