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Update Problem with Opera Portable

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May 14, 2022 - 7:38pm
#1
GDVX_111
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Update Problem with Opera Portable

I'm not sure exactly what precipitated this, but after years of successful usage I recently ran into a hard to resolve problem updating your portable Opera, in which it kept going in circles saying that it was updating, but always remained on the existing version. (I run my portable apps as individual standalones, rather than making use of your Launcher platform.) I tried all of the listed updating methods, up to and including attempts at installing the new version over top of the prior one, but no dice. Then I generated a support ticket at Opera, to which they offered generic but ineffective advice. The file structure (location) and files of the PAF portables typically differs -- at least to some extent -- from their regular installed versions, and you would have more familiarity with these portable editions, so I thought that you might have some better info here.

In search of a viable solution, my first thought was to create a new installation using the current version, on another partition, to graft my existing profile onto it, and then probably to relocate the whole thing once this was seen to be working. My existing profile has a great deal of important contents which would be rather tedious to reproduce from scratch. This profile backup or transfer is not nearly as straightforward and relatively easy with Opera as it had been for older versions of FireFox portable, but it seemed like it should be quite doable. I have accumulated some decades of tinkering successfully in this manner, largely through trial and error, so it is not really anything new for me.

But then I thought, maybe a shortcut could be just replacing some key files in the original Opera portable installation, using ones from this "Opera Portable #2" installation ? That has taken a fix most of the way to a successful result. 'About' now shows the desired current version, and other browser functionality looks like it should continue as before. However, "Checking for Updates" now freezes, showing version 86.0.4363.59. So, this Opera may be stuck regarding any future updates. (Unless I repeat the same files replacement procedure.) The missing ingredient may be whichever files are responsible for tracking and certifying the current installed version, & / or processing updates. Perhaps you could help me to zero in on exactly which they are, better than I could simply guess ?

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May 14, 2022 - 9:18pm
John T. Haller
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Automatic Updates Disabled

Automatic updates within Opera itself are disabled by default now because it is not portable and messes with portability. You'll need to do a standalone update as described here: https://portableapps.com/support/portable_app#upgrading

The reason for the failed update is likely due to Opera's updater not working as expected portably. You can likely fix the old copy by deleting the contents of OperaPortable\App\Opera and then performing a standalone upgrade. I'd suggest making a backup first.

If you'd like automatic updates, I would suggest using the PortableApps.com Platform as the majority of users do.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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May 16, 2022 - 5:55pm
(Reply to #2)
GDVX_111
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Thanks. That's the key

Thanks. That's the key missing piece of information that Opera seemed unable to supply. (It would be nice if they would notify us when some major change like this occurs. I don't recall seeing any Changelog item to that effect.) I'll be looking to follow your suggestion.

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May 16, 2022 - 6:09pm
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Our Package

The updating issue is a compatibility issue between their update mechanism and our package. It got into habits of either stomping profiles or of leaving locked files so people couldn't eject drives. And since 3/4 of the folks that use PAF apps use our platform, it made the most sense to disable it. If you would like it to update without the platform and you're not too worried about leaving a few bits behind on the local PC, you could consider using their package directly. You download and run their installer and select the portable option. You should be able to copy your profile in from our package but I'm not sure.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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July 21, 2022 - 1:08pm
(Reply to #4)
GDVX_111
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continuing to grapple with this

Thanks -- some more ideas to pursue. All I knew was that the updating inside your releases used to work reliably for a long time . . . until something changed. This was without recourse to your launcher platform. I have nothing against that per se, it's just that I've used a number of different portable apps from here, but have never gone that way, and I'm reluctant to "change horses" at this late date. So I was trying to find the new update formula that would work. (Had even considered abandoning the portable format with this, just changing over to regular, installed, non-portable Opera instead, but had concerns as to whether that would adapt my existing, well populated and customized profile.)

But perhaps I have found that formula -- at least until something else crucial gets changed in Opera, without any notice to the users. Previously, when I tried to do an "install-over", using one of your latest releases, this would get added onto the app tree, but Opera portable would continue to *fixate* on a prior release (in my case, version 86) when reporting the current version. In the course of checking that, it would hang on the searching-for-updates function. What I tried this time, before doing an install-over onto the existing Opera portable, was to delete all of the accumulated *app* tree, going back to the ver. 72 directory, and quite a few such up through ver. 85 (which by this point most contained only a debug log), leaving only that previous ver. 86 portion. I also set aside the file "Installation status.json.____" where it could not be found by Opera -- just in case it might turn out to be needed later, if this effort failed. Then I installed the ver. 89 release, to the usual location.

I don't want to celebrate just yet, but this time it appeared to work. That last ver. 86 app section is gone, as is any "installation status" file, leaving just the new ver. 89 app section in its place. The browser now reports itself as being this recent ver. 89. It does not hang when checking for updates, but instead that process just goes nowhere and does not complete. My existing profile appears to be intact and acting normally. I'm going to call this progress . . . but will report back if it turns out than anything of importance has gone awry.

One other thing: it's too early to tell for sure yet, but my Opera portable seemed to have slowed down considerably over time, as if it was dragging a big ship's anchor behind. I thought that might have been a by-product of having 8 - 10 tabs open at one time -- which might also have accounted for occasional "Out of Memory" errors in the browser. Those seemed to be spurious (running Win-10 with 16 GB of RAM; should not need to bump that up to 32 GB !), and were bypased by reloading the tab page. After doing what I mentioned above, Opera is showing a snappier response on several routine actions. Will see how that goes.

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