System and method for downgrading applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11314498-B2
Application number	US-201816226259-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2018
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Apr 26, 2022
Grant date	Apr 26, 2022

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a technique for downgrading applications to placeholder applications in order to free up storage space in a user device. Based on a variety of heuristics, a number of installed applications are identified as candidates for a downgrade. The downgrading of the identified applications involves creating a placeholder application for each of the identified applications. The identified applications are temporarily deleted while keeping the user data associated with the applications intact and the placeholder applications are installed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for managing available storage space on a computing device, the method comprising, at the computing device:
identifying a first condition to downgrade a plurality of applications to a plurality of placeholder applications;
for each application of the plurality of applications:
creating a respective placeholder application for the application,
storing, with the respective placeholder application, user data that is specific to the application, and
deleting the application from the computing device;

identifying a second condition to restore the plurality of placeholder applications to the plurality of applications; and
in response to identifying, while restoring the plurality of placeholder applications, a selection of an icon representative of a particular placeholder application of the plurality of placeholder applications:
prioritizing a restoration of the particular placeholder application to a respective application,
re-associating the user data with the respective application, and
launching the respective application.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each application of the plurality of applications is categorized as a recoverable application when the application can be downloaded onto the computing device through a digital media store.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein, for a given application of the plurality of applications, the respective placeholder application includes configuration data and localization information associated with the given application.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein deleting a given application of the plurality of applications from the computing device comprises:
deleting a respective application bundle associated with the given application from a non-volatile memory of the computing device.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein, for the given application, the respective application bundle comprises executable code associated with the given application or one or more resources associated with the given application.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the icon representative of the particular placeholder application is grayed out to provide a visual indication that the respective application that corresponds to the particular placeholder application has been deleted.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first condition occurs when an amount of available storage space satisfies a threshold.

8. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor included in a computing device, cause the computing device to manage available storage space on the computing device, by carrying out steps that include:
identifying a first condition to downgrade a plurality of applications to a plurality of placeholder applications;
for each application of the plurality of applications:
creating a respective placeholder application for the application,
storing, with the respective placeholder application, user data that is specific to the application, and
deleting the application from the computing device;

identifying a second condition to restore the plurality of placeholder applications to the plurality of applications; and
in response to identifying, while restoring the plurality of placeholder applications, a selection of an icon representative of a particular placeholder application of the plurality of placeholder applications:
prioritizing a restoration of the particular placeholder application to a respective application,
re-associating the user data with the respective application, and
launching the respective application.

9. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein each application of the plurality of applications is categorized as a recoverable application when the application can be downloaded onto the computing device through a digital media store.

10. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein, for a given application of the plurality of applications, the respective placeholder application includes configuration data and localization information associated with the given application.

11. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein deleting a given application of the plurality of applications from the computing device comprises:
deleting a respective application bundle associated with the given application from a non-volatile memory of the computing device.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein, for the given application, the respective application bundle comprises executable code associated with the given application or one or more resources associated with the given application.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the icon representative of the particular placeholder application is grayed out to provide a visual indication that the respective application that corresponds to the particular placeholder application has been deleted.

14. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first condition occurs when an amount of available storage space satisfies a threshold.

15. A computing device configured to manage available storage space on the computing device, the computing device comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to:
identify a first condition to downgrade a plurality of applications to a plurality of placeholder applications;
for each application of the plurality of applications:
create a respective placeholder application for the application,
store, with the respective placeholder application, user data that is specific to the application, and
delete the application from the computing device;

identify a second condition to restore the plurality of placeholder applications to the plurality of applications; and
in response to identifying, while restoring the plurality of placeholder applications, a selection of an icon representative of a particular placeholder application of the plurality of placeholder applications:
prioritize a restoration of the particular placeholder application to a respective application,
re-associate the user data with the respective application, and
launch the respective application.

16. The computing device of claim 15 , wherein each application of the plurality of applications is categorized as a recoverable application when the application can be downloaded onto the computing device through a digital media store.

17. The computing device of claim 15 , wherein, for a given application of the plurality of applications, the respective placeholder application includes configuration data and localization information associated with the given application.

18. The computing device of claim 15 , wherein deleting a given application of the plurality of applications from the computing device comprises:
deleting a respective application bundle associated with the given application from a non-volatile memory of the computing device.

19. The computing device of claim 18 , wherein, for the given application, the respective application bundle comprises executable code associated with the given application or one or more resources associated with the given application.

20. The computing device of claim 15 , wherein the icon represe

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Linn Christopher S
• Brown Eric S
• Carlson Eric O
• Barrett Cindy M
• Grynspan Jonathan M
• Firlik Donald M
• Birse Cameron S
• Geoghegan Timothee

Classifications

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F8/62

  Uninstallation · CPC title