question

schroedersIT avatar image
schroedersIT asked ·

Updating existing app with new certificate UWP

Hi,

I am developing a UWP application that is using the sideloading feature to install and update the application. My company recently got a new code signing cerrtifcate since the old one expired. With the new certificate some of the entries in the certificates subject field changed and with that the package family name.
That means that when I publish a new version of my app I get a prompt to install instead of update and a new independent instance of the app is installed. My main problem with this is the data that is stored in the apps local state folder that in my case contains settings and user generated data.
Is there any way to get around this problem and update my existing app or migrate the data of the old instance to the new?

Best regards
Alexander

windows-uwp
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1 Answer

RoyLi-MSFT avatar image
RoyLi-MSFT answered ·

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

Since the system considered the app as the new app due to that the app's package family name has been changed, that means common ways that storing the data will fail like roaming data and local data from this new app to the old app.

If you have a server, that will be easy to transfer data between the old app and the new app. Just uploading the data by user and download it for the new app. But if you don't have a server, you might need to use a complicated way. You might need to save the data files from the old app in some places like Document Library. Then pick the files in the new app and save them into the local folder of the New app.

Another way for this issue is that do not change the app's package family name when you try to change a new certificate. The package family name is computed from the package name and certificate's subject's hashed info, so if the certificate's subject keeps same, then the package family name will keep same as well.

Hope it helps.

Thanks.

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jtorjo avatar image jtorjo ·

Wow, this is BEYOND BAD.

Does anyone actually care about people TRYING to use UWP?

How can this possibly be acceptable?
It's not enough that Microsoft makes it close to impossible (I'm not kidding!) to develop outside the MS store, now this?

This is just getting worse and worse and worse...

1 Vote 1 · ·
RoyLi-MSFT avatar image RoyLi-MSFT jtorjo ·

I fully understand your feelings about this. Could you please submit feedback about this in the Feedback Hub? You could find it in the Start Menu. I'll report this to the team as well.

0 Votes 0 · ·
jtorjo avatar image jtorjo RoyLi-MSFT ·

Hi Roy,

Thanks for this - I know you're one of the good guys. I've reported it here - https://github.com/microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml/issues/1856 . I hate Feedback hub -- every time I would report something, it would be ignored. Anyway...

A few days after I've read this, I've actually updated my certificate -- I did not change any of the original certificate's fields. It took a few days, and when I got the new certificate, it worked correctly, same as the previous one (I would not need to change anything in my UWP app). Seems the changes the OP did altered somehow the certificate, thus resulting in the issues.

Still, this shouldn't happen.

Best,
John

1 Vote 1 · ·
Miguel-8129 avatar image Miguel-8129 RoyLi-MSFT ·

Hi Roy,

We have the same problem. Our CA changed the object of the certificate this year (they put the fullname of the state instead of shortname). With this little change we aren't able to update anymore (the appinstaller update is a really nice feature, could be an argument to migrate from WPF to UWP). Even worse, we have to tell our client to manually uninstall the existing app (losing all their data) and install it again.

I don't feel acceptable to have to reinstall completely an application because something in an certificate changed. We don't have control on our certificate provider policies, the company can change his location and it shouldn't mean you have to remove all your applications.

One of the main benefit was the automatic update and the one-click update in general. With this kind of limitation, it seems UWP app aren't develop to last and it's safer to stay with WPF.

I submit a feedback: https://aka.ms/AA8bw9v

Regards,

Miguel

0 Votes 0 · ·
danielescipioni avatar image danielescipioni RoyLi-MSFT ·

@RoyLi-MSFT

  • same problem here. LOB application. Certificate renewed after 3 years, and the certificate authority told us that rules are changed and the subject cannot be the same as before. Our users have to uninstall and reinstall, unbelievable.

  • about Feedback Hub: I cant even find the feedback submitted by @Miguel-8129; using the link the answer is "Your account doesn't have access to this feedback".



0 Votes 0 · ·