System and method for downgrading applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016357545-A1
Application number	US-201514866816-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

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 making storage space available in a user device, the method comprising:
determining that at least one application can be downgraded; creating a placeholder application for the at least one application; associating, with the placeholder application, user data that is specific to the at least one application; deleting the at least one application; and installing the placeholder application.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the at least one application can be downgraded comprises:
determining that the at least one application can be downgraded when the at least one application has not been launched for a particular period of time.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the placeholder application comprises a set of files that represents the at least one application.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the set of files includes configuration data associated with the at least one application, localization information associated with the at least one application, and a copy of an icon associated with the at least one application.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein deleting the at least one application comprises:
deleting an application bundle associated with the at least one application.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the application bundle comprises executable code associated with the at least one application or one or more resources associated with the at least one application.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a list of applications to be downgraded in accordance with historical data associated with the user device, receiving a list of recoverable applications, wherein the list of recoverable applications includes a first set of applications that are recoverable from a digital media store, generating, based on the list of recoverable applications, an updated list of applications to be downgraded, and identifying the at least one application that can be downgraded from the updated list of applications.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one application is deleted to make the storage space available to perform a particular process at the user device, the method further comprising:
when the particular process is complete:
restoring the at least one application associated with the placeholder application, and
re-associating the user data with the at least one application.

9 . A user device, comprising:
a processor configured to cause the user device to carry out steps that include:
generating a list of applications to be downgraded in accordance with historical data associated with the user device,
receiving a list of recoverable applications, wherein the list of recoverable applications includes a first set of applications that are recoverable from a digital media store,
generating, based on the list of recoverable applications, an updated list of applications to be downgraded, and
downgrade at least one application included in the updated list of applications.

10 . The user device of claim 9 , wherein the historical data includes information that indicates when one or more installed applications were last launched on the user device.

11 . The user device of claim 9 , wherein generating the updated list of applications to be downgraded comprises:
removing, from the list of applications to be downgraded, a second set of applications that are not recoverable from the digital media store.

12 . The user device of claim 9 , wherein downgrading the at least one application in the updated list of applications comprises:
creating a placeholder application for the at least one application included in the updated list of applications.

13 . The user device of claim 12 , wherein the steps further include:
deleting the at least one application included in the updated list of applications; and installing the placeholder application associated with at least one application.

14 . The user device of claim 13 , wherein the placeholder application comprises a set of files that represents the at least one application.

15 . The user device of claim 14 , wherein the set of files includes configuration data associated with the at least one application, localization information associated with the at least one application, and a copy of an icon associated with the at least one application.

16 . The user device of claim 13 , deleting the at least one application included in the updated list of applications comprises:
deleting an application bundle associated with the at least one application.

17 . The user device of claim 16 , wherein the application bundle comprises executable code associated with the at least one application or one or more resources associated with the at least one application.

18 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that, when executed by a processor included in a user device, cause the user device to free up storage space for a particular operation, by carrying out steps that include:
creating a placeholder application for at least one application that is a candidate for a downgrade; associating user data specific to the at least one application with the placeholder application; deleting the at least one application; and installing the placeholder application.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the placeholder application includes configuration data associated with the at least one application, localization information associated with the at least one application, and a copy of an icon associated with the at least one application.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein deleting the at least one application comprises:
deleting an application bundle associated with the at least one application, wherein the application bundle comprises an executable code associated with the at least one application or one or more resources associated with the at least one application.

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

• G06F8/61

  Installation · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

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

• G06F8/62

  Uninstallation · CPC title