Chrome 79 for Android bug wipes user data and resets apps

Chrome 79 recently started rolling out to Android devices. Google said that the new version brings bug fixes and better phishing protections. However, that isn’t all the new version brought to users as a new bug surfaced that caused data loss to users. Google had to pause the rollout of the Chrome 79 update to users. The bug was first reported by developers who said that the app was causing user data on the phone to be deleted and also reset other mobile apps that were installed.

A lot of Chrome users left a 1 star rating after the update was rolled out to them. Google’s developers admitted that they made a mistake when they moved the location of Chrome directory and forgot to move contents of the WebSQL into the new directory in Chrome 79.

The question however rises that how can Chrome browser which is a separate app by itself even mess with other apps on the device in the first place. Accessing user data and being able to delete it is one thing but resetting entire apps is another thing altogether.

This issue was labeled as “catastrophe” bu Chromium bug tracker after developers started noticing that user data was being deleted after updating the app to Chrome 79.

Chrome bug simply caused some apps to reset and the users of these apps were logged out from the apps and had to login and set up the apps again and not being able to access their data.

According to Google, more than 50 percent of devices have already gotten the update however, they have stopped rolling out the update and are working of a fix that would minimize the data loss to users upon update the app when they start the roll-out again.

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