Snap not allowing me to remove or refresh anything

Question

I installed my dev tools via snap, big updates came out for most of them recently (Jetbrains), biggest being Android studio. But no matter what I do I can't remove or update any of my applications installed via snap.

When I try to remove the snap, I get the following error message:

error: snap "android-studio" has "auto-refresh" change in progress

I tried disabling "auto-refresh" with a bunch of other recommendations from other questions and threads.

I would like to specify when I want to update. Is there any way to update snaps like regular APT packages?

When I run "snap refresh", I get the following error:

error: change finished in status "Hold" with no error message

score 19 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 10 '21 at 19:17

This was the top search item for the topic as I was trying to remove a snap whilst it was "auto-refreshing". The better answer in that it allows you to stop the refresh and take action is covered in Ask Ubuntu.

In effect:

# Check for snap changes
sudo snap changes

# This will list something like
ID         Status   Spawn                  Ready   Summary
<number>   Doing    today at 10:58 CEST    -       Auto-refresh snap <snap_program>

# Note the ID for the refresh and abort it
sudo snap abort <number>

# You must check changes until it has been actioned
sudo snap changes

# This will now list something like
ID         Status   Spawn                  Ready   Summary
<number>   Error    today at 10:58 CEST    -       Auto-refresh snap <snap_program>

# The take remedial action, in my case remove
sudo snap remove <snap_program>

Tested with microk8s on Ubuntu 18.04 and chromium on Ubuntu 20.04.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 12 '20 at 18:31

4

You can change schedule for automatic updates

Managing updates | Snapcraft documentation

edited Jul 12 '20 at 18:31

answered Aug 23 '19 at 16:17

adasiko

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This does not word on fedora, brings up 'unknown flag hold' – Cheetaiean Jan 16 '23 at 03:10

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 04 '21 at 09:41

3

There is currently no way to forcibly remove a snap when a refresh is in process.

Once the refresh is finished, you can speed up the snap removal by skipping the backup using --purge. Normally, when a snap is removed, the data of that snap is backed up. This backup can take some time.

snap remove --purge android-studio

Note that this command will remove all data from that snap.

edited Jun 04 '21 at 09:41

Amir Hallaj

3
1

answered Aug 13 '20 at 16:03

Merlijn Sebrechts

7,215
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score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 28 '21 at 08:29

1

Downgrading to the previous version (removing changes done by the update) first will solve this problem, after which allow you to also delete the snap package with no errors:

[rodolfo@fedora ~]$ sudo snap revert discord 
discord reverted to 0.0.13

[rodolfo@fedora ~]$ sudo snap remove discord 
discord removed

edited Mar 28 '21 at 08:29

Pizza

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answered Mar 24 '21 at 17:59

Rodolfo

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score -3 · Answer 5 · answered May 13 '20 at 08:36

-3

You can add the parameter "now" to the end of your command, it will ignore the "auto-refresh".

example:

sudo snap remove android-studio now

answered May 13 '20 at 08:36

Almog Karamani

43
3

4

This command tries to remove the snaps named `android-studio` and `now`. It will not actually force the removal. – Merlijn Sebrechts Aug 13 '20 at 15:50

score -4 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 13 '20 at 16:22

-4

The way it worked for me was the parameter force instead of now

sudo snap remove android-studio force

edited Aug 13 '20 at 16:22

Zanna

69,223
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answered Jun 04 '20 at 01:45

Miguel Florian

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This command tries to remove the snaps named `android-studio` and `force`. It will not actually force the removal. – Merlijn Sebrechts Aug 13 '20 at 15:50

Snap not allowing me to remove or refresh anything

6 Answers6