Non-User-initiated Broadcasts of android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REMOVED

[David White]

For a while now, I have noticed that some apps on my phone are somehow being uninstalled - not by me. They are there one day and gone the next. I have not found a pattern yet. To help do this, I am using the fine Tasker app to received broadcasts of android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REMOVED and alerting and logging this activity to a file when they occur.

In so doing, I have discovered that there are MANY occasions when I am getting this broadcast as the result of an app update but NOT an update triggered by the user. Indeed, many of the apps showing as having been updated in this circumstance have NOT been updated on Play Store from whence they were originally installed. Some have not had updates since 2018!

I have checked the app's base.apk file found under the app's package name in /data/app and indeed, the date of that file is consistent with these "updates". But the app versions still match what shows on Play Store.

So my question is: is there some system process which somehow might be doing these "updates" that trigger the broadcast?

Thanks!