UWP Custom Device integration and uninstall of the UWP app

Katerina Egorova 1

I have custom capability declared in my UWP application to communicate with the custom device. When The UWP application is being Uninstalled I have to notify custom device so custom device can take actions to clean up data related to my UWP app
How could this be done please?

Fay Wang - MSFT 5,196 Reputation points

2020-04-09T02:59:25.903+00:00

Unfortunately, there is no api that can listen whether the uwp application is uninstalled. Maybe you can try to send message to your device regularly. Once the application is uninstalled, it means the application won't send message to your device. After waiting for a period of time, if your device does not receive any message, then you can let your custom device clean up data.
Katerina Egorova 1 Reputation point

2020-04-09T15:56:45.103+00:00

This approach will not work for us.
We cannot ping the driver on regular bases just for the sake of possibility of uninstalling our UWP App. This type of activity will interfere with the device's and system's normal activity. Is there any other way to solve this problem. Can we utilize PackageUninstalling APIs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.applicationmodel.packagecatalog.packageuninstalling? Or any other suggestion? Thanks
Fay Wang - MSFT 5,196 Reputation points

2020-04-10T06:36:04.46+00:00

By testing, the PackageUninstalling API won't be triggered when the app is uninstalling. Currently, there is no api can listen whether the app is uninstalled.
Katerina Egorova 1 Reputation point

2020-04-13T16:01:46.837+00:00

II tested PackageUninstallingAPI - no luck. Is this only triggered in production when the app is in the store or this API is not working at all? Thanks
Fay Wang - MSFT 5,196 Reputation points

2020-04-14T09:25:40.147+00:00

I tested the api again using PackageCatalog c = PackageCatalog.OpenForCurrentPackage(); c.PackageUninstalling += C_PackageUninstalling; in the constructor of MainPage. When I run the app and then uninstall it, this event will be triggered. If you do like this, can the PackageUninstalling event work?
Fay Wang - MSFT 5,196 Reputation points

2020-04-17T09:49:42.743+00:00

Hi, does the method work?
Fay Wang - MSFT 5,196 Reputation points

2020-04-24T09:33:52.51+00:00

Hi, are there any updates about this issue?