How to prevent Google Play Services from automatically updating?

[TomKay]

Several times now I observed that "Google Play Services" updates to the latest version, either automatically or triggered by applications that seem to think they need it.

In the Google "Play Store" I set "Auto-update apps" to "Do not auto-update apps", but "Google Play Services" nevertheless changed to the latest version without me initiating this.

This does not seem to be tied to phone restarts, as I successfully restarted the phone without "Google Play Services" updating itself.

How can I stop "Google Play Services" from updating?

I don't want "Google Play services" version 6.5.99 (1642632-036) on my phone because the moment it is there, I get periodic location pings using GPS location. I'm not using the "Battery saving" location mode because I don't want "anonymous location data to be sent to Google, even when no apps are running".

[Uliwooly]

You can't, that's an android issue not Sony

[TomKay]

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@uliwooly wrote:
You can't, that's an android issue not Sony

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Thanks for confirming that indeed there is an auto-update against my will happening without my consent.

I understand that Sony did not write "Google Play Services" but Sony sold me a phone that now seems to be plagued with a Google bug so I don't think it would be fair of them to say "Your issues are not our problem". But perhaps you didn't mean to imply that.

Do you have a suggestion for a different forum / forum-thread where I could look for support regarding my "Google Play Service" woes?

Do you have any issues with Google Play services 6.5.99 (1642632-036)? On my stock 14.4.A.0.157 system (not rooted, bootloader locked) it causes periodic location pings that use GPS, i.e., are not ideal for battery life. I'm using "Device Only" location mode because I want the precision when I'm using Maps and don't want Google to send anonymous data and make location pings in the background.

[Uliwooly]

Check the xda forum also Google support forum. Have you disabled Google maps history?

[TomKay]

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@uliwooly wrote:
Check the xda forum also Google support forum.

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Thanks, do you know of a specific Google support forum? I could not find a forum dedicated to "Google Play Services" so I created a thread in a "Google Search" forum but I don't think it will gain traction because it is strictly speaking off-topic.

I've come across the xda forum in the past and will try to find the respective discussions.

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@uliwooly wrote:
Have you disabled Google maps history?

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To the best of my knowledge you cannot disable Google maps history on its own. You can just delete entries from the history, but I don't think an empty history would make a difference to the location pings.

I set "Location reporting" and "Location history" to "Off" and while earlier Google Play Service versions respect that, version 6.5.99 (1642632-036) (or earlier) does not or uses the location data for something else.

In my attempts to find the source of the location pings I had temporarily disabled Google maps completely but the location pings continued.

[SergioPL1]

Check Google+ app and location sharing in your online G+ service. Try to disable it. It wasted me about 1.5 hour of CPU time a day despite I'm not using it.

[TomKay]

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@SergioPL wrote:

Check Google+ app and location sharing in your online G+ service. Try to disable it. It wasted me about 1.5 hour of CPU time a day despite I'm not using it.

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Thanks for the tip.

Google+ and Hangouts were among the first things I disabled when I got the phone so I'm presuming they aren't causing trouble. I'll try to activate them, set location sharing to "off" and then deactivate them again.That may make a difference.