Wednesday 1 May 2013

Manually update Nokia apps on your Lumia with LUMIA Pusher

Apps, Force Nokia App updates, Lumia, Lumia Pusher, Nokia Lumia, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 8

Its obvious that the Windows Phone Store on your Windows Phone 8 device sometimes takes way too long to find the latest updates for your apps. And since there is no 'check for updates' option for the Store yet, its hard to trace down apps which can be updates before the Store brings that notification for you. And sometimes, it really kills my patience.

What occurred to me was that after the last firmware update for my Nokia Lumia 920, I didn't receive any update notification for a long time. And for the worse, it never showed updates for Nokia apps which was quite frustrating. This also hindered me from accessing new features like Storage Check which would come with the update for 'extras+info' option under Settings. I got rid of the update trouble by scanning QR Codes provided by Nokia which links to these apps. However, scanning those codes one by one would consume more time. Fortunately, for future troubles, you can manage to get these links directly from your phone using LUMIA Pusher app developed by Kamlock.

The function of the app is very simple. It just lists the links to various Nokia apps in the Store so that you can simply click on a particular list item and go to the respective app in the Store to see if there's any update available to it. That's that. No more and no less. Its very basic as it hosts those links so that you can always check if the Store failed to deliver the notifications for the updates.

Its still not that manual 'check for updates' app you were looking for but deserves the credit as these Nokia apps are hidden from the Store and you can only access it via a direct-link. It serves a very basic purpose but you can't ignore the fact that its an easier way for now. Its available for all the Nokia Lumia phones and you can simply download, open and click on an app in the list to go to the Store link.

This is pretty much a helpful app for those who are facing the problem of not getting those update notifications on their Windows Phones. Since that last update, I too had similar problems. However, my Dad's Lumia 620 did showed app updates even after the last firmware update. However, recently, I had to use LUMIA Pusher as the store failed to show notifications for some Nokia apps. Till Microsoft adds a manual check for updates option under Store, you can make use of this app. Its small, simple and hassle-free. I'd recommend downloading it just in case you missed any of those updates.

Just use Bing Vision to scan the QR Code below or click on the link to go to the Windows Phone Store page of LUMIA Pusher.