AfterDawn: Tech news

New Chrome on Android released with a data-losing bug – Google stalls update

Written by Matti Robinson @ 16 Dec 2019 10:36 User comments (1)

New Chrome on Android released with a data-losing bug – Google stalls update Google begun shipping the latest Chrome 79 update around a week ago for both mobile and desktop users. The new update included improvements over things like notification about data breaches you might be affected by.
However, not everything went according to plan. While the update was meant to help protect users from data loss, the update itself has been losing users data.

Although the data in this case hasn't been acquired by any third parties, and there might be still a way out of this mess, Google has decided to pull the update.

The problem seems to affect Chrome's Android users and their data collected by other apps using Chrome's WebView feature.

Many apps use Chrome's simple WebView component to show content on the web for the app users. In Chrome 79 the WebView feature changed significantly.

The update was meant to transcode the old data to the new format. However, this process was buggy and the transfer hasn't been functioning as intended.

The data isn't lost entirely, though, and it is possible, maybe even likely, that Google engineers figure out the correct way to convert the lost data to the new format in a way that the user can still access it.



For now the update has been paused until the fix is in place.


Previous Next  

1 user comment

120.12.2019 03:09

chalk up another one up for #EVILGOOGLE

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Sony suspends memory card sales because memory chips are simply not available Sony suspends memory card sales because memory chips are simply not available (28 Mar 2026 6:49)
Sony has announced that it is temporarily suspending the sale of memory cards used in mobile phones and digital cameras, among other things. The company states that the reason is problems with the availability of memory chips.
Austria plans to ban social media for under 14 year olds Austria plans to ban social media for under 14 year olds (28 Mar 2026 6:17)
Austria is planning to ban social media for children under 14. The reform aims to protect children from harmful effects and addictions, but at the same time, it is problematic from a privacy perspective.
TP-Link urges users to update their routers - several vulnerabilities patched TP-Link urges users to update their routers - several vulnerabilities patched (26 Mar 2026 1:56)
Serious security vulnerabilities have been discovered in several TP-Link router models, for which patches were released at the end of March 2026. The company urges users to update their router software immediately.
Google: The feared Q-Day is now expected to happen in 2029 Google: The feared Q-Day is now expected to happen in 2029 (25 Mar 2026 4:32)
Google has advanced its estimate of when current forms of encryption will become insecure. The moment is called Q-Day, or Quantum Day, when the computational power of quantum computers will be sufficient to break currently used encryptions.
OpenAI shuts down its AI video service Sora OpenAI shuts down its AI video service Sora (24 Mar 2026 6:28)
OpenAI has decided to shut down Sora, its AI video creator, just months after its release. The decision is due to issues such as copyright problems and the deepfake phenomenon.

News archive