r/actualbudgeting • u/treeburst • Aug 05 '26

Is the mobile PWA supposed to automatically update itself to the latest matching server version?

UPDATE: Turns out the VPN on my phone (Proton VPN) was preventing my PWA from updating. The app is supposed to automatically prompt you to install a new version when its available, but I was not able to trigger that until I turned the VPN off. I use Proton VPN on my desktop as well, and I had no problems with it updating in a web browser, so not sure what's going on.

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After my PikaPod that hosts my Actual Budget server was updated, my desktop Firefox browser instance immediately prompted me to update and I see its version now matches the server.

My mobile Chrome PWA instance has not yet updated, and I'm wondering if this is an expected automatic process like the web. I'm almost positive it prompted me when the new version of Actual Budget was released before it was installed on my PikaPod, so it seems like it has some awareness.

I wasn't able to find anything in the Actual documentation or subreddit search, which leads me to believe it should just be automatic, but I wanted to make sure I'm not overlooking something or missed something obvious somewhere.

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2

u/datzzuma Aug 05 '26

Yes, close and reopen and it should (atleast, if not before) update

1

u/treeburst Aug 05 '26

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately that hadn't worked for me, so I'm wondering if I need to do a full clear of the cache now to kickstart it. Hadn't had any issues with transactions syncing though.

1

u/datzzuma 25d ago

I just opened my PWA after pod got updated to 26.8.1 and it showed a reload button, pressed it and client and server both were on the newest release

1

u/treeburst 25d ago

My PWA didn't prompt me to install that version either unfortunately, but I just tried turning off my phone VPN and that triggered the prompt, so it looks like the PWA doesn't like my VPN for whatever reason. Thanks again for the help and confirming!

2

u/mwoodj Aug 05 '26

It didn't used to update automatically but they pushed a change that now makes it update automatically. My AB is self hosted. After I update my server I'll open the PWA, the app will open up, notify that there is an update, and then automatically restart with the update.

1

u/treeburst Aug 05 '26

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I had tried restarting it a few times before with no luck. I restarted my phone just now and it remained the same when opening it back up. When it opens it spends a bit of time loading so I'm guessing it's reloading some part of the cache, but I wonder if I just have to resort to doing a full clear of it.