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Where do the App .prg files go now on the devices?

myaro
8 days ago

Hey Friends,

During development, I routinely drag a .prg file made for the device into the "Apps" folder via the Android File Transfer App.

In the past, the app .prg would remain in that position so I could remove it later, thereby uninstalling it.

(For some reason, development watch faces loaded like this stopped showing up in the CIQ app, so I have no way now of removing previously loaded faces that were added via built .prg files.)

Within the last few months, I've noticed that the .prg file disappears from the Apps folder. I've searched the file system on the watch and can't figure out where it goes.

It feels like the OS is copying the files somewhere.  The watch faces are definitely getting loaded and running.  

But the question is: where did they go?  And how the heck can I delete them now that they're not visible in Android File Transfer or the CIQ app?

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  • 4 days ago in reply to FlowState
    FlowState said:
    they don't want ppl to just copy their new all-star watchfaces off the watch

    Oh, wow. That (to me) implies that the licensing system has no after-download restrictions.  In other words, if you get the .prg file, copying it to another device can circumvent the system.

    All my watch faces using my own licensing system have some kind of software-driven lock, so that's less of a concern.  But I've been contemplating a "paid via Garmin" (PVG) set of faces, and I was thinking I'd just need to put them into "free mode" to make that work.  But I guess there's no additional software-based limitations to running a PVG .prg.  It's like a cashier's check of an app.


  • 4 days ago in reply to myaro

    While there is a security side to this, there is also a practical side.

    In the past, let's say someone had a 208x208 device, but just bought a 240x240 device.  To save time, they just copy their .prg files to the new device.  But the apps were built for 208x208 and weird things can happen if you run those apps on a 240x240 device, leading to contact developer messages, etc.

    Trust me, that did happen!

  • 4 days ago in reply to myaro
    myaro said:
    Oh, wow. That (to me) implies that the licensing system has no after-download restrictions.  In other words, if you get the .prg file, copying it to another device can circumvent the system.

    Well, in the past, once you had the PRG, you could sideload it your device just as if you’d built it yourself. I have no idea if that’s the case for apps that you buy through the monetization system (since we can’t look at the PRG), but I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.

    This was a pretty open secret. As jim_m_58 mentioned, it’s been a somewhat regular practice for savvy users to copy a PRG from an old device to a new device (of a newer model), if the dev didn’t get around to updating the device for the newer model yet. This was especially common for dead apps (abandoned by dev). I’ve done this myself for a couple of old watchfaces that aren’t available for my FR955, but which I had installed on an older device. People have openly discussed this practice on these forums.

    So yeah, there would be cases where some old app would look funny if it was sideloaded on to a new device with a different resolution than the one it was copied of off, because the display resolution was determined at compile time and baked into the PRG. Then again, this kind of thing worked great for simple data fields, since the firmware takes care of all of the rendering. And certain app types (not watchfaces) would work fine even if their display looks a little funny.

    Even DC Rainmaker would talk about this stuff — in the comment section of one of his recent blogs, he (incorrectly) said that you can just copy around PRGs from device to device willy-nilly, bc he’s obviously unaware of the new restrictions. (I'm not throwing shade at anyone, just pointing out that the discussion of sideloading from old devices to new devices happens outside of these forums, too.)

    Now this loophole has been closed in two ways:

    - For all of the watches currently receiving feature updates (released in last 4 years or so), like FR255/955 and higher, Fenix 7 and higher, all app types are “hidden”, so you can’t copy them off the device. The pool of devices and users that have an old device to copy PRGs off of will just get smaller and smaller.

    Even the 945 LTE, which no longer receives firmware updates, hides all app prgs except watchfaces.

    - As far as I can tell, the same “current” watches have also been updated so they will no longer accept PRGs for sideload that were built for a different device. At least, I’ve never been able to get that to work. So even if you have old PRGs lying around, they’re useless on current devices.