# When an app update is waiting for your decision

After this guide, you have decided on an app update that needs your consent: the app works with its widgets in the new version, or it deliberately stays on the current version.

> **Type:** guide
> **For:** Owners. Only people who may decide on updates see the notice and the buttons. Managers see the same decision in the **Update** tab and ask the owners for a decision. Members see it without buttons.
> **Prerequisite:** An installed app with the status **Update waiting** in **My apps**.
> **Where in the portal:** The app’s page › **Update** tab. You get there from the notice above the content (**Decide**), from **Apps** › **My apps** › **Decide**, and, in the scene editor, from the app’s tile marked **Update waiting**.

## When an update is waiting for you

We silently adopt any update that asks for nothing new. An update that asks for additional permissions, new access to your organization’s data, or your consent to changed terms, however, waits for you. The same applies when we discontinue your current version. While your decision is pending, the app keeps running on its current version as usual: your scenes show it as before, and nothing about it is restricted. Only its widgets cannot be newly placed in the scene editor. Its tile in the palette shows **Update waiting** and leads to the decision. The row in **My apps** shows the status **Update waiting** with the version and the reason (“Version 1.3.0 is waiting. Reason: a new permission.”).

This is reported in a single notice bar between the header and the content, with the name of the app, the version, and the reason. The notice cannot be closed, and it disappears with your decision. On the app’s own page, a narrow banner sits below the header instead, and the **Update** tab carries a counter.

There is deliberately no switch for automatic updates: what asks for nothing new arrives by itself, and what asks for something new always asks first.

## Steps

1. In the notice or in **My apps**, click **Decide**. The app’s **Update** tab opens.
2. Read the decision. The header names the versions (“Version 1.2.0 → 1.3.0”), and below it the reason is stated in one sentence. Next come **Reason**, **New in** the new version, **What changes** with its three rows **Terms** (the previous and the new terms as a short summary, with the **Full terms** next to them), **Permissions**, and **Access**, then the **Effects** on your scenes and, if there is one, the **Deadline**.
3. Decide with **Accept** or **Decline**. If several apps are waiting, you decide on each one in its own tab. The notice counts them and leads to each one individually in the **Notices** sheet.

| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| **Accept** | Adopts the new version together with its new permissions. From now on the app runs on the new version, and its widgets can be placed again. Message “Version 1.3.0 accepted.” |
| **Decline** | The app stays on the current version with the permissions you agreed to so far. Message “Version 1.3.0 declined. We will ask again with the next version.” If your current version is being phased out, declining is possible only until the deadline (see below). |

## Options

### Ask the owners for a decision

The owners decide on updates. As a manager, instead of **Accept** and **Decline** you see the **Ask an owner to decide** button in the **Update** tab, with the sentence “The owners of your organization decide on updates. Your request reaches them in the bell and by email.”

1. Click **Ask an owner to decide**. The dialog names the app and the version to be decided on.
2. Under **A sentence for the owners**, write why the decision is urgent or what you need the new version for. The field is optional and accepts up to 280 characters.
3. Click **Send request**. The message **Request sent** appears, and the tab says “You asked the owners for a decision on ….”

Every owner receives the request in the bell (“… asks for a decision”) and by email with your sentence. The link in it leads to the app’s **Update** tab. The same request for the same version goes out only once within seven days. The request is settled by an owner’s decision, and likewise by the switch on the deadline.

### When your current version is phased out

Sometimes we discontinue a version, for example because a newer one is ready or because it has a security gap. The decision then carries the reason “Version … is being discontinued,” a **Deadline** badge, and the sentence saying what happens afterward: “On … we switch to version …, even without your decision.” The time until then is called the **phase-out period**. For a security gap, the **Security notice** also appears above the decision. Until the deadline the app keeps running on its version, and declining is possible only until then. If the new version appears only after the phase-out period has ended and needs your consent, the deadline is seven days after it appears.

When the deadline is reached, we switch the app and your scenes to the new version, even without your consent. You learn of this through the **App switched to a new version** notification, for example:

> The phase-out period of version 1.2.0 of “Pharmacies on duty” has ended. We have switched the app and your scenes to version 1.3.0.

### Lift scenes

After a major jump in an app’s version, published scenes keep playing their previous version. The **Update** tab then lists these scenes under **Lift scenes**. **Lift all scenes to version …** gives each of these scenes a new scene version with the installed version, and afterward each scene shows whether that worked.

### Earlier decisions

Under **Earlier decisions**, the **Update** tab records what happened to the app’s versions, with the date: **installed by …**, **accepted by …** including the reason, **adopted silently** for an update that asked for nothing new, **switched after the phase-out period**, and **declined**. Where we know it, what was new in the version is listed below. Without an open decision, **No decision pending** appears above it.

### Other labels that need no decision

Three labels look like an open item but do not ask for consent: the **Trial** badge (we are still testing the app, and its functions may change), the status **Switched off** (we have temporarily switched the app off), and the status **Not in your package** (your package no longer includes the app, or a booking has ended). Settings and data are kept in all three cases. What the badges mean in detail is described in [My apps and the page of an installed app](/docs/apps/my-apps) and [When an app does not run](/docs/apps/troubleshooting).

## Check the result

- After **Accept**: the notice is gone, the app is back to **Active** or **Ready** in **My apps**, its widgets can be inserted again immediately, and **Earlier decisions** carries the entry **accepted by …**.
- After **Decline**: the notice is gone, the app keeps running on its current version, and **Earlier decisions** carries the entry **declined**.

## If something goes wrong

| Symptom | Meaning | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| No notice, although an app shows **Update waiting** | You are not allowed to decide on updates, so you do not see the notice. | Open the **Update** tab through **My apps** › **Decide** and ask the owners, see above. |
| **Ask an owner to decide** instead of **Accept** | You lack the permission to decide on updates. | Send the request, see above. |
| Instead of a button, only “The owners of your organization decide on updates.” | Your role may neither decide nor ask. | Talk to an owner directly, see [No access, a grayed-out button, a locked area](/docs/help/access-troubleshooting). |
| “The owners already have your request. We will not send it again.” | A request for this version has already gone out in the last seven days. | Nothing to do. The owners have it in the bell. |
| **Decline** is missing | The deadline has been reached. | Accept, or wait for the switch. |
| “The decision could not be saved.” | The decision did not reach us. | Reload the page and decide again. |
| “No decision is waiting for this app anymore.” | Someone has decided in the meantime, or the version was withdrawn. | Nothing to do, the tab shows the current state. |
| The widgets still cannot be placed after **Accept** | The app additionally shows **Not in your package**. | Click **View packages** and check the package, see [What do you pay for: packages, seats, and add-ons?](/docs/billing/about-packages-and-seats). |

## Related

- [My apps and the page of an installed app](/docs/apps/my-apps) — status, filters, and the app’s tabs.
- [Discover apps](/docs/apps/discover-apps) — what a store listing says.
- [Configure widgets](/docs/content/configure-widgets) — placing the widgets again after consent.