Checklist to Update YouTube ReVanced Without Losing Data

Updating YouTube ReVanced isn’t like pressing «Update» in the Play Store. If you do it wrong, you lose your local history, your patched preferences and, in some cases, your account session. This checklist is aimed at anyone who already has ReVanced working and wants to move to a new version without breaking anything.

Before touching anything: preliminary checks

• Check the version of the base YouTube you have installed. ReVanced Manager shows the applied patch and the source APK version. Note down both: patch updates usually require a specific APK (for example, a specific YouTube build, not the latest one from the store).
• Export your ReVanced settings. In Settings → ReVanced → Export, save the JSON file. That’s where the patched toggles, the theme, feed behavior and download preferences live. Without this, you’ll have to reconfigure everything by hand.
• Check free space and architecture. An APK patched with microG takes up more space than it seems; with less than 1 GB free, the installation can fail halfway and leave the package corrupted.
• Check whether you’re using the «Extended» version or the standard one. The patches aren’t interchangeable between the two. Installing the wrong variant is the most common mistake that triggers the «app not installed» message.

The step almost everyone skips: microG

If you signed in with microG, updating ReVanced without updating microG can leave your account in a strange state: videos load, but history and subscriptions don’t sync. The official ReVanced documentation recommends keeping microG on a version compatible with the signature patch. In practice, this means uninstalling microG only if the installer expressly asks for it; if you remove it on your own initiative, the account signs out and you start over.

A real case: after updating ReVanced while keeping the old microG, the app opened but the «Like» button didn’t register anything. Reinstalling microG from the official repository and signing in again fixed it; reinstalling ReVanced wasn’t necessary.

Update checklist, step by step

1. Download the YouTube APK for the version the current patches require (not the one from the store).
2. Open ReVanced Manager and update the patches first, then the app.
3. Select «Update» instead of «Reinstall» if the signature matches; this preserves data and session.
4. If the Manager warns of a signature conflict, export your settings, uninstall and reinstall; then import the JSON.
5. Check that history, subscriptions and downloads are still there before closing the app.
6. Delete the temporary APKs from the downloads folder to prevent the Manager from reusing them by mistake.

When history or downloads disappear

Losing local history isn’t always the update’s fault. ReVanced stores part of that data in the package’s internal storage; if the signature changes, Android treats the app as a different one and doesn’t migrate the data. Downloads made with the download patch live in a public folder, so they survive, but the queue of pending downloads doesn’t.

This doesn’t work for anyone with a rooted device using the system variant: there the data goes to a different path and the checklist changes. There’s also no guarantee of keeping your session if you switch from microG to the system version or vice versa.

Signs that the update went wrong

• The app closes when opening a video: codec patch incompatible with the base APK.
• The feed loads but Shorts don’t: the Shorts patch is missing or the base version doesn’t support it.
• «Can’t install» appears: different signature; export your settings and reinstall.
• Background playback cuts out: check the background playback patch and the system’s battery saver.

According to the community documentation, most failures after updating are due to mixing patch and APK versions, not the app itself. Before reporting a bug, check that combination.