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Rolling back a release

When a release is bad, three things can stop it: two run on their own, and one is you.

By hand​

npx dash-ota pause    --bundle-id <BUNDLE_ID>   # stop offering it; undo with --resume
npx dash-ota rollback --bundle-id <BUNDLE_ID>   # stop offering it for good

Either one stops the release reaching more devices, and a download already in progress fails with 410. Neither reaches devices that already installed it: they keep running it until one of these happens:

  • they're offered a newer release, so publish a fixed one with a higher --bundle-version;
  • the bundle crash-loops and the breaker reverts it (below);
  • your app calls rollback() from useOtaUpdate(), for example from a hidden support menu.

Relaunching the app doesn't revert anything. There is no command that tells devices to go back.

rollback can't be undone: pause --resume lifts the pause but not the rolled-back flag. If you might want the release back, use pause.

On the device: the crash-loop breaker​

A new bundle runs on trial. If it crashes on two cold starts before it's marked healthy, the device switches it off (it won't be downloaded again) and goes back to the last bundle that worked, or to the one shipped inside the app if there is none. From 0.5.1, if that fallback also crash-loops, the device ends up on the shipped bundle. The device then reports the failure to the server. See Crash-loop breaker.

On the server: auto-pause​

Devices report applied, healthy, failed and rolled_back. Once a release has at least 5 reports and 20% or more of them are failed or rolled_back, the backend pauses it. It's an ordinary pause, so pause --resume lifts it. See Staged rollouts.

Older releases coming back​

The device refuses a release whose bundleVersion isn't higher than the one it's running now. That comparison is with the running bundle only; nothing is remembered. After a store update, a rollback() or a crash-loop revert, the device runs a lower version, so an older release you signed can install again if the server offers it. An honest server won't offer a rolled-back release, but one that has been broken into can. See If your update server is breached.